Rabbit Maranville

Walter James Vincent Maranville (November 11, 1891 – January 6, 1954), better known as Rabbit Maranville due to his speed and small stature — 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) tall and 155 pounds (70 kg; 11 st 1 lb) — was a Major League Baseball shortstop. At the time of his retirement in 1935, he had played in a record 23 seasons in the National League, a mark which wasn't broken until 1986 by Pete Rose.

Career

Maranville finished third in the MVP voting in his first full season, playing for the Boston Braves as a 21-year-old in 1913 even though his batting average was just .247 in 143 games with two homers. The following year, Maranville was the runner-up in the MVP voting to teammate Johnny Evers as the Braves won the National League pennant and then went on to sweep the powerful Philadelphia A's in the World Series. That year, Maranville was the Braves' cleanup hitter, despite batting just .246 and hitting four home runs. Even at age 41, when Maranville batted .218 in 143 games and hit no homers, he finished in a tie for 12th in the MVP voting.

Goudey baseball card of Walter "Rabbit" Maranville, 1933

Over a lengthy career which spanned both the dead ball and live-ball era, Maranville played for the Boston Braves (1912–1920, 1929–1933, 1935), Pittsburgh Pirates (1921–1924), Chicago Cubs (1925), Brooklyn Robins (1926) and St. Louis Cardinals (1927–1928). He retired having compiled a .258 batting average, 2,605 hits, 1,255 runs, 28 home runs, 884 RBI and 291 stolen bases. As a shortstop, he finished his career with a positional record 5,139 putouts.^[1] He won his only World Series championship in 1914 as a member of the Braves, and won his only other National League championship in 1928 as a member of the Cardinals.

Maranville was known as one of "baseball's most famous clowns" due to his practical jokes and lack of inhibitions.^[2] When he was appointed manager of the Chicago Cubs in 1925—one of their worst seasons ever—he did not change his behavior. One night he went through a Pullman car dumping water on sleeping players' heads, saying, "No sleeping under Maranville management, especially at night." Not long after that, he was out on the street outside Ebbets Field in Brooklyn mimicking a newsboy hawking papers. He cried out, "Read all about it! Maranville fired!" And so he was—the next day.^[3]

Rabbit Maranville (center) as manager of the Montreal Royals between two players, 1938

Following the end of his playing career, Maranville turned to managing, including stints as a minor league manager for Montreal Royals, at Albany, Elmira, and Springfield, Massachusetts.^[4]

In later years he worked as the director of a baseball school sponsored by the New York Journal-American newspaper.^[4]

Death and legacy

Rabbit Maranville was felled by a heart attack shortly after midnight on January 6, 1954 at his home in Woodside, New York.^[4] Death was nearly instantaneous.^[4] He was 62 years old at the time of his death.

Maranville was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954, just months after his death, along with Bill Terry and Bill Dickey, in his 14th year of eligibility.

References

↑ Pietrusza, David; Matthew Silverman; Gershman, Michael (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. New York: Total Sports. pp. 707–708. ISBN 1-892129-34-5.
↑ James, Bill (2003-04-06). The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. New York: Free Press. pp. 615–617. ISBN 0743227220.
↑ Nash, B. & Zullo, A. The Baseball Hall of Shame 3, 1987; p. 134
1 2 3 4 "Rabbit Maranville Dies at 62; Sparkplug of '14 'Miracle' Braves," Brooklyn Eagle, vol. 113, no. 5 (January 6, 1954), pp. 1, 15.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rabbit Maranville.

Rabbit Maranville at the Baseball Hall of Fame

Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
Baseball Library

Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1954

BBWAA Vote	Bill Dickey (80.2%) Rabbit Maranville (83.0%) Bill Terry (77.4%)

Veterans Committee	none

Members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Pitchers	Alexander Bender Blyleven M. Brown R. Brown Bunning Carlton Chesbro Clarkson Cooper Coveleski Cummings Day Dean Dihigo Drysdale Eckersley Faber Feller Fingers Ford B. Foster Galvin B. Gibson Glavine Gomez Gossage Grimes Grove Haines Hoyt Hubbell Hunter Jenkins R. Johnson W. Johnson Joss Keefe Koufax Lemon Lyons Maddux Marichal Marquard Martínez Mathewson McGinnity Méndez Newhouser Nichols Niekro Paige Palmer Pennock Perry Plank Radbourn Rixey Roberts Rogan Ruffing Rusie Ryan Seaver H. Smith Smoltz Spahn Sutter Sutton Vance Waddell Walsh Welch Wilhelm J. Williams Willis Wynn Young

Catchers	Bench Berra Bresnahan Campanella Carter Cochrane Dickey Ewing Ferrell Fisk J. Gibson Hartnett Lombardi Mackey Piazza Santop Schalk D. White

First basemen	Anson Beckley Bottomley Brouthers Cepeda Chance Connor Foxx Gehrig Greenberg G. Kelly Killebrew Leonard McCovey Mize Murray Pérez Sisler Suttles Taylor Terry Thomas

Second basemen	Alomar Biggio Carew E. Collins Doerr Evers Fox Frisch Gehringer Gordon Grant Herman Hornsby Lajoie Lazzeri Mazeroski McPhee Morgan J. Robinson Sandberg Schoendienst

Third basemen	Baker Boggs Brett J. Collins Dandridge J. Johnson Kell Lindstrom Mathews Molitor B. Robinson Santo Schmidt Traynor J. Wilson

Shortstops	Aparicio Appling Bancroft Banks Boudreau Cronin Davis T. Jackson Jennings Larkin Lloyd Maranville Reese Ripken Jr. Rizzuto Sewell O. Smith Tinker Vaughan Wagner Wallace Ward Wells Yount

Outfielders	Aaron Ashburn Averill Bell Brock W. Brown Burkett Carey Charleston Clarke Clemente Cobb Combs Crawford Cuyler Dawson Delahanty DiMaggio Doby Duffy Flick Goslin Griffey Jr. Gwynn Hafey Hamilton Heilmann Henderson Hill Hooper Irvin R. Jackson Kaline Keeler Kelley K. Kelly Kiner Klein Mantle Manush Mays T. McCarthy Medwick Musial O'Rourke Ott Puckett J. Rice S. Rice F. Robinson Roush Ruth Simmons Slaughter Snider Speaker Stargell Stearnes Thompson Torriente L. Waner P. Waner Wheat B. Williams T. Williams H. Wilson Winfield Yastrzemski Youngs

Managers	Alston Anderson Cox Durocher Hanlon Harris Herzog Huggins La Russa Lasorda López Mack J. McCarthy McGraw McKechnie W. Robinson Selee Southworth Stengel Torre Weaver D. Williams

Executives / pioneers	Barrow Bulkeley Cartwright Chadwick Chandler Comiskey Dreyfuss R. Foster Frick Giles Gillick Griffith Harridge Hulbert B. Johnson Kuhn Landis La. MacPhail Le. MacPhail Manley O'Malley Pompez Posey Rickey Ruppert Schuerholz Selig Spalding Veeck Weiss S. White Wilkinson G. Wright H. Wright Yawkey

Umpires	Barlick Chylak Conlan Connolly Evans Harvey Hubbard Klem McGowan O'Day

St. Louis Cardinals in the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Inducted as a Cardinal	Jim Bottomley Lou Brock Dizzy Dean Frankie Frisch Bob Gibson Chick Hafey Jesse Haines Rogers Hornsby Whitey Herzog Joe Medwick Johnny Mize Stan Musial Red Schoendienst Enos Slaughter Ozzie Smith Billy Southworth Bruce Sutter

Inductees who played for the Cardinals	Grover Cleveland Alexander Walter Alston Jake Beckley Roger Bresnahan Mordecai Brown Jesse Burkett Steve Carlton Orlando Cepeda Charles Comiskey Leo Durocher Dennis Eckersley Burleigh Grimes Miller Huggins Rabbit Maranville John McGraw Kid Nichols Wilbert Robinson Joe Torre Dazzy Vance Bobby Wallace Hoyt Wilhelm Vic Willis Cy Young

Cardinals managers	Roger Bresnahan Charles Comiskey Frankie Frisch Whitey Herzog Miller Huggins Tony La Russa Bill McKechnie Kid Nichols Branch Rickey Red Schoendienst Billy Southworth Joe Torre

Cardinals executives	Stan Musial Branch Rickey

Frick Award	Jack Buck Harry Caray

Spink Award	Bob Broeg (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Rick Hummel (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) J. G. Taylor Spink (The Sporting News) J. Roy Stockton (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Boston Braves 1914 World Series Champions

Ted Cather Joe Connolly Charlie Deal Josh Devore Johnny Evers Larry Gilbert Hank Gowdy Bill James Les Mann Rabbit Maranville Herbie Moran Dick Rudolph Butch Schmidt Paul Strand Lefty Tyler Bert Whaling Possum Whitted

Manager George Stallings

Regular season

Chicago Cubs managers

Albert Spalding (1876–1877)
Bob Ferguson (1878)
Cap Anson (1879)
Silver Flint (1879)
Cap Anson (1880–1897)
Tom Burns (1898–1899)
Tom Loftus (1900–1901)
Frank Selee (1902–1905)
Frank Chance (1905–1912)
Johnny Evers (1913)
Hank O'Day (1914)
Roger Bresnahan (1915)
Joe Tinker (1916)
Fred Mitchell (1917–1920)
Johnny Evers (1921)
Bill Killefer (1921–1925)
Rabbit Maranville (1925)
George Gibson (1925)
Joe McCarthy (1926–1930)
Rogers Hornsby (1930–1932)
Charlie Grimm (1932–1938)
Gabby Hartnett (1938–1940)
Jimmy Wilson (1941–1944)
Roy Johnson (1944)
Charlie Grimm (1944–1949)
Frankie Frisch (1949–1951)
Phil Cavarretta (1951–1953)
Stan Hack (1954–1956)
Bob Scheffing (1957–1959)
Charlie Grimm (1960)
Lou Boudreau (1960)
College of Coaches: Vedie Himsl (1961), Harry Craft (1961), El Tappe (1961–1962), Lou Klein (1961–1962, 1965), Charlie Metro (1962), Bob Kennedy (1963–1965)
Leo Durocher (1966–1972)
Whitey Lockman (1972–1974)
Jim Marshall (1974–1976)
Herman Franks (1977–1979)
Joey Amalfitano (1979)
Preston Gómez (1980)
Joey Amalfitano (1980–1981)
Lee Elia (1982–1983)
Charlie Fox (1983)
Jim Frey (1984–1986)
John Vukovich (1986)
Gene Michael (1986–1987)
Frank Lucchesi (1987)
Don Zimmer (1988–1991)
Joe Altobelli (1991)
Jim Essian (1991)
Jim Lefebvre (1992–1993)
Tom Trebelhorn (1994)
Jim Riggleman (1995–1999)
Don Baylor (2000–2002)
Rene Lachemann (2002)
Bruce Kimm (2002)
Dusty Baker (2003–2006)
Lou Piniella (2007–2010)
Mike Quade (2010–2011)
Dale Sveum (2012–2013)
Rick Renteria (2014)
Joe Maddon (2015–)

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Rabbit Maranville

Career

Death and legacy

See also

References

External links