Thomas Joseph Thevenow (September 6, 1903 – July 29, 1957) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) from 1924 to 1938 for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and

Boston Bees The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During ...

. Thevenow epitomized the good-fielding / weak-hitting shortstops that prevailed in the era, ending his career with a fielding percentage of .947, but a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .247 while hitting only two

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s in his 15-year career. He hit two home runs in 1926, both

inside-the-park home run In baseball, an inside-the-park home run is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of the field of play. It is also known as an "inside-the-parker", "in-the-park home run", or "in-the-park homer". Discussion To score ...

s, and then never hit another home run in his next 12 seasons, setting a major league record of 3,347 consecutive at bats without a home run.Staff
"TOMMY THEVENOW, FORMER SHORTSTOP"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', July 30, 1957. Accessed June 28, 2009.

Baseball career

Thevenow was acquired by the Cardinals on September 3, 1924, when he was purchased from the Syracuse Stars of the Class AA International League, where he played 140 games that season.Tommy Thevenow - Minor League statistics

Baseball-Reference.com Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

. Accessed June 28, 2009. He played 23 games for the Cardinals that season, debuting on September 4 and finishing the season with a batting average of .202. He played 50 games with St. Louis in 1925, concluding the season with a .269 average, in addition to 112 games played for Syracuse.Tommy Thevenow

. Accessed June 28, 2009. During the 1926 season, Thevenow hit the first home run of his major league career on September 17 off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jack Knight, an inside-the-park homer that was part of 10–1 win over fading Cincinnati; the Reds went on to lose seven of their last nine games down the stretch. Five days later, Thevenow would hit another inside-the-park home run, the second and final regular season home run of his career, as the Cardinals beat the Brooklyn Dodgers by a score of 15–7, putting the Cardinals games ahead of the Reds for first place in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

.Charlton's Baseball Chronology - 1926
, BaseballLibrary.com. Accessed June 28, 2009. Over the rest of the 1926 season and the next 12 years of his major league career, Thevenow would not hit another home run (his final 3,347 at-bats), the most consecutive at bats without a home run in major league history. He finished the 1926 season with a .256 batting average and came in fourth in balloting for that season's National League Most Valuable Player, an award won by teammate

Bob O'Farrell Robert Arthur O'Farrell (October 19, 1896 – February 20, 1988) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for 21 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and the New Yo ...

. The Cardinals won the NL pennant and faced the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

in the

1926 World Series The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season. The 23rd edition of the Series, it pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees. The ...

. In the second game of the series, Thevenow hit a ball to right field off Yankee pitcher

Sad Sam Jones Samuel Pond "Sad Sam" Jones (July 26, 1892 – July 6, 1966) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators and the Chicago White Sox between 191 ...

which

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

could not corral as he ran towards the ball at full speed. Thevenow rounded the bases and scored ahead of Ruth's throw to the plate. The

official scorer In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices. In addition to recording the events on the field ...

's ruling was an inside-the-park home run. Thevenow would go on to get 10 hits in 24 at-bats for a .417 batting average, leading the Cardinals to win the series in seven games.Snyder, John
"The World Series' Most Wanted"
p. 126.

Brassey's Brassey's is variously the name of a publisher, an imprint, or a published series of volumes, all mostly associated with military topics, that was in existence in one form or another from 1886 to around 2005. Brassey's in Britain The heritage of t ...

, 2004. . Accessed June 28, 2009. Thevenow's hitting dropped below the

Mendoza Line The Mendoza Line is baseball jargon for a sub-.200 batting average, the supposed minimum threshold for competence at the Major League level. It derives from light-hitting shortstop Mario Mendoza, who failed to reach .200 five times in his nine b ...

in 1927, with an average of .194 in 59 games. He picked it up a bit in 1928, ending the season having played 69 games and finishing with a .205 batting average. Following the season, the Cardinals traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for shortstop Heinie Sand and $10,000.

Personal life

Thevenow died at age 53 on July 29, 1957, due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He had operated a grocery store in his hometown of

Madison, Indiana Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2010 United States Census its population was 11,967. Over 55,000 people live within of downtown Madison. Madison is the larges ...

following his retirement from baseball.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thevenow, Tommy 1903 births 1957 deaths Ashland Colonels players Baseball players from Indiana Boston Bees players Cincinnati Reds players Joplin Miners players Little Rock Travelers players Major League Baseball shortstops People from Madison, Indiana Philadelphia Phillies players Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players