Biography

Born in Oklahoma, Robert Lee Johnson was half Indian; hence the clever nicknames hung on him: “Cherokee” and “Indian Bob.” He got his chance to play with the A’s after Connie Mack began disassembling his second great club that had won the AL pennant three years in a row (1929-31). Johnson solidified his place on the A’s in his second season (1934) when he hit a career-high 34 home runs. He would hit more than 30 homers twice more for the A’s and 20 or more taters for them nine times. By 1938-39 when Johnson crafted seasons of .313/30/113 and .338/23/114, he was practically Philadelphia’s entire offense. He had eight 100+ RBI seasons (seven of them in a row), and he made the AL All-Star team seven times.

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