Each Thursday of the fall semester, we'll be throwing it back and looking at historical and significant moments and individuals from the history of Slippery Rock athletics. For our eighth “Throwback Thursday” feature of the semester, we’re looking at three former World Series champions that started their careers at Slippery Rock. 

With the recent conclusion of the 2020 World Series, we decided to take a look back at the careers of Slippery Rock’s own three former World Series champions, Doc Marshall, Bob Shawkey and Matt Adams, for this week’s “Throwback Thursday”.

Marshall spent the 1908 season on the famed Chicago Cubs championship team. Shawkey, who was a member of three teams that won World Series titles and a veteran of five Fall Classics, made his largest contributions to a championship on the 1923 New York Yankees while Adams has appeared in two World Series so far in his career including in 2019 when he helped the Washington Nationals become champions. 

However, the mark that Marshall, Shawkey and Adams have left on Major League Baseball goes well beyond those three championship seasons.

BOB SHAWKEY

From The Rock to the Bronx, Bob Shawkey came from humble beginnings to become one of the first great pitchers for baseball’s marquee franchise. 

James Robert “Bob” Shawkey was born on Dec. 4, 1890, in Sigel, Pennsylvania. The son of a farmer and lumberman, Shawkey grew up on the family’s farm in western Pennsylvania along with his three sisters and father, John. Shawkey’s mother died of tuberculosis when he was 10 years-old. 

Shawkey arrived at what was then Slippery Rock State Normal School for the spring semester in 1910 and headlined a dominant baseball team that lost just one game all season. The brilliance of the Slippery Rock baseball team was described as follows in the 1910 edition of Slippery Rock’s yearbook The Anamnesis.

“For the size of the school, Slippery Rock has one of the best baseball teams of all the schools of the state. All of western Pennsylvania has been moved with admiration by the wonderful and clean work of the Slippery Rock baseball team. In basketball and football Slippery Rock may be beaten, but it is a rare instance for the Slippery Rock baseball team to drop a game to any club.”

The Anamnesis went on to note that Shawkey was known for how many batters he could strikeout in a single-game. This turned out to be a reoccurring theme for Shawkey throughout his career. 

Shawkey’s stay at Slippery Rock turned out to be brief. The summer after his only semester at SRU, Shawkey played for a semi-pro team in Bloomsburg and was spotted by a scout for the Philadelphia A's. He went on to play the following two seasons for minor-league teams in Harrisburg and Baltimore before breaking into the majors with Philadelphia in 1913.

As a rookie in 1913, Shawkey went 6-5 with a 2.34 ERA in 111.1 innings pitched for a team that went on to defeat the New York Giants in the World Series. Shawkey did not appear in the World Series as Philadelphia used only three pitchers over the five-game series. 

Shawkey made his first official World Series appearance the following season when Philadelphia was swept by the Boston Braves, 4-0. Shawkey started the fourth game of the series, allowing three runs over five innings in an eventual 3-1 loss. He drove in the A’s only run of the game with an RBI-double as well.

Shawkey began 1915 with Philadelphia, but was acquired by the Yankees midway through the season thus beginning a life-long association with the best-known franchise in all of baseball.

Included among Shawkey’s early successes with the Yankees was a 24-win year in 1916 as well as back-to-back 20-win seasons in 1919 and 1920. In 1919, he struck out a Yankee-record 15 batters against Philadelphia. Shawkey’s single-game strikeout mark stood for 59 years and still ranks third in franchise history. 

Shawkey won 18 games and helped lead the Yankees to the franchise’s first pennant in 1921. Then 31-years old, Shawkey’s return to the World Series saw him pitch in two games in an eventual 5-3 series loss for the Yankees against the New York Giants. 

The Yankees won their second pennant in 1922 thanks in no small part to 20 victories from Shawkey. However, the Giants once again got the better of the Yankees in a 4-0-1 sweep. Shawkey pitched all 10 innings in what turned out to be a 3-3 tie in game two of the series. The game marked just the third tie in World Series history. 

Not only did the Yankees win a third consecutive pennant in 1923, but they were finally able to defeat the Giants for the franchise’s first World Series championship. Shawkey, who won 16 games that season, won game four of the series after allowing only three runs in 7.2 innings. 

The 1923 season also marked the opening of historic Yankee Stadium. The first official pitch at the stadium was thrown by none other than Shawkey, who not only picked up the complete-game victory over the Boston Red Sox that day, but also scored the first run at the stadium. 

Shawkey pitched four more years for the Yankees and was a part of two more teams that won pennants in 1926 and 1927. He pitched in three games during the 1926 World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, but did not appear in New York’s series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927 for a squad that was famously dubbed “Murderers’ Row”. 

Shawkey was released by the Yankees following the 1927 season. All told, he spent 15 years as a Major Leaguer and left the game with a career record of 195-150. Shawkey, who logged a total of 41.2 innings pitched in World Series games for his career, still ranks sixth in New York Yankees history in victories (168), sixth in innings pitched (2,488.2) and 10th in strikeouts (1,163). 

The crafty veteran pitched one more season of professional baseball with the Montreal Royals of the International League following his release by the Yankees before retiring. He became the Yankees’ pitching coach in 1929 and managed the team for one season in 1930 following the death of legendary manager Miller Huggins. 

His final years in baseball were spent as the manager of the Jersey City Skeeters and Newark Bears of the International League before leaving the game to run a gold mine he had owned since 1931. Shawkey died on Dec. 31, 1980 in Syracuse, New York. He was 90-years old. 

MATT ADAMS

To say Matt Adams has exceeded all expectations that professional baseball had for him is an understatement. After all, how much was really expected of someone who was drafted in the 23rd round, pick No. 699, of the 2009 MLB draft out of a relatively unheard-of Division II school? 

Thanks to perseverance and a dedication to his craft, Adams has defied the odds to become one of the top players from that year’s draft class. To date, Adams has carved out a nine-year career in the majors in which he has played 834 games. Of the 698 players drafted ahead of Adams, 522 (74.7 percent) have never appeared in a Major League game and only 13 total players from the 2009 draft have played more games than Adams has.

Born in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania on Aug. 31, 1988, Adams attended Philipsburg-Osceola High School where he lettered three times and was an all-state honoree his senior year in 2006 as a catcher. After a few Division I offers fell through, Adams committed to Slippery Rock. SRU head coach Jeff Messer, who first saw Adams play live during his junior year of high school, knew the impact a player of Adams’ caliber could have for The Rock.

"I knew from the first time I saw him swing that we wanted him," Messer recalled to Joe Lemire of SI.com in a 2013 article, "and that he would help us right away."

Adams dominated Division II from the moment he got to Slippery Rock. Over his three-year career at The Rock, Adams never hit below .421 for a season. In 137 games at SRU, Adams batted .454 with 27 home runs, 148 RBI, 133 runs scored and 57 doubles. He still ranks first in program history in career batting average, slugging percentage (.746) and on-base percentage (.525) while ranking third in doubles, fourth in RBI, fifth in hits (220) and sixth in home runs.

Slippery Rock posted a cumulative record of 96-55 (.636) during Adams’ tenure from 2007-09. Adams’ dominance at the plate was rewarded with a litany of awards. He was a three-time All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division honoree, a two-time PSAC West Athlete of the Year selection, a three-time All-America choice and the 2009 Daktronics Division II Player of the Year. 

After being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the aforementioned 2009 MLB draft, Adams quickly climbed through the organization. In his first three years as a professional, Adams rose through the minor league ranks from Batavia (Short Season) to Johnson City (Rookie) to Quad Cities (A) to Springfield (AA), combining to hit .316 with 64 home runs, 241 RBI and 182 runs scored between all four stops.

Adams made his major league debut for the Cardinals May 20, 2012 when he went 2-for-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He spent 27 games with St. Louis in 2012 before becoming a fixture in the lineup in 2013.

The 2013 season saw Adams play in 108 games and hit 17 home runs on a Cardinals team that went 97-65, won the National League Central Division and advanced to the World Series where St. Louis would lose to the Boston Red Sox in six games. In his first full season in the majors, Adams played in 17 postseason games including five starts in World Series games. 

While the Cardinals did not return to the World Series in 2014, the team lost to the Giants in the N.L. Championship Series, Adams still delivered one of the most talked about playoff home runs of this generation. 

After winning the N.L. Central Division for a second consecutive year, the Cardinals faced the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs. With St. Louis leading the series 2-1 and needing one more win to advance, Adams hit a three-run home run off Dodger ace, and future Hall of Famer, Clayton Kershaw in the seventh inning of game four that proved to be the deciding factor in an eventual 3-2 St. Louis victory. The home run is noted as the first time a left-handed batter had ever hit a home run off of Kershaw's curve ball.

Adams remained with the Cardinals for all of 2015 and 2016, but was traded to the Atlanta Braves early in the 2017 season. He stayed with Atlanta for the remainder of the 2017 season, hitting 19 home runs with 58 RBI before electing to sign with the Washington Nationals as a free agent in 2018. 

“Big City”, a nickname that has been given to Adams, belted 18 home runs through 94 games for the Nationals in 2018 prior to being claimed off of waivers by the Cardinals for the final stages of the season only to once again sign a free agent contract with the Nationals for the 2019 campaign. 

Adams hit 20 home runs and tallied 56 RBI over 111 games in 2019, helping the Nationals to 92 wins and a berth into the playoffs in the process. Washington defeated the Brewers in the wild card round, the Dodgers once again in the divisional round followed by a sweep of the Cardinals in the N.L. championship series to send Adams to a World Series showdown against the Houston Astros. 

The Nationals proceeded to defeat the Astros in a thrilling-seven game series for what was Adams’ and the franchise’s first World Series championship. Adams came off the bench to draw a walk in game three of the series. 

With his championship ring in tow, Adams returned to the Atlanta Braves for the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, appearing in 16 contests between July 23 – August 30. 

Adams, who’ll enter this offseason as a free agent, has already recorded 118 home runs, 397 RBI and 294 runs scored during his major league career. He ranks third among active major league players from Division II schools in career home runs behind only Matt Joyce (Miami Marlins / Florida Southern / 147) and JD Martinez (Boston Red Sox / Nova Southeastern / 238).

WILLIAM “DOC” MARSHALL

Born in nearby Butler Sept. 22, 1875, William “Doc” Marshall spent five years in the National League with six different teams including the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants, Boston Beaneaters, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Superbas.

However, Marshall’s journey to professional baseball was not a simple as that of Shawkey and Adams. In fact, professional baseball turned out to be the third of Marshall’s four eventual careers. 

After graduating from Slippery Rock Normal College, Marshall was a teacher for two years. He then went to work for the Carnegie Steel Company prior to eventually entering the ranks of professional baseball.

Marshall, who was a catcher, first baseman and outfielder, played for four teams as a rookie in 1904. Drafted by Philadelphia a year prior, he started his Major League career with the Phillies for eight games before being purchased by the New York Giants. 

Following just one game for the Giants, Marshall was loaned to the Boston Beaneaters. He then served a 13-game stint with Boston before he was returned to New York, where he finished the year with the Giants. The Gianst would go on to win the National League pennant, but Marshall was denied the chance to play in a World Series when the Giants refused to play in the 1904 World Series because owner and manager John McGraw had an ongoing business and personal dispute with American League president Ban Johnson. The Giants refusal to play in the World Series that year meant no champion would be crowned and it also meant the end to a hectic season for Marshall.

At the conclusion of 1904, Marshall had his contract purchased by the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association for the 1905 season, but he was able to return to the Major Leagues when the Giants once again purchased his contract from Minneapolis for the 1906 campaign. 

Marshall split the 1906 season between New York, where he played 38 games, and the St. Louis Cardinals for whom he played 39 contests and drove in 10 of his 17 RBI on the year. For the first time in his career, Marshall remained with one team for a whole season in 1907 as he played in 84 games for the Cardinals. He had the top offensive season of his career that year as he hit both of his two career home runs and drove in a personal-best 18 runs in addition to leading the league in catcher assists. 

After starting 1908 with the Cardinals, Marshall was once again on the move when the Cubs purchased his contract from St. Louis on May 29, 1908. Marshall proceeded to play 12 games on a Cubs squad that finished the season with a stellar 99-55 record and defeated the Detroit Tigers in the World Series for the franchise’s second consecutive title. 

While he did not play in the World Series, Marshall will forever be known as one of the players who contributed on a storied Cubs team that won what turned out to be Chicago’s last title for the next 108 years.

Marshall spent one final season in professional baseball the following year when he played 50 games for Brooklyn. With an eye on the future, Marshall went on to graduate from the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery in 1909 just as his baseball career concluded.

Then a doctor, Marshall returned home and along with his brother, E.H. Marshall, opened up a practice in Clinton, Pennsylvania. Marshall ran his practice for the next 46 years prior to his death on Dec. 11, 1959. 

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