Philadelphia began the 1915 season on a tear, winning nine of their first ten ballgames. Giants manager John McGraw wasn't impressed and made some derogatory remarks about the Phillies and Becker, who had once played for the acerbic skipper (this wasn't the first time Mugsy had disparaged him in the press). Marred in an 0-for-12 slump, it was just the jolt Becker needed.
On April 20, the Giants hosted Philadelphia at the Polo Grounds. With Philly ahead, 3-2, in the fifth inning, Becker strode to the plate; the crowd, egged on by Mac's comments, booed lustily. The diminutive dynamo responded in kind by taking his vengeance out on a Rube Schauer fastball, connecting for a mighty two-run blow that sealed the game. The already stunned crowd looked on in amazement as Becker boldly snatched the megaphone away from an announcer behind home plate and shouted: “How do you like that, McGraw?”
Feeling ten feet tall, the cocky slugger—now batting third in the order—caught fire, collecting hits in 15 of his next 17 games. He enjoyed two three-hit games during the stretch and smacked three homers, including two more against the Giants. Becker's batsmanship and bravado weren't the only things making headlines. On April 29, the New-York Tribune gushed over the left fielder: "With Becker roving all over creation, it was not surprising that the visitors [Brooklyn] did not break into the run column. Becker made three sensational running catches, and one on [George] Cutshaw in the fourth inning killed a most promising bid for a home run."
Following an 11 at-bat dry spell, Becker began a seven-game hitting streak that saw him bat .387 (12-for-31) with eight RBI—six of which came on June 12 when he connected for a grand slam and a two-run double. In the ensuing 23 games, Becker's hitting cooled off considerably, and by mid-July, he was "sporting" a paltry .240 batting average. Beginning on August 7, the struggling slugger was relegated to a pinch-hitting role. With an insurmountable lead in the NL pennant race, Philadelphia began resting their regulars, allowing Becker to start the season finale on October 6. He smacked a three-run homer in the third inning—single-handedly beating the Brooklyn Robins, 3-2. Though he didn't know it at the time, this was the final hit of his all-too-short major league career.
The Phillies would lose to the Boston Red Sox, 4-1, in the 1915 World Series; Becker, playing in his third career Fall Classic, made two appearances as a defensive replacement. Despite slugging a career-high 11 home runs (4th in the NL) in only 112 games, Becker—who hit .246 and committed 11 errors in the field—was released at season's end. During his three seasons in Philadelphia, the quick-wristed lefty batted .301 with 60 doubles, 29 home runs, 145 RBI, and 137 Ks in 338 games played. All but nine of his long balls came at the Baker Bowl, noted for its short porch (279 feet) in right field.
All told, Becker amassed 763 hits—114 doubles, 43 triples, 45 home runs—296 RBI, 129 stolen bases, and a .276/.335/.397 slash-line over parts of eight big-league seasons. (He was only 29 years old at the time of his premature departure from the majors and might have captured a home run crown had he continued to play home games at the Baker Bowl, where he hit .316 with 22 long balls—49% of his career total—in 673 at-bats.)
In the outfield, Becker split time between the three positions, with 42% of his appearances (322 games) coming in right field. In terms of fielding percentage and range factor-per-game, he was most effective in center. For his career, Becker—who batted and threw left-handed—averaged 21 assists per 154 games played.
Aside from his glory years with the Phillies, Becker also spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Doves (Braves), Cincinnati Reds, and—most notably—the New York Giants. During his three seasons in Gotham (1910-12), "the McGraw men" captured a pair of NL pennants. Initially used in a platoon role, he combined to hit .272 with 44 RBI and 30 stolen bases in 298 at-bats during the 1910 and 1911 seasons. On August 1, 1910, an unidentified United Press scribe offered this glowing assessment of the outfielder's overall skill set:
"Becker has been setting thing[s] afire. Some of his catches actually made the fans gasp. He broke up a game at the polo grounds by his terrific hitting, and he repeated over in Boston when he tied up the game in the ninth inning with a home run over the left-field fence. Becker is a daring base-runner, and there is not a faster man or a better slider on the team."
Becker was New York's starting center fielder for much of the 1912 season; he batted .264 with 18 doubles, eight triples, 30 stolen bases, and 62 RBI in 471 plate appearances. On the outs with McGraw after "Little Napoleon" called his hustle and intelligence into question, Becker was played sparingly over the final two months of the season; he was traded to Cincinnati the following spring. Described by teammates and the press as "having rabbit-ears" (slang for an overly sensitive player), one has to wonder if Mugsy was trying to elicit an insolent response as an excuse to release him. (Becker combined to go 0-for-9 in the 1911 and 1912 Fall Classics, both Giants' losses.)
Following his departure from the majors, Becker spent the next four years (1916-19) with the American Association's Kansas City Blues. He compiled several impressive seasons in the minors, including 1916, when he hit .343 with 15 homers. In 1917, he captured the AA batting title with a .323 mark, prompting The Chicago Daily Tribune to proclaim: "Beals Becker, Undisputed King of Hitters." At the dawn of the lively ball era, he contributed to the offensive explosion that was enveloping pro baseball. In 1922, Becker paced AA batsmen with 362 total bases and ranked second in both batting average (.367) and home runs (26). The 36-year-old enjoyed his last big season in 1923 when he hit .301 with 26 doubles and 13 big flies.
A Kansan by birth, Becker eventually settled down in California and finished out his career in the Pacific Coast League (his last appearance came with the 1925 Seattle Indians). Over parts of 12 minor league seasons, he hit .323 with 189 doubles, 47 triples, and 92 home runs. Combined with his big-league statistics, Becker amassed 2,071 hits, 303 doubles, 94 triples, 137 home runs, and a .303 batting average as a professional.
Having suffered from "a variety of maladies"—the exact nature of which is unknown—for several years, David "Beals" Becker, age 57, passed away on August 16, 1943. He was living with his sister in Huntington Park, California, at the time of his death. On August 18, The New York Sun reported:
"There was a news item in the papers yesterday that, sad in itself, must have taken the minds of veteran Giant fans back to a brighter and happier era. It revealed that Beals Becker had died. Becker's name probably doesn't mean much, if anything, to younger fans but he was an outfielder with the Giants back around 1911, 1912 and 1913 when they won three pennants in a row. He was one . . . [of] that hard running, hard sliding, battling crew that stormed about the National League circuits, stirring up rows and jangles wherever it went."
✍️ Bobby King II
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