Schalk, Raymond W.
Baseball
b. Aug. 12, 1892, Harvel, IL
d. May 19, 1970
The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Schalk was a remarkably durable player. He caught 108 or more games in twelve of his first thirteen full seasons in the major leagues. After joining the Chicago White Sox late in the 1912 season, Schalk became the team's starter the following year.
Never much of a hitter, Schalk was very adept at handling the trick pitches that most of the White Sox pitchers threw, including the spitball, emery ball, and shine ball, all legal at the time. He was the first catcher to back up first base regularly on infield grounders, he was very intelligent at calling games, and he had an exceptional throwing arm.
Schalk caught 140 games for a pennant winner in 1917 and batted a respectable .273 in Chicago's six-game World Series victory over the New York Giants. He hit .304 in the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, but the White Sox lost that series in eight games.
It was later revealed that eight members of the team were probably involved in a fix. Schalk and other White Sox were shocked by the allegation, but he turned down $40,000 for a magazine article to tell his version of the "Black Sox scandal" and he never talked much about the sordid incident.
In 1927, Schalk became Chicago's playing manager, but he appeared in only 16 games that year. He resigned under pressure in July of 1928 and got a position as a coach with the New York Giants the following year, when he played in the last five games of his career.
Schalk later worked as a scout and minor league manager, operated a bowling alley in Chicago, and was an assistant baseball coach at Purdue University.
He had a career average of only .253, but he caught a record four no-hitters and retired with a record of 1,810 assists. Schalk led AL catchers in fielding percentage in 1915, 1916, 1920, 1921, and 1922.