NL Player of the Week - Chuck KleinOur last AL Player of the Week (Lou Gehrig) was probably the best known player of the 1930s. Our NL Player this week, Chuck Klein (HA40), is among the least well known of the 1930s stars.
One reason for this is that although Klein is playing for the Cubs in our 1934 replay, he actually spent nearly all of his career with the cellar dwelling Phillies (1928-1933, 1935-1939, 1940-1944) with interludes in Chicago (1934-1935) and Pittsburgh (1939). He makes Bill James's All Star team of players on 100 loss teams.
According to James, Klein wound up in Philadelphia because the Cardinals felt constrained from purchasing Klein's contract, despite general manager Branch Rickey's view that he was the best player in the Central League (AAA). The Cardinals already controlled two teams in the league, and were fueding with Commissioner Landis over the extent of their farm system. Rickey felt that if the Cards obtained a player from a team they didn't control, it might upset the apple cart with the tempestuous Landis. Accordingly, Rickey spoke with his good friend and thefuture manager of his Brooklyn teams, Burt Shotten, then managing in Philadelphia, and convinced Shotten to purchase Klein's contract for Philadelphia. Having read extensively about Rickey, I suspect that Rickey was, in essence, neutralizing Klein as a threat to the Cards by ensuring that he wound up with a team that could not compete.
Klein proved Rickey's judgment correct. He was the NL MVP in 1932 and the runner up in 1931 and 1933. He won four home run titles and a triple crown. Another notable achievement is being the first NL player to hit four home runs in a game in the 20th century. Klein was also a superb fielder and holds the record for most assists in the modern era (44) in that position.
While the left handed hitter Klein benefited from the short right field in the Baker Bowl (a high right field tin fence that was between 280 and 320 feet from home plate from the line to right-center), an analysis of 1930s players at The Hardball Times concludes that Klein "was a legitimately tremendous hitter (who waited far too long to be elected to the Hall of Fame)..."
He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/35876/chuck_klein_an_overlooked_hall_of_famer.html
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/printarticle/leveling-the-1930s-playing-field-part-2-the-careers/
