SABR: Daly: The Baseball Biography Project: Evar Swanson

The Archdeacon of Doom is back! As Jon Daly does a bang-up job on speedster Evar Swanson.

On Sunday, September 15, 1929, there was a field day held at Crosley Field between games of a Reds-Braves doubleheader. The club offered $100 if anyone could circle the bases from a standing start in less than 13.8 seconds and beat Hans Lobert’s 19-year-old major league record. Among the participants were Swanson and outfield mate Ethan Allen. Like his teammate, Allen was a sprinter in college. Swanson was able to circumnavigate the bases in full uniform in 13.4 seconds. This tied a record that Maurice Archdeacon set eight years earlier at Rochester in the International League. (Marty Hogan of Indianapolis in the Western League was credited by some sources for circling the bases in 13.2 seconds in 1898. Ben Morgan of the National Association may have disputed that claim when doing a study of field day records.)

A sore shoulder shortened Swanson’s 1930 season. He missed much of spring training and part of the season and only appeared in 95 games. But he was picked up in November by Columbus of the American Association to be their center fielder in 1931. While in Columbus he was involved in another field day on September 21st at Neil Park in the Ohio capital. This time he circled the bases in 13.2 seconds. To this day that record stands, although there is an unverified claim that Cool Papa Bell broke the 13-second barrier during his career. Over the years some players have come close. Maury Wills circled the bases in 13.4 seconds in 1953. George Case and Cliff McClain did it in 13.5. But no one has bested Swanson’s record.