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| Hick Cady |
| by William Dowell |
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 "In Cady Boston has picked up a man who looks like a first-class player. He stands more than six foot high and throws overhead dead to the mark all the time," observed Tim Murnane, the noted Boston Globe sports writer, on March 16, 1912, during Boston Red Sox spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Just six months earlier, Forrest "Hick" Cady had been purchased by the Red Sox from the Newark Indians for the then pricey sum of $6,000 and two players.
Enjoying a seven-year career in the major leagues during the height of the Deadball Era, Cady played six seasons with the Boston Red Sox on some of their greatest teams, including three World Series champions. Noted for his defensive abilities, Cady was a light-hitting catcher who had a knack for timely hitting and was known as the preferred catcher of pitcher Smokey Joe Wood.
Cady was born with the given name of Forrest LeRoy Berglund in the small farming community of Bishop Hill, Illinois, on January 26, 1886. He was the second son born to Minnie (Hollander) and John Berglund, and the middle child among three children. Unfortunately, the marriage was not stable and, in May 1890, case #67 at the Henry County Court House dissolved the five-year union. With three kids under the age of five, Minnie found herself in a difficult position. However, in 1892 she met and wed widower Frank E. Cady, a carpenter in the community. Frank accepted Minnie's children as his own and Forrest donned the Cady surname.
As a youngster Cady was affectionately tabbed with the nickname "Hollick." According to interviews with childhood friends, the nickname was well accepted by Cady and used by friends, although the moniker's origin was unknown. It wasn't until early in his minor league career when teammates shortened Cady's nickname to "Hick."
Playing ball throughout his childhood, Cady gained a reputation as a first-rate local ballplayer. In 1903 Cady participated in his first organized baseball game as a member of his hometown Bishop Hill club. The seventeen-year-old traveled with the team to Geneseo, Illinois, another Henry County team, and found himself manning the right field position. Local news accounts credit Ben J. Arnquist, a long-time supporter of baseball in the community, for refining Cady's skills as an outfielder and hitter. For the next four years Cady played primarily with the Bishop Hill club under the tutelage of Arnquist. In 1906 his Bishop Hill squad won the amateur Western League, and Cady batted an impressive .361 and recorded a .978 fielding percentage.
On occasion Cady would play for a semi-pro team out of Kewanee, approximately fifteen miles north of Bishop Hill. According to one account published in the local papers, Cady's older brother played for the Kewanee Clippers, and Cady begged Ike Reno, the manager, for a tryout. Cady impressed Reno enough to earn a place on the team as a reserve outfielder, occasional first baseman, and pinch hitter. His big opportunity and potentially career-changing moment came in a doubleheader against a team from Bradford, Illinois, when the regular catcher, by the last name of Carlson, had split his finger and was unable to continue. Even though he had never played the position, Cady voluntarily donned the catching gear and set his professional career in motion.
For the next couple of years Cady bounced from team to team trying to earn his place in minor league ball. To begin the 1907 season Cady tried out with the Rock Island, Illinois, club of the Three-I League, but when he was not offered a contract he went back to playing for Bishop Hill. Toward the end of the 1907 season he caught on with Monmouth, an independent club managed by J. Wagner, who sold Cady at the end of the season to Indianapolis of the American Association for $300. Cady's trial with Indianapolis was disappointing. According to one account, the only exercise his throwing arm got was cashing his paychecks. Unhappy with his situation, he asked for, and was granted, his release.
After Cady returned home to Bishop Hill, he briefly played with Kewanee of the Central League and finished the 1908 season with Ottumwa, Iowa, of the same league. With Kewanee and Ottumwa he played in 81 total games collecting 58 hits in 251 at-bats for a .231 average. He did show some power, collecting 16 extra base hits, and a penchant for running the bases by accumulating nine stolen bases. His play earned him a contract the following year with Evansville, Indiana, of the Central League. In the off-season of 1908 Cady found the time to marry Kittie Monjar on December 13. The two remained married until Cady's unfortunate death in 1946.
In 1909 Cady headed to Evansville and stayed with the club for both the 1909 and 1910 seasons. Cady had become known as a fine defensive catcher with adequate pop in his bat. During his two years with Evansville he played in 240 games, hit 11 home runs, and batted at a .218 clip. At the close of the 1910 season he sparked an interest from the Newark Indians of the more prestigious Eastern League, with whom he signed a contract to play for during the 1911 season.
The winds off the Atlantic Ocean must have blown a renewed baseball life back into Cady's body. He set personal highs in every offensive category except home runs. As the season closed Cady had played in 136 games, scored 42 runs, collected 114 hits, 16 doubles, seven triples, and stole 12 bases while batting for a .260 average. Later that fall Cady received word that Boston of the American League was impressed with his season and paid $6,000 and exchanged two players to gain the rights to him as a player.
During the 1912 spring training season Cady impressed first-year manager Jake Stahl enough that he accompanied the team north to Boston. On April 20, 1912, after two rain delays, Fenway Park hosted its first-ever regular season baseball game. In an exciting extra-inning game the Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders (later known as the Yankees), 7-6, before an estimated crowd of 27,000 fans. While Cady was an official member of the Boston Red Sox, he witnessed this game from his seat on the bench. The 6' 2", 178-pound, twenty-six-year-old backstop found himself on the opening-day roster listed as backup catcher sharing time with Bill Carrigan and Les Nunamaker. Six days later on April 26 against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Cady saw his first major league action.
For the 1912 season Cady played in 47 games, batting 135 times and hitting for a .259 average. Defensively, he was stellar, playing 43 games at catcher and recording a .990 fielding percentage; he spent another four games at first base without committing an error. On June 29, in a doubleheader against New York, Cady had one of his most interesting at-bats as a professional. In the second game of the doubleheader, Cady came to bat with teammate Jake Stahl on third base. Cady proceeded to single and send Stahl scampering home to score a run. Once the dust of the play settled, though, home plate umpire Silk O'Loughlin ruled that Stahl had actually been balked home and recalled Cady back to bat. In his second chance at bat, Cady promptly doubled. While insignificant to most baseball fans and historians, the newspaper column "Ripley's Believe It or Not" picked up on the unusual happening and proclaimed publicly that Cady had recorded the impossible--two hits in one turn at bat. The Red Sox went on to sweep the doubleheader.
At season's end Boston claimed the pennant, earning the right to play John McGraw's New York Giants in the World Series. In what is considered to be one of the most exciting World Series in history, Boston defeated the Giants in eight games, winning four, losing three, and tying one game. In the Series Cady appeared in seven games, collecting three hits with one RBI. He, along with his teammates, pocketed a winner's share paycheck of $4,024.
In 1913 Cady found himself as the opening day catcher for the defending World Series champions. While Cady enjoyed a solid second season, the Red Sox could not find their way back to the World Series. Cady played in 40 games batting a solid .250. He also improved upon his defense, playing all his games behind the plate and ended with a .992 fielding percentage.
The 1914 season was very similar to the 1913 season for both Cady and the Red Sox. Boston finished behind Connie Mack's Philadelphia team and Cady once again put up very similar numbers to his first two years. For the 1914 season Cady appeared in 61 games and produced a .260 batting average. He played in 58 games behind the plate and recorded a respectable .971 fielding percentage. Cady was viewed by management and teammates as a reliable, yet limited, backstop.
For the 1915 season Cady once again was the opening-day catcher for a Boston Red Sox team that held high hopes for a productive season. Cady not only held up his end of the catching duties, he produced his best major league season. While appearing in 78 games, he collected 57 hits in 205 official at-bats for an impressive .278 batting average, which were all career highs. He also managed 12 doubles and two triples while knocking in 17 runs and scoring 25. His trademark defense was also spectacular, with a solid .980 fielding percentage. As a team the Red Sox finished two and a half games ahead of the Detroit Tigers to claim the American League pennant. Boston met the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, beating them four games to one. In the series, Cady saw action in four games, collecting two hits in six at-bats.
Another notable at-bat in his career, besides the two-hits-in-one-at-bat feat, came as a pinch hitter during the 1915 season. While insignificant at the time, his one pinch-hitting at-bat that year made him the answer to a baseball trivia question. Cady is only one of the few men ever to pinch-hit for the legendary Babe Ruth. Obviously, Ruth's hitting prowess was still undiscovered as a second-year pitcher in 1915.
The 1916 season started to signal the end for Cady. While he once again was trusted with the majority of the catching duties and performed admirably behind the plate, he posted a fielding percentage of .967, the lowest to date in his career. At the plate, the thirty-year-old major leaguer started to struggle significantly. He finished the season with only 31 hits in 162 at-bats, for a lowly .191 batting average, and scored a meager five runs. One highlight for Cady was hitting a career-high three triples. The Red Sox once again won the American League pennant and beat the Brooklyn ball club four games to one in the 1916 World Series. Cady appeared in only two World Series games and collected one hit in four at-bats.
The 1917 season was Cady's last as a member of the Boston Red Sox. The aging veteran saw action in only 17 games, 14 of those as a catcher. He posted career lows in every imaginable offensive and defensive category. He hit a paltry .152, collected only seven hits (two of which were for extra bases), and scored four runs with two RBIs. In the field Cady committed three errors to compile a career-low .959 fielding percentage. Boston finished in second place in the American League, nine games behind pennant-winner Chicago.
In October 1917, Cady and his wife returned home to Bishop Hill to spend the off-season. While out with friends one evening, Cady and his party were involved in a terrible automobile accident. Returning home from Kewanee, Illinois, after a night out with friends, Cady was apparently traveling at a good rate and did not see a horse and buggy in the darkness. In an attempt to avoid the collision, Cady jerked his Hupmobile car to one side but still managed to clip the rear wheel of the buggy. Cady's Hupmobile skidded into a ditch and rolled over several times. One of the members of Cady's party suffered a crushed skull and died; the other members involved, including those in the buggy, were not seriously injured. The same could not be said for Cady, however, as he suffered multiple breaks in his right shoulder.
Interestingly, the broken shoulder did not stop Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics from trading for Cady. On January 10, 1918, just three months after his debilitating car accident, Boston traded Cady along with Clarence Walker and Larry Gardner to Philadelphia for first baseman Stuffy McInnis. While dumping McInnis was more about purging salary than acquiring young talent or capable veterans, it is not clear why Mack would have agreed to accept a diminished player in Cady and now a debilitated one as well.
Cady never played a game with the Athletics. As a matter of fact, there is no record of Cady appearing in a baseball game during the 1918 season. His accident and the subsequent surgery probably made his comeback attempt futile. It is difficult to imagine a player of his age, especially a catcher, recuperating from multiple fractures in his throwing shoulder in just a few months. And even if the bones had healed, questions would still arise about his playing condition and how much wear his body could handle.
In 1919, Cady made a brief comeback. In what would be his last season as a major leaguer, he caught on with the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. His playing skills significantly diminished, Cady hung on to play in 34 games and bat .214. Although he only came to bat 98 times, he had a career-high 19 RBIs and hit the only home run of his seven-year major league career. Before the end of the 1919 season Cady was released by the Philadelphia club and later caught on with Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League. For the next six years he bounced around the minor leagues. Cady ended his playing career in 1925 but eventually reappeared in Organized Baseball as a minor league umpire in the Western, Pacific Coast, and Three-I Leagues until 1942.
On March 3, 1946, at the age of 60, Cady died of asphyxiation in a hotel fire in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. According to local news accounts, the fire was caused by sparks from an electric heater that ignited some papers in his room. Cady was discovered by the hotel manager after other guests reported smelling smoke coming from Cady's room. The fire was contained to his room, and he was the only one injured in the incident. Cady had apparently forgotten to turn off the heater when he went to bed.
Sources
Baseball Hall of Fame Library. Forrest Cady file.
Bishop Hill (Illinois) State Historic Site. Correspondence with author.
Cedar Rapids Gazette. Obituary of Forrest Cady, March 6, 1946.
Galvaland. "Forrest Cady's Major League Action With Boston, Philadelphia," August 1961.
Iowa State Department of Health. Death certificate of Forrest Cady.
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