St. Louis tried to attract the nation’s best athlete at a time when its teams, Browns and Cardinals, were the worst in major-league baseball. Jim Thorpe, however, chose to enter the majors at the top, with the 1913 New York Giants.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field as well as a football standout, Thorpe wasn’t as prominent in baseball. For six seasons in the National League with the Giants, Reds and Braves, he mostly was a spare outfielder.
The team Thorpe did best against was St. Louis. A career .252 hitter, Thorpe batted .314 overall versus the Cardinals and .339 in games played at St. Louis.
Bright Path
A citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, James Francis Thorpe and a twin brother, Charles, were born in what is now Oklahoma. (Charles died of pneumonia as a youth.) Jim Thorpe also was known as Wa-Tho-Huck, which in the Sac and Fox language means “Bright Path,” according to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
After attending schools in Oklahoma and Kansas, Thorpe enrolled at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania when he was 16 in 1903 and excelled in athletics, especially football and track, for coach Pop Warner.
Thorpe also was proficient at archery, baseball, basketball, canoeing, handball, hockey, horsemanship, lacrosse, rifle shooting, skating, squash and swimming, according to The Sporting News.
Carolina in my mind
Taking a break from Carlisle in 1909, Thorpe, 22, signed to play minor-league baseball for the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Railroaders, a Class D club in the Eastern Carolina League. He was paid $12.50 to $15 per week, plus room and board, team secretary E.G. Johnston told the Rocky Mount Telegram.
A right-hander, Thorpe pitched and played right field. Speed was his main attribute. Eyewitness accounts told of him scoring from first on a single to right and racing to the plate from second on an infield out. His statistics that season were nothing special (9-10 record, .254 batting mark), but he was the talk of the town. A local sports reporter, Sam Mallison, noted, “Few Rocky Mount citizens had ever seen one of these original Americans.”
Rocky Mount was a segregated town of about 8,000 in 1909. It had a prominent railroad yard, cotton mills and tobacco farms. At that time, “The horse and buggy still provided the principal method of transportation between points not connected by the railroad,” Sam Mallison recalled in the Rocky Mount Telegram. “There were no hard-surfaced highways and few paved streets.”
As for baseball, Thomas McMillan Sr. wrote in the Telegram, “In those days, the players dressed for the game in their rooms (and) walked to the ballpark. Many stayed at the new Cambridge Hotel, a short block north of the passenger train station. The players would be met by a crowd of little boys as they came out of the hotel. Each boy sought the privilege of carrying the shoes or glove or bat for one of the ballplayers. Carrying a glove or a pair of shoes meant free admission to the game. I was one of those little boys and big Jim Thorpe seemed to favor me as his shoes and glove caddy. I remember Jim perfectly. Black hair, black eyes, high cheekbones in a mahogany face, and a physique that gave an impression of strength rather than mere size. His movements were quick and lithe.”
Thorpe returned to Rocky Mount in 1910, but the luster was lost. According to Sam Mallison, “(Thorpe’s) custom, in the early evening, was to take a snoot full … As time went on, (drinking) took hold of Jim earlier in the day, occasionally before the noon hour, and this, plus the fact that opposing pitchers had learned he was a sucker for a curveball on the outside (corner), diminished his speed and caused his batting average to plummet … (Thorpe) had ceased to be such an enormous gate attraction, and his antics were the despair of both the field manager and the front office. He ignored the rules and was wholly unresponsive to managerial direction. In short, he became a problem child.”
That summer, Thorpe was traded to the Fayetteville (N.C.) Highlanders and finished the 1910 season with them.
Glory and scandal
Thorpe re-enrolled at Carlisle and rocketed toward his athletic peak. He gained national fame as a consensus first-team football all-America in 1911 and 1912. He rose to worldwide prominence at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon. Thorpe was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States.
“To a whole generation of American sports lovers, Jim Thorpe was the greatest athlete of them all,” the New York Times declared. “No one has equaled the hold that he had on the imagination of all who saw him in action … He was a magnificent performer.”
In January 1913, after the International Olympic Committee learned of Thorpe’s minor-league ballplaying, it was determined he had competed in the 1912 Games as a professional, violating the rules of amateurism. He was stripped of his medals and his achievements were erased from the Olympic records. “The committee’s insistence that the Olympics are amateur is as fatuous as its insistence that sports should never be soiled by politics,” the New York Times opined.
(In July 2022, 69 years after Thorpe’s death, the International Olympic Committee declared him sole winner of the 1912 Olympic decathlon and pentathlon.)
Looking to extend his athletic career, Thorpe saw big-league baseball as offering the best path. (The American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL, wasn’t established until 1920).
On the money
Thorpe got offers from five big-league clubs _ Browns, Giants, Pirates, Reds and White Sox, the New York Times reported.
The Browns had more than 100 losses in three consecutive seasons (1910-12) and would finish in last place in the American League at 57-96 in 1913, but club owner Robert Hedges was serious about a pursuit of Thorpe. Hedges had scout Pop Kelchner try to woo Thorpe to St. Louis. On Kelchner’s recommendation, the Browns acquired a minor-league shortstop, Mike Balenti. He and Thorpe played together in the Carlisle football team backfield. The Browns hoped having Balenti would help them land Thorpe.
On Jan. 24, 1913, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported, “It was learned yesterday that Jim Thorpe … had promised Hedges that if he played ball in professional circles he would join the Browns.”
A week later, though, Thorpe signed with the Giants. Led by manager John McGraw, the Giants won National League pennants in 1911 and 1912. They’d go to the World Series again in 1913. Perhaps most important of all to Thorpe was the money. The Giants offered a salary of more than $5,000, the New York Times reported. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thorpe got a $6,000 salary and a $500 signing bonus, and Carlisle coach Pop Warner got $2,500 from the Giants for steering Thorpe to them.
“There are very few $6,000 ballplayers in the game today,” St. Louis columnist Sid Keener noted. According to Keener, that select group included Ty Cobb, Ed Konetchy, Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson and Tris Speaker.
Though McGraw never had seen Thorpe play, he told the New York World, “A wonderful athlete like Thorpe ought to have in him the makings of a great ballplayer. He has the muscle and the brain, and it is up to me to locate the spot where he will be of most value to the team.”
Cardinals calling
After seeing Thorpe in spring training, McGraw determined the best spot for him was on the bench, or maybe the minors. Thorpe, who turned 26 that year, was plenty fast and strong, but he misjudged fly balls, didn’t slide properly and couldn’t hit the curve consistently.
In April 1913, before the regular season got under way, McGraw apparently considered placing Thorpe on waivers. If Thorpe was available, Cardinals manager Miller Huggins was determined to get him.
“Jim Thorpe … may become a Cardinal,” the Bridgeport Times of Connecticut reported. “All that is needed for (Thorpe) to join the (Cardinals) is for John McGraw to accept an offer made by Miller Huggins. It is believed that waivers have been asked on Thorpe because Huggins sent the following telegram to McGraw: Will take Thorpe off your hands. What is his salary?”
According to the New York Herald, Huggins said the Cardinals, destined to finish with the worst record in the majors (51-99) that year, would spend “the extreme limit” for Thorpe.
Huggins told Sid Keener, “I believe Thorpe can be developed into a ballplayer. He has what I want _ speed. It may be that he will need plenty of seasoning, but I would be willing to carry him a year or so as a utility player.”
The Cardinals’ eagerness to take Thorpe apparently gave McGraw pause. He decided Thorpe would remain with the Giants. “I can make a first-class player of him,” McGraw said, according to the Montpelier (Vermont) Morning Journal.
Playing on
Thorpe stuck with the Giants in 1913 and 1914, but rarely played. He spent most of 1915 in the minors. Sent to minor-league Milwaukee in 1916, Thorpe made significant progress. He led Milwaukee in total bases (240) and hits (157).
In 1917, the Giants loaned Thorpe to the Reds. McGraw’s friend and former ace, Christy Mathewson, was the Reds’ manager. In a game against the Cardinals, Thorpe had two hits and two RBI. In another, at St. Louis, he totaled four hits, three RBI and scored twice. Boxscore and Boxscore
Thorpe’s highlight with the Reds, though, came in a game at Chicago. Fred Toney of the Reds and Hippo Vaughn of the Cubs each pitched nine hitless innings. In the 10th, Thorpe’s single versus Vaughn drove in a run and the Reds won, 1-0. Boxscore
After four months with the Reds, Thorpe was returned to the Giants. He played for them in 1918, then was traded to the Braves. Thorpe hit .327 for Boston in 1919 and .354 versus the Cardinals. It wasn’t enough to keep him in the majors, but he wasn’t through with baseball. Thorpe played three more seasons in the minors and thrived, batting .360 for Akron in 1920 and .358 for Toledo in 1921.
Meanwhile, when the American Professional Football Association began in 1920, Thorpe was welcomed in as player-coach of the Canton Bulldogs.
In 1925, Thorpe, 38, was a running back with the NFL New York Giants. He is one of two men who played for both the NFL and baseball New York Giants. The other, Steve Filipowicz, was an outfielder with the baseball Giants (1944-45) and a running back with the football Giants (1945-46).
Thorpe finally got to play for the Cardinals, too. His last NFL game was with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929.
RetroSimba 
Love to know how Hippo Vaughan got his nickname! This was an enjoyable trip through time, older days of trains and dirt roads. It’s a wonder how you weave quotes and facts and insights into such a coherent, clear, and entertaining read.
The Brewers have a player, Anthony Seigler, who is Navajo. I guess at some point, Native Americans were banned from baseball? Or maybe some snuck in because many natives have a whiter complexion.
I got a kick out of “There are very few $6,000 ballplayers in the game today,” Ain’t that the truth! Long live Richie “grave digging” Hebner!”
James Leslie Vaughn told The Sporting News he was nicknamed Hippo because of his “lumbering gait on the base lines.” According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Vaughn was a large man, about 6-foot-4, and weighed between 215 and 230 pounds, though there is evidence he weighed close to 300 pounds late in his career.
A left-hander, Vaughn had 178 wins in the majors. He was the National League ERA leader (1.74) with the Cubs in 1918. In the 1918 World Series versus the Red Sox, Vaughn pitched 27 innings and allowed just three runs, but won only one of his three starts. In Game 1, he lost, 1-0, as Babe Ruth pitched a shutout. In Game 3, Hippo lost, 2-1, to Carl Mays. Hippo pitched a shutout to beat Sad Sam Jones in Game 5.
One line in this story jumped put at me. In 1919, he hit .327 but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the majors. Jeez! Fast forward a century and that’s a three-year 20 mil contract.
Yep. Not only that, he hit an astounding .500 (18-for-36) with runners in scoring position for the 1919 Boston Braves.
This filled in some “blanks” for me with regard to Jim’s entire body of athletic endeavors. One of the finest, most versatile athletes of all-time.
Yes, indeed, Bruce. In 1950, the Associated Press named Jim Thorpe the greatest American athlete of the half century (1900-50). At the 1912 Olympics, King Gustav V of Sweden said to Thorpe, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe replied, “Thanks, king.”
I was unaware that Jim Thorpe had played baseball. I can’t help but have the feeling that with the proper coaching and attention Jim Thorpe just might have made it at the major league level. It’s a bit puzzling to me that John McGraw refused the Cardinals offer just to keep Jim Thorpe in the minors. You mention Mark that in 1919 he hit well in clutch situations. For his career he batted .297 with runners in scoring position.
I believe you are correct about Jim Thorpe being able to thrive in the major leagues if given the right circumstances, Phillip. That .297 career batting mark with runners in scoring position you cited is a testament to that potential.
In doing the research for this post, I came across published reports in 1913 that indicated the Giants signed Thorpe primarily as a gate attraction, not necessarily as a prospect, and perhaps that’s one reason John McGraw opted not to let Thorpe go to the Cardinals that spring.
In remarks to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at spring training in March 1913, McGraw described Thorpe’s baseball skills as “crude.” McGraw told the newspaper, “He knows very little of baseball and therefore has little to unlearn … He may learn the game after long and patient teaching, but he’s too ignorant for major league baseball now.”
In June 1913, when the Giants went to St. Louis for the first time that season, McGraw was singing a somewhat different tune. When asked about Thorpe, McGraw said to W.J. O’Connor of the Post-Dispatch, “He is the quickest man to learn new baseball tricks that I have ever had on my club. Thorpe is improving steadily and promises to be the greatest utility player in the history of the game. He can play any position on the team with moderate success now while he is steadily getting better.”
During that same Giants-Cardinals series, Giants catcher Chief Meyers, Thorpe’s road roommate, told the Post-Dispatch, “Thorpe is an apt student in the McGraw school. I have never seen a ballplayer familiarize himself so quickly with methods that must have struck him as strange at first. When he joined us, he had little to recommend him except physical prowess. The progress he already has made makes me feel sure that … McGraw has a diamond in the rough. He’ll be a real gem in another year.”
I really enjoyed this post, as I always have been fascinated by Jim Thorpe. Believe it or not, there was at least one honorable character in the story of the Olympic Committee taking away Thorpe’s medals. Ferdinand Bie of Norway refused to accept the gold medal for the pentathalon it took from Thorpe. (I’m thinking Donald Trump is not a descendant of this fellow.) On the other hand, Hugo Wieslander of Sweden kept the gold medal for the decathlon, but reportedly felt uncomfortable about it. Uncomfortable or not, he hung onto it until 1951 before donating it to a sports museum in Sweden. I wrote a post about Jim Thorpe back in November of 2024. Here’s a link to that post in case you’re interested:
https://cheaphill44.com/2024/11/18/the-bright-path-and-ferdinand-bie/
Thanks for enhancing this post with your informative comments and the link to your well-researched post. I’m especially glad to learn about Ferdinand Bie of Norway. Indeed, Bie had the integrity, ethics and honor the convicted felon in the White House lacks.
Hello, Mark, I’m Bill Townsend. I was a reporter, editor, features copyeditor in chief, and ended as TV/Radio Editor at the Globe-Democrat (1976-1985) before landing with Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages as a communications guy for 30 years. Steve Zesch hired me as a freelance editor and writer in 2005, and I helped the Cardinals until 2015. I have mostly done editing for Catholic publishers since 2010 (Liguori Publications, Ascension Press) and now I am semi-retired.
I asked to do a feature on Roberto Clemente for Liguori, positing that The Great One is worthy of canonization. (If that kid who did research on the Eucharist is a saint; he ain’t, IMO.) I’m working on the feature now, and my editor is excited about it.
The majority of the readers of Liguorian magazine are senior citizens like me (I turn 73 Saturday) and live in the Midwest, where love of the Cardinals, if not the Vatican type Cardinals, is legion. So I think they’d like to relive one aspect of RC’s story: the memorable night he broke Gibson’s leg with a rocket through the box, where he made a living. Pitchers demanded a screen get placed in front of them for Pittsburgh hitting practice.
Do you have anything that you’ve already written that I could crib from regarding that incident? Anthing would help, and any stuff about 21 that’s research. I mention the 1967 incident also because Roberto and Orlando chatted for a while at first base while Gibson moaned. Also, the leg issue was a blessing in disguise for El Birdos. Gibson rested and came back fresh and strong for the pennant drive and WS. So Clemente, in his own competitive way, helped the Cardinals! The kicker, as you may know, is that Cepeda had told Bobby he could not go to Nicaragua with him because it was NY Eve. Hence, the Baby Bull lived to enhance his stellar career and earn HOF entry. Cepeda was crestfallen upon learning the plane crashed. Millions still mourn, 50-plus years later.
Of course I would cite anything you provide me as a source and I’ll send you a copy of the magazine. I think Liguori is planning an all-baseball issue, in which this story likely will be the cover. I will insist that Momen be the cover. You’ll have my everlasting gratitude. Indeed, us old ink-stained ball fans need to stick together!
Thanks, Mark. Please send me your address and if you can give me your phone number, that would be cool.
BTW, Thorpe — the greatest of all athletes of his era (“Thanks, King”) — is an example of what makes baseball great. You don’t have to be a great athlete to succeed on the field of dreams and nightmares. He could not hit the curve consistently and was a mediocre player overall. He was a stud on the football field until age weakened him and booze drowned him. The film with Burt Lancaster appears to be pretty accurate. I loved it as a boy.
Bill Townsend 9427 Alpine Drive Affton, MO 63123
314.583.4161
Hi, Bill. Thanks for the comments on Jim Thorpe. I wish you well with the magazine story on Roberto Clemente.
Here is a link to my post about the night Bob Gibson’s leg was fractured from Clemente’s shot up the middle: https://retrosimba.com/2017/07/14/bob-gibson-vs-roberto-clemente-ultimate-hardball/
Also, here is a link to my post about the night Clemente claimed he was kidnapped in San Diego: https://retrosimba.com/2021/02/09/the-night-roberto-clemente-was-snatched-in-san-diego/