York team was one of misfortune after misfortune. There is an unconfirmed report that his collapse on the mound in July 1916 was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. He recovered to resume his major-league career. In 1917 he missed half the season with a sore arm. On July 16, 1918, to the annoyance of Yankees manager Miller Huggins and owner Jake Ruppert, he suddenly left the team in order to join the Sparrows Point shipyard team in Baltimore.
In parts of five seasons in the Polo Grounds, the side-arming spitballer failed to post a winning record. On July 29, 1919, the Yankees sent Russell, pitcher Bob McGraw, and $40,000 to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher Carl Mays. The change of scenery was good for Russell. During the remainder of the season he won 10 games while losing only four for the Red Sox. His total record for the year included 15 wins and five saves.
In 1920 Russell suffered a blood clot in the brain (probably the result of an earlier beaning), leaving his right side paralyzed for five weeks. His health problems limited him to only five victories that year. Furthermore, the spitball ban threatened his career. Billy Evans wrote of Russell and Stan Coveleski, another spitball pitcher, “To use the words of many American League players, those two start with the spitball and finish with one.”
However, Russell, Coveleski, and 15 other spitball pitchers were granted lifetime exemptions from the spitball ban, and Russell recovered his health. He resumed pitching for the Red Sox, both as a starter and as a reliever.
On February 10, 1923, the Sox traded Russell and catcher Muddy Ruel to the Washington Nationals for catcher Val Picinich, outfielder Howard Shanks, and outfield prospect Ed Goebel. Many observers thought Boston got the better of the deal because of Goebel’s potential. The New York Times was particularly enthusiastic: “Harry Frazee swung another nice deal yesterday for his new manager, Frank Chance, and now it begins to look as if the task of rebuilding the Red Sox is on the rise. … This latest deal serves notice on the baseball world that Frazee and Chance mean business. … .It is hard to see where Frazee got the worst of this latest dicker.” The article went on to say that Russell had been of little use to the Red Sox and was nearly at the end of his string. The Times wrote: “Needing pitching badly, Clark Griffith, the Washington president, decided he could develop the right hander into a regular slabster, but Russell has shown little interest in his major league career.”
As it turned out, the highly touted Goebel never played a game for the Red Sox, while Ruel and Russell helped Washington win two American League pennants.
Although Russell had been used in relief occasionally throughout his career, the Nats made him an almost full-time relief specialist, one of the first in the history of baseball. His ability to go to the mound day after day earned him the nickname Rubberarm. During the 1923 season Russell appeared in 52 games, all but five of them in relief. He led the league in saves and relief wins, and had the circuit’s third best earned-run average.
In 1924 Russell ranked second in saves in the league with eight. In addition he won five games in relief. However, by now his teammate Fred Marberry was emerging as the leading relief pitcher of the decade, and Russell’s appearances became less frequent. Together the two relievers won or saved 39 of Washington’s 92 wins that season as the club won its first American League pennant. Russell made one appearance in the 1924 World Series, relieving in the fourth inning with his team trailing 3-2. He got Hank Gowdy to fly out; then New York Giants pitcher Rosy Ryan came to the plate. With the count two balls and one strike, Ryan hit a home run into the upper tier of the right-field stands, the first homer ever hit in a World Series by a National League hurler. Russell pitched three innings, giving up four hits and two runs, one of which was unearned.
The Senators captured the flag again in 1925, but Russell did not appear in the World Series that year. His final ma