A hitherto unknown episode in the late career of Grant Johnson.  From the New York Age (April 17, 1920), in an article about the Bacharach Giants’ spring training camp in Jacksonville, Florida:

The minister of the 2nd Baptist Church was about the most surprised citizen in Florida when he discovered many of the Bacharachs’ players occupying pews in his place of worship.  It seems as though the suggestion to attend church was offered by “Home Run Johnson.”  Capt. Dick, to show that he was no more heathen than the “home-run king,” agreed to accompany him.  Many of the other players followed suit.  The Bacharach team was already very popular in Jacksonville, but nothing could have brought them more into the public’s good graces.

“Capt. Dick” was the club’s new player-manager, Dick Redding (and the Age really liked this nickname, which it said had been coined by the players).  The 45-year-old Johnson was probably not in the Bacharachs’ camp primarily to exude holiness; the team’s hotshot young shortstop, Dick Lundy, had failed to report, holding out for higher pay.  Unfortunately, Johnson couldn’t give the Bacharachs much bargaining leverage.  In its report of an early-season doubleheader against the Tesreau Bears, the Age described his performance thusly:

All through both games Home Run Johnson had shown that he was no short stop even though he was stationed in that section of the garden….It must be said that the Bears were helped along considerably by the costly errors of a few of the Bacharach men and by some questionable decisions.  Principal among the fumblers was Home Run Johnson who seemed altogether out of place at short.  He was also largely at fault for String Bean’s mishap in the first encounter and threw away the last game when Capt. Dick had it all sewed up. (New York Age, May 8, 1920)

By the time of another doubleheader a couple of weeks later, this time against Guy Empey’s Treat ‘Em Roughs, Lundy was at his accustomed spot as shortstop.  No mention was made of Johnson, who had presumably returned to the Buffalo Stars of Pittsburgh.  None of the standard reference books today lists his brief and inglorious stay with the Bacharachs.