Читать книгу No Money, No Beer, No Pennants. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression онлайн

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The twenty-eight-year-old Porter had an incredible career at Baltimore. In 1927 he led the league with a .376 batting average, 225 hits, twenty-five home runs, and 153 RBIs. The next year he played almost as well, batting .350 with 216 hits and sixteen triples. Evans would say later that Porter had been ready for the majors at least three or four years before. He would join the Indians right in the middle of his peak years.

One of the great things about the left-handed-hitting Porter was his unique batting style. He could not stand still in the batter’s box, moving and fidgeting until the ball was delivered, with very quick wrist and arm movements similar to cracking a whip. Over the years he’d had a number of nicknames, including Wiggledy, Twitchy, and Wiggles. During an exhibition game between New York and Baltimore, Yankees manager Miller Huggins had tried to get Porter to change his style and relax at the plate. The experiment proved a failure as “Twitchy” started to roll up the strikeouts. He soon reverted back to fidgeting and the strikeouts diminished.