Mark Koenig

Mark Anthony Koenig (July 19, 1904 – April 22, 1993) was an American baseball shortstop who played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played with the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants from 1925 to 1936. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, he was listed at 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) and 180 pounds (82 kg). Although primarily playing as a shortstop, Koenig was utilized at both second base and third base as well.

Mark Koenig
Koenig, circa 1928
Shortstop
Born: (1904-07-19)July 19, 1904
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died: April 22, 1993(1993-04-22) (aged 88)
Willows, California, U.S.
Batted: Switch
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 8, 1925, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
September 27, 1936, for the New York Giants
MLB statistics
Batting average.279
Hits1,190
Runs batted in446
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Koenig played minor league baseball with four different teams until May 1925, when he signed with the New York Yankees. After making his debut in September 1925 and spending five seasons with the Yankees, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he spent the next two seasons. He subsequently joined the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds via trades in 1932 and 1934, respectively, and was finally traded to the New York Giants, with whom he played his last game on September 27, 1936. Koenig is most famous for being the last surviving member of the Murderers' Row.

Early life

Koenig was born on July 19, 1904, in San Francisco.[1] His father, Charles Koenig, and paternal grandfather William were both bricklayers, with the latter having immigrated from Germany to the United States.[2] His mother Stella[2] was of Swiss descent.[3] Koenig had two brothers and a sister, and, during his childhood, he first met and played baseball with fellow San Franciscan and future teammate Tony Lazzeri.[2] He attended Lowell High School in his hometown, but dropped out at the age of 16 in order to pursue a career in baseball. His high school eventually bestowed upon him his diploma in 1988. Koenig, who was 83 at the time, described the honor as a complete surprise.[4]

Professional career

Minor leagues

Koenig first started playing organized baseball on the Moose Jaw Millers team in the Western Canada League.[5] It was here he was first spotted by Bob Connery, a scout who worked for the New York Yankees organization. After the league collapsed in the middle of the season, he proceeded to play with the St. Paul Saints, a minor league baseball team which competed in the American Association. He spent nearly the next four seasons with the team; during this time, he had brief sojourns with the Jamestown Jinkotans and the Des Moines Boosters in order to garner more playing experience.[2][5]

Koenig returned to St. Paul in 1924 and though he spent the entire season with the team, he played just 68 games for them.[5] At the end of the season, the Saints advanced to the Little World Series, where they faced the International League's Baltimore Orioles. Having had limited playing time, it was in Game 5 where he finally had the opportunity to prove himself.[2] Danny Boone, St. Paul's starting shortstop, injured his ankle during batting practice.[3][6] Although the rules at the time stipulated the Saints could temporarily utilize a player from another American Association team to replace Boone, the Orioles objected[2] and the National Association president ruled Koenig constituted an ample substitute for Boone. He proved to be exactly that when he scored the Saints' only run via a home run. He finished the Little World Series with a .429 batting average and 2 home runs, including one hit off Lefty Grove.[7][6] His stellar performance in the series resulted in at least seven MLB teams seeking to acquire him in the offseason.[3] However, he stayed with the Saints for the first part of the 1925 season before he was traded on May 29 to the New York Yankees in exchange for Fred Hofmann, Oscar Roettger, $50,000 ($834,345 in current dollar terms) and a player to be named later (Ernie Johnson).[1][8]

New York Yankees (1925–1930)

Koenig made his major league debut for the Yankees on September 8, 1925, at the age of 21,[1] entering the game as a defensive substitute for shortstop Pee-Wee Wanninger in a 5–4 win against the Boston Red Sox.[9] During his rookie season the following year, he posted a batting average of .271 and struck out just 37 times in 617 at bats,[1] a statistic which his manager Miller Huggins looked highly upon.[2] Defensively, he committed the most errors among all fielders in the American League and most errors by a shortstop with 52. Nonetheless, he had the AL's third highest range factor at shortstop of 4.99 and made a league-leading 470 putouts.[1] In the postseason, the Yankees advanced to the 1926 World Series, where they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.[10] In the crucial Game 7, Koenig made an error attempting to field a double play opportunity in the fourth inning. This eventually led to the Cardinals scoring—what turned out to be—the winning run in a 3–2 victory. Koenig was subsequently criticized by fans for being responsible for Yankees losing the game and, ultimately, the series.[2]

Koenig was penciled into the two-hole spot in the Yankees' 1927 Opening Day lineup, with Earle Combs batting in front of him at leadoff and Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri batting behind him.[11] This lineup, which was utilized in that order throughout the majority of the season, was given the nickname "Murderers' Row". Many sports analysts, baseball writers and fans consider the 1927 team the greatest baseball team of all time.[12][13][14] Although he was dismissive of the role he played,[15] Koenig contributed to the team's success as he batted .285 and amassed 150 hits, 11 triples, 99 runs scored and 62 runs batted in. However, he once again led the league in errors with 47, but compensated for this by recording the highest range factor at shortstop (5.61) and third most assists at shortstop (423).[1] He was also part of history when, after hitting a triple, he was the only Yankees player on base when Babe Ruth hit his milestone 60th home run, setting a new single-season record.[15] The Yankees advanced to the World Series that year, where they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates. Koenig performed impressively throughout the series, batting a team-leading .500 and committed no errors in 24 total chances.[16]

Career statistics
Mark Koenig as a member of the Chicago Cubs, circa 1932–33.

In 1162 games over 12 seasons, Koenig posted a .279 batting average (1190-for-4271) with 572 runs, 195 doubles, 49 triples, 28 home runs, 446 RBIs, 31 stolen bases, 222 bases on balls, .316 on-base percentage and .367 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .933 fielding percentage playing primarily at shortstop, third and second base. In 20 World Series games, he batted .237 (18-for-76) with 9 runs, 3 doubles, 1 triple and 5 RBI.[1]

Personal life

In June 1928, Koenig became engaged to Katherine Tremaine, whom he married at the end of that year's baseball season.[17] Together, they had one daughter, Gail, who was born in 1930.[7] He later was remarried to Doris Bailey,[18] who died in 1979.[19] He appeared as himself in The Pride of the Yankees, an Academy Award-winning movie released in 1942 which paid tribute to his fellow Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig.[20] After his baseball career ended, he settled back in his hometown and took up several jobs, namely owning gas stations and working as a brewer.[16]

Beginning in 1982, Koenig's health began to deteriorate. In addition to the lung cancer which had developed,[19] he also suffered from gout, poor eyesight and back pain necessitating the use of a cane. Because of these ailments, he moved to Orland, California, in 1986 in order to live with his daughter and her family.[21][22] He died of cancer[22] on April 22, 1993, in Willows, California, at the age of 88 and was cremated.[1] He had outlived his two wives[21] and was survived by his daughter, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving member of the 1927 New York Yankees starting lineup, nicknamed "Murderers' Row".[22] He was also the last surviving member of the 1928 World Champion New York Yankees.

References
  1. "Mark Koenig Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  2. Glueckstein, Fred (July 26, 2005). The '27 Yankees. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 212–215. ISBN 9781469113081. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  3. Doutrich, Paul E. (December 16, 2010). The Cardinals and the Yankees, 1926: A Classic Season and St. Louis in Seven. McFarland. pp. 27–29. ISBN 9780786461783. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  4. Tom, Denise (March 15, 1988). "Koenig fields his diploma 67 years after dropping out". USA Today. p. 2C. Retrieved December 26, 2012. (subscription required)
  5. "Mark Koenig Minor League Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  6. "Mark Koenig Can Thank An Accident For Baseball Start". The Lewiston Daily Sun. November 7, 1928. p. 10. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  7. Borzi, Pat (November 9, 2007). "The forgotten Saint on Yankees Murderers Row". MinnPost. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
  8. "Yanks Pay $50,000 for Shortstop Mark Koenig". Providence County Times. September 29, 1925. p. 2. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  9. "September 8, 1925 New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com. September 8, 1925. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  10. "1926 World Series (4–3): St. Louis Cardinals (89–65) over New York Yankees (91–63)". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  11. Frommer, Harvey (November 1, 2007). A Yankee Century & Beyond. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 253. ISBN 9781402248740. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  12. Verducci, Tom. "Tom Verducci's Top 10 Teams of All Time – 1927 Yankees". SI.com. Time Warner. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  13. "Murderers' Row – Opposing Pitchers' Worst Nightmare". Rome News-Tribune. March 23, 2002. p. 6B. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  14. Bock, Hal (March 19, 2002). "Baseball Preview '02: 75th anniversary of Murderers' Row". Associated Press Archive. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  15. Newhouse, Dave (September 3, 1990). "A Golden Team's Sole Survivor". Sports Illustrated. p. 1. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  16. "Mark Koenig Will Marry Red Bluff High School Girl". San Jose News. United Press International. June 12, 1928. p. 16. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  17. Porter, David L. (2000). Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball, Revised and Expanded Edition Degreesl G–P. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 824–826. ISBN 9780313311758. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  18. Ellen, Glen (September 27, 1987). "60 years ago this week, Babe Ruth and the Yankees were in their prime — and the game's greatest hero reached an unthinkable milestone". The Telegraph. Nashua. Associated Press. p. C4. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  19. Sherrow, Rita (July 22, 2010). "'Jersey Shore' catches flack from Italian-American service group". Tulsa World. p. D2. Retrieved December 26, 2012. (subscription required)
  20. Newhouse, Dave (September 3, 1990). "A Golden Team's Sole Survivor – Mark Koenig is the last of the 1927 New York Yankees". Sports Illustrated. p. 6. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  21. "Mark Koenig, 88; Played Shortstop For 1927 Yanks". The New York Times. April 25, 1993. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
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