New Britain herald., 1927-08-03
(BY BILLY EVANS)

Muddy" Ruel. brilliant backstop of the Washington Nationals, will shortly break into the select circle of catchers who have worked 1000 or more games in the major leagues.
 There are mighty few catchers performing in the big show today who have performed so long, faith fully and cleverly as Ruel. AS so over the list of receivers I can recall only three now in active serv- Ice who have officiated in more than 1000 games.
 Manager Ray Schalk of the Chi- cago White Sox leads by a comfort able margin. At the close of last season he had worked in 1,737 games. He has done little or no catching this year. finding plenty of responsibility in managing his ball club. At that he is hopeful of stretching his record to 1000 before he retires.
 The other two catchers to break the high water mark of 1000 big league games are now performing for the St. Louis clubs. Wally Schang of the Browns and Frank Snyder of the Cardinals.
 Ever since he broke into the majors, 10 years ago. Ruel has been a consistently competent performer. At the close of last season he had worked in 924 ball games. That means better than 100 games per season, which is plenty of work for a big league backstop to shoulder.
 By the Fourth of July of this year Ruel had taken part in 65 games, bringing his mark to 9ss, 50 that before the close of the month of July he will have passed the 1000 mark in games, one of the very few catchers ts have performed such yeoman service.
 It is a very interesting fact that two of the catchers to have turned the trick, Ray Schalk and Muddy Ruel, are small in size as catchers go. As a matter of fact, when Schalk joined the White sox the thought that he could catch the shoots of the giant Ed Walsh was regarded as ridiculous. He did so with ease.
 Prior to the coming of Schalk to the majors. small catcher had little or no chance to get so much as a trial. He soon proved that such a theory was little more than joke and paved the way for the small catcher in the majors.
 Although lacking brawn, Ruel has proved an 'iron man" for work. Ir addition he has a keen mind. rank ing as one of the smartest of modern catchers. With Ruel back of the plate a pitcher is assured of sound judgment in the handling of hi, repertoire of curves and speed Ruel has taken part in twt world series with Washington an6 experienced a most unique thrill Il was almost in the nature of 2 tragedy in his first series agains the New York Giants.
 During the 1924 season Rue caught 149 games as the Washing. ton club battled it's way to a pen nant. It was hectic struggle anG the physical and mental strain hat caused Ruel to drop from 15S pounds to 135. Having gone stale he lost his punch at the bat. Despite a near 300 average or the season, Ruel couldn't get bal safe in the first six gamems of tho 1924 series with New York. In the final game he got two hits for ar average of .095, yet never were twf more timely hits delivered for they decided the game and the world series. He batted .316 in the fol. lowing series with Pittsburgh but Washington lost.
 Ruel is lawyer in the off-seasor and plans to continue to practice after his big league days are over A lawyer catcher might be con- sidered an ideal combination tc argue with the umpire but. on the contrary, Ruel favors diplomacy.