Cecil Travis

Travis was born on a farm in Riverdale, Georgia, the youngest of ten children, and declined a scholarship to Georgia Tech in favor of a scholarship to a baseball training school. A left-handed batter, he broke in with the Senators in 1933, getting five hits in his first game – joining Fred Clarke as the second and last player to do so – and batting .302 in 18 games at age 19. It remains the last pennant-winning campaign by a Washington team, although Travis did not play in the five-game World Series loss to the New York Giants. The following year he began to take over third base duties from veteran Ossie Bluege, and batted .319 as the team plummeted to seventh place. He followed by hitting .318, .317, .344 and .335, playing full-time at shortstop from 1937–39, but the 82-71 1936 team – on which he split time between shortstop and right field – would remain the only winning squad for whic…