George Stone came out of nowhere in 1905 as a 28 year-old rookie. Well, not exactly nowhere. He spent the entire 1904 season in Milwaukee, dominating the American Association. It’s hard to believe he stayed in the Minors all year given the stats he was putting up. He hit .406 with a .558 Slugging Percentage to go with 36 Doubles, 19 Triples, and 7 Home Runs. Prior the the 1905 season, he had played just 2 games in the Major Leagues, both with the Boston Red Sox in 1903.
In 1905, he played in every single game for the St. Louis Browns. That in itself is pretty impressive, but more importantly, he played at an extremely high level. A rundown of his achievements in 1905 is enough to make your head spin. He led the AL in Plate Appearances (691), Hits (187) and Total Bases (259). His .296 Batting Average ranked 6th and his .756 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage ranked 4th among American Leaguers. A rookie in the truest sense of the word, George Stone posted the 4th highest Offensive WAR (4.8) in the AL.
Following Stone’s stellar 1905 campaign, expectations were no doubt high for him in 1906. However, I can’t imagine that anyone expected what came next.
In less Plate Appearances (658 v.s. 691 in 1905) George Stone put up one of the most impressive offensive displays of the Deadball Era. He led the AL in Batting Average (.358), On Base Percentage (.417), Slugging Percentage (.501) and OPS (.918).
His 91 Runs Scored were 5th in the AL and his 71 Runs Batted in were good for 6th. He again led the league in Total Bases. this time with an astounding 291. His 208 Hits were 2nd only to Lajoie’s 214. Stone’s 20 triples trailed only Elmer Flick among American Leaguers. He finished third in the AL in Home Runs with 6, which trailed Harry Davis’ 12 and Charlie Hickman’s 9.
George Stone’s historic 1906 season was worth 8.7 Wins Above Replacement, which ranked 3rd in the AL behind only Nap Lajoie’s 10.0 and Terry Turner’s 9.4. Take only offensive metrics into consideration, and Stone’s year at the plate looks even better. His Offensive Wins Above Replacement of 7.9 ranked 1st in the American League. This time he edged out Lajoie’s 7.6. Flick was a distant 3rd at 6.2 and Harry Davis and Turner tied for 4th at 5.2.
Stone had another great year with the Browns in 1907. He hit .320 and put up an OPS of .787. In 1908 he took a step back, but still posted a solid campaign with a .281 Batting Average and .714 OPS. He played his final major league game in 1910 at the age of 33. Stone is one of many Deadball Era stars who had short careers. He only played 6 season of Major League ball (7 if you count the two games he played in 1903) but he definitely left his mark on the sport.
Today, many T206 collectors look at a George Stone card and think “common”. But the truth is he was anything but.