Chet Thomas

Born in Illinois in 1888, Chet “Pinch” Thomas moved to Sharon as a child.  Thomas played the infield while growing up but shifted to catcher in professional baseball.  He was known for his defense, his pinch-hitting ability and for being an antagonist to opponents and his own teammates.

Thomas played in the first-ever game in Fenway Park, an exhibition against Harvard on April 9, 1912.  Two weeks later, he made his major league debut for the Red Sox, pinch hitting against Walter Johnson.

Thomas was the regular catcher for Babe Ruth, then a pitcher with the Red Sox.  He caught 68 of Ruth’s 144 starts, including the famous 1917 game where Ruth was ejected after one batter and Ernie Shore no-hit Washington the rest of the game. 

Thomas also caught Kansas Baseball Hall of Famers Smokey Joe Wood and Carl Mays.

He played in the 1915 and 1916 World Series, both won by Boston.  Following the 1917 season, Thomas was traded to Philadelphia but demanded more money than Connie Mack was willing to pay.  The Athletics subsequently traded him to Cleveland, where he played until 1921.

Thomas spent winters on his farm in Medicine Lodge.  He left baseball to work for a movie company in California, where he was an assistant director and appeared in the 1928 feature Warming Up.  

Thomas spent the latter years of his life in the Modesto (CA) State Hospital, where he died in 1953.

For more, read Pinch Thomas’s Society for American Baseball Research bio.