jor-league game came on September 19. He did not go out in a blaze of glory. Relieving Tom Zachary in the fourth inning with his team trailing 7-0, Russell pitched one scoreless inning and was blasted in the next, giving up a total of eight hits in 1 2/3 innings. Win Ballou, who relieved Russell, fared little better, being roughed up for nine hits in the remainder of the game. All told, the three Washington pitchers gave up 26 hits and 17 runs, while their mates collected only one hit off Ted Lyons in a 17-0 loss. The sole hit came by Bobby Veach with two out in the ninth inning. After the game, Veach went to the visitors clubhouse and apologized to Lyons for depriving him of what would have been the American League’s first no-hit game in more than two years.
After leaving the majors Russell returned to the International League and pitched without distinction for two more seasons. In the 1930 Census he is listed as a professional ballplayer, and he told the National Baseball Hall of Fame that his last year of professional baseball was 1930. However, there is no record of his having played in Organized Baseball after 1928. It is likely that he played in an independent league in 1929 and 1930. Later he worked for the States Marine-Isthmian Lines in Baltimore as a clerk in charge of deliveries.
Allan Russell died suddenly in Baltimore on October 20, 1972, at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife, the former Myrtle Rebecca Cunningham, whom he had married on July 8, 1915, and by their daughter, also named Myrtle. The man once called “Rubberarm” was buried in Loudon Park Memorial Cemetery in the Maryland metropolis.
January 22, 2011
This account is adapted from the chapter on Allan Russell in Faber, Charles F. and Richard B. Faber. Spitballers: The Last Legal Hurlers of the Wet One (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2006.)
Allan Russell’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown.
Personal correspondence with Norman Macht.
Selected issues of the Washington Post.
Palmer, Pete, and Gary Gillette, eds. The Baseball Encyclopedia (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2004)
Shatzkin, Mike, ed. The Ballplayers: Baseball's Ultimate Biographical Reference (New York: Arbor House and William Morrow, 1990)
The Baseball Encyclopedia (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1969)
The Baseball Encyclopedia, 9th edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993)
Thorn, John,, et al. Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia (Wilmington, Delaware: Sports Media, 2004)
Turkin, Hy, and S.C. Thompson, The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1951)
 In contemporary news accounts Russell’s first name was spelled indiscriminately as Allan or Allen. Most present-day references use the Allan spelling.
 New York Times, September 15, 1918.
 New York Press, September 18, 1915.
 Ruth, George Herman. Babe Ruth’s Own Book of Baseball, Bison Book Edition (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), p. 76.
 During World War I many players joined steel mill or shipyard teams in order to work in the defense industry, play ball, and avoid the draft. As a married man Russell was not likely to be drafted, although some married men were called up.
 Thorn, John, and John B. Holway. The Pitcher (New York: Prentice Hall, 1987), p. 447.
 Sporting News, February 3, 1921.
 New York Times, February 11, 1923.