Had the baseball rules been changed during the third decade of the 20th century, Smead Powell Jolley could have been turned into a designated hitter almost immediately.
Instead, when all starting players had to play a defensive position, Jolley’s glove was too great a liability to sustain a major-league career.
Had Jolley played in the early 1960s, it is not likely he could have duplicated his statistics of, say, 1930-1932.
Jolley once committed three errors on one play.
First, he let a ground ball go through his legs. Trying to play the ball off the wall, he let it roll through his legs again. Finally, he overthrew the cut-off man for error No. 3.
As an outfielder, Jolley made 44 errors in 788 career chances.
Jolley played only four seasons in the majors - 473 games with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox - batting .305 with 46 home runs and 313 RBI. Once, 35 or 40 years ago, I phoned him for an interview when he was retired and living in one of the California towns. “Really?,” he said. “You want to talk about me?” (Actually, he was friendly and humorous.)
Jolley, born Jan. 14, 1902, grew up in the Arkansas town of Wesson, which also means he was born in Union County, which makes him eligible for the Union County Hall of Fame. Posthumously, he will be inducted into the Union County Hall of Fame’s third class on Aug. 3.
Jolley had a long, successful career in the minor leagues, before and after his major-league career. He hit .367 lifetime in 16 minor league seasons. He played 10 seasons in the Pacific Coast League for San Francisco, Hollywood and Oakland. The Pacific Coast League was the top minor league of that era.
The league had a minimum salary of $5,000, comparable to the two major leagues of that era and often paid their established players about as well as the American and National Leagues. The PCL was sometimes called “The Third Major League.”’
For some reason, Jolley’s career had interested me as far back as around 1968 or 1969, but he was in California and I was in Little Rock. To me, the most knowledgeable baseball man in Arkansas at the time was probably Willis Hudlin. His extended baseball career - pitching, coaching, managing, scouting - spanned from 1926 until his final baseball retirement in 1974. (He thought he’d left baseball for good in 1940.)
On the phone, I asked, “What do you know or remember about Smead Jolley?”
Hudlin said, “Jolley? Did he die?”
When assured that Jolley was still with us, Hudlin recited the details of Jolley’s famous three errors on one play, laughed, and hung up.
Then in 1972, you might recall, baseball established the designated hitter.
The last time I happened to be visiting with young baseball players, one suggested turning Jolley into a designated hitting, and converting the rest of the squad to defense.
Not practical. Smead Jolley died Nov. 17, 1991 in Alameda, Calif.
Sports, Pages 16 on 06/18/2013