Bullet Joe Bush
December 20, 1921: The New York Yankees trade shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, and pitchers Harry "Rip" Collins, Bill Piercy and Jack Quinn, to the Boston Red Sox for pitchers "Bullet" Joe Bush and "Sad" Sam Jones, and shortstop Everett Scott.
Peckinpaugh helped the Washington Senators win their 1st 2 Pennants. Quinn would pitch until he was 50, helping Connie Mack establish the next Philadelphia Athletics dynasty in the late 1920s. And Collins would be the starting catcher on the St. Louis Cardinals' 1931 World Series winners.
Even with all of that, the Yankees won this trade going away. They got 2 fantastic pitchers to go along with Hoyt and Bob Shawkey, the latter a key purchase from Mack in 1915 rather than a trade acquisition. Bush went 26-7 in 1922, and would have been an easy choice for the Cy Young Award. He went 19-15 in 1923, to help the Yankees win the World Series for the 1st time.
Jones was just 13-13 in 1922, but went 21-8 in 1923, and would have won that year's Cy Young Award. Scott was also key, and should be remembered as a solid fielder and a good contact hitter, not just as the man who held the record for most consecutive games played prior to Lou Gehrig, 1,308.
Sad Sam Jones
For 1923, the Yankees would acquire Herb Pennock from the Red Sox. It wasn't getting Babe Ruth from the Sox that wrecked the Sox and built the Yankees: It was getting an entire starting rotation that, had there been an All-Star Game at the time, would have been perennial All-Stars: Bush, Jones, Pennock, Waite Hoyt and Carl Mays, all in trades with the Red Sox between mid-1919 and the 1922-23 off-season.
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December 20, 1921 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And, although the NHL season had begun 3 days earlier, there were no games scheduled for this day. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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