The Great Gabbo: How Frank Gabler Made it to the Big Leagues
Image credits: COMC
Ring Lardner was a prolific sportswriter of the early twentieth century, a widely syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune for 20 years until his death in 1933.
He was also a frequent contributor to The Sporting News and popular magazines, and the author of books about fictional country bumpkins who aspired to be big-league ballplayers.
He didn’t have to invent his characters. All he had to do was adopt them from the yokels he observed in spring training, on trains, in hotel lobbies. In the early twentieth century, many of them had never seen a building bigger than a barn.
They spent more time behind a mule and plow than in a schoolroom. But they could run barefooted and throw and hit on pasture ballfields with homemade equipment, and scouts scoured the hills and hollows signing them for the price of a train ticket to a tryout camp.
And some of them made it to the big leagues.
Frank Gabler
One who arrived a few years after Ring Lardner died was our hero, Frank Gabler. He was born in 1911 and raised in a small town in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles, at the time a region as remote from the glamorous city as the moon.
When he was 18 he was over six feet tall and his fastball earned him a ticket to Class D Bisbee AZ. It was during the long bus rides in the bush leagues, when there was nothing to do but sleep or talk, that Frank earned his reputation as ‘The Great Gabbo’, a non-stop talker full of opinions, no matter what the subject. He also became a loud-mouthed bench jockey.
The New York Giants
In 1935 the New York Giants brought him up from their Nashville farm club. Giants manager Bill Terry was impressed by his 6-foot-1, 195-pound stature and fastball. Used mostly in relief, Gabler worked in 26 games for a 2-1 record for the third-place Giants.
Over the winter of 1936 Terry made a lot of moves to shore up what he considered weak spots and turn the Giants into pennant winners. Frank Gabler retained his place on the pitching staff.
One evening on the train north from spring training, a group of players were talking about the coming season. Traveling secretary Eddie Brannick and a few writers were among them. Frank Gabler was there, wearing a green gabardine suit that resembled the top of a pool table.
Gabler said, “I’m good for 10 wins this season at least.”
Eddie Brannick said to him, “If you win 10, I’ll buy you the finest suit of clothes in town.” After a pause, he said, “I’ll do better than that. Win eight games and I’ll stake you to a hundred-dollar outfit,”
Giants manager Bill Terry was impressed with Frank Gabler. Image credits: OOTP Developments
When Brannick said goodnight and left, Gabler turned to a writer. “Is he kidding?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Well,” said The Great Gabbo, “ I’ll win him eight games sure. Say, is there really such a thing as a hundred-dollar suit? I never heard of one.”
The writer assured him that they did exist.
Gabler grinned. “What do they have, gold buttons? See this suit? It was the finest I could buy out in Venice, California. Cost me twenty-five. Did you ever see a better-looking burlap in your life?”
He thought a minute in unaccustomed silence. “Say, if I win that bet, what would I do with a hundred-dollar suit? I’d be afraid to sit down in the damned thing. And if I told the folks back home I was wearing a suit that cost a hundred smackers, they’d start nudging each other and whispering behind my back, ‘There goes that Frank, bragging again.’
Nope. I’ll just take Eddie’s dough and buy me four $25 suits.” They’re good enough for any man. A hundred-dollar suit! Jiminy fish hooks, there ain’t no such thing.”
The Giants won the pennant by five games over the Cubs and Cardinals.
In July Gabler began taking a regular turn as a starter and won his eighth game on August 21, 3-2, over the Boston Bees. He added a ninth on September 17, a 17-3 romp over the Dodgers, and finished with a 9-7 record.
He made two World Series appearances against the Yankees, collecting a World Series share in addition to the $100 bonus, which he used to buy two $50 outfits.
After brief stops with the Boston Bees and White Sox, The Great Gabbo became the best-dressed player in the bush leagues before a long career as a scout.
