He spent his sunset years on New Haven’s Marvel Road — after besting the Yankees in a Red Sox uniform. Now it’s time that “Smoky Joe” Wood (pictured) get his deserved ultimate resting place: the Hall of Fame.
That’s the pitch New Haven state Rep. Pat Dillon is making.
Dillon used the occasion of the announcement Friday of a new Boston Red Sox scholarship charity program in Connecticut to urge state officials to seek more: Smoky Joe’s due. (Click here for an article by someone who agrees with Dillon.)
Here’s Dillon’s pitch:
“Wood is one of only 13 pitchers to win 30 or more games in one season since 1900. Wood’s breakthrough season for the Red Sox was in 1911 and won the 1912 series, defeating The New York Giants. Sidelined as a pitcher, he became a utility player and at bat beat the Yankees in 1918 [by hitting two home runs in one game]. He left the game due to injury and became the baseball coach at Yale University, residing on Marvel Road in Westville.
“‘Smoky Joe’ Wood beat John McGraw’s New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. learned that from my grandfather John Dillon, a Giants fan. Though [Wood’s]career was cut short he should be in the Hall of Fame.
“Including him in The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig described ‘the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome,’ where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players.”
Satchel Paige was better.
http://www.nlbpa.com/the-athletes/paige-satchel