A Babe, a Preacher and a Pirate
By Mark Lane
Submitted to Corner Post
Samuel and Nancy Jane Adams were a hardworking sharecropper family living in a small log cabin near Moorefield, Indiana when their son Charley was born. Not long after his birth, the family moved to a new location with more farm ground and a bigger living space. They had to, you see. Charley had seven older siblings, and four more were to follow.
Throughout his life Charley was very athletic, competitive and hardworking, yet he was always honest and humble, as well. It’s noteworthy that he was a natural southpaw (left-handed), but began using his right hand for some tasks after a finger on his left hand was almost severed in an accident. His accuracy in throwing things had been amazing before, but after the accident he began to throw right-handed. With much practice he became even more precise in hitting targets than he had been as a lefty.
Charley liked to play baseball with other boys in Tipton, but it was after the family moved to the village of Mount Moriah, Missouri that a new phase in his story was launched. There was a fervor for baseball in the little community. Charley joined an organized team that played against similar teams in the region and became a dedicated pitcher. After his first such game against the team from Lamoni, Iowa (which the Lamoni team won handily) the shortstop from the opposing team showed Charley how to grip the ball to throw different pitches. In short order, Charley was dominating from the mound.
An umpire at one of Charley’s games tipped a friend at a baseball club in Parsons, Kansas, about this young talent in Harrison County, MO. Before long, Charley was playing for the Parsons Preachers at the Class C level. By the season’s end he had won 21 games, prompting the St. Louis Cardinals to purchase his contract. In his first game as a Big Leaguer, he faced the Chicago Cubs who had been steamrolling opponents. He gave up six runs in four innings. That led to his reassignment to the Minor League Denver Grizzlies, where he led the league in wins. By the following season, he was back in the Majors as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Prior to the start of training camp of his rookie season with the Pirates, Charley married his high school sweetheart from Mount Moriah. He and Blanche first met at a dance in the town square where his dad played the fiddle. They eventually had two daughters, each born and raised in Mt. Moriah, Missouri.
Because his playing time in the Majors was so brief the year prior, Charley was officially still a rookie in 1909. It was during this time that he gained the nickname by which many fans came to know him. As he walked to the mound, a young lady shouted, “Oh, you babe!” to the youthful player. He apparently blushed, and his teammates gleefully kept the moniker from being forgotten. (This was five years before the same nickname was first hung on young George Herman Ruth.)
Despite pitching mostly in relief, Babe Adams compiled a 12-3 record with an Earned Run Average of just 1.11. It’s a record that no rookie has been able to match. The Pirates went all the way to the World Series in 1909, where they faced the intimidating Detroit Tigers, featuring Sam Crawford, a speedy power hitter, pitching ace George Mullin, and Ty Cobb, who led the league in home runs, runs batted in, batting average, and stolen bases. In a bold move, the rookie Adams was chosen as the Pirates starting pitcher for Game 1 of the high-pressure series. Not only did the Pirates win that game, Babe pitched the entire game, allowing only six hits.
Detroit took two of the next three games, so Babe was called to take the mound for Game 5. Again, he pitched a complete game, holding the powerful bats of the Tigers to just six hits. The Pirates were now just one win away from winning the championship. But Detroit bounced back to win Game 6, which set up a dramatic “do or die” Game 7. It was the first time an inter-league championship series had gone to that limit.
Once more, Babe was selected to start the game on the mound. The eager Tiger batters had faced him twice before and he had just two days’ rest since his second full game, so many expected the Tigers to serve the rookie a big dish of humble pie. The attention of the nation was focused on the showdown at Bennett Park in Detroit. Humble pie was indeed on the menu, but it was Ty Cobb and his teammates who choked it down. For the third time in the 1909 World Series, Babe Adams pitched a complete game shutout, limiting the opposing batters to just six hits, and retiring 16 of the last 18 batters he faced. The final score was PIT 8 – DET 0!
Babe’s career in the Major League spanned 19 years. The average for MLB players is less than 3 years. And rather than getting bounced from team to team, he was a Pittsburgh Pirate for 18 of those years. Keys to that longevity included natural athleticism, of course, but so did his love of the game and competitiveness, tempered by humility. He left a legacy that others have strived to repeat. To this day, few have.
As an example, a biography of Babe Adams by Brian Stevens points to his record of 1.29 walks per nine innings over the course of his 19 years in the majors. “To put Adams’ mark in perspective, the preeminent control pitcher of recent years, Greg Maddux, would have had to pitch another 217 consecutive nine-inning games without a walk to lower his lifetime walks per nine innings to the same level.”
Having spent time in some of America’s big cities during the season, the boy in him always looked forward to returning home to Mt. Moriah in the off-season. In 1927, he headed there for good. He spent his time farming, hunting, fishing and pitching horseshoes. He loved watching Little League and farm league ballgames in the area and gladly showed anyone who was interested how to throw a curve ball.
In 2002, the Missouri General Assembly designated a portion of US Hwy 136 near Mt. Moriah as Babe Adams Highway.
