Cedar Rapids: A city without a Babe

Cedar Rapids has never been a town for heavy hitters.

And by that, I don't mean successful and powerful people. I'm talking baseball. Willie, Mickey and the Duke. Sosa, McGwire and A-Rod. Sluggers.

Ryan Sweeney of Cedar Rapids got called up to the Chicago Cubs this week from Class AAA Iowa. Sweeney, an outfielder, is no stranger to the majors. The Cubs are his fourth big-league team. His appearance late in the Cubs' game Monday night was his 536th game in the majors since his MLB debut in 2006. Nice.

Sweeney's career batting average is .280, which is pretty darn good. He had 102 doubles in the bigs through Monday, but just 14 homers. Which fits the Cedar Rapids pattern.

Our city has never put a true slugger in the majors, and this is the sport's third century. We've sent a future Super Bowl-champion quarterback, Masters tournament-winner, and co-star of “Two and a Half Men” on their way. But not once has a baby born in our city gone on to become a genuine major-league power-hitter.

John Wathan, a very good Kansas City Royals catcher from 1976 to 1985, hit a career-high six homers for the American League-champion Royals in 1980. Yes, the Royals used to play in World Series.

Wathan is the all-time MLB career home run-leader from Cedar Rapids, with 21. But even that modest total comes with an asterisk, since he grew up in southern California.

Wathan, Sweeney and Bruce Kimm, according to my extensive research, are the only non-pitchers of the 12 Cedar Rapids-born big-leaguers.

Kimm spent parts of four seasons in the majors. He had one career homer. But he was a true baseball guy, a longtime minor-league manager and major-league coach who managed the Cubs for the second-half of the 2002 season.

Calling Kimm a Cedar Rapids guy also comes with an asterisk, since he (and 134-win pitcher Mike Boddicker) were born in a C.R. hospital but grew up in Norway. They were cogs in the Norway High baseball dynasty.

When he was with the Oakland Athletics in 2009, Sweeney matched Wathan's 6-homer season. He hit .293 and drove in 53 runs that season. Here's hoping Sweeney eventually becomes a regular in the Cubs' in the Cubs' lineup and knocks several baseballs into Wrigley Field's ivy. And maybe smacks a few into Wrigley's bleachers or onto Sheffield Avenue.

But Cedar Rapids has been a pitcher's town, and that dates all the way back to 1895. That was the year Bill Hoffer debuted with the Baltimore Orioles.

Hoffer went 31-6 as a rookie. He followed that by going 25-7 in 1896 and 22-11 in 1897. He was a fierce phenom.

“I couldn't pitch my best when I wasn't mad,” Hoffer said, according to BaseballReference.com. (Manager John) McGraw would yell at me ‘You fat-headed Dutchman' and maybe some other insults. Then I'd get mad and throw that ball so damned hard.”

He pitched 926 innings over those three seasons, and it must have taken its toll on his arm. Hoffer won just 14 games over the following three years, and his anger-fueled meteor of a career flamed out.

Hoffer managed the Des Moines Prohibitionists of the Western League in 1904. Iowa didn't have statewide prohibition on the sale and production of alcohol until 1916, so that team was ahead of its time.

Earl Whitehill of C.R. pitched in the majors from 1923 to 1939. His career record was 218-185. He was 22-8 for the 1933 Washington Senators.

Babe Ruth was a good friend of Whitehill's, even though Ruth hit 11 homers off him. This is from the Society for Baseball Research's Baseball Biography Project:

In 1924 he married 22-year old Violet Oliver. There has persisted through the literature a popular 'urban legend' mythology that she was the original model for the Sunmaid Raisins "maiden". The Sunmaid Raisin company has since publicly stated that Lorraine Collette Peterson was the actual model1, and there is no record of Violet being painted or drawn for the role in 1916, when the image first adorned the raisin boxes. She was, regardless, a beautiful woman, and the couple doubtlessly drew attention wherever they went. She became close with Clare Ruth during the Connie Mack/Babe Ruth 1934 barnstorming tour of Japan, and the two couples were friendly off the field. Of course, the Bambino loved facing Whitehill on the field, too, as Ruth tagged him for eleven of his 714 career homeruns (only six pitchers ceded more 4-baggers to the Babe).

Imagine how Cedar Rapids would have been different had the Babe been born here instead of Baltimore. With baseball fans pouring in to see the Babe's historical birthplace, the Babe Ruth Museum, and the Midwest League's Cedar Rapids Bambinos, this would be the City That Ruth Built.