Rogan: Sports&#; Forgotten Heroes: Urban Shocker
Urban Shocker was regarded by many as the best pitcher of his time. In fact, Babe Ruth said he was the best pitcher he faced. Other pitchers said that Urban was the best. Writers of the day, such as Damon Runyon, and others called Urban the best too. He started his career with the New York Yankees was traded to the St. Louis Browns and then several years later, the Yankees reacquired him. He was the one player of whom the Yankees said they made a mistake in trading. Over the course of his career he won games. Yet, so few have ever heard of Urban Shocker. He played from through – and it was towards the end of the season in which Shocker succumbed to mitral valve failure, a condition he was able to hide from his teammates and his wife. He struggled with this condition for the last half of his career, and despite it, he was still baffling hitters with a variety of pitches. Steve Steinberg, author of Urban Shocker, Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age, joins SFH to talk about Urban, how revolutionary parts of his game were, how dominant he was, and just who was Urban Shocker.
Who was Urban Shocker? Why is he Significant?
Urban Shocker was one of baseball's greatest pitchers in the 's. This mysterious man with the greatest name in the history of the game was one of the mainstays of the great New York Yankee teams of and His battle with heart disease at the height of his career led Mark Gallagher, the author of The Yankee Encyclopedia, to describe Urban as:
"Quite possibly the most courageous man in sports history.
Urban fought bravely in his last few years to play baseball and indeed for life itself."
Urban was a spitball pitcher, one of a select group that was permitted to throw the pitch after it was banned in In the first five years of the Lively Ball Era, , when hitting was gaining the upper hand, he won more games than any other pitcher in baseball ( wins). This despite the fact that he was a member of the usually weak St. Louis Browns, and that he missed about a month each of these seasons due to injury or suspension.
By he was suffering from heart valve disease that made it impossible for him to sleep lying down. The formerly stocky and powerful pitcher was losing many of his physical skills, yet he won thirty-seven games for the
Urban Shocker
"Urban Shocker . . . recalls a Yankees pitcher who should be better known for his name alone. A spitballer who was traded to the St. Louis Browns, Shocker had four win seasons before returning to New York in time to be part of the championship team."—Daniel M. Gold,&#;New York Times
"Thanks to Steve Steinberg, we now know as much about Urban Shocker as we are likely to know about anybody who played the game so long ago.&#; All athletes should be so lucky in their biographers."—Tim Morris, Sports Literature Association
"Steinberg has put together a nice biography of one of baseball lesser-known standouts."—Baseball Historian
"It is likely that Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball's Golden Age will stand as the definitive biography of one of the greatest pitchers of the first quarter of the twentieth century. It is a worthy addition to Steinberg's already outstanding body of work."—Ed Edmonds,&#;NINE
“The short life of this canny pitcher of baseballs during the Roaring Twenties was filled with enough highs and lows, triumphs and heartaches, to keep you awake late into
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Here lies Urban Shocker, a renowned spitball pitcher who was one of the top pitchers on the famed ’27 Yankees “Murderers Row” team. He did that while suffering from a heart ailment that would kill him less than a year later. Shocker pitched for the New York Yankees (, ) and St. Louis Browns ().
It also goes without saying that he has one of the best names in baseball history. And if you don’t believe me, ask D.B. Firstman. Shocker is included in their Hall of Name book.
Urbain Jacques Shockcor was born in Cleveland on September 22, His start in baseball came on the sandlots of Detroit. There is a reference to a pitcher named “Shockcor” playing for Iroquois in and a catcher with the same name playing for Northwestern in It’s likely that this is the same person, as Shocker did work behind the plate early on in his career. By , he was playing for Windsor, Ontario, in the Border League and was going by the name “Shocker,” which he would use for the rest of his life.
Shocker became a full-time pitcher in after breaking his middle finger on his right hand while catching. When he healed, according to his SABR biography, it had developed a permanent hook.
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