Considered one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball, he compiled a career batting average of .345 (ninth all-time).

He held the major league career record for putouts by a center fielder (6,592) until he was surpassed by Willie Mays in 1971.

In 1915, Speaker's batting average dropped to .322 from .338 the previous season; he was traded to the Cleveland Indians when he refused to take a pay cut.

Speaker resigned as Cleveland's manager in 1926 after he and Ty Cobb faced game-fixing allegations; both men were later cleared.

Late in life, Speaker led a short-lived indoor baseball league, ran a wholesale liquor business, worked in sales and chaired Cleveland's boxing commission.

After losing several games as a pitcher, Speaker converted to outfielder to replace a Cleburne player who had been struck in the head with a pitch.

[10] Though she relented, for several years Mrs. Speaker questioned why her son had not stayed home and entered the cattle or oil businesses.

[13] That year, the club traded Speaker to the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern League in exchange for use of their facilities for spring training.

[15] Speaker became the regular starting center fielder for Boston in 1909 and light-hitting Denny Sullivan was sold to the Cleveland Naps.

He ran fast enough that he could stand very close to second base, effectively giving the team a fifth infielder, but he still caught the balls hit to center field.

The Red Sox won the final game after Fred Snodgrass dropped an easy fly ball and later failed to go after a Speaker pop foul.

[31] At one point, Speaker's signature move was to come in behind second base on a bunt and make a tag play on a baserunner who had passed the bag.

[33] Though World War I ended less than two months after he enrolled, Speaker completed his training and served in the naval reserves for several years.

[35] From the day that Speaker arrived in Cleveland, he was effectively assistant manager to Lee Fohl, who rarely made an important move without consulting him.

On a dead run, Speaker leaped with both feet off the ground, snaring the ball before crashing into a concrete wall.

[37] In the 1920 World Series against Brooklyn, Speaker hit an RBI triple in the deciding game, which the Indians won 3–0.

[39] During that championship season, Speaker is credited with introducing the platoon system, which attempted to match right-handed batters against left-handed pitchers and vice versa.

[41] AL President Ban Johnson asked Speaker and Detroit manager Cobb to resign their posts after a scandal broke in 1926.

In a newspaper column published shortly before the hearings were to begin, Billy Evans characterized the accusations as "purely a matter of personal revenge" for Leonard.

[42] When Leonard refused to appear at the January 5, 1927, hearings to discuss his accusations, Commissioner Landis cleared both Speaker and Cobb of any wrongdoing.

[43] At the time of his 1926 resignation, news reports described Speaker as permanently retiring from baseball to pursue business ventures.

By 1937, Speaker had opened a wholesale liquor business and worked as a state sales representative for a steel company.

Newspaper coverage credited Speaker with several key reforms to boxing in Cleveland, including the recruitment of new officials and protections against fight fixing.

[55] Speaker sorted out a scheduling conflict for a 1940 boxing match in Cleveland involving former middleweight champion Teddy Yarosz.

[62] Speaker served as vice president of the society, ran fundraising campaigns and received a distinguished service award from the organization.

In an article in the July 1952 issue of SPORT, Speaker recounted how Veeck hired him in 1947 to be a coaching consultant to Larry Doby, the first black player in the AL and the second in the major leagues.

A SPORT photograph that accompanied the article shows Speaker mentoring five members of the Indians: Luke Easter, Jim Hegan, Ray Boone, Al Rosen and Doby.

"[77] Speaker-Cobb-Rogers Hornsby biographer Charles C. Alexander, a Klan expert in his general history writings, told fellow baseball author Marty Appel, apparently referring to the 1920s, “As I’ve suggested in the biographies, it’s possible that they [Speaker, Cobb and Hornsby] were briefly in the Klan, which was very strong in Texas and especially in Fort Worth and Dallas.

The Klan went all out to recruit prominent people in all fields, provided they were native born, Protestant and white.”[78] Baseball historian Bill James does not dispute this claim in apparently referring to Speaker and possibly Cobb, but says that the Klan had toned down its racist overtures during the 1920s and pulled in hundreds of thousands of men, including Hugo Black.

[79] James adds that Speaker was a staunch supporter of Doby when he broke the American League color barrier, working long hours with the former second baseman on how to play the outfield.