Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive

Free Bonus for Subscribing:

Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide

Get new posts by email

Today Vince Jankoski returns with an interesting essay on Frank Shellenback, one that we can add to our on-going tribute to baseball’s many overlooked coaches. Although not a household name, Shellenback was an outstanding PCL pitcher who never really made it good in the majors. His lasting contribution is as pitching coach for the New York Giants, where, among other things, he converted Sal Maaglie from a journeyman reliever into one of the most dominant pitchers of his era. Shellenback also has the distinction of being the last pitcher to throw a legal spitball. -GL

Let’s Recall The Last Legal Spitballer,

Frank Shellenback

Frank Shellenback won more Pacific Coast League games than anyone else, an amazing 295 from 1920-1937.  Adding wins attained in the International League and American Association, Shellenback’s minor league win total is 315.  In the PCL, he had 5 seasons of at least 20 wins, three with 19 and two with 18.  He pitched for Vernon (1920-1924), Sacramento (1925), and Hollywood (1926-1935). In 1934, he became player-manager of the Hollywood Stars (how’s that for an original name) and moved with the team when it relocated to San Diego in 1936.  He remained in San Diego until 1938.  Frank’s win totals are a tad exaggerated due to the extended length of the PCL schedule which at times exceeded 200 games per season.  Nevertheless, 315 victories is an impressive total.

Unfortunately, Frank could never translate his minor league success into a big league career.  In two seasons with very good White Sox teams (1918-1919), Frank was 10-15 with an ERA of 3.06.  He did not pitch in the fixed 1919 World Series.

Shellenback’s failure to return to the big leagues was likely due to the fact that Shellenback was a spitball pitcher.  In 1920 the spitball was outlawed.  Practitioners of the art of spitballing, however, rebelled.  They argued that outlawing their best pitch, which by all accounts took years to develop, would deprive them of making a living.   Consider their point: How effective would Nolan Ryan be if the fastball was outlawed or what would Max Scherzer do if he could no longer throw a slider?

In response, each major league team was permitted to identify two pitchers on their rosters who would be “grandfathered”; that is, allowed to continue to throw the spitter for the remainder of their careers.  The following year grandfathering was further limited to 17 pitchers who were granted permission to continue to wet the ball until their retirement.   However, Shellenback could not take advantage of the grandfathering because grandfathering only applied to those pitchers then on a major league roster.  Frank was not on a major league roster at the time the pitch was outlawed.  He was pitching for the Vernon Tigers in the PCL where he apparently was using the pitch quite effectively going 18-12 with an ERA of 2.71 as his team won the PCL championship. 

 The PCL which believed itself, not without justification, to be a small step below the American and National Leagues followed suit.  It outlawed the pitch but grandfathered splitballers then on PCL rosters.  Shellenback was grandfathered in the PCL, but not in MLB.  Incongruously, Shellenback was allowed to use his spitball in the PCL – he did to great effect, but he could not bring it with him to a major league roster.  He was precluded from playing in the majors just as effectively as some of his crooked teammates on the 1919 Black Sox.  As a result, Shellenback had an amazing career, but only in the PCL.   

Shellenback must be remembered for one distinction:  He was probably the last pitcher to throw a legal spitball anywhere.  Burleigh Grimes was the last spitballer in the major leagues.  He last pitched in the majors in 1934, although he pitched one more season in the minor leagues.  It is disputed when Shellenback pitched his last game and hence when he threw his last (legal) spitball.  Baseballreference.com lists his last season as a pitcher as 1937, but statscrew.com credits him with two innings over three games in 1938.  So, it may never be known when the last legal spitball was thrown.  It can’t be disputed, however, that it was thrown by Frank Shellenback.

Shellenback finally made it back to the majors in 1939 as pitching coach of the St. Louis Browns.  From there, he would move on to coach the Red Sox (1940-44), Tigers (1946-47) and Giants (1950-1955). 

In 1950, a 33-year-old Sal Maglie returned to the Giants.  Maglie had thrown fairly well for the Giants in his rookie year of 1945 (5-3, 2.35), but then jumped to the Mexican League, resulting in a nearly four year suspension frm the majors.  He apparently pitched well in the reduced competition provided in the Mexican League in 1946 and 1947, in barnstorming in 1948, and for the Drummondville, Quebec squad in the independent Provincial League in 1949, although no reliable records are available for Maglie in those years. 

Maglie’s career exploded in 1950 and who was his pitching coach? Frank Shellenback.  Did Frank teach Sal the art of the spitter?  I could find no definitive answer.  What is clear is that Sal would do anything to attain an advantage over the batter.  His nickname “the barber” had been attributed to his penchant of giving hitters a “close shave” with a fastball when they entered the batter’s box.  So, I suspect that Sal was the kind of guy who wouldn’t be adverse to doctoring the ball a bit.  Shellenback, himself, claimed to have given the Maglie the “barber” moniker because Maglie would shave the corners of the plate.  Not likely.  More probably it was a diversion to take the eyes of the major league powers-that-be off of what was really happening.  As an aside, the other possible genesis of Maglie’s nickname derives from the fact that he had the worst five o’clock shadow since the invention of the straight razor.

In any event and for whatever reason, Maglie’s career took off with Shellenback in charge of the Giant’s pitching staff.  In 1950 Maglie went 18-4 with a league leading 2.71 ERA and league leading won-loss percentage of .818.  The next year he went 23-6, 2.93, finishing fourth in the MVP balloting, and the following season he went 18-8, 2.92.  After battling back problems he moved to Brooklyn where, in 1956, he posted a 13-5 record and was second in the Cy Young Award voting.                 

Was Maglie simply a good pitcher whom events compelled to have a late arrival in the major leagues? Or was he just a late bloomer?  Or was he Frank Shellenback’s long-awaited revenge on MLB for exiling him and his spitball to a career in the Pacific Coast League?  I can envision Frank, sitting in the bullpen, smiling and thinking, “You guys in MLB wouldn’t let me use this pitch so now I’ve got my pupil throwing in your leagues and he’s doing it so well that you’ll never be able to know whether he’s doing it or not!” 

The mills of the gods grind slowly, don’t they?

Vince Jankoski

Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive. FREE BONUS for subscribing: Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide.  https://wp.me/P7a04E-2he

Information: Excerpts edited from

Visit the Baseball History Comes Alive Home Page