Last week, I wrote about John Becker’s saloon at the end of 8th Street SE. In researching him, I discovered that his son’s life had been much shorter – and much more interesting. Today, the first installment on the life of Charles Schlagel Becker.
Appropriate to the season, it involves baseball.
When John Martin Becker obtained a license for the bar at 1120 8th Street SE in 1895, he moved his whole family there: the former Ida E. Ferguson, as well as four children, Annie, Lula, John Martin junior, and Charles Schlagel. The youngest was just five years old, and would thus grow up just outside the gates of the Navy Yard.
Charles did not shine in school, or at least nothing he did there ever caught the eye of the education reporters for the various newspapers of the time. The only time he is mentioned is in relation to some sporting contest or other, including a track meet at the Coliseum, where 14-year-old Charles came in second both in the running broad jump and the running high jump.
His real strength, however, was baseball, and his name begins cropping up on the roster of local teams before his 18th birthday. The following year, he pitched frequently for the Vigilants, and it was late that year that he was signed by the Reading (PA) Pretzels of the Tri-State League. He would pitch 22 games there in 1909. However, after that season, he returned to the Hill, and pitched for local teams, becoming a hired gun who was sought out for particularly difficult games. In 1911, he once again signed a contract with a Pennsylvania team, this time the Youngstown Steelmen. Although he pitched a shutout in the only game he played that year, he soon was back in D.C.
It was later that season that he hit the big time, signing a contract with the Nationals. There was some talk of pitching immediately, but, in the end it was two weeks after signing that he pitched. On August 2, thus, Charles Becker (already better known by his nickname ‘Buck’) took the mound against the Chicago White Sox. The excitement in the stands was palpable. While the Nationals were, as usual, low down in the standings, the Sox (actually third in the American League that year) were well behind the leading teams, and thus not a whole lot better than the Nats. Furthermore, the Nationals had managed to win four games in a row, a first for them that season. Finally, a large crowd of Navy Yard employees who had been following Becker’s career came out to cheer him on. It was, in fact, the largest crowd ever at National Park (which sounds impressive until you realize that the stadium had opened only a week earlier)
Becker kept the Sox scoreless over the first three innings, to the delirious happiness of his fans. In the fourth inning, Becker got into trouble, loading the bases. Ping Bodie, a Chicago outfielder who was having a stellar rookie season, came up and hit into a double play, which however still let one run score. Fortunately, the Nats had scored a run the previous inning, and so the score was only tied.
Becker did not allow this turn of events to rattle him, and continued to pitch shutout ball for the rest of the game. The only time the Sox threatened again was in the 7th, when Bodie hit a triple, but Becker saved the day by stopping a ball knocked straight at him, and throwing out the batter at first. The Washington Times of the next day dryly noted that the “Navy Yard rooters here became insane.”
The rest of the Nats held up their end, scoring two runs in the 6th and thus ensuring that Becker’s major league debut ended it in a win, and extended their streak to five games.
Sadly, the Sox came back in the second half of the doubleheader to win 4-2 and ended the streak.
Next week: Becker’s major league career.
Great research!! Do you have any info on 1104 8th St SE? I question whether that was the actual street number during the Becker days, but that property is adjacent to where the Becker’s were housed with their restaurant