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We are counting down to the July 2 - 4th induction of Jack Barry to the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock, Texas. Here is a 1915 The Baseball Magazine article about Jack Barry.

The Man Who Made The Red Sox Team
Jack Barry and His Great Work at Boston
by Eugene McGillicuddy

WELL the White Sox got the famous Eddie Collins, and the Red Sox got Barry. You said it, boy, the Red Sox got Barry!

When the old Roman purchased Eddie Collins at the enormous price of $50,000, all fandom gasped, and then agreed the White Sox had made a ten strike. If there was one ball player in the business who would make a team pennant contenders, Eddie Collins was the man, the star of the famous Mack machine, and one of the game’s greatest hitters and base runners.

The pale-hosed crew lived up to expectations, with Collins at the helm, and jumped to the lead from the start, showing the way to all comers.

Then the news bobbed out that Connie Mack intended to rebuild his great ball club, and that Jack Barry and others were on the market. While Barry was not considered nearly as valuable in all around ability as Collins, still his clever fielding and ability to come through in a pinch made him a good investment for any club. Chicago wanted him, so did New York, but Jack being a Worcester boy, preferred Boston, and Lannin once more opened his purse strings for a high-grade player.


Speculation was rife among the fans as to what position Barry would play, for in Scott the Red Sox had one of the game’s greatest and most promising short fielders, with Janvrin, another young star, pressing him hard. On the other side of the bag Heine Wagner, the veteran shortstop, was endeavoring to do a come-back stunt after a year’s absence and was doing well except for a little slowness in the field.

When Barry was suggested as a second baseman, many claimed it couldn’t be done and pointed to the fact that Jack had started out as a keystone sacker with the A’s and failed to make good. Nevertheless, second was the position assigned him, and he took up the job against Washington on the 5th of July.

Talk about Collins rounding out the White Sox and making them a real winning machine, why Boston fans will tell you that trick didn’t fit for a minute with the way Barry made the Red Sox. From the day he pulled on his glove in a Boston uniform, the team started to come, the old slowness in handling the ball around second base changed to lightning double plays old-timers say a pennant winning club must be strong in this department), and the question, ”What can be the matter with the Red Sox ?” changed to “Wonder who the Sox will meet in the big series this fall?” Ask any loyal rooter and he will tell you
that Jack Holy Cross Barry is the big reason.

When you are talking about keystone kings, don’t overlook this bird either. He’s working like a charm with Everett Scott and Hal Janvrin, and making the superhuman stops and catches that made him famous as the “Flying Octopus.” Also it would take a chapter to recount the games he has won with his timely stick work.

And so, although the White Sox got Collins and eventually Murphy, Jackson and Leibold, there is a whole chapter in that one little line, “THE RED SOX GOT BARRY —THE MAN WHO MADE THE TEAM.”

Labels: Jack_Barry