George and Walter
How far could they throw?
Bygone baseball
By C. Philip Francis
February has always been called the month of presidents because of the birthdays of two great Americans – George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Abe’s special day is the 12th while that of the first president is the 22nd; however, both are now combined into Presidents’ Day so that many will be given a Monday off. As youngsters we read and reread the many tales of both former presidents of the United States.
The 16th president helped build a log cabin where he and his family lived, and we best remember his honesty and the terrible war that kept the nation together. Think of George and you may think of cherry pie as did he or did he not once chop down a cherry tree as a youth? But this column deals with another piece of Washington lore – whether or not he threw a dollar across the Rappahannock River just outside of Washington, DC. Historians discount these incidents, and although one encyclopedia states, “Most are probably not true”, Americans think of The Father of Our Country as strong, honest, and trustworthy, and would like to believe these stories to be true.
While some believe that Washington’s famous toss went over the Potomac River, others say it was not possible as the river is much too wide. And then some think the story is fact and that the actual location is at Stafford near Fredericksburg, Virginia about 50 miles south of the capitol on the route to Richmond.
In 1936, Washington’s 204th birthday, a member of the United States House of Representatives claimed that George could not have thrown anything over the river. The dismayed Fredricksburg city fathers decided to fight back, and asked Walter Johnson to reenact Washington’s throwing of a coin over a river. Johnson, the retired big league baseball pitcher with the blazing fastball and who was often called The Big Train, won 417 games all with the Washington Senators. If anyone could do it, Johnson could, and agreed to try.
It was a cold windy morning and an unusual way to celebrate Washington’s birthday on February 22, 1936 when the 48-year-old pitcher took off his coat, picked up one of the three special minted silver dollars, wound up and threw. It was 272 feet across the Rappahannock River at that point with reporters and an estimated 2,500 spectators lined up both sides of the river. Walter had practiced for this by throwing dollars against the barn door at his Germantown, Maryland home, and commented that it would help if his old catcher, Gabby Street, could stand on the other side of the water. With his tie flopping in the wind Johnson launched the first coin over the cold and windswept waters, but it landed in the water just short of the riverbank.
Newspapers and the CBS radio stations carried the historical feat. Cameras constantly took pictures of Johnson’s efforts as he quietly said, “It looks to me like it is two miles across there right now.” The local city officials looked concerned.
As the many observers continue to shiver, freeze, and jump about, the powerful right-handed pitcher again dug into his pocket for a second silver dollar. His sidearm motion sailed the hard currency over the river and onto the shore 317-feet away. People shouted and the people of Fredericksburg were delighted as Walter Johnson had now helped restore a most charming and cherished piece of Americana. .
One version of this piece of history tells us that Walter was able to throw the third dollar over the river that was retrieved by an Italian stonemason who awaited the many expected offers for this unique item. But there is another accounting as to what really happened to the third coin, and the reader can take their pick. Friends of the former ballplayer knew that he was “always a careful man with a dollar”, and so it is more than likely that the third dollar went straight into Walter’s pocket.
Walter Johnson certainly did prove that George Washington COULD have thrown a silver dollar over a particular river, but whether he did nor not continues to be part of our country’s beloved folklore.
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Walter Perry Johnson was born in Humboldt, Kansas in 1887. He began his long major league career with the Senators in 1907, and retired from active play after the 1927 season. Johnson managed a minor league team, piloted his Washington Senators for three years, and then led the Cleveland Indians for two seasons. In 1939 he went into broadcasting, was elected to his Rockville County, Maryland Board of Commissioners, and finished his life as a gentleman farmer on his 55-acres.
Johnson, along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson, made up the selected group of ballplayers that were admitted to the new Hall of Fame in 1936. The Big Train, one of the great pitchers of the century, died of a brain tumor on December 10, 1946 at the age of 59.