It's a cold, windy January evening as I sit in my home in the suburban Chicago area paging thru the Baseball Encyclopedia and dreaming of summer. So many players here I've never heard of; Vernon Spencer, Henry Spratt and an Eddie Stack from Chicago. He wasn't in baseball too long, only 1910 to 1914. Doesn't look like much of a record, wonder who he was?
As it turns out, Eddie Stack's story is one that encompasses not only battles against some of major league baseball's legends and outstanding events that never appear in a baseball encyclopedia, but it also illustrates top flight semi-pro baseball in Chicago during much of the first two decades of the century. This was a time when not all talented ballplayers, especially if they had a college education, were eager to endure the hardships and low pay of the minor leagues.
He was born William Edward Stack on October 24,1887 in Chicago to his parents Edward and Mary. His father was from Ireland and the family had settled in what was a very tough neighborhood on the near West Side of the city in St Columbkill's Parish. Young Eddie loved playing football and baseball which helped to keep him out of trouble. Part way thru high school, in 1904, his parents felt it best for him to begin attending St Viateurs College (also a high school) in Bourbonnais, Illinois, approximately 50 miles south of Chicago.
By the time Eddie had reached college level at St Viateurs he had grown into a tall, gangly youngster and had developed into an excellent baseball player with a rifle arm. He also had begun coaching the college football team but no longer played because he was already thinking in terms of a baseball career and football was a dangerous game in those days. As early as his sophomore season, in the spring of 1907, he was pitching for the St Viateurs' varsity and in May of that year he had dropped a game to Notre Dame when his teammates were no-hit by Dreams Scanlon of the Irish. Two of Stack's teammates on that 1907 squad were Al "Red" Kelly and Alex McCarthy, both of whom would also reach the major leagues.
In the spring of 1908 Eddie was in his junior year of college and he had matured into a top-flight pitcher. He also played center field and second base as the "Saints" finished 18-1 and claimed the co-championship of the western universities and colleges with Armour Institute of Chicago. Before the college season had ended for 1908 he had also begun pitching on sundays for the top-flight semi-pro Joliet Standards. In late June the Standards brought in a former major leaguer, Harry "Klondike" Kane, to pitch and so Stack went to the Chicago Marquettes. Subsequently during the summer Kane and Stack matched up three times in pitching duels which were greatly anticipated. Dellwood Park, a large amusement park near Joliet and site of the games, promoted "Kane vs Stack" with large newspaper ads. For the record they split two games with the third ending in a 10 inning tie.
The spring of 1909 found Ed Stack serving as the team captain in his final year at St Viateurs, as the "Saints" again claimed the western college baseball title. The "Saints" of 1909 again featured Alex McCarthy and at shortstop was one Bernard Sheil. Sheil would go to the priesthood and eventually became an Archbishop in Chicago. He is also well remembered as an organizer of the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) which provided, and still does, organized sports competition for grade school and high school young people in Chicago.
As Stack graduated from St Viateurs in June, l9O9, he was already committed to making a living as a professional baseball player. He had again started pitching for the Joliet Standards on sundays while the college season was still in progress and he demonstrated his development by winning six out of seven appearances for the Standards, which included a pair of two-hitters over top Chicago semi-pro outfits. Then in late June of 1909 Stack left Joliet and signed with Jimmy Callahan and his famous Logan Squares team in Chicago. The Logan Squares played in the top-level Chicago League which also featured other famous clubs such as the Gunthers and the Leland Giants of Rube Foster. In Stack's first two appearances for the Squares he pitched a three-hit shutout at the Gunthers and a week later, on July 3, he out-dueled Rube Foster himself and shutout the Leland Giants on three hits for a 5-0 win.
On July 7,1909 controversy broke out over Stack's services when it came to light that both the Chicago Cubs and White Sox were claiming ownership of his contract. At the heart of the dispute was a war in Chicago between two rival semi-pro organizations, the Chicago League, and the Park Owners Association, to which the Joliet Standards belonged. On July 5 Stack, believing himself free of his Joliet contract, signed with President Comiskey of the White Sox for an undisclosed amount. On July 7 it was learned that owner Billy Moran of the Joliet team, himself an ex-major leaguer, had sold Stack's contract to President Murphy of the Cubs for $100, with another $200 due when Stack's signature actually appeared on a Cubs' contract. Stack stated that Joliet had no claim on him and that he was going with the Sox. Conflicting reports immediately appeared stating that Stack had made a verbal agreement with Manager Frank Chance of the Cubs for $400 per month and thus Murphy had proceeded to purchase his Joliet contract. This was the second such dispute between the two semi-pro groups, the first having arisen over the rights to Walter Eckersall, the famous football All-American, who was also a fair baseball player. Neither the Cubs nor the White Sox were prepared to yield their claim to Stack so the matter was referred to the National Commission of the major leagues, which was understandably not anxious to be involved in a dispute between semi-pro organizations, but they could not avoid the issue since Stack's major league status had to be resolved.
In the meantime, Eddie pitched the balance Of 1909 for the Logan Squares. He finished the season with a 2-3 record against the pennant winning Leland Giants and had an overall 17-8 record for the season. He had thrown 4 three-hitters, 2 two-hitters and a one-hitter against the Gunthers. The only hit for the Gunthers was a very disputed play and many people claimed it should have been scored an error. During an interview in early 1912 Stack himself would claim having pitched a no-hitter against the Gunthers. On October 3,1909 the Logan Squares, behind Stack, defeated Rogers Park 2-1 despite the opposing pitcher, Reggy, throwing a 10 inning no-hitter.
The high level of play in the Chicago semi-pro leagues prior to 1910 is evidenced by the many professional teams who played the Chicago semi-pros and lost, i.e. the Logan Squares defeated the Minneapolis Millers 8-2 in 1908, and most are familiar with the Leland Giants great 1909 series against the Chicago Cubs. The Chicago Tribune in reviewing the Leland Giants of 1909 made the comment that "at least five of them would be in major league ball if white." Of course, the most famous and legendary of all is the 1906 Logan Squares team defeating the Chicago Cubs 1-0 in ten innings behind Tom Hughes and then defeating the Chicago White Sox 2-1 behind Jimmy Callahan. Both games were played during the season and in case you've forgotten, those are the Cubs that won 116 games and the White Sox known as the "Hitless Wonders" who defeated the Cubs in the 1906 World Series.
On October 4,1909 Chairman Garry Herrmann individually, as required by the National Agreement rule where clubs of the two leagues are concerned in an appeal, ruled that the contract rights to Eddie Stack belonged to the Chicago Cubs. President Murphy of the Cubs provided an affidavit and a witness to his claim that Stack had called upon him and accepted terms for the 1910 season. President Comiskey of the White Sox submitted an affidavit, also supported by a witness that Stack had called upon him prior to meeting Murphy and had accepted terms with the Sox. Comiskey also produced a formal 1910 contract signed by the player. Stack filed a statement with the Chairman that he had accepted terms with the Sox prior to the Cubs. Not satisfied with the statement provided, Herrmann demanded a sworn affidavit from Stack concerning the facts. Eddie then submitted the sworn statement that he had in fact first accepted the terms offered by the Cubs, after which Herrmann had no choice but to award the player to the National League team. For his actions in the case Stack was fined $50 and ruled ineligible for major league play until he refunded $109 which had been accepted from the White Sox. The Sporting Life paper made an editorial comment on the case which certainly could apply in the 1980's: "This is but one of the many cases showing the lax notions of ballplayers regarding contractual and financial obligations and illustrates ... the imperative need of just such a body as the National Commission to control players, to do justice to players and magnates alike".
Thus he accompanied the Cubs to spring training in 1910. He was now a mature pitcher who stood 6'2½" tall and weighed 195 pounds and threw a curve, a spitball and a "heavy" fastball. But the Cubs were ready that year with another great team and even though Frank Chance was impressed by the young pitcher, the Cubs staff was much too deep. So, on May 26,1910 Eddie Stack was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies without having appeared in a game for the Cubs.
On June 7,1910 at Philadelphia Eddie Stack finally made his major league debut against, who else but, the Cubs and quickly showed that they might have made a mistake in selling him. For the first six innings he held the Cubs hitless until his future roommate, Frank Schulte, led off the 7th with a single. Eddie finished with a masterful three-hit 1-0 win over the Cubs which prompted Ring Lardner to headline his game account "Stack Is Traitor" and with "Curse you, Eddie Stack... All spring long Mr Stack told us of his love for Chicago, the city of his birth... A traitor pure and simple is Smoke Stack, and if he has any friends left on the West Side ... " The nickname "Smoke" was quickly picked up and used also by the Philly writers. After a relief appearance Stack then made three starts between June 14 and 22 and pitched complete game victories in all three. On June 29 he dueled Christy Mathewson for seven innings before leaving with the Giants ahead 2-0. On July 15 when the Phillies were back in Chicago Eddie was the receipient, between games of a doubleheader, of a considerable number of gifts and remembrances from his ex-teammates, friends and fans in the Chicago and Joliet semi-pro areas. The Tribune referred to the gifts as "the contents of a small jewelry store." The balance of 1910 saw alternate periods of good and bad pitching. For example, on August 22 in the fourth inning at Pittsburgh he was touched for home runs by Camnitz, Campbell and Wagner, but came back on August 30 and dueled Mordecai Brown of the Cubs for seven scoreless innings before yielding a run. He ended 1910 with a 6-7 record in 20 appearances,
The 1911 season saw Stack back with the Phillies and hoping for a good season. This was the year that a rookie named Grover Alexander would break in for the Phillies with a 28-13 record. On April 6 in the City Series against the Athletics, Stack worked the last seven innings of an extra inning 2-1 loss which ended on a Jack Barry single. But Eddie had scattered just three hits against the powerful A's and so he started the regular season full of high hopes; however, Manager Red Dooin had a chance to seriously contend for the pennant that year and so the Phils stayed mostly with a rotation of Alexander, Earl Moore and George Chalmers. As Stack began pitching infrequently his control deserted him. By the end of July he had only made four appearances, only one of those a start, and then the Cubs had shelled him for a 7-2 defeat on May 19. As if he didn't have enough problems on the field, while the Phillies were in Brooklyn on June 21 for a series, Eddie was robbed of a gold watch fob valued at $200 while on the New York subway. The fob was in the shape of a lion's head with diamond eyes and it's theft wasn't discovered until he got off at the Grand Central Station.
Meanwhile the Phillies starting pitchers had kept them in the 1911 pennant race, and in fact they had been in and out of first place all season prior to July 21. But starting in late June the team began a series of misfortunes that would give Eddie another shot at regular work. In June one of their outfielders, John Titus, broke a leg sliding into home plate. In July Sherry Magee was suspended thirty-six days for assaulting umpire Bill Finneran and finally, on July 26, playing-manager Red Dooin broke a leg in a collision with "Rebel" Oakes at home plate in St Louis. With three key players out and some of the pitchers starting to struggle Stack was moved back into the regular rotation in mid- August.
Eddie was making only his fifth appearance of the year when he started on August 19 at St Louis. In the first two innings he was extremely wild but then settled down and pitched excellently in the clutch for a complete game 5-2 win. On August 23 at Pittsburgh he scattered just five hits in a 3-2 win and came right back on August 26 to throw another five hitter at the Cincinnati Reds for a 3-1 win. Three complete game wins in eight days! Stack was ready on September 1 when Rube Marquard and the New York Giants came to town.
Stack and Marquard, both on hot streaks, squared off in game two of a doubleheader and 12,000 fans were looking for a great struggle and they weren't disappointed. For seven innings the score remained 0-0. Rube had given up only one hit, that a hard single to right in the fifth inning by Fred Luderus, while Eddie was also pitching an outstanding game, although the Giants had baserunners in every inning. Excellent plays by Doolan, Walsh and Paskert had helped Stack keep the Giants at bay until the eighth inning. Then Eddie gave up his only walk to Art Fletcher, followed by Chief Meyers' single. These ultimately led to two runs on misplays by the Phillie infield and so the Giants prevailed 2-0. Marquard had thrown a one-hitter at Stack and the Phillies, in which he had faced only twenty-eight hitters, Luderus being the only runner to reach base. Marquard had now won his last three starts and had yielded a total of four hits in those games!
Eddie came back five days later to scatter six hits in beating Brooklyn 8-3 and he remained in the regular rotation 'til the end of the season, although not pitching as effectively as he had during his 2½ week streak. He finished with a 5-5 record in 13 appearances as the Phillies ended up in fourth place. The Sporting Life newspaper in it's season summary on the Phillies said that "the redeeming features of the season were the spendid pitching of Alexander, Chalmers and Stack."
On October 31,1911 twelve players from the Reds and Phillies, including Stack, departed for a twelve game tour of Cuba. Each player was guaranteed $500 and expenses, and might possibly make more since they would receive a percentage of the gate receipts. Before leaving on the tour Eddie and Otto Knabe became engaged to Philadelphia girls, which brought them in for some "needling" in the Sporting Life dispatches from Cuba. The opening game on November 5 against Almendez was played in Havana before over 14,000 people. Mendez, the Cuban pitcher, defeated the National Leaguers 3-1 and it was claimed that he had not lost a game to an American team in three years and in Cuba he was referred to as the "Mathewson in the Black". On November 13 Mendez defeated Stack 4-0 as he yielded only four hits. Stack made several appearances on the tour but did not pitch very effectively. Interestingly, the Giants followed the Phillies on a 1911 Cuban tour of their own and Christy Mathewson defeated Mendez in one of the games, thus ending his three year streak.
After his fine pitching of the past season it must have come as somewhat of a shock to Eddie when he was traded in mid-December of 1911 to Brooklyn in exchange for pitcher William "Doe" Scanlan who was coming off a 3-10 season. It was said that the Phillies made the trade because they felt Scanlan was "more serious" about baseball than Stack. The Phillies would come to regret this trade for a number of reasons including the fact that Doe Scanlan never appeared in another major league game after 1911.
On January 3,1912 Eddie Stack married Miss Katheryn Gilson Dwyer of Chestnut Hill, Penn. at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Philadelphia. The Brooklyn Superbas were coming off a seventh place finish in 1911 so Eddie went to spring training in 1912 with a definite chance to be a starter. On April 20,1912 he stepped into the starting rotation and stayed there except for a period in mid-summer where he was used mostly in relief. On April 20 he started against the Giants and left the game with two out in the ninth and Brooklyn leading 3-2. The Brooklyn relief pitcher was then touched for a disputed two run home run by Art Wilson which won the game for the Giants. In the ensuing argument a fight began between Brooklyn manager Bill Dahlen and umpire Rigler, which turned into a small riot when the Polo Grounds crowd began pouring onto the field. Eddie must have wondered what he was getting into at Brooklyn.
On April 26 he drew his next start against the Phillies and began to pay them back for their trade. He pitched a superb game and gave up just five hits for a 6-2 win. Basically Eddie pitched inconsistently in 1912 as he pitched a number of fine games, other times losing well pitched games due to the ineptitude of the Superbas and often being plagued by streaks of wildness so that the highlites of the balance of the season are basically contained in four games. In the second game of a July 4 doubleheader he defeated the Giants and Hooks Wiltse 5-2 on a six-hitter in a snappy 1:25 on a day when the New York Times said that Stack had "considerable smoke". A week later against Cincinnati he worked seven scoreless innings before being relieved and the Superbas somehow managed to win a victory for him by a 3-2 score.
On September 4,1912 he pitched the finest game of his career at old Washington Park in Brooklyn. Eddie worked all thirteen innings and held the Boston Braves to just three hits as he outdueled "Hickory" Dickson for a 2-1 win. The Braves had scored a run in the second on a triple by John Titus and an RBI single by Art Devlin. Brooklyn had been held hitless for the first seven innings by Dickson and they only managed to tie the game with two out in the ninth on singles by Northen and Jake Daubert, with Northen scoring all the way from first on the wild throw trying to catch him going to third. After holding the Braves to only two hits in nine innings, Stack yielded a harmless single to Titus in the tenth. The Superbas finally scored a run in the thirteenth to win the game.
In Eddie's final start of the 1912 season on September 27 he again defeated the Phillies on a five hitter, this time by a score of 3-1 in front of the smallest crowd of the year at Washington Park, with less than 150 fans in attendance. An item of historical note occurred in the eighth inning of this game when a Phillies rookie pitcher named Eppa Rixey made the first Brooklyn appearance of his long career. The New York Times noted that "Rixey worked only one inning, but he showed enough ... to convince the small crowd of his ability."
There were also a couple unusual occurrences while Eddie was pitching in 1912 games. He was on the mound June 3 against Cincinnati when the Superbas turned a triple play behind him which featured the catcher Lowell Miller making two putouts and two assists on the play. On August 20 he was pitching in the second inning when Jack Miller of the Pirates hit a foul tip which struck plate umpire Owens and broke his breast bone. Since the other umpire, Brennan, had left with an injury in the first inning, players Ed Phelps of Brooklyn and Bob Hyatt of Pittsburgh umpired the balance of the game and also the second game of the twin-bill.
When 1913 rolled around Eddie took his wife and new son, Edward, off to the Brooklyn spring camp at Augusta, Georgia. That year Ty Cobb was at his home in Augusta as a "holdout" and he was working out with the Brooklyn team. Eddie and Cobb became acquainted and one of the enduring Stack family stories today is of the "hardened" Ty Cobb playing with the Stack's small baby. The 1913 season would prove to be the best and most active of his major league bareer and he got off to a good start on April 25 by scattering six hits for a 7-1 win over Boston. On May 1 Eddie was right back with a seven hit 4-2 win again over the Braves. He must really have had the "indian sign" on the Braves because on May 31 he beat them again, this time 2-0. In between these games Eddie was starting to appear more in relief roles than as a starter. On June 27 Stack won his final victory in a Brooklyn uniform as he stopped the Phillies 6-1 with a three hitter. His final eight appearances for Brooklyn were all in relief and he had a 4-4 record in 23 games when he was traded on August 5,1913 to the Chicago Cubs in an even swap for no less than Ed Reulbach, the long-time Cub legend. Reulbach had been asking to be traded for some time and was obviously very happy with the deal. Eddie Stack must have thought it very ironic that he was going back to the club that had never used him in a game before selling him in 1910 after going to the trouble of winning the rights to him in the contract dispute with the White Sox. In an obvious explanation for the frequent bouts of wildness throughout his career the Chicago Tribune noted that "Stack has some of Reulbach's characteristics in that he needs lots of work to keep control of his smoke..."
Manager Johnny Evers gave Stack an immediate start on August 7 against the Phillies and he responded with a complete game 5-2 win and gave up only four hits. Evers tried to capitalize on Eddie's ability to beat the Braves on August 12 but the "magic" was gone and Boston shelled him for seven runs in just four innings. On August 21 he came up against the great Christy Mathewson for the first time since 1910. Matty gave up eight Cub hits while Eddie was bombed out in the third inning. On September 9,1913 he threw his final big-league shutout with a 4-0 win over St Louis thanks to a three-run "inside-the-park" home run by Red Corriden. Eddie's last major league win came on September 28 by a 5-3 count over Cincinnati and he ended the 1913 season with a composite record of 8-6 in 34 games.
For the 1914 season Eddie was back with the Cubs but continued ineffective pitching and an increasing stomach problem restricted him to only seven appearances and an 0-1 record for the year. The Cubs did use him often to pitch in exhibition games and he occasionally demonstrated some of the old "smoke" such as on July 8,l9l4 when he held the Muscatine, Iowa team of the Central Association to just three hits in a 6-3 Cub victory. It was probably no surprise to Eddie when the Cubs released him after spring training in 1915, thus ending his major league career but certainly not ending his days as a pitcher.
Faced with a choice between going to the minor leagues with the hope of another shot at the "majors" or accepting the realities of life, Eddie wisely decided to begin preparing himself for a second career and he contented his baseball desires by playing in the fast Chicago semi-pro competition on weekends where he would be a big attraction. In 1915-1916 he worked at a number of different jobs to support his family, supplementing his income with semi-pro pitching and in 1916 he began attending classes at Chicago Normal College in preparation for obtaining a teachers certificate.
In 1915 he began the first of six seasons of pitching at the top-flight semi-pro level in Chicago. Stack pitched initially for the Chicago Tigers of the City League and his opening win on May 9,1915 merited a banner headline across the top of the entire sports page of the Chicago Tribune. "Smoke" Stack was still a big name in Chicago baseball as evidenced by the overflow crowds in attendance every Sunday he pitched. He compiled an 8-3 record for the Tigers thru July and then jumped to the famous Niesen's Gunthers, making his first appearance for them on August 1. When the Gunthers faced the Beloit Fairbanks team on August 8 Eddie once again brought out the best in his pitching opponent as Sam Lafferty pitched a no-hitter for Beloit and won the duel 1-0 in ten innings. Eddie had given up only four hits, two of them in the first inning. August 15 saw him beating his old team, the Logan Squares, 2-0 on just three hits. In late October Eddie won three straight games to lead the Gunthers to the Litzinger Cup title. He ended 1915 with an overall record of 16-6 which included a 10-3 loss by the Gunthers to the Chicago Whales of the Federal League. In that game on October 10 Eddie had faced off against Mordecai Brown at Fed Park (now Wrigley Field) but didn't have his "stuff" that day as he was rocked for seven runs early in the game.
It should be noted that the quality of baseball in the top semi-pro ranks in Chicago was still excellent in the second decade of the century. Numerous former major leaguers played on the various top teams and current major league players often appeared using assumed names to the delight of the newspaper reporters who always refused to reveal the true identity of the players. The White Giants team would be the pennant winner in the City League for 1915 and on July 11,1915 the Mutuals team brought in almost an entire Three-Eye league club to play for them against the White Giants. The news accounts of the game confirmed that in fact the majority of a minor league team had played for the Mutuals, but would not name the club. To no one's surprise the White Giants crushed the Mutuals "hired guns" by a 13-5 score. Later in the season the White Giants defeated the Chicago Whales who were the Federal League champions of 1915 by a 2-1 count. To conclude the illustrations of the level of play, on September 12 Eddie Stack and the Gunthers had defeated the White Giants 7-5.
In 1916 Eddie was still attending classes at Chicago Normal in addition to working at a regular job. He opened the 1916 season with the Gunthers and in May moved over to the Garden City club. In June he received an offer to pitch for a semi-pro club in Glenview, Illinois. Generally, throughout his days in semi-pro ball Eddie was paid about fifty dollars a game. The club in Glenview offered him several lots of real estate in the vicinity of Glenview and Waukegan roads in payment for his services, but Ed preferred spendable cash. Today that real estate is worth a small fortune. At one point he won ten straight games for the Glenview club and finished 1916 with an overall 16-3 record.
On January 26,1917 Eddie "Smoke" Stack received his teaching certificate and embarked upon a 36 year career as a teacher and administrator in the Chicago school system. During his teaching career he taught at a number of schools with the majority of his time spent at Crane High School where he also served as an assistant principal, and approximately twenty years at the Montefiore school, which was a school for the more difficult students. Discipline in class was never a problem for Eddie because he used to keep a box of wood blocks near his desk, and if some of the students began to get a little overactive Eddie "Smoke" would give them a demonstration of his pitching skills with one of the wood blocks.
For the 1917 season he returned to his old club, the Logan Squares. The Chicago League that year included a number of pitchers with major league experience including Dave Black, George Zabel and Phil Stremmel. The high points of the season for Eddie included five games where he yielded four hits or less as he compiled a 17-8 record in 28 games. He defeated Phil Stremmel of the Gunthers twice with a ten inning scoreless tie thrown in for good measure. His 2-1 win over the Gunthers on June 3 was accomplished in front of over 3,000 fans at the Squares' park. George Zabel, former Cub, paced the Beloit Fairbanks team to the pennant with the Logan Squares a distant third place.
The 1918 semi-pro scene in Chicago was greatly impacted, just as the majors were, by the events in Europe. Eddie began the season back with the Logan Squares in the Chicago League and for a short time the league continued operation. The teams had the usual compliment of former major league pitchers including George Pierce with Garden City, Jim Middleton with Joliet and "Long" Tom Hughes. Probably the biggest surprise was the appearance by Ed Pfeffer of the Brooklyn National League team in three games for the Gunthers during the time he was in the ensign's training school at Great Lakes Naval Base, just outside Chicago. Stack was not pitching very well as he continued to be bothered by stomach problems, with his best outing for the Squares coming on May 26 when he lost a 2-1 decision to Pfeffer and the Gunthers. By mid-June the Chicago League had dropped it's league schedule and declared the Beloit Fairbanks team again the champions. The Logan Squares then began playing service teams almost exclusively and on June 23 approximately 5,000 fans had mobbed the Squares park to watch the Great Lakes team, with a number of major leaguers, blast Stack and the Squares by a 10-1 count for their ninth straight win over semi-pro clubs. In mid-August Eddie went to the Cicero semi-pro club and pitched there the remainder of 1918. His best outing for the Cicero team was on September 29 when he struck out nineteen and allowed only two hits as he paced the Cicero team to the McGurn Cup title. Overall Eddie finished 1918 with a 9-8 record in 18 appearances.
In 1919 Stack pitched in only five semi-pro games and compiled a 2-3 record with the only notable performance coming on May 18 when he tallied seventeen strikeouts on the way to a four-hit shutout for the Cicero club. The rest of the 1919 season he spent in managing and pitching for a Knights of Columbus team in the city.
The season of 1920 would be his last as an active player and it was probably fitting that he spent the entire year as a member of the Logan Squares and made a comeback of sorts in compiling an 8-5 record in 15 games. The highlites of the year included four games of yielding five hits or less but three additional games stand out as a great ending to his playing days and demonstrated that he was still Eddie "Smoke."
On September 4,1920 against the Pyotts he yielded a first inning home run and then did not give up another hit until after one out in the tenth inning. The Pyotts eventually won the game 2-1 in twelve innings on a hit by Paddy Driscoll, who would go on to a long and famous career in professional football. Grover Baichley, who had been with the St Louis Browns in 1914, pitched for the Pyotts and the Chicago Tribune called the game "one of the greatest slab duels ever staged on a local semi-pro diamond." On October 3 Stack scattered seven hits over twelve innings in beating the arch-rival Gunthers 1-0 and, in what was his last game pitching for the Logan Squares, he defeated the Normals, another long-time foe, on October 10 by a score of 4-3. What is significant about the game is that the pitcher Eddie out-dueled that day was one Jack Quinn, who had just finished an 18-10 season for the New York Yankees and who was brought in specifically to beat the Squares.
His playing career was now over. Eddie Stack had pitched five years of major league ball and, around those, another eight years of top-flight semi-pro ball in Chicago. His lifetime major league record was 26-24 in 102 games, and his documented semi-pro record was 89-42 in 142 appearances.
Early in the 1920's the stomach problems he had experienced for quite sometime became so bad that Eddie finally went to the Mayo Clinic for tests and diagnosis. There it was determined that he had been suffering from a Duodenal ulcer for which he then underwent surgery. In the late 20's Ed became active in baseball again, this time as an umpire in the Chicago semi-pro leagues, which was often a dangerous position to be in. There was usually considerable betting in the games and it was not unusual for the umpire to be bombarded with bottles and refuse or even physically attacked by players and fans over an unfavorable decision, and fights between opposing players was also a common occurrence. As the years went on Ed had gained some weight and a photograph of him before an umpiring assignment shows a large, well built man who obviously could take care of himself. In the early 30's Ed and a man named Ed Weinstein organized the Chicago Umpire's Protective Association in an attempt to improve the pay and working conditions for the men, and the group became so large that their members handled all semi-pro and amateur games in the city. Eddie eventually served six years as the union president. He also received assignments to work college games and so he was a logical choice to serve as a free-lance scout for the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox during his umpiring days. He finally retired from umpiring in the late 40's and so he had been active in the game of baseball for approximately 35 years. He and his wife Kathryn had raised a family of four boys and when he finally retired from teaching for good in 1956 it could safely be said that he had led a full and colorful life.
I put down my baseball encyclopedia and listened for a minute to the howling wind outside. All that from a man who warrants only six lines in the baseball reference works. Seems like there's a message in that for all the self-appointed baseball experts who forget that the encyclopedia is filled with the names of a lot more real men than legends. Men like Eddie Stack perpetuated the game with their athletic skills, their desire to succeed and, most importantly, their love of the game of baseball. Now, let me just open the encyclopedia again and see who I find this time ...