Depending on how often his fastball found the strike zone, Bobo Newsom could be entertainingly good or entertainingly bad _ sometimes both in the same day.
The few fans who came to St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park in September 1934 witnessed classic Bobo.
A big right-hander (6-foot-3, 220 to 240 pounds, according to the Associated Press), Bobo started Game 1 of a doubleheader for the Browns against the Athletics on Sept. 14, walked the first four batters and was yanked. To nearly everyone’s surprise, he started Game 2 as well and, this time, struck out the first four batters. He went on to pitch a complete game and earn the win.
Four days later, Bobo started at home against the Red Sox. He pitched a no-hitter for nine innings _ and lost, in the 10th.
Give me a break
Louis Newsom of Hartsville, S.C., began pitching in the minors when he was 20 in 1928. His nickname was Buck, but he became “known to all as Bobo because that was the way he greeted everybody, from the owner of the club to the team’s batboy,” according to the Associated Press.
After a stint with the Dodgers (1929-30), Bobo was claimed by the Cubs. On his way to Chicago to talk contract, his car spun down an embankment and Bobo suffered a compound fracture of the left leg, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Two days after he was able to begin moving around again, Bobo accompanied an uncle to a mule sale in South Carolina. Bobo got kicked in the bum leg by a mule and suffered two broken bones, he told the Free Press.
Limited to one appearance with the 1932 Cubs, Bobo went back to the minors with the 1933 Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League and won 30 games. The Browns claimed him on the recommendation of their manager, Rogers Hornsby, who managed the Cubs when Bobo was there. “I think Newsom has real stuff,” Hornsby said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
St. Louis showboat
Using a corkscrew windup, Bobo would “spin off the mound and fire a sidearm fastball,” the Free Press noted.
Post-Dispatch columnist John Wray wrote, “Newsom throws about the fastest ball in the league, if not the majors.”
Senators manager Bucky Harris told the Washington Star, “He had the damndest arm I ever saw.”
Bobo talked a good game, too. The Buffalo News described him as “made up of almost equal parts of bombast, braggadocio and brilliance.”
Morris Siegel of the Star observed, “He was frivolous, cantankerous, often careless with the truth, competitive and garrulous, but fun most of the time.”
Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times that Bobo “was the only pitcher who could swagger while standing still.”
When Bobo popped off at Detroit reporter Robert Ruark, the journalist tried to pop him with a punch. Later, Ruark recalled Bobo as “one of the finest non-malicious liars I ever knew … He was a braggart and a blowhard, but I never knew anybody who really disliked him.”
Wild thing
Hornsby pitched Bobo in 47 games with the 1934 Browns. He won 16, lost 20 _ a record that might have been reversed with better control. Bobo totaled more walks (149) than strikeouts (135).
When Bobo got pulled after walking the first four batters of the Sept. 14 doubleheader opener, he figured to be done for the day, but George Blaeholder, who was supposed to start Game 2, got sick. The 500 spectators on hand in St. Louis that Friday afternoon “were somewhat surprised to see” Bobo warming up as Blaeholder’s replacement, the Post-Dispatch reported.
More surprising, too, was how Bobo reversed his performance from the opener, striking out the first four batters. He fanned just one more after that, but held the Athletics to two runs in nine innings for the win. Boxscore and Boxscore
In his next start, the nine hitless innings against the Red Sox, Bobo’s control cost him a win. He walked seven, and two of those scored.
Played on a Tuesday afternoon at Sportsman’s Park (no attendance was reported but each of the other three games of the Red Sox-Browns series drew 500 or less), Bobo gave up a run in the second. Red Sox cleanup hitter Roy Johnson led off the inning with a walk and, after an error and an out, scored from third on a fielder’s choice.
With the score tied at 1-1 in the 10th, Bobo walked Max Bishop and Billy Werber. With two outs, Johnson grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle. Shortstop Alan Strange “made a gallant try for the ball but it just tipped the finger of his glove as it went to center,” scoring Bishop with the winning run, the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore
(Bobo pitched five more one-hitters in the majors and won all.)
Show must go on
In May 1935, the Browns sold Bobo’s contract to the Senators for $40,000. As he departed St. Louis, Bobo told the Buffalo News, “Brownie fans have been my friends _ both of them.”
Bobo had two more stints with the Browns _ 1938-39 and 1943. He won 20 for the 1938 Browns. In July 1943, after being suspended for insubordination by Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, prompting his teammates to threaten to strike unless he was reinstated, Bobo was banished to the Browns.
“I don’t want to play in St. Louis,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I will quit before reporting to St. Louis.”
Bobo reported, went 1-6, then was peddled to the Senators.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in attendance when Bobo started on Opening Day for the Senators at home against the Yankees. In the fifth inning, Senators third baseman Ossie Bluege charged in to field a Ben Chapman bunt and heaved a strong throw toward first. Bobo, standing directly in the path of the ball, forgot to duck. With a sickening smack, the ball struck him full force just below the right ear. President Roosevelt “dropped his bag of peanuts and sat transfixed” as Bobo clutched his face in his hands, the Washington Star reported.
Disregarding the advice of a doctor, Bobo insisted on staying in the game. As the Washington Star put it, “This big galoot with an unmatchable heart refused to quit after punishment that would have hospitalized an ordinary mortal.”
Bobo pitched a complete game, limiting the Yankees to four singles, and won, 1-0. President Roosevelt stayed for the entire show. Boxscore
Bobo served five separate terms with Washington. “That’s one more than FDR’s record,” he said to the Free Press.
Traveling man
It was tough to get Bobo, who pitched 246 complete games in the majors, to leave the mound.
Cleveland Indians slugger Earl Averill, who altered the career of Dizzy Dean with an All-Star Game smash that broke the left toe of the Cardinals’ ace, drilled a liner that struck Bobo in the left knee during the third inning of a game at Washington.
“After briskly rubbing the knee, he declared he was ready to pitch,” the Star reported. With trainer Mike Martin applying ice packs between innings, Bobo pitched a complete game, but lost by a run. That night, X-rays showed he had a fractured kneecap. Boxscore
Bobo three times won 20 in a season and three times lost 20. He never led a major league in wins but four times led the American League in losses.
In 1940, he was 21-5 for the Tigers, who won the American League pennant. In the World Series against the Reds, Bobo’s father watched from the stands as his son started and won Game 1. The next morning, Bobo’s father died. After the funeral, Bobo started Game 5 and pitched a three-hit shutout. Two days later, in the decisive Game 7, Bobo limited the Reds to two runs, but the Tigers scored just one against Paul Derringer and lost. Boxscore, Boxscore, Boxscore
Bobo arrived at 1941 spring training “in a long auto with a horn that blared ‘Hold That Tiger,’ and a neon sign that flashed, ‘Bobo,’ ” The Sporting News reported.
He was 12-20 that season.
Described by The Sporting News as “a modern day Marco Polo,” Bobo pitched for nine big-league teams _ Dodgers, Cubs, Browns, Senators, Red Sox, Tigers, Athletics, Yankees, Giants _ and posted a record of 211-222. “He moved around like a hobo, changing uniforms almost with the seasons,” Joe Falls of the Free Press noted.
In his first big-league game, Bobo pitched to High Pockets Kelly, a future Hall of Famer who began in the majors in 1915. In his last big-league game, Bobo pitched to Larry Doby, a future Hall of Famer and first black to reach the American League. Boxscore and Boxscore
“The toughest man I ever faced in the clutch was Lou Gehrig,” Bobo told the Associated Press. “He always seemed to rise to the occasion.”
Gehrig’s numbers against Bobo: .337 batting average, .450 on-base percentage, six home runs.
Bobo also was hit hard by Joe DiMaggio (.380 batting average, .413 on-base mark, seven homers), Stan Musial (four hits, including two homers, in five at-bats for an .833 average) and Ted Williams (.385 batting average, .515 on-base mark.)
“DiMaggio, Musial and Ted Williams _ all three great hitters,” Bobo said to the Associated Press. “I wouldn’t try to choose between them.”
RetroSimba 
“The big galoot with an unmatchable heart.” Good old sports writing, when it took a turn for the verse.
“a turn for the verse” _ clever as well as perceptive. Thanks for appreciating the written word done well.
You can only wonder how many games Bobo Newsom would have won if some of the teams he played for had been better and if he could have mastered his tendency to get a little wild. In looking at his batter matchups at retrosheet.com either Bobo Newsom owned the hitter or the hitter owned him. He certainly did have some storybook seasons. Winning 20 games for a Browns team that won only 55 games and the year he took the Tigers to the World Series. One things for sure. In today’s day and age of 5 inning “quality starts” they don’t make’em like Bobo Newsom anymore.
Yes, if I counted right, it looks to me that Bobo pitched 199 innings or more in a season 14 times, including a career-high 329.2 innings with the 1938 Browns.
When he launched a comeback to the majors at age 44 in 1952, Bobo told the Associated Press, “I figure my old wing hasn’t lost much. I figure I’ve lost only about 12 percent of my speed and picked up about 50 percent on brains and savvy.”
(Later, Bob admitted to the Washington Star, “I’m throwing as hard as I ever did, but the ball is just taking longer to get up to the plate.”)
In September 1950, Bobo did some broadcasting of St. Louis Browns game on KWK.
Phillip, to your point about wondering how Bobo in his prime might have done pitching for better teams, he apparently was offered to the Cardinals, who declined. According to a syndicated article by Harold Parrott that appeared in the Sept. 5, 1943, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Branch Rickey “wouldn’t take Newsom as a gift” when he was general manager of the Cardinals. Rickey moved to the Dodgers after the 1942 season and found Bobo already there. According to Parrott, in contract talks for 1943, Bobo said to Branch, “You wouldn’t take me at St. Louis, but now I will take you.” That didn’t go well with Mr. Rickey, who traded Bobo to the Browns in July 1943 for Fritz Ostermueller and Archie McKain.
As I was reading this, I started to think that Bobo’s confidence and crassness was both entertaining and necessary to survive so long as a pitcher, but then a few names popped in my head that were excellent that seemed so mild mannered, pitchers like Greg Maddux and Adam Wainright and Teddy Higuera and so many more. I guess the old cliche that it takes all types is very true in baseball and that’s one of the reasons that makes the sport so appealing.
I enjoyed your observations, Steve. I like the pitchers who are intensely competitive yet have a keen sense of humor. Bobo was like that. I’ve read that Greg Maddux was, too.
In his autobiography, “Starting and Closing,” John Smoltz said, “Greg, Tommy (Glavine) and I were genuinely friends who enjoyed each other’s company. We competed against each other all the time in golf and in baseball but we never let anything get too serious … We kept it fun and I think we all made each other better.”
I’ve read that Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette had the same kind of friendship as teammates and road roommates with the Milwaukee Braves.
What a character! It makes you wonder how many pitchers, pulled after just four batters, would turn it around if they got a second chance the same day. Great story.
Quite a character, indeed. Bobo twice walked 11 batters in a game and was the winning pitcher in both _ May 27, 1934, versus Yankees, and June 18, 1936, versus Tigers. He also twice struck out 12 batters in a game and was the losing pitcher in both _ July 22, 1939, versus A’s and May 21, 1944, versus Indians. He would have fit in nicely with the 1962 Mets.