100 years ago in Spokane: White Sox player from Spokane earns positive write-up

Earl Sheely, a “Spokane boy now with the Chicago White Sox,” earned a positive write-up in the Sporting News, baseball’s premier publication.

Well, mostly positive.

“If he can locate the big show pitching, he is a real find, for awkward as he seems afoot, he can hold his own with most fielders around first base,” the article said. “The critics had it that he was one of the game’s greatest hitters, held down only because of a bum ankle that made him slow. As a hitter, he has not lived up to expectations, while as a fielder he has shuffled around the first sack for the White Sox so neatly that his story about the bum ankle has been thrown into the fiction class.”

As it turned out, Sheely hit a stellar .304 in 1921 and went on to a successful career, mostly with the White Sox. In 1925, his best year, he finished sixth in American League Most Valuable Player voting.

He retired in 1931 with a .300 lifetime batting average.

Before he hit the big leagues, he played for North Central High School and the Spokane Indians.

From the school beat: The Holy Names Academy, a Catholic girl’s school, was making plans to build a new $10,000 gymnasium.

It would be paid for entirely through donations and subscriptions. The Holy Names Alumnae Association, 250-strong, pledged to raise the funds.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1919: Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which said that the right to vote could not be denied or abridged based on gender. The amendment was sent to the states for ratification.