Hod Lisenbee - Transition To Major League Ball

Transition To Major League Ball

Lisenbee joined the Tupelo, Mississippi minor league team of the Tri-State League in 1925, and was traded to the Memphis Chicks, minor league team of the Southern Association in 1926. At the age of twenty-eight, he was acquired by the Washington, D. C. Senators for $44,000, and got his first pitching start on April 23, 1927. He led the Washington Senators to a 6–0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

One of Lisenbee’s notable accomplishments as a rookie was his consistency against the team dubbed "Murderers' Row" . He faced the New York Yankees six times that year and won the first five outings against this storied team. The 1927 Yankees were the object of much praise, as they established a record setting 110–44 season. The Yankee hitting was vicious and frequently devoured pitchers in one inning, but Lisenbee appeared unflappable. Lisenbee was 5–1 versus New York that season.

In his first meeting with the Yankees, Lisenbee was called to the pitcher’s mound to face Babe Ruth. The Senators' starting pitcher had fallen behind 3–0 in the count and the manager told Lisenbee to walk Ruth. Lisenbee disagreed and threw three strikes in a row to retire Ruth. Hod pitched the remaining seven and two-thirds innings for the win over the Yankees and he struck Ruth out three times in a row. According to Hod’s recollection Ruth later quipped that it looked as though he was throwing balls at the plate from out of a hole. This was an apparent response to Lisenbee’s scrawny appearance.

Babe Ruth also set the major league home run record with 60 home runs in 1927. During their sixth meeting, Lisenbee tried to sail his side-arm curveball past Ruth to no avail. For Ruth, this was a golden opportunity to connect with the ball, and the result was Ruth’s 58th home run of the year. Lisenbee’s first year record was 18–9 for the third place Senators, and he led the American League with four shutouts.

The following season went less favorably for Lisenbee, and in December 1928, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. From this point in his career, Lisenbee became a journeyman pitcher in both the majors and minors. One game in particular stands out as a low-point in his career. On September 11, 1936, the Philadelphia Athletics manager, Connie Mack, tried to minimize the number of pitchers to take on a road trip. Lisenbee, who was 37 at the time, was forced to pitch the full nine innings. He ran into trouble and allowed a record-tying 26 hits as the Athletics lost to the Chicago White Sox 17–2.

From 1932 to 1942, Lisenbee pitched in only 19 major league games, but played for ten minor league clubs.

In 1942, Lisenbee retired from baseball to run the family farm and to help grow crops for the Army. But he decided to make a come-back in 1944, with the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League, a minor league team and in the latter part of the season, pitched a no-hitter at the age of forty-five. This game was considered a perfect record-setting event. Lisenbee had completed a no-hit, no-walk, and no-run game. According to Lisenbee, in an article published by The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper in 1945, he was hailed as man of the year in Syracuse sports and when he left town, the local fans gave him $200 in war bonds.

The following year, he received a $3000 sign-on bonus from the Cincinnati Reds and pitched 31 games for the Reds, as a reliever. Lisenbee played his last game in major league baseball at the age of 47 on September 7, 1945, and was released by the Cincinnati Reds on September 11, 1945. He had the distinction of being the last player born in the 1800s to appear in a major league game. Following his release from the Reds, he returned to his hometown of Clarksville and continued to pitch for the Clarksville Colts of the Kitty Hawk League until he was fifty-one-years-old. He then sold the Clarksville Colts and retired from baseball.