1913-1915

Paul Strand attended Buckley High School, playing football and baseball. In the summer when he wasn’t working as a clerk in a grocery store, playing for a number of town teams including South Prairie and neighboring Wilkeson in the state of Washington.

While pitching for the Buckley town team in 1910 he was spotted by the owner of the Spokane Indians who signed him when he was just 16.

Paul was invited to spring training with Spokane in 1911. He was an imposing left-handed power pitcher and in his first game in spring training, he defeated the Gonzaga College team to rave reviews. When the regular season began, he continued to blow away the competition. He won his first three games easily, striking out 30 in 25 innings of work and was said to be another Walter Johnson.

He was sold in May to John I. Taylor, owner of the Red Sox sight unseen, for $5,000 with the understanding that he would finish out the season with Spokane and be the Sox property in 1912.

But things started to go downhill for Paul. After the sale, thru the end of June, he was quite unimpressive, sent home and shut down for three weeks. When he returned in late July, he lost one game and then left his next game in the second inning with a sore arm. He didn’t pitch another game the rest of the season and the Red Sox dropped their claim on him.

In 1912, Paul was sent to play with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League before spring training, but his arm still bothered him. After a practice game, he was sent to Walla Walla in the Class D Western Tri-State League, where he pitched great and made it back to Spokane by July. He continued to pitch well and by season’s end, he had an 8-7 record, which included a one-hitter against Vancouver.

In September, the Boston Braves drafted Paul at the National Base Ball Commission meeting in Cincinnati. He wasn’t the only player from the Northwestern League drafted by the Braves. George Stallings took eight players in all from the league.

Strand was still attending high school when he had to leave in March 1913 to travel to the Braves’ spring-training camp in Athens, Georgia. Stallings tutored the young pitcher to try new pitches. In addition, Bill James taught him the spitball.

But Paul saw very little action in 1913. He pitched in seven games with no wins or losses, with an ERA of 2.12 and was wild, walking 12 in 17 innings. His future was uncertain with the Braves when he went back to high school in October.

But Stallings decided to give Paul another chance and invited him to spring training in Macon, Georgia, in 1914.

He made the team as a reliever and spot starter and would pitch in only 16 games but when he got into a game, he would pitch well, with a 6-2 record and a 2.44 ERA. Fred Mitchell, who the team’s pitching coach, helped him with his control.

Paul’s best game would come in June, against the New York Giants. He would pitch six innings in relief, getting the 7-6 win and driving in the winning run with a double. The victory would left the Braves momentarily out of the cellar of the National League.

Despite his season, Paul would not get into a game during the World Series. Nonetheless, like all the Braves, he would be awarded a full share of the winners’ money and a gold medal with a “monster diamond” and the words “World’s Champion, 1914” engraved on it.