pythias russ

I’ve always been interested in Pythias Russ, the American Giants’ catcher and shortstop from the late 1920s whose career was cut short when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.  Here’s his obituary in the Chicago Defender (August 16, 1930):

To this point, Pythias Russ’s exact birthdate has been unknown.  However, it turns out that his death certificate gives his exact age at the time of his passing: 26 years, 4 months, 2 days.  Assuming this is correct (since his parents were present at his death and probably the source of the birth information, this is not a bad assumption), his birth date would be April 7, 1904.

Pythias Russ’s statistics in the extant sources are gaudy; here are his batting averages from Holway’s Complete Book:

1925 (age 21) .327
1926 (age 22) .268
1927 (age 23) .350
1928 (age 24) .405
1929 (age 25) .386

For 1928, I have Russ batting, not quite .405, but still pretty good: .346/.382/.449 in 77 games, including two home runs in the league championship series with the St. Louis Stars.

The thing to remember here is that from 1926-1929 Russ was playing his home games in Schorling Park, where offenses went to die in the 1920s NNL.  Looking at the raw numbers, you might assume that, while Russ was very good, he was not really comparable to Hall of Famer Willie Wells, his shortstop counterpart with the Stars, who batted .365/.425/.712 in 1928 (including the playoffs). 

But consider the vast difference between their home parks.  I have 14 box scores for Stars/American Giants games in 1928, including the playoff series.  In the seven games played in Chicago, the two teams combined hit .264/.315/.320, scoring 53 runs (3.79 runs per game), and hitting a single home run.  In the seven games played in St. Louis, the two teams hit .309/.361/.517, scoring 86 runs (6.14 runs per game), with 20 home runs. 

Just as a quick test (not a full-blown study), I figured what Russ might have hit with Stars Park as his home field, using the above park statistics as a guide.  The hypothetical St. Louis version of Pythias Russ comes out at .375/.410/.587; still not quite matching Wells, but much, much closer than without the park adjustment.

(Willie Wells, incidentally, hit six home runs in the 1928 NNL championship series, all in the five games played in St. Louis; see Kevin Johnson’s article on the 1928 St. Louis Stars in the SABR collection Mound City Memories: Baseball in St. Louis, put together for last year’s convention.)

Comments

[Diane Orr-Schafer]

My uncle's brother in law was a Docotor, Dr. Beaton. He and my Aunt Katie lived in St. Louis Mo. So I wonder if maybe Dr. Beaton did not get called in until it was too late...

[Gary Sipe]

Pythias Russ played for the Chicago American Giants in 1928 and 1929. Our small town of Cynthiana Ky. I have been doing research on him for our Cynthiana Baseball HOF. Hear what McCellan of the 1919 White Sox is also from here. Russ was All American in Football. Wish there was a card of him. Call if you have any more info on Pythias.

[David Lawrence]

Your interest is certainly warranted, Gary; I mean, if Chino Smith's shortened career contains mysteries, Russ's certainly does as well.

His record as an all-sports star in college suggests athleticism at an extremely high level, as does his conversion from a catcher to a shortstop. Blackball teams that lacked an experienced shortstop were inclined to put the best athlete they had out there (e.g. Monte Irvin at Newark).

Any number of blackball stars died during their active careers for lack of proper medical attention; Porter Moss is a particularly unhappy example. The fact that Russ's brother was a physician adds another layer of strangeness to this story; not everyone who caught TB died from it....

[Gary Ashwill]

Diane, thanks for writing. Pythias Russ was a great ballplayer who never quite got a full chance to show what he could do. Hopefully new research will bring him to more people's attention.

[Diane Orr-Schafer]

I am Pythias' great niece. I never got to meet him. Thank you for doing this research. All of the Russ' are gone now...Info is very sketchy.

[Kevin]

The article I wrote about the 1928 NNL championship series would not have been possible without Gary's excellent research on 1928.

[Gary Ashwill]

Haven't seen anything about Russ actually joining either of those teams in 1929. Anybody know?

[Brian McKenna]

Is there any indication that Russ actually played professional basketball? I looked into the Negro leagues' overlap with basketbal a few years ago but don't remember seeing Russ' name listed. Thanks.