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Boston Nationals shortstop Walter "Rabbit" Maranville, twenty-one years old. April 12, 1913. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.
When he became a Major League manager, he woke up his players on the train late at night proclaiming that there would be no sleeping on this road trip under Maranville management.
The National League team was also called the Nationals. Baseball cards and photos from the era usually say "Boston," "Boston NL," "Bostons" or "Boston Nationals." (Enlarge)
Rabbit Maranville was with the Boston Braves in 1913. There were two teams in Boston: the Braves of the National League and the Red Sox of the American League. "Bost. Nat." means Boston, National League.
Maranville was a real character. He and a teammate once caught 30 pigeons and put them in the closet of another teammate's hotel room, just to see the reaction when the guy opened the door. Rabbit would mimic umpires on the field - for instance, if an ump scratched his left ear, Maranville would do the same - he would keep it up until the fans noticed it and would start laughing. He would catch pop-ups by letting the ball hit him in the chest and roll down into his glove - he called this the "vest pocket catch." He was once arrested for marching in a Japanese military parade while wearing a stolen uniform.
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