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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 20, 2024 15:19:24 GMT -5
Harry "Suitcase" Simpson Reserve Yankees Outfielder 1957-1958
This article was written by Cort Vitty, Edited by ClipperHarry Simpson first saw life as a child in the segregated South. He went on to be one of the 1st black players to break the color line. Born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 3, 1925, (many accounts list his birth year as 1923 or 1924), Harry was the 4th child of Frank and Maggie Simpson; according to the 1930 US Census, he had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. As a lad around Dalton, Georgia, a carpet-manufacturing city in the northern part of the state, Harry was called “Goody” because of his kind disposition and willingness to help. In September of 1941, with conflict escalating in Europe, Harry had enlisted in the Army; he was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, for basic training and served until the war ended in 1945. When he was discharged from the Army, he would marry the former Johnnie Cooper on August 15,1946.
Goose Curry, Manager of the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro National League, would sign Simpson for his team in 1946. Originally a right-handed pitcher, Simpson was moved to the outfield and hit a respectable .333 in 52 games.With the Stars in 1947, his average slipped to .244 and a dejected Simpson started to 2nd-guess his career choice. Life in the Negro leagues was hard and Simpson became discouraged. He would leave the Stars and got a sales job outside of baseball. Johnnie, his wife, convinced Harry that his future was in baseball; she pleaded with him to return to the diamond and he abided by her wishes.
Simpson later recalled those days: “It was a tough life” in the old Negro leagues. “Sometimes you’d play in 5 cities in 5 nights and never see a bed. We thought nothing of playing 3 games in the same day. … We never had a trainer. You carried some liniment and rubbed it on when you hurt.” But despite the tough life, there were great players in the Negro Leagues. Simpson recalled Josh Gibson as “the greatest hitter I ever saw. He was dying when I saw him, that last year. He couldn’t even stoop down behind the plate, but man, he could still hit.”
Simpson played against Satchel Paige and commented, “He wasn’t the fastest pitcher in our league. Maybe he had better control, but he wasn’t the fastest. Think what these fellows could’ve done if they’d been given a chance in their prime.” Simpson said Negro League stars earned $2,000 a month during the summer, then would play in Mexico or South America for as little as $50 a month. “Many of them, like Gibson, contracted fatal diseases, while earning eating money south of the border,” he asserted.
He picked up his nickname during his Negro League days. Harry wore a size 13 shoe, and a sportswriter dubbed him “Suitcase” Simpson, based on a character by that name with feet as large as suitcases, in the comic strip “Toonerville Folks.” A cartoon appeared in the paper showing Harry with feet as long as a bed. “At first, I didn’t like the name,” Simpson said much later, “now I’m used to it.”
In 1948, Simpson caught the eye of NBA coach Eddie Gottlieb, who doubled as an unofficial baseball scout. Gottlieb was greatly impressed and began calling him “the tan Ted Williams,” making a comparison to the slugging Boston Red Sox star. “He’s built like Ted, is faster and can field much better.” Gottlieb said. “I am not going to say that he will hit better than Ted, but he has a chance.” Simpson was described by writer Doc Young in Great Negro Baseball Stars as “a lean, bony, gangly man who was as loose as a dishrag at the plate.” In his prime, the trim outfielder stood 6-feet-1 and weighed 180 pounds.
Topps 1952 Player Photo
Based on glowing recommendations, 8 MLB scouts offered a tryout; all declined the opportunity to sign the prospect. At his own expense, Gottlieb had financed a trip to Arizona for Simpson to get a look-see by Cleveland Indians General Manager Hank Greenberg. The Indians, who were owned by Bill Veeck, had signed Larry Doby to be the 1st black player in the American League and were 1 of the 1st MLB teams to scout and sign black players. During a split-squad game, Harry went 4-for-4, including 2 HRs and Greenberg hustled to sign Gottlieb’s protégé.
In 1949, Simpson was assigned to the Wilkes-Barre Indians of the Class-A Eastern League. He hit .305, leading the league with 31 HRs, 120 RBIs and 125 runs scored. He made the league’s all-star squad. His club finished in 3rd place, making the playoffs, but losing the finals.
In 1950, Simpson was promoted to the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He hit .323 and led the loop with 156 RBIs in the 200-game season; he also contributed 19 triples and 33 HRs. After such an impressive season, it appeared the young man was headed to a prominent big-league career. GM Greenberg called Simpson “one of the finest prospects I’ve ever seen.”
Harry reported to the Indians’ 1951 training camp in Tucson, Arizona, and Manager Al Lopez started with the Ted Williams comparison too. “He cocks that bat like Williams,” Lopez told reporters, “and waits until the last moment to uncoil. Simpson lashes with the bat as if it were a buggy whip.” But the Indians roster included 4 black players – Larry Doby, Luke Easter, Minnie Minoso and Simpson. According to several sources including The Sporting News, Indians management wondered if 4 Negroes on the club were too many. Internally, they decided to keep 3 players.
When it came time to trim the roster, Greenberg decided to stick with Simpson and peddle Minnie Minoso to the Chicago White Sox. Harry hit over .400 during spring training, but wound up having a disappointing season, getting 332 at-bats, but hitting only .229, while driving in a measly 24 runs. Simpson split his time between the outfield and 1st base. Doc Young of the Pittsburgh Courier wrote that Simpson “should have been playing minor league ball for experience. The early promotion to the major leagues stunted a potentially promising career.” Simpson admitted that the rush to meet expectations left him anxious in the batter’s box; he altered his stance daily to try to get untracked. The pressure on Simpson was magnified when Minoso went on to become a big star with the White Sox.
Determined to find himself in 1952, Simpson attended a pre-spring-training batting school conducted by ex-Indian great Tris Speaker. Speaker remarked that Simpson “has got to find his own way.” Coincidentally, Simpson located an article authored by Ty Cobb on the subject of hitting. When in a slump, the article said, Cobb concentrated on only one thing — hitting the ball back at the pitcher. Simpson tried it, abandoning the power stroke that he had used in the Pacific Coast League.
“Might as well face it, I’m not strong enough,” Simpson said. “Out there a man hits a ball 360 feet and he has himself a HR. Up here, he’s just got himself a big out.” An early-season high point for Harry came on April 26th, when he broke up a no-hitter by Detroit’s Art Houtteman with 2 outs in the 9th inning. But a hot start (.347 by May 10th), cooled to just .266 by season’s end, with 10 HRs and 65 RBIs. Simpson was durable, though, playing in 146 of Cleveland’s 155 games, over 80% of them in the outfield. His .266 average was slightly above the Indians team average of .262.
In spring training of 1953, the Indians changed Simpson’s stance, moving him closer to the plate and placing his left foot slightly behind his right. Simpson believed this stance helped him put better wood on the ball and improved his timing. Sure enough, he was banging away at a .541 clip after 11 Grapefruit League contests, but GM Hank Greenberg cautioned against optimism regarding the highly touted outfielder. “To call him the greatest prospect to come out of the Pacific Coast league since Joe DiMaggio is silly. He does have ability and could develop into a fine ballplayer.” Simpson ultimately saw his average dip to .227 in 82 games with the Indians.
The 1954 Cleveland Indians would win 111 games, while claiming the American League flag, but it was without the services of Simpson. On March 24th, he had broken his wrist on a close play at the plate. Doctors predicted a recovery period of 6 weeks and the parent club decided to send Simpson back to the minors. The wrist would heal and Harry returned to the lineup with the AAA Indianapolis Indians, playing in an even 100 games. The club finished at the top of the American Association and Simpson contributed a .282 average with 12 HRs.
1957 Topps Baseball Card
Spring training of 1955 and the arrival of Ralph Kiner proved that room no longer existed on the Indians roster for the trim outfielder. Simpson was sold to the Kansas City Athletics on May 11th. When he reported to the A’s, Manager Lou Boudreau recommended returning to his original loose stance, spraying the ball to all fields. This relaxed approach plus plenty of playing time produced positive results, culminating in a .301 average and making him a fan favorite. He also showed his versatility by playing all 3 outfield positions as well as 1st base.
The next year, 1956 was a banner year for Simpson. He would hit .293 with 21 HRs and 105 RBIs. Naming him to the AL All-Star team, Yankees Manager Casey Stengel took note of his long, smooth stride in the outfield and strong throwing arm, and called him the best right fielder in the league. On June 24th, Simpson became a bit of a folk hero by depositing a HR onto Brooklyn Avenue, outside of Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium. The ballpark had a concrete wall atop a 40-foot-high embankment in right field, making it appear impossible to ever plant one on the other side. A barnstorming Babe Ruth even had trouble hitting the target during exhibition games. Simpson accomplished the Herculean feat on a pitch served up by Dave Sisler of the Red Sox.
1957 Yankees Player Photo
In June of 1957, Harry Simpson would move to the New York Yankees in the aftermath of the brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in New York involving some Yankees players. Simpson was hitting .296, when he was traded to the Yankees on June 15th, along with pitcher Ryne Duren and outfielder Jim Pisoni, in exchange for infielder Billy Martin, a participant in the Copacabana fight, pitcher Ralph Terry, infielder-outfielder Woody Held and outfielder Bob Martyn. The consensus was that the A’s got the better of the deal. Simpson was initially pleased to become a Yankee, but came to regret the deal that sent him to the big city. “The worst break I ever got was being traded to the Yankees,” he said later. He sensed something was wrong upon reporting to the Yankee clubhouse and meeting Casey Stengel. “I introduced myself to Casey,” Simpson recalled. “He didn’t say he was glad to have me or anything else. Instead, he started talking about how he hated to lose Billy Martin. … It made me feel a little funny.”
Simpson’s sense of the situation was pretty much on the mark. He knew he’d platoon with the Yankees and history showed that he wasn’t at his best coming off the bench. He had ended the 1957 season hitting .250 in 75 games. During the 1957 World Series, Simpson and Elston Howard alternated at 1st base, spelling an injured Moose Skowron. Simpson would hit a disappointing .083 in the Fall Classic as the Milwaukee Braves prevailed over the Yankees in 7 games. Harry Simpson was hitting a mere .216 on June 15,1958, when the Yankees had traded him back to Kansas City along with pitcher Bob Grim for A’s hurlers Duke Maas and Virgil Trucks. The deal was announced during a Yankees game against the Detroit Tigers, but Casey Stengel decided to send Harry up as a pinch hitter anyway. Back in Kansas City, he would post a .264 average in 78 games.
Simpson’s signed contact for the 1959 season was accompanied by a letter to Parke Carroll, General Manager of the A’s, in which he wrote, “I’m a better ballplayer than I showed you last year. I just hope you will believe in me. I’ll prove I’m better. I’ve just got to vindicate myself.” On May 2nd, Harry was hitting a solid .286, but the A’s would send him to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for infielder Ray Boone. Chisox Owner Bill Veeck and his General Manager, Hank Greenberg, had signed Simpson to his 1st major-league contract and were of course very familiar with him. They hoped that Simpson would add spark to the Sox lineup and wanted to take advantage of Harry’s versatility.
But Simpson batted only .187 in 38 games with the White Sox before being dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 25th for slugging infielder Ted Kluszewski, a 34-year-old veteran of 13 National League seasons. Simpson got into only 9 games with the Pirates, hitting .267 in 15 at-bats. Big Klu would hit .297 during the balance of the White Sox season and contributed a torrid .391 batting average during the 1959 World Series against the Dodgers. After all of the hoopla was over, the White Sox eventually bought Simpson back from the Pirates on October 13th. Simpson was about the unluckiest player in all of major-league baseball during 1959; his timing in and out of Chicago cost him a World Series check.
In 1960, Simpson saw action with the PCL AAA San Diego Padres, batting .222 in 95 games. Back with the Padres in 1961, he would appear in 146 games, hitting .303 with 24 HRs and 105 RBIs.
In 1962, the veteran was back with the AAA Indianapolis Indians, where he would hit .279 in 132 games with 24 HRs. He would start 1963 season with AAA Indianapolis, hitting .382 in 11 games, before moving onto the Mexican League Diablo Rojos, where he hit .334 with 21 HRs. He continued playing for the Red Devils in 1964, hitting .306 with 14 HRs. On that note, he would retire as an active player.
Simpson had moved to Akron, Ohio, in 1959. He would work as a machinist at Goodyear Aerospace from 1967 until he retired in 1976. He had suffered a heart attack and died on April 3,1979, in Akron. His funeral services were held at the New Trinity Baptist Church, where Harry was a deacon. He is buried at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton, Georgia.
Harry Simpson criticized any ballplayer who didn’t give 100 percent and especially black players who didn’t hustle. “The important thing as I see it, is that I, as a Negro, have been given a great privilege and I just wish all members of my race felt the same deep gratitude as I do,” he once said. “Here I am making more money than a great percentage of the men of my race. Here I am on a ballclub where I’ve been given every chance in the world to make good. What more could I possibly want? I live as good as anybody could. I get a good salary. I’ve got a good job. Baseball has given this to me. Where could I have gotten all this? In what other profession could I have been given the same chance?”
All told, Simpson hit a workmanlike .266 in a MLB career spanning 1951 through 1959. In 888 major-league contests, with 2,829 at-bats, his on-base percentage registered a respectable .331. The versatile outfielder/1st baseman had a career fielding average of .984. All of these factors certainly contributed to his longevity in the days, when each league had 8 teams.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 20, 2024 19:03:27 GMT -5
Artie Wilson Caught in Players Rights Dispute between the Tribe and Yankees Management
This article was written by Rob Neyer, Edited by Clipper  Artie Wilson Oakland Oaks Player Photo
Artie Wilson’s baseball career makes just the barest impression in the old Baseball Encyclopedia: 19 games and 24 plate appearances spread across 5 weeks in the spring of 1951. But both before and after that short stint with the famously fated 1951 Giants, Wilson ranked for years as one of the biggest stars in 2 big-time leagues and is forever remembered by big-time baseball fans in both the Deep South and the Pacific Northwest.
Arthur Lee Wilson was born near Birmingham, Alabama, on October 10,1920, just a couple of weeks after the Cleveland Indians had finished off the Brooklyn Robins in the World Series. We don’t know much about Wilson’s childhood. By the late 1930s, though, he was working in a Birmingham factory. In 1939, he suffered an accident that might easily have cost him a sterling baseball career almost before it began. “I was cleaning up the machine shop,” Wilson later recalled. “I happened to be standing close by a machine and then a long piece of iron got hooked and was vibrating in the saw. I tried to grab it but I didn’t know what happened. I ran across to the warehouse station and I needed someone to turn off that machine. I didn’t know my thumb was [gone] until I pulled the glove off. I pulled out my thumb, which got caught up in that glove.”
More than a half-century later, Wilson recalled using a golf ball as a rehab tool. “I carried that golf ball all the time,” he said in 1997. “My thumb got strong and I never missed it. The only thing was that when I threw, I had a natural sinker.”
Wilson reportedly didn’t miss a single day of work. Or a baseball game, either. In those years, the Birmingham Black Barons played the area’s best baseball. But just a rung below was the Industrial League, with all-black teams representing local factories and steel mills. Before the 1944 season, the Barons shortstop Piper Davis told the owner about an even better shortstop. Just a few months later, having signed with the Barons, Wilson earned a spot in the starting lineup for the Negro American League in the East-West All-Star Game, black baseball’s annual soiree held at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. He missed out in 1945 – Jackie Robinson got the spot instead – but was again the West’s starting shortstop from 1946 through 1948. In the latter season, Wilson was credited for many years with a .402 batting average in 76 games; today, some consider him the last .400 hitter in a “major” league (a claim only bolstered by further research showing him with a .428 average that season in approximately 40 official league games).
The story of how Wilson wound up as property of the New York Yankees has been told in different ways in different places, but Neil Lanctot’s version in Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution seems the most reliable.
In the winter after the 1948 season, the Yankees had offered Black Barons Team Owner Tom Hayes the going rate: $5,000 for Wilson’s rights, with another $5,000 if he was still with the Yankees in June. Hayes would telegraphed his acceptance, but later reneged when Bill Veeck’s Indians offered more; Wilson, too, reportedly wasn’t thrilled about going to the Yankees and taking a significant pay cut from his Barons salary. So, on the 9th or 10th of February, with Bill Veeck having flown to Puerto Rico for the occasion, Wilson signed a contract with the Indians. “Our scouts say he is the best prospect in the Negro Leagues today,” Veeck told reporters. “Better, even, than Larry Doby.”
“I’ve hit major league pitching before,” Wilson said. “I think I can hit it again. … It’s going to be like going to school all over again. I know I have a lot – an awful lot – to learn. But again, I think I can do it.” After the 1946 season, Wilson had joined Satchel Paige’s All-Stars in a barnstorming tour around the Eastern half of the United States, with Bob Feller’s All-Stars providing the competition, and the black and white players mingled freely. “I talked with all of them,” Wilson told me in 2004. “Phil Rizzuto said, ‘If I had an arm like yours, I’d play for a 100 years. We went out there to beat ’em, the major leaguers. And they wanted to win. They didn’t want no black players beating them.”
The Yankees didn’t have any real interest in Wilson, but they certainly didn’t want Veeck to have him, either. Immediately after the news broke about Wilson’s new contract, General Manager George Weiss issued a statement: “There are so many angles to this affair which must be studied, that the Yankees offer no comment at this time other than to say Cleveland has acted unethically if not in direct violation with baseball law.”
For his part, Wilson said during spring training, “New York made me an offer. I didn’t accept it. Cleveland came along with another offer. I liked it. I accepted it and signed. That’s all there is to it.”
Ah, but the Yankees would lodge a formal complaint. Meanwhile, Wilson reportedly enjoyed spring training with the Tribe. “They treated me like a king,” he said many years later. “I thought I could play shortstop until I came to that camp. I learned the most from [Joe] Gordon. He told me I had to learn to play the hitters, watch the catcher’s signals and take a step before the ball was hit.”
However much he learned, Wilson had almost no chance of breaking into the Indians’ lineup. Not with Manager Lou Boudreau manning shortstop, perennial All-Star Ken Keltner at 3rd base and future Hall of Famer Joe Gordon at 2nd base. Before spring training camp had ended, Wilson was optioned to the Indians’ farm club in the Pacific Coast League, leading Dan Daniel to write, “Wilson has been sent to San Diego and never will make the major leagues. Not so long ago Veeck said he would not trade Wilson for Phil Rizzuto.”
On May 13th, the Office of the Commissioner had handed down Decision No. 26, regarding the disposition of both Wilson and Outfielder Luis Marquez (also the subject of a dispute between Indians Owner Bill Veeck and Yankees GM Gorge Weiss). In what must have seemed a brilliant balancing act, Commissioner Albert “Happy” Chandler gave Marquez to the Indians and Wilson to the Yankees; more specifically, Wilson was “awarded to the Newark International League Club.”
Wilson was immediately transferred from the AAA San Diego Padres club – with whom the Indians had a working relationship – in the Pacific Coast League to the Yankees’ Newark Bears AAA affiliate in the International League. But Wilson never went to Newark. Instead, he would stayed in the Pacific Coast League, thanks to a deal with the AAA Oakland Oaks. Still in his prime, Wilson batted .348 overall and captured his 2nd batting title in 2 years.
When Wilson arrived in Oakland, there weren’t any other black players and he was told he’d have to room alone. According to 1 story, Billy Martin said, “He’s got a roomie now. I’ll room with him.”
“We were close,” Wilson said in 1993 about Martin. “We’d go hear music together, everything. And we stayed in touch.”
But while Martin would soon join the Yankees, Wilson would not. First, Boudreau had blocked Wilson and now Rizzuto (plus the Yankees deeply held organizational prejudices). So, 1950 was just more of the same, as Wilson had batted .311 in 196 games with the AAA Oakland Oaks. That May the New York Age, a black newspaper, reported that while the Yankees still owned Wilson’s players rights, “Art would rather quit baseball than play with the Bombers, who tried their best to get rid of him last year. … He’s on the Coast playing with the Oakland team and making a boatload of loot.”
1951 Artie Wilson Giants Player Photo
After the season, though, it looked as though Artie would finally get his shot in the majors, when the New York Giants had acquired him from Oakland in a 6-player, $125,000 deal. Asked for comment, Bobby Hofman, Wilson’s erstwhile double-play partner with the Oaks, allowed that Wilson was solid rather than flashy on the field. But off the field? “He collects those silly looking golf caps, all colors,” Hofman said. “He doesn’t play golf at all; he just wears the damn caps. Must have 40 of them, at least.” For his part, Wilson would admit owning only 7 or 8: “I just like to wear ’em.”
A couple of weeks before Opening Day, Giants Manager Leo Durocher was asked to name the spring’s biggest development. His response: “This fellow Wilson. In my book he has been terrific and I don’t see how I’m going to keep him out of the lineup. He can play 2nd, short, or 3rd; he can play the outfield, and don’t be surprised if one of these days you see him on 1st base. A fellow who can field and hit the way he can is going to take somebody’s job, make no mistake about that.” He’d also reportedly claimed that only 3 National League shortstops – the Giants’ own Alvin Dark, along with Granny Hammer and Pee Wee Reese – could beat out Wilson in a fair match.
As expected, though, Wilson would opened the season on the Giants’ bench. His 3rd game action, like the 1st 2 as a pinch-hitter in a game the Giants were losing came against the Dodgers, who just happened to be managed by Chuck Dressen, Wilson’s Manager with Oakland in both 1949 and 1950. Dressen probably had seen Wilson play more games against tough competition than anyone else, and he trotted out that knowledge against the Giants, ordering what the New York World-Telegram’s Joe King described as “a shift which probably had never before been seen in the big leagues… shifting 3 of his infielders to the left side of 2nd base and pulling in his right fielder Carl Furillo to play 2nd. He would leave left right field wide open, undefended and right field in Harlem roams 460 feet from the plate before it turns toward center.”
Alas, Wilson couldn’t take advantage of the shift, tapping weakly to pitcher Don Newcombe. According to King, Dressen hadn’t invented the shift; “Lefty O’Doul of the San Francisco Seals had worked it on Wilson frequently,” and Wilson’s only HR in 1950 came, when he hit the ball against the shift.
In fact, Wilson had been facing extreme shifts since early in his Organized Baseball career. Back in 1950, the following item appeared in Pacific Coast Baseball News:
“Li’l Artie has done more than expected of him since he joined the Oaks from the Padres. … His play at short has been so remarkable defensively the Oaks pace all other teams in double-plays. His scrappiness has earned him the admiration of his teammates, the respect of his foes. Yet, with his skills and years of experience, he still possesses the eagerness to learn and is often out during the day with skipper Charley Dressen trying to improve his fielding and hitting, when a night game is slated. He’s the fire in the Oakland wheel that keeps it rolling so fast toward 1st place. And even the adoption of the ‘Williams’ shift hasn’t stopped his flurry of base-hits. The lad runs, hits, fields superbly –what more does one need to be the outstanding player of the year[?]”
1951 Giants, Monte Irvin, Artie Wilson, Hank Thompson,Ray Noble
Wilson finally started a game on April 26th, going 1-for-3 with a walk while spelling Eddie Stanky at 2nd base. On May 6th, he started at shortstop in the 2nd game of a doubleheader, going 1-for-4. While he would get into 10 more games with the Giants, he wouldn’t start again. His last hit came on May 12th, when he singled home Bobby Thomson in a losing effort against the Phillies. In the stands that afternoon: General Douglas MacArthur, dressed in mufti and attending his 1st major-league game since 1935.
Back in 1948, Wilson’s last season with the Barons, one of his teammates was a 17-year-old outfielder named Willie Mays. In the spring of 1951, Mays was batting .477 for the Giants’ AAA Minneapolis farm team. It was time. But with Mays coming up, somebody had to go down. It was Willie’s old Birmingham mentor.
Tommy Sampson, who played with and managed Wilson in Birmingham, attributed Wilson’s short stint in the majors to his extreme hitting style. “You know the reason why?” Sampson told interviewer Brent Kelley. “He couldn’t hit the ball to right field. That was his problem. You throw the ball and he’s gonna hit it to left field anyway, or he’s gonna hit it to shortstop. He was always running away from the plate; he hit running. That’s the reason why he didn’t stay up.”
Meanwhile, Monte Irvin offered a couple of reasons for the demotion: “Although nobody wants to admit it,” Irvin wrote in his memoir, “there was an unwritten quota system at the time that limited the number of black players on a ballclub. But Durocher was going to send Artie down anyway because Leo thought it was simply outrageous that he couldn’t pull the ball. If he had been getting base hits, it might have been different. … Wilson had never pulled the ball before and couldn’t in the majors. …”
Yes, keeping Wilson would have given the Giants 5 black players: Wilson, Mays, Thompson, Monte Irvin and backup catcher Ray Noble. It’s been said that Giants Owner Horace Stoneham simply didn’t want more than 4 black players on the club. As a practical matter, most teams with black players preferred an even number, because it was felt, however ridiculously, that a black player must have a black roommate. And it was 2 per room.
Of course, it was also true that Wilson’s Manager hadn’t found much use for him. When Mays was promoted, Wilson had started only 2 games, pinch-hit in 11 more and collected just 4 hits (all singles) in 22 at-bats.
And as Wilson would later say, “Leo had 2 people that he could option out – Ray Noble or myself. But we already had an agreement that if he wasn’t going to play me, he was going to send me to Oakland’s minor-league affiliate in the Pacific Coast League, because I can’t sit on the bench and just do nothing; I’ve got to play.”
Initially, the Giants sent Wilson to AAA Ottawa in the International League. But after just a few days (and 2 games) with that club, he was shifted to AAA Minneapolis. And after a few weeks there, it was back to AAA Oakland. According to 1 source, Oaks Owner Brick Laws called Giants Owner Horace Stoneham and pleaded for Wilson, because otherwise the Oaks just wouldn’t draw any fans. Oakland’s fans presented a large floral arrangement upon Wilson’s return to the city and the club drew more than 23,000 fans for his 1st 3 games. And after a doubleheader against the San Francisco Seals that season, Manager Lefty O’Doul said, “You don’t see shortstop being played better by anybody than you saw it today. I spent a few years in the majors, but I never saw anything like the exhibition Wilson staged.”
After the season the Cardinals and other National League clubs reportedly inquired with the Giants about acquiring 2nd baseman Eddie Stanky to serve as player-manager. It says something about Artie Wilson’s declining stock that, in the event Stanky did leave, Wilson was merely listed among lesser lights Bob Hofman, Dave Williams, and Rudy Rufer as candidates to replace him in the Giants’ lineup. In the event, the Giants did trade Stanky to the Cardinals and Williams took over at 2nd base. In fact, just before Stanky was officially dispatched, the Giants would sell Wilson to the Pacific Coast League’s AAA Seattle Rainiers.
Wilson’s stock had obviously fallen, not surprising considering his .255 batting average in 81 games with the Oaks. But with the Rainiers, he had rediscovered his batting stroke, topping .300 in each of his 3 seasons in Seattle. In 1953, Wilson became the Rainiers’ everyday 2nd baseman, and would play mostly that position for the rest of his career.
In 1955, he would joined the PCL’s AAA Portland Beavers, where one of his teammates was outfielder Ed Mickelson. In Mickelson’s memoir, he wrote,
“Artie kept us alive with his infectious, positive spirit, saying, ‘Never fear, Artie’s here!”
… Artie’s forte was a line drive over the 3rd baseman’s head, just inside the left field line. Even though he was a left-handed hitter, the defense bunched him to the left, but he would still manage to drop the ball the opposite way, safely down the left field line for a base hit. …
“Artie, whom I guessed to be either a shade over or under 40, could still run, display an average arm, hit PCL pitching for over a .300 average and, perhaps most importantly, display a love and zest for the game that was unmatched by most. God! How I would have loved to have seen Artie Wilson play in his youth.”
According to one source, Wilson became known in the Coast League as “the Birmingham Gentleman.” He returned to Seattle for most of 1956 and all of 1957, struggling in the latter season. Still only 36, Wilson seemed to be finished. But in 1962, after 4 seasons out of baseball, he made a brief and unsuccessful comeback, batting .186 over 39 games in the Class-A Northwest League and the Triple-A PCL (with Portland again). After which he really was finished in the game.
Very late in his life, Wilson’s youthful skills would be acknowledged once more. At a 2006 gala in Beverly Hills, Willie Mays honored his 4 living Birmingham Barons teammates: Bill Greason, Stephen Zapp, Sammy Williams and Artie Wilson. “What they did for me,” Mays said before the dinner, “I’ll never forget. … I want to give them as much credit as I can.” A few months later, Wilson threw out the 1st pitch at a Yankees-Mariners game in Seattle. And around the same time, the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia retroactively named Wilson the Negro American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1944.
At times in his playing career, Wilson had been listed as 5-feet-11 and 170 or even 175 pounds. But late in his life he would say, “I never weighed 175 pounds. I weigh 162 pounds, what I’ve always weighed. And I’m only 5-feet-10.”
In 1989, he was named to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the PCL Hall of Fame in 2003. On October 31, 2010, just 3 days after his 90th birthday, Artie Wilson died in Portland. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Until nearly the end, Wilson had kept going to work at Gary Worth Lincoln Mercury for more than 30 years, where he’d been employed for decades. “I can’t sit down,” he said in 1997. “There’s nothing to do at home.”
He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, whom he’d wed back in 1949. They had 2 children, Zoe and Arthur Lee Wilson II. Known as Artie Jr., the latter starred in basketball at the University of Hawaii and for some years worked in broadcasting and real estate. The elder Wilson also had a daughter from an earlier marriage and departed with 4 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 21, 2024 14:09:10 GMT -5
Pitcher Rubén Gómez
Who Left the 1952 Yankees Minor League SystemThis article was written by Thomas Van Hyning, Edited by Clipper  Gomez Winter League Player PhotoRubén Gómez was the 2nd pitcher from Puerto Rico to reach the majors and the 1st to start and win a World Series Game. He led the New York Giants to a 6-2 win in Game 3 at Cleveland on October 1, 954. A limber 6 feet even and 170-175 pounds, Gómez was amazingly durable. He pitched in just 10 big-league seasons, but no one is even close to his 29-year career in the Puerto Rican Winter League (PRWL).
From 1947 through 1977, he had amassed 174 regular-season wins and 27 postseason wins in the PRWL, all but one with the Santurce Cangrejeros (Crabbers). These are marks that will never be broken. All told, “El Divino Loco” the Divine Crazy won over 400 games as a pro.
Rubén Gómez: Career Won-Lost Snapshot
Regular Season Postseason Major Leagues: 1953-1960; 1962; 1967 76-86 1-0
Puerto Rican Winter League: 1947-1977 174-119 27-10
U.S./Canadian minor leagues: 1949-1952; 1960-1963 69-36 NA
Mexico: 1964-1967; 1971 19-21 NA
Dominican Republic (Summer) 1952 8-3 3-3
Dominican Republic (LIDOM-Winter) 1963-1964 1-0 –
Venezuela 1966– 2-1
Semi-pro (Canada) 1968-1970 27-5
Totals: 374-270 33-14
Despite his 1954 World Series win, Gómez’s biggest pro baseball thrill came in Havana, Cuba. On February 22,1953, his game-winning hit lifted Santurce to a Caribbean Series title for Puerto Rico over Cuba. His 6 career victories in this tournament (a matter of great regional pride) are tied for the most ever with Cuba’s Camilo Pascual and Venezuela’s José “Carrao” Bracho.
Rubén Gómez Colón was born in the Aguirre community of Arroyo, Puerto Rico, on July 13, 1927. He was the 5th child of Luis Gómez and Dolores Colón (aka Doña Lola). Rubén’s siblings were Luis (“Wiso”), Lillian, Rafaelina and Baby. Rubén was influenced by his stepfather, Don José Jacinto Barclay, who was of English descent. Barclay was an educated fellow who ran a few departments within the sugar cane industry of Aguirre, according to his grandson, Rafael Gómez.
The Guayama Brujos (Witches) were Rubén’s favorite PRWL team, winning back-to-back titles in the league’s initial seasons: 1938-1939 and 1939-1940. Rubén, who loved to play and watch baseball and to fish studied the warm-up tosses of Guayama’s Satchel Paige before the Sunday twin-bills in 1939-1940. Paige “warmed up using cigarette packets as a home plate and threw strike after strike over that tiny object,” said Rafael Gómez. Rubén’s other favorite Brujo hurler was lefty Barney “Brinquito” Brown, who was with Guayama in 1941-1942.
Rubén graduated from George Washington High School in Guayama in 1945 after starring in volleyball, track & field, and baseball, mainly as a center fielder. His mentor was coach Candido Fortier, who 1st taught the young man the fine art of pitching. Gómez would enroll at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) on an athletic scholarship. He earned it by his success in the 300-meter run, the 4 x 100-meter relay, the high jump and the pole vault.
UPR played the island’s top amateur (AA) baseball teams, Juncos and Humacao. Pepe Seda, the UPR baseball coach, was also the San Juan Senators’ GM and a Caribbean Scout for the New York Yankees. San Juan and the Santurce Crabbers were after Gómez’s services in 1947. Luis “Maquenco” Soler, a Crabbers scout, and Monchile Concepción, their 3rd base coach, loved Rubén’s talent.
After many visits to the Gómez household, Santurce Owner Pedrín Zorrilla would convince Doña Lola to let Rubén sign with his Crabbers. Pedrín became a guide, mentor and father figure to Rubén.
The 1947-1948 Santurce Crabbers featured outstanding imports from the Negro Leagues: Willard Brown, Bob Thurman, Earl “Mickey” Taborn, John Ford Smith and Satchel Paige. They gave advice to the younger Puerto Rican players and took them under their wings. Gómez was particularly impressed with Willard Brown: “Brown still holds the all-time record of 27 HRs in 60 games [set that season],” Gómez reminisced. “It was our era…we had a great time together.” Ruben married his 1st wife, María Teresa Carlo, early in his Santurce career.
Gómez got his nickname of “El Divino Loco” from friends and Santurce teammates for 2 reasons: his highway speeding habits and crazy (yet safe) driving off the field; and, he could not be intimidated on the mound. His best friend on the club was Luis Raul Cabrera, aka “Cabrerita.” Cabrera understood that his mantle as the team’s “bread and butter” pitcher and nemesis of arch-rival San Juan would be passed on to Gómez. Cabrera’s sidearm deliveries were like those of Kent Tekulve, the reliever who emerged with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1970s.
Vic Harris, Santurce’s Manager in Gómez’s 1st 3 winter seasons, appreciated his versatility that #22 could start, relieve, play the outfield, pinch-hit or pinch-run. Gómez’s 1st post-season game for Harris was a win at Ponce in Game 3 of the 1948-1949 semi-finals. Cabrera won Games 1 and 5 as Santurce advanced to the finals against Mayagűez. Gómez hung on for an 8-7 win in Game 2 and pitched well in long relief in Game 5. “Those Mayagűez hitters (Wilmer Fields, Johnny Davis, Alonzo Perry, Luke Easter, Artie Wilson) were so good,” said Gómez. “I had to pitch with my heart as well as my talent.”
Gómez added a screwball to his repertoire of fastballs, curves, sliders and a change-up (drop), after hitting against Barney Brown (by then with Ponce) in 1947-1948. Brown’s pitches tailed away from the right-handed hitting Gómez. Not only could he handle the bat, Gómez made heads turn with his terrific fielding ability. Island sportswriters called him a 10th player on the field due to his speed covering 1st on a 3-to-1 play and ability to field bunts. Rafael Bracero, an island sportscaster, marveled at Rubén’s ability in both the infield and outfield. “Rubén made basket catches in the outfield look easy,” said Bracero. “He was as good a fielder on the mound or even better than Greg Maddux.”
Gómez would finished degree requirements at UPR in the spring of 1949, before playing in the US minor leagues for the 1st time. Gómez (5-1) and Cabrera (11-1) pitched superbly for the 1949 Bristol (Connecticut) Owls, an unaffiliated team in the Class-B Colonial League. Puerto Rican star Carlos Bernier told them about the opportunity. The Owls bested Waterbury in the semis and Bridgeport in the finals. Rubén would pitched 4 more games with Bristol in 1950, but he didn’t get along with the Business Manager there and asked to be traded. He would land with the St. Jean (Quebec) Braves in the Class-C Provincial League. The Havana Cubans, a Washington Senators farm club which had many prominent Cuban pitchers, would draft Gómez from St. Jean in December 1950. He got into 4 games for Havana, who were managed by Adolfo Luque, in 1951. However, he spent most of the 1950 and 1951 seasons with St. Jean, going 14-4 and 13-8. During this time, Rubén became fluent in French.
Gómez averaged 12 wins per PRWL season from 1949-1950 through 1954-1955, and won the 1951-1952 League MVP Award. Frank Thomas, who played with San Juan in 1951-1952, said that Gómez was the “league’s best pitcher.” Santurce dethroned Caguas in 1950-51 to win their first league title and Caribbean Series. They won the former on a walk-off homer by Jose “Pepe” Lucas. Rubén recruited Lucas, a Dominican, to play for Santurce in the late 1940s, during a baseball tournament in Santo Domingo. They became close friends and fishing buddies. Lucas’s February 16,1951 HR became known as the “Pepelucazo” comparable in island lore to Bobby Thomson’s homer off of Ralph Branca on October 3,1951. Gómez won 2 February 1951 Caribbean Series games, both over Panama’s Spur Cola Colonites; he saved 1 versus the host Magallanes (Venezuela) Navigators. Santurce won the 4-team round robin at 5-1, to edge the Havana Reds (with Hoyt Wilhelm) by 1 game. Gómez earned a spot on the Series All-Star team
The New York Yankees had kept their eye on Gómez, their Triple-A club Kansas City Blues in the American Association would drafted him in December 1951. Casey Stengel, the Yankees’ Manager, had taken time off from a February 1952 vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands to watch Gómez shut out San Juan, 1-0 in Game 2 of the 1951-1952 finals. That helped assure the pitcher’s assignment to Kansas City, but he wasn’t happy there. Rubén remembered, “I pitched a win for Kansas City; they didn’t use me for a month [even after he’d recovered from a broken little finger on his pitching hand]. So, I went to play [summer] ball with Licey in the Dominican Republic and the Yankees had suspended me. With the AAA Blues, Ruben had posted a 1-0 record with a 11.70 ERA in 5 games. At the end of that season, I bought out my contract for $3,000 by giving money to another person, who gave the cash to them.”
Yet despite such infrequent action with AAA Kansas City Blues, Ruben Gómez still had attracted the attention of the New York Giants. Chick Genovese, the Manager of the Giants’ Triple-A club in Minneapolis, filed a positive report on the pitcher. But over and above that, Pedrín Zorrilla, a good friend of Giants Team Owner Horace Stoneham was a Caribbean bird dog for the club.
Gómez’s 1952-1953 season in the PRWL, would featured duels with San Juan righty Cot Deal and 2 lefties: Harvey Haddix and Don Liddle in City Championship match-ups. Deal reinforced Santurce for the 1953 Caribbean Series, and Liddle would become Rubén’s teammate with the 1954 New York Giants. One duel on October 21,1952 ended with a 4-0 shutout by Haddix — was the 1st pro game played by Roberto Clemente, the 18-year-old Santurce outfielder, who played a few innings in left field.
Gómez got permission to travel to away games in his own car, instead of the team bus, due to motor coach car sickness. Billy Hunter, a Santurce teammate in 1952-1953, recalled a harrowing experience seated next to Rubén in his sports car going to Mayagűez. Gómez’s mountain turns at 90 miles per hour were scary. Even scarier were crosses at the roadside marking the site of fatal accidents. Hunter was relieved upon arriving in Mayagűez. Hunter, 40 years later, noted that Puerto Rico was the only place, he had played, where fans exploded firecrackers during a game.
1954 Topps Baseball Card
Pedrín Zorrilla had helped Rubén sign a $10,000 contract with the 1953 New York Giants, plus a $5,000 signing bonus in Santurce’s team office, on February 5,1953. Gómez then would shut out Ponce, 1-0 with an 11-inning gem to open the best-of-5 semifinals. The Crabbers would sweep Ponce and bested San Juan, 4 games to 2, to win the PRWL title. Santurce, with players from other teams Cot Deal, Vic Power, José Santiago, Luis Márquez, Joe Montalvo would sweep the Caribbean Series, with a key Game 3 win over Havana. Cot Deal recalled, “They led us by 2 runs (5-3). I had been the relief pitcher in the 7th, when Buster Clarkson, our Manager, left me in to hit, the Havana fans really let the Puerto Rican fans have it. They let up a bit, when I doubled. Márquez followed with a single. Junior Gilliam singled. The Cuban fans were not so vociferous at this point. Pellot [Power] singled, putting the tying and winning runs on 2nd and 3rd. Rubén Gómez, who had run for Willard Brown, was left in to hit. The scorecard had him as a pitcher, which brought the hooters and hecklers back to life. They didn’t know what Manager Clarkson and those of us from Puerto Rico knew…Gómez singled sharply in the 9th to score the tying and winning runs. Grand Stadium became awfully quiet.”
Gómez, who had homered in Santurce’s opening game win over Chesterfield of Panama, called the game-winning hit versus Cuba the highlight of his pro career: “Nothing can top that one,” said Gómez. “It’s the only time a [professional] team from Puerto Rico had won the Caribbean Series in Cuba.”
This momentum continued into Giants spring training camp in Arizona in 1953. In a game against Cleveland early that camp, Gómez fanned 3 straight hitters: Larry Doby, Luke Easter and Harry “Suitcase” Simpson. Gómez remembered, “I called my wife, María Teresa, and told her ‘We’re in the big leagues! They’re going to give me a new number (28) to replace 72.’” Their only child at the time was Rubén, Jr. Rafael was born shortly after the 1954 World Series. Nilka was their 3rd and last child. Ruben’s wife preferred to be called Teresa, when she introduced herself to the author in 1965.
In August 1953, The Sporting News ran a full-page feature about Gómez headlined, “Giants Plucked a Peach in Puerto Rico.” It was a streaky year, but he got help from pitching coach Freddie Fitzsimmons, especially with the slider. He won the confidence of Manager Leo Durocher, who tended not to be fond of rookies. Cincinnati Manager Rogers Hornsby, who’d watched the Caribbean Series, told Durocher that Gómez was the best pitcher he’d seen from the region.Yankees Manager Casey Stengel told the Yankees brass that they’d made a mistake.
By season’s end, Gómez had gone 13-11, 3.40 ERA with 3 shutouts. He had earned 1953 MLB All-Rookie team honors. Underscoring how strong the PRWL was then, that squad also included ex-Santurce teammates Jim Gilliam and Billy Bruton; San Juan’s Ray Jablonski and Harvey Haddix; and Caguas (1953-1954) hurler Bob Buhl.
Santurce finished last in 1953-1954, when Gómez and Tom Lasorda were the team’s best starters. Mickey Owen, 1953-1954 Caguas player-manager, struck gold when Gómez had replaced Buhl on Caguas’s roster for the 1954 Caribbean Series. Gómez won his start against Venezuela to help Caguas win it. Owen, the catcher, said, “He was a pleasure to catch. I think he had 10 strikeouts.”
Leo Durocher’s 1954 New York Giants had won the NL pennant by 5 games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Gómez’s best season in the majors helped: a 17-9 record and 2.88 ERA, fueled by 4 shutouts. “I was in a groove most of that season,” said Gómez. “I established a friendship with Willie Mays and knew Don Liddle and Monte Irvin from winter ball. I was 13, when Irvin 1st came to Puerto Rico (with San Juan) so it was a joy being Monte’s teammate in New York.” Durocher and his team became the talk of the town after sweeping the favored 111-43 Cleveland Indians in 4 straight Series games.
Game 3 of the 1954 World Series had a paid attendance of 71,555, the most fans Rubén ever pitched in front of. The Sporting News wrote, “Game 3 started with a distinct Latin-American flavor as far as the starting pitchers were concerned. [Mike] Garcia, the California-Mexican, opened against Gómez, Durocher’s Puerto Rican.” It was a 1st for both World Series starters to be of Hispanic descent Gómez and Garcia had a pre-game chat in Spanish. Garcia asked Rubén how his wife was doing and whether Rubén signed his [1954-1955] winter contract.
Ruben and Willie Mays Winter Baseball
Tris Speaker threw out the 1st pitch; Entertainer Danny Kaye sang the national anthem; Cleveland Manager Al Lopez had his photo taken with Speaker (player-manager of the World Series champion 1920 Indians) and Lou Boudreau (player-manager of the 1948 champs). Dusty Rhodes’s 2-run pinch-hit single gave him a pinch-hit in his 3 straight Series game, tying Bobby Brown’s 1947 record with the Yankees. Gómez allowed 2 runs on 4 hits, 1 a solo HR by Vic Wertz, on a hanging screwball. Hoyt Wilhelm got the last 5 outs to preserve it. Vernon “Lefty” Gomez, ex-Yankee pitcher with a 6-0 World Series mark, was there, saying, “I rooted for the Giants; a Gómez has never lost a World Series game.”
Rubén received a hero’s welcome when his Pan Am flight arrived in San Juan on October 11,1954. He went to a reception hosted by Doña Felisa Rincón de Gautier, San Juan’s mayor. Willie Mays arrived 5 days later to play for the 1954-1955 Crabbers, considered by Don Zimmer, who became their star shortstop after his release from Mayagűez — to be “the best winter league team ever assembled.” Herman Franks, Leo Durocher’s 3rd base coach, wrote the foreword for the history of the Santurce franchise 45 years later. Franks recalled, “The 1954-1955 Santurce club with a little more pitching depth could have won it all in the major leagues. Rubén Gómez, Sam Jones and Bill Greason were 3 terrific starters. Can you imagine the power on that Santurce club with George Crowe, Buster Clarkson, Bob Thurman, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays? The old Sixto Escobar Stadium had some distant fences, but it wasn’t anything for that gang…don’t think the new stadiums had or will ever have the feeling of Sixto Escobar Stadium.”
Gómez went 13-4 for Santurce in the regular season. He also won the All-Star game; 2 final series games versus Caguas; and Game One of the Caribbean Series over Cuba’s Almendares Blues, 6-2, with 34,000 onlookers at Caracas’s University Stadium, on February 10,1955. Gómez retired Almendares’ last 10 hitters and fanned 7 in his complete game. Cuban shortstop Willy Miranda said, “Santurce hitters are a threat but the real deal is Rubén Gómez…chico, what a pitcher, that Rubén Gómez!” Santurce won the Caribbean Series for the 3rd time in 5 years and Crabbers’ shortstop Zimmer was voted Series MVP. Gómez had a no-decision in Game 4 on February 13th against Cuba, a Santurce win.
From April 13,1954 through February 13,1955, Gómez had pitched 418 total innings: 230 major-league innings (including the World Series) plus 188 winter ball frames (including the All-Star Game and post-season). Gómez went 35-13 overall in that span 18-9 for the Giants and 17-4 for Santurce!
That workload may well have taken something out of him, though. Gómez got off to a slow start in 1955, and in June, The Sporting News reported that the Giants were considering banning or curtailing his winter-ball play. The article recognized the pitcher’s hero status in his homeland and how he put out all the time, believing that Puerto Rican competition was on a level with the game in the States.
Gómez loved playing year-round and never did stop. He may have paid a price, the rest of his major-league career was sub-par except for a 15-13 record with the 1957 Giants. He disagreed, however, that the lack of vacation had taken a toll. “The more I throw, the better I like it,” he said in 1959. He admitted to not liking cool early-season weather up north, but attributed his up-and-down performance to not staying in the rotation on a steady basis.
The best-remembered outing from this time is probably the game in Milwaukee on July 17, 1956, when Joe Adcock of the Braves chased Gómez off the field after getting nicked on the wrist by an inside pitch. Adcock had a history of serious injuries after being hit by pitches, and he also claimed that Gómez had yelled at him on his way to 1st base. Gómez could be wild, and he was not averse to knocking batters down — as he evidenced with Carl Furillo of Brooklyn in 1953. He insisted in 1958 that he was no headhunter, though (this after a bench-clearing episode with the Pittsburgh Pirates).
After the 1957 season, the Dodgers and Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. On April 15,1958, Gómez made baseball history, when he pitched an 8-0 shutout against the Dodgers at San Francisco's Seals Stadium in the 1st MLB game played on the West Coast. Valmy Thomas, his Santurce catcher for 13 seasons caught that gem. He thus became the 1st pitcher to win a game played on the West Coast; the losing Dodgers pitcher was future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale The U.S. press noted that he found himself in Manager Bill Rigney’s doghouse with some frequency, though and he got the stereotyped Latino labels “moody” and “temperamental.”
On the plus side, Gómez won his 6th Caribbean Series game (2-1 over Almendares) in February 1959. Orlando Cepeda and Jackie Brandt were Santurce’s top hitters that season. On the way to the league championship, however, Mayagűez fans vandalized Gómez’s beloved red Corvette after a dispute broke out during a semi-final game. Gómez, an avid race car driver and mechanic, spent many hours at the Caguas Speedway doing practice laps, working with pit crews, etc.
By then, Gómez was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. He had been traded– along with Valmy Thomas for Jack Sanford in December 1958. Phillies Manager Eddie Sawyer said about Gómez, “With the kind of stuff he has, he ought to win 20 games…maybe the change of scenery will make a big difference.” Gómez’s big-league career nosedived after the deal, though. He hurt his knee early in the 1959 season and could make only sporadic starts. After mid-July he was sent to the bullpen and he became just a spot starter in the majors.
Gómez pitched for Luis Olmo, one of his best friends in Puerto Rico, who managed the 1959-1960 and 1960-1961 Crabbers. He also enjoyed the hospitality of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, the Dominican dictator, when he pitched in the postseason for the 1960-1961 Escogido Lions. That team, managed by Pepe Lucas, had ties to the Trujillo regime. Back in Puerto Rico, Rubén bet Santurce teammate Bob Gibson (1961-1962) that Gibson couldn’t lift a 1953 Pontiac off the ground. But he lost that bet and gave Gibson a case of beer.
The Phillies would send Rubén down to AAA Buffalo Bisons (International League) in June, 1960 and he also pitched part of that season on loan to Baltimore’s Triple-A club, Miami. Buffalo had sold Gómez to Cleveland’s farm club, the Jacksonville Suns, after the 1961 season. “When we bought Gomez, the Buffalo management said he wouldn’t win 8 games,” said Suns Owner Bobby Maduro. On the contrary, the veteran went 8-0, 2.28 ERA in the early part of 1962. Cleveland recalled him in June, but they would later trade him to Minnesota.
Sam McDowell, the Indians’ fireballer, was Rubén’s Santurce teammate in 1962-1963. He would recalled that Manager Ray Katt, an ex-teammate of Gómez with the 1954 Giants, had tore his heel during a team fight with the opposition (Caguas) and lost his (managing) job with the 1963 Cleveland Indians “because Katt was on crutches for 6 months.”
The Twins would release Gómez in January 1963, and soon thereafter the Cleveland organization would re-sign him. At Jacksonville that year, he taught Mike Cuéllar to throw a screwball. Years before, he had taught the pitch to his fellow Puerto Rican, Luis “Tite” Arroyo, and it became Arroyo’s bread and butter. Juan Marichal also added the scroogie to his repertoire with the help of Gómez. Bill James and Rob Neyer ranked Gómez 10th on their list of the best screwballs.
Gómez earned extra cash reinforcing the 1963-1964 Escogido Lions, managed by José St. Claire, aka Pepe Lucas, who was Gómez’s Santurce teammate, 1950-1955 and a close friend. Gómez won a regular season game and also pitched in 3 semi-final series contests versus the Tigres del Licey, a team managed by Vern Benson, Santurce’s skipper in 1961-1962. Rubén pitched 8 plus innings, with a 1-2 record. Licey won this series and then defeated the Águilas Cibaeñas, 5 games-to-3 in the league finals.
Gómez then pitched in Mexico for the 1st time. He was with Monterrey for 1 game in 1964, which appears to be the only 1, he pitched that summer, though The Sporting News indicated that Jalisco had obtained him. He pitched well for Preston Gómez in Santurce’s 1964-1965 title season, with a semifinal win over San Juan.
Back in Mexico, Gómez joined Puebla in 1965 (4-2, 2.84 ERA in 16 games). After a good season for Santurce (7-3, 1.92 ERA), Rubén would travel to Venezuela as a postseason reinforcement in 1965-1966. First, he was 0-1 in 2 games with Magallanes; then he joined La Guaira, going 2-0 with a save to help the Sharks become league champions.
Gómez enjoyed his best Mexican season with Veracruz in 1966, when he was 10-4 with a sparkling 1.24 ERA in 16 games (13 starts). Rubén and his son, Rafael, spent summers in Mexico. Rafael recalled that Vinicio Garcia, the Veracruz skipper, was nice and helpful to him and his dad. Gómez always fit and with a smile, came to the Robinson School in Santurce (1965-1966) to pick up Rafael. He (Rubén) played baseball games with the children and pitched for both teams. One of the students, a girl named Terrie Epstein, idolized Gómez. She remembers his aqua and white Corvette, like the one in the TV show Route 66, and a maroon one that looked like something out of the movie Bonnie and Clyde. “Wherever Rubén was, people seemed to gravitate toward him,” said Terrie.
Earl Weaver became the Crabbers’ Manager in October 1966. Rubén had 15 quality starts for Weaver before blanking the Arecibo Wolves, 5-0 to open the semis. Tito Stevens, San Juan Star Sportswriter (another Robinson School alumnus) noted that Gómez had not walked a batter in his last 3 regular season games plus this playoff win. Gómez turned the final series against Ponce around with a 7-0 win in Game 3, after Santurce had lost the 1st 2. Rubén had fanned 7 Lions and walked only 1. Ponce’s Roy White, a switch-hitter, opted to hit right-handed that evening due to Gómez’s tantalizing screwball. Santurce, whose line-up included Orlando Cepeda and Tony Perez, won the finals on a 3-run HR by Paul Blair in Game Six. Weaver said, “It was just like winning any other championship including the World Series.” He complimented the island’s baseball fans: “outstanding similar to those, who follow the Yankees or Mets.”
The 1967 season featured a last return to the majors with Philadelphia. Phillies Manager Gene Mauch had seen him pitch in Puerto Rico and was impressed enough to offer the 39-year-old an invitation to camp as a situational reliever. Mauch said, “You wouldn’t believe what great physical condition this man is in. If Chi-Chi Olivo at his age can get people out, then Gomez certainly can.” Gómez won a job and got into 7 games (without a decision) in April and early May. When the Phillies acquired Dick “Turk” Farrell, however, they returned Gómez to Veracruz.
Wherever else Gómez went, though, playing winter ball for Santurce remained a constant. Rafael Gómez enjoyed arriving at Hiram Bithorn Stadium with his dad by 5 p.m. before a night game and the great view from the Santurce bullpen. He met his dad’s teammates and opponents; in 1967-1968 they included San Juan’s Johnny Bench, the catcher with the rifle arm. Another was Santurce’s Reggie Jackson, the loop’s top HR hitter (20) in 1970-71. “I was (like) a team mascot,” remembered Rafael. “Went (with dad) to the 10th Inning Lounge in Santurce where he and others relaxed.”
Frank Robinson succeeded Weaver as Santurce’s skipper. Rubén (9-1, 2.05 ERA) and Jim Palmer (5-0) were 2 of his best pitchers for the 1968-1969 Crabbers, a 47-22 1st-place team that lost in the semis to 4th-place San Juan, Managed by Sparky Anderson. Anderson said, “Santurce was loaded. They had the best club with Scott, Gotay, Cardenas, Foy, Hendricks, Blair, Palmer, Pizarro, Gómez. Puerto Rico helped me be around that many big leaguers at that time. All the clubs had at least 6 or 7 big leaguers. We had Tony Taylor, Cardenal, Beauchamp, Kekich, Cuellar, Orlando Peña.”
From 1968 through 1970, Gómez would pitched summer ball in the Saguenay Senior League of Quebec with the Chicoutimi Bombardiers. He was the star pitcher, 12-0 in 1968 and 9-1 in 1969. Rubén had played golf from the late 1960s on (with Luis Olmo) and returned to Quebec as a golf pro. He sold insurance as did Olmo. Gómez returned to Mexico in 1971, going 1-7, 4.50 ERA for Poza Rica and Sabinas.
Gómez pitched for Santurce through the mid-1970s, making a final Caribbean Series (in relief) appearance in February 1971, against Mexico’s Hermosillo Orange Growers, at Bithorn. Maury Wills managed Hermosillo; Frank Robinson led Santurce; and Manny Mota was Licey’s player-manager. Roberto Clemente, San Juan’s 1970-1971 manager, used Rubén for 2 innings in the 4-1 win by the local stars over the imports.
Frank Robinson was unable to manage Santurce in 1971-1972 and Gómez stepped in to manage the team to a 3rd-place finish, it was the only winter in 30 years in which he did not play a game. He appreciated the fine play of the Crabbers’ Don Baylor, league batting champ and Dusty Baker. Gómez exhorted Rogelio (Roger) Moret, the Guayama native to have a good season. Moret pitched his heart out with a 14-1 ledger, 5 shutouts and 1.81 E.R.A. Ponce ousted Santurce in the semi-finals.
Gómez pitched in relief for the 1972-1973 champion Crabbers; Ron Cey played 3rd base. Rubén’s final shutout in PRWL play, an 8-0 blanking of San Juan, came on December 20,1973 at Bithorn Stadium. That night, Gómez’s screwballs got the best of a Senators line-up with Chris Chambliss, José Pagán, and Rusty Torres. Mickey Rivers gave Rubén the only run he needed with a leadoff HR in the first. All the 4,135 fans gave #22 a standing ovation. Frank Robinson gave Rubén 1 start in 1974-1975; ditto for Jack McKeon in 1975-1976.
Rubén had signed a 1976-1977 contract with the Bayamón Cowboys (formerly San Juan). Dickie Thon on Bayamón’s practice squad at 18, recalled: “Gómez did not appear too happy at this stage of his career.” The 49-year-old closed out his PRWL career with the last 8 of his league-record 417 appearances.
Gómez would coach the 1980-1981 Crabbers, along with Orlando Cepeda and Juan Pizarro. Cookie Rojas managed Santurce to a 5th-place finish. Catcher Gary Allenson recalled team meetings with the 1st 45 minutes in Spanish and the final 5 minutes an English translation. The 1981-1982 Crabbers got off to a 14-6 start, but Rubén resigned after Santurce suffered 10 losses in their next 12 games. Iván de Jesús, Ed Figueroa, and Pat Tabler were on this team. By this time, Gomez was married to his 2nd wife (from the U.S. mainland) and they adopted a Dominican child (Gabriela) with the help of Pepe Lucas, in Santo Domingo
In the summer of 1985, the author visited a longtime family friend, who was very ill. Hu Barton recalled the night he had car problems on a highway in Puerto Rico’s mountains. Out of nowhere, an athletic-looking young man Rubén Gómez in an expensive sports car came to the rescue. Hu bought a case of beer and they had a few laughs.
Rubén threw out the 1st pitch to open the 1990-1991 PRWL season, “1st time in 18 years Santurce won the title,” Gómez said, with a smile. He was inducted into the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, as part of its 1st class. In 1997, he would entered the Guayama and Sons of Santurce Halls of Fame. Rafael Gómez gave the plaque to his dad at the latter one. “The committee paid for my trip expenses,” he recalled. “Dad was moved by the local people; always had time to teach a child, sign an autograph, share a soda, he belonged to the world.” Rubén and Ricky Ledée each received the 1998 Pedrín Zorrilla Award from Pedrín’s widow, Diana.
Gómez was hospitalized in 2001 after a battle with cancer. A doctor from Mexico requested permission to attend his operation. When Gómez asked why, the doctor replied, “I was the boy who sold you the winning lottery ticket.” While pitching in Veracruz, Rubén had won a $35,000 prize. When he tried to share the winnings with the kid’s family, they refused. So, Gómez went to a local bank and set up a trust fund for him.
In 2002, Rafael Gómez played catch with his 75-year-old dad one last time. They were in Rafael’s home in a Philadelphia suburb, as he recalled. “I bought 2 new gloves and a ball and jokingly said, ‘Is there anything left in your rusty arm? C’mon, let’s throw for old times’ sake.’ My neighbors are watching an old man and his son playing catch, ridiculous for them, heavenly for us. As soon as the glove entered Dad’s hand, his demeanor changed…and he asked me to hunker down and catch some strikes, what a way to throw consecutive strikes.”
On July 26,2004, Rubén Gómez would passed away at San Juan’s Oncological Hospital of Centro Medico. He was 77 years old. He was interred at the Guayama Municipal Cemetery.
The Veterans Committee voted Gómez into the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame on February 9, 2011, in a ceremony at Altos de Chavón, Dominican Republic. His Crabbers number, 22, is on permanent display on Hiram Bithorn Stadium’s outfield fence along with 21 (Roberto Clemente) and 30 (Orlando Cepeda).
Acknowledgments
With thanks to Rafael Gómez, a former classmate of the author’s and to Rory Costello for additional research.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 23, 2024 13:29:41 GMT -5
Development of the Yankees Scouting Staff
This article was written by Daniel R. Levitt, Edited by Clipper
This article was published in Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession
Can He Play? Book Cover
Beginning in 1921 the New York Yankees embarked upon one of the great stretches in American sports. Through 1964 the Yankees had captured 29 pennants and 20 World Series championships. There are many ingredients that go into a winning team, but most obviously a team needs good players.
Today a major-league front office has many avenues for acquiring players, free agency, the amateur player draft, trades, the MLB Rule 5 player draft, Latin American free agents, etc., the usefulness of each depends on the ability of a team’s scouts to recognize talent. During the heyday of the Yankees dynasty, which occurred before the introduction of the amateur draft, a scout not only had to identify who would become a major-league ballplayer, but be able to obtain them in a competitive environment.
In the 1920s and 1930s New York assembled a legendary team of scouts who, in conjunction with baseball’s most professional front office administration, delivered a consistent stream of baseball’s top talent. Prior to the end of World War I, franchises generally operated without a General Manager. Player personnel decisions were typically overseen by the Team Owner and Manager. The distribution of authority between the 2 depended primarily on the level of control the team president or majority owner wished to retain for himself. Many owners, like Barney Dreyfuss in Pittsburgh and Charles Comiskey in Chicago, prided themselves on their baseball smarts and maintained control over player personnel moves and decisions. At the other end of the spectrum, the New York Giants employed a willful genius in Manager John McGraw. Outside of a veto on significant cash outlays, ownership allowed McGraw essentially free rein on all personnel matters.
Yankees President/GM Edward Barrow 1920-1945
Baseball ownership would evolve after World War I as more sophisticated American industrialists bought into the sport. These new team owners recognized the importance of more professional administration to move beyond the limitations of operating like a small business. After the 1920 AL season, the Yankees Owners, brewery magnate Jacob Ruppert and his business partner Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston, concluded that they needed to revamp their business methods. The 2 would brought in former Boston Red Sox Manager Ed Barrow as a de facto General Manager to professionalize the front office.
Previously, the 2 Team Owners, Yankees President Joseph Gordon and Manager Miller Huggins had handle the players trades. Gordon had passed away during the 1920 AL season.
Barrow inherited a small scouting staff led by Manager Miller Huggins’s best friend in baseball, Bob Connery and ex-major-league outfielder Joe Kelley. Connery in particular was generally regarded as an astute judge of talent, having signed future Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, while working with Huggins for the St. Louis Cardinals. Barrow clearly appreciated the importance of a strong scouting staff and during his long tenure in the Yankees front office often credited the Yankees’ success to having the best scouts in the business. Immediately upon assuming his new position in New York, Barrow had hired his Boston Coach and Scout, Paul Krichell, to bolster the scouting staff. Destined to become one of the most successful of all ivory hunters, Krichell was responsible for many of the Yankees’ stars.
In the early 1920s, scouting evolved as the economic landscape shifted in favor of the high minor leagues. The major-league/minor- league draft in which teams could draft players from lower leagues was significantly diluted, effectively protecting the high minor leagues from losing players involuntarily to the majors (much to the detriment of the players). Scouts not only needed to identify the best players, but negotiate with minor-league owners to pry them away for the lowest acceptable price. (Even before the attenuation of the draft, players were sold to the majors, but the threat of the draft acted to keep the prices down.)
The 40-man roster was another key factor at work in the 1920s. Like today, a team had a 40-man roster of players under its control and a 25-man active roster during the majority of the season. Unlike today, however, when a team can control many more players through its farm system, in the ’20s all players under control of the major-league team counted against the 40-man roster; thus, franchises could effectively control only 15 minor leaguers. Of course, some teams, particularly Branch Rickey’s St. Louis Cardinals, maneuvered within and around these rules, but in any case, the rules encouraged scouts to devote the preponderance of their effort to scouting the high minors for near-ready major-league players.
Within this environment the Yankees proved extremely successful in the early to mid-1920s. Krichell and Connery had signed Columbia University baseball star Lou Gehrig to one of their precious roster spots and optioned him to the minor leagues. A couple of years later, Connery pushed for the Yankees to purchase another future Hall of Famer, outfielder Earle Combs, for $50,000 at the time the highest price ever paid for an American Association player.
By early 1925, Barrow was down to only 3 scouts, Ed Holly (another former Red Sox scout), Bob Gilks and Krichell. Kelley had retired in 1924 and Connery, in conjunction with Huggins, had purchased a controlling interest in the St. Paul American Saints Association franchise. To rebuild his scouting staff, Barrow brought in 2 new scouts and organized his staff geographically. Former Vernon (Pacific Coast League) Manager Bill Essick was assigned the West and Eddie Herr, another old friend of Huggins was responsible for the Midwest. Of the holdovers, Gilks would maintained his Southern focus, Holly took over New England and the East and Krichell continued scouting the colleges and New York.
The Yankees used a team approach for the most expensive players. When Barrow wanted to evaluate Salt Lake City star Tony Lazzeri, he sent Krichell to evaluate him. (Krichell liked to joke that Barrow, who often dispatched his scouts to review prospects on short notice, began every telegram with “immediately” or “at once.”) Krichell liked what he saw and recommended Lazzeri despite his huge price tag of $50,000 and 5 players. Barrow dispatched Holly to confirm Krichell’s judgment and practically ordered Connery, now in St. Paul and no longer a Yankees employee, to also validate Lazzeri’s ability.
Yankees GM George Weiss 1948-1960
In St. Paul, Connery would maintain his close ties with Huggins and the Yankees front office. Because of this relationship, St. Paul sold quite a few of its stars to the Yankees and accepted a number of prospects back on option. In retrospect this relationship benefited the Saints much more than the Yankees. New York spent roughly $300,000 in less than a decade purchasing St. Paul’s best players. Other than infielder Mark Koenig, none developed into a quality major leaguer. As far as one can tell at this distance in time, the ownership interests were aboveboard, but Huggins and Connery were clearly in a conflicted position. Ruppert became so disenchanted with Connery over a couple of player transactions that he later overruled Barrow’s recommendation of Connery as the Farm System Director in favor of young baseball executive named George Weiss.
The misses from St. Paul Saints highlight another aspect of the Yankees scouting philosophy. The club recognized that scouting is an inexact science; a team needs to sign as many talented young players as possible because some will inevitably not live up to expectations. The Yankees were not only the most profitable team, but at least as importantly, the ownership did not pay out its profits in dividends; it reinvested them in the team. These recycled funds allowed the team to pursue and purchase the best players and lots of them. For every Saint player, who didn’t pan out, the Yankees scouts would land a Lefty Gomez or a Bill Dickey.
As the team rebounded in 1926 with several of the players purchased from the high minors, Barrow continued to fine-tune his scouting staff. He brought in Gene McCann to help in the East and Johnny Nee to take over the South. Several years later, the Yankees would add the last of their legendary scouts, by hiring Joe Devine to help out in the West. Like Barrow’s existing scouts, all 3 had spent time managing in the minor leagues. Minor-league managers were a good source of scouting talent for a couple of reasons. First, and most obviously, they had a chance to develop and hone their evaluation skills of young players. Second, and almost as important, they would have developed a network of amateur coaches and managers in the lowest minor leagues to whom they could turn for player recommendations. Many in these networks were considered “bird dog” scouts, who would receive a small bonus when one of the players they had recommended were signed.
With the onset of the Depression in the early 1930s, the minors looked for financial assistance from the majors. In response the majors changed the roster rules to make investing in minor league franchises worthwhile. Under a wide range of circumstances players on a minor league team controlled by a major league team were now exempted from the 40-man roster limit. Ruppert quickly grasped the impact of this rule and ordered Barrow to establish a farm system. To stock what would quickly become the best minor league system in the league, Barrow would redirect his scouts to spend more time chasing top amateurs.
Landing the best amateurs required wits, money, salesmanship and hustle. The Yankees scouts became renowned for selling the benefits of the Yankees organization to prospective signees. Given the depressed economic environment of the era, signing bonuses typically topped out at around $6,000 to $8,000. If the Yankees wanted a player, they would not lose him over money; Ruppert desperately wanted to win and would make funds available for players his scouts believed in. Of course, the scouts did not completely forgo the high, independent minors. In 1934, the Yankees had purchased Joe DiMaggio from the AA San Francisco Seals (PCL) for $25,000 and 5 players, a discount price because of his reportedly bum knee, which had moved him from shortstop to the outfield. Also the AA Seals under Manager Lefty O'Doul, become another source for players, including Infielder Frankie Crosetti and other. O'Doul, a former Yankees player would provide the team with information on the various players playing the AA Pacific Coast League.
On balance, the Yankees’ mystique and success on the field probably helped in the competition for prospects, but certainly some were afraid of getting stuck behind the Yankees stars. New York prep star Hank Greenberg would choose Detroit in part because of his fear of getting stuck behind Lou Gehrig, although Barrow and Krichell were far from their best in the courting of the big 1st baseman.
The signings of Outfielder Charlie Keller and Pitcher Atley Donald were more the norm. Keller became a highly sought-after prospect, while playing at the University of Maryland. McCann, who had been tracking Keller for some time, landed him for $7,500. Keller had always wanted to play for New York and likely signed for less than he could have received elsewhere. As a condition of his signing, the Yankees did agree to let Keller choose where he would start in the minors. Donald had also always wanted to play for the Yankees. His coach at Louisiana Tech sent a letter to the Yankees touting him, which Barrow had ignored. (Barrow had received other letters from the coach plugging players and few had panned out.) To get a tryout, Donald rode the bus to St. Petersburg to meet the Yankees at spring training. He arrived early, ran out of money and had to take a job in a grocery store. Eventually, he had cajoled Johnny Nee into giving him a tryout and the Yankees would sign him.
The Yankees scouts quickly proved their mettle in unearthing amateur player talent. In 1937, for example, when the Yankees easily won the AL pennant and World Series; their top farm team in Newark, the AA Bears had won more than 70% of its games. This minor league team, often considered one of the greatest ever, was led by many future major league players and stars, who were acquired by the Yankees scouts.
Over the years there have been many explanations of what the Yankees looked for in a prospect and why their scouts were so successful. In one of the more interesting, Paul Krichell. once summarized the importance of a player’s makeup: “A scout has to look for real ability in a player: Has he got a good arm, does he have speed, does he take a good look at the ball? Temperament counts a lot but you can’t look inside a young player, can you? So, how well does he like to play ball? Does he really love the game?” He then went on to discuss some specific criteria: “Sometimes you can have a ballplayer who will do well in the majors with 1 fault. Earle Combs couldn’t throw. But he made up for that in many other ways. But if a kid has 2 faults, he doesn’t have a chance.”
Notwithstanding Krichell’s quotation, none of the explanations are particularly compelling. After all, scouting methods and front-office organization are relatively transferable skills: Teams can hire scouts away from their rivals and organizational models can be readily duplicated. Furthermore, the very fact of all the explanations for the Yankees’ scouting success indicates there was no shortage of information regarding the Yankees system. In a competitive, reactive environment there is no simple recipe for success.
In the end, the Yankees’ scouting success came down to 2 factors. First, organizationally and administratively the team created an effective organization: one that recognized the importance of scouting, provided sound strategic direction, gave its scouts the tools they needed to succeed and demanded excellence from all personnel. Second, as a result of this organization, the team hired some of the greatest of all baseball scouts and kept them actively engaged finding and signing the nation’s best baseball prospects.
DAN LEVITT recently completed “The Battle That Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy,” to be published by Rowman & Littlefield under its Ivan R Dee imprint in the spring of 2012. He is also the author of “Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees’ First Dynasty (Nebraska, 2008),” a Seymour Award finalist, and co-author of “Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got that Way” (Brassey’s, 2003), winner of The Sporting News/SABR Baseball Research Award. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and 2 boys.
Sources
Online historical resources were extremely useful: in particular, The Sporting News and the New York Times. The SABR Scouts Committee “Who Signed Who” database is also a valuable resource for researching scouts. The author’s biography of “Ed Barrow, Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees’ First Dynasty” (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008) offers a detailed history of the Yankees’ approach to team building, useful background on the Yankees’ scouting system, and an extensive bibliography of Yankees-related books and articles. The task of tracking down the many references to Yankees scouts in published sources was eased tremendously by The Baseball Index.
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Post by kaybli on Feb 23, 2024 16:15:50 GMT -5
Sorry clipper I'm behind on indexing the thread. Been real busy at work. Will catch up tonight.
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Post by inger on Feb 23, 2024 18:14:17 GMT -5
Mailbanger. It’s not just for breakfast any more…
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Post by kaybli on Feb 24, 2024 3:46:45 GMT -5
Sorry clipper I'm behind on indexing the thread. Been real busy at work. Will catch up tonight. OK, the index on the first post has been updated. |
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Post by inger on Feb 24, 2024 5:02:29 GMT -5
Sorry clipper I'm behind on indexing the thread. Been real busy at work. Will catch up tonight. OK, the index on the first post has been updated. Dumb question here… is there anyway to reduce the font while transitioning these for the archives? It’s not the space they take up, but the need to scroll so far to find the next one. This is only an issue on the phone. My left thumb must. E protected if I’m going to be scrolling for the entire season. As you know, I don’t take rest days… 🤓 |
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Post by kaybli on Feb 24, 2024 5:27:28 GMT -5
OK, the index on the first post has been updated. Dumb question here… is there anyway to reduce the font while transitioning these for the archives? It’s not the space they take up, but the need to scroll so far to find the next one. This is only an issue on the phone. My left thumb must. E protected if I’m going to be scrolling for the entire season. As you know, I don’t take rest days… 🤓 That’s the font clipper posts in. You can request that he posts it in a smaller font. |
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Post by inger on Feb 24, 2024 6:49:25 GMT -5
Dumb question here… is there anyway to reduce the font while transitioning these for the archives? It’s not the space they take up, but the need to scroll so far to find the next one. This is only an issue on the phone. My left thumb must. E protected if I’m going to be scrolling for the entire season. As you know, I don’t take rest days… 🤓 That’s the font clipper posts in. You can request that he posts it in a smaller font. Was just hoping we could shrink it in the archives. He can type in whatever font he likes. |
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Post by kaybli on Feb 24, 2024 8:15:00 GMT -5
That’s the font clipper posts in. You can request that he posts it in a smaller font. Was just hoping we could shrink it in the archives. He can type in whatever font he likes. I could manually shrink it but with all the posts it would take forever and I’m not doing that sh*t! 😆 |
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Post by inger on Feb 24, 2024 12:16:04 GMT -5
Was just hoping we could shrink it in the archives. He can type in whatever font he likes. I could manually shrink it but with all the posts it would take forever and I’m not doing that sh*t! 😆 Gotcha. Instead, could you just retype them in a smaller font for us?🤓…😂😂😂 |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 24, 2024 15:55:06 GMT -5
Sorry clipper I'm behind on indexing the thread. Been real busy at work. Will catch up tonight.
Clipper |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Feb 24, 2024 16:41:04 GMT -5
I just when to the current and recent This Week in Yankees threads that I have posted and made some font changes.
I used a Arial Font Size 12 on My iMac in MS Word
This Week in Yankees History title is Font Size 14
The body of the thread is Arial size 14
I also did some of the articles in this thread using the same approach. Please let me know if this helps you out.
Clipper
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Post by kaybli on Feb 24, 2024 16:59:49 GMT -5
I just when to the current and recent This Week in Yankees threads that I have posted and made some font changes. I used a Arial Font Size 12 on My iMac in MS Word This Week in Yankees History title is Font Size 14 The body of the thread is Arial size 14 I also did some of the articles in this thread using the same approach. Please let me know if this helps you out. Clipper Thanks Clipper! Much appreciated!  |
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