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Post by inger on Jan 15, 2024 19:33:03 GMT -5
Index updated on the first post of the thread. This has been an excellent way to handle these wonderful posts and their information. |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 15, 2024 20:36:28 GMT -5
New York Yankees Spring Training Most Valuable Rookie | Baseball Almanac
The James P. Dawson Award has been awarded annually, since 1956, to the New York Yankees rookie player, who had the best Spring Training performance. Every recipient appears below in chronological order.
In 1908, James P. Dawson was a copy boy with the New York Times. By 1916, he was a beat writer and editor, who had covered the New York Yankees until his passing at Spring Training, in 1953. The award was created by the New York Yankees to honor him.
Names in gray won a Dawson Award, but never played in the majors! Research by Baseball Almanac.
Baseball Almanac Top Quote: "(Norm) Siebern is one of those players that if you could clone him and run his career over again, he might well be a Hall of Famer." - James, Bill. Historian / Author. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Free Press Publishing. 11 May 2010. Norm Siebern. Page 455.
James P. Dawson Award In Chronological Order
Year | Team Roster Dawson Award (Qty) POS
1956 New York Yankees Norm Siebern Outfielder
1957 New York Yankees Tony Kubek Shortstop AL Rookie of the Year
1958 New York Yankees Johnny Blanchard Catcher
1959 New York Yankees Gordie Windhorn Outfielder
1960 New York Yankees Johnny James Pitcher
1961 New York Yankees Rollie Sheldon Pitcher
1962 New York Yankees Tom Tresh Shortstop AL Rookie of the Year
1963 New York Yankees Pedro Gonzalez Second Baseman
1964 New York Yankees Pete Mikkelsen Pitcher
1965 New York Yankees Art Lopez Outfielder
1966 New York Yankees Roy White Outfielder
1967 New York Yankees Bill Robinson Outfielder
1968 New York Yankees Mike Ferraro Third Baseman
1969 New York Yankees Jerry Kenney Outfielder/
Bill Burbach Pitcher
1970 New York Yankees John Ellis First Baseman
1971 New York Yankees No Selection Made
1972 New York Yankees Rusty Torres Outfielder
1973 New York Yankees Otto Velez Outfielder
1974 New York Yankees Tom Buskey Pitcher
1975 New York Yankees Tippy Martinez Pitcher
1976 New York Yankees Willie Randolph Second Baseman
1977 New York Yankees George Zeber Second Baseman
1978 New York Yankees Jim Beattie Pitcher
1979 New York Yankees Paul Mirabella Pitcher
1980 New York Yankees Mike Griffin Pitcher
1981 New York Yankees Gene Nelson Pitcher
1982 New York Yankees Andre Robertson Shortstop
1983 New York Yankees Don Mattingly First Baseman
1984 New York Yankees Jose Rijo Pitcher
1985 New York Yankees Scott Bradley Catcher
1986 New York Yankees Bob Tewksbury Pitcher
1987 New York Yankees Keith Hughes Outfielder
1988 New York Yankees Al Leiter Pitcher
1989 New York Yankees No Selection Made
1990 New York Yankees Alan Mills Pitcher
1991 New York Yankees Hensley Meulens Outfielder
1992 New York Yankees Gerald Williams Outfielder
1993 New York Yankees Mike Humphreys Outfielder
1994 New York Yankees Sterling Hitchcock Pitcher
1995 New York Yankees No Selection Made
1996 New York Yankees Mark Hutton Pitcher
1997 New York Yankees Jorge Posada Catcher
1998 New York Yankees Homer Bush Second Baseman
1999 New York Yankees No Selection Made
2000 New York Yankees No Selection Made
2001 New York Yankees Alfonso Soriano Second Baseman
2002 New York Yankees Nick Johnson First Baseman
2003 New York Yankees Hideki Matsui Outfielder
2004 New York Yankees Bubba Crosby Outfielder
2005 New York Yankees Andy Phillips First Baseman
2006 New York Yankees Eric Duncan Third Baseman
2007 New York Yankees Kei Igawa Pitcher
2008 New York Yankees Shelley Duncan Outfielder
2009 New York Yankees Brett Gardner Outfielder
2010 New York Yankees Jon Weber Outfielder
2011 New York Yankees Manny Banuelos Pitcher
2012 New York Yankees David Phelps Pitcher
2013 New York Yankees Vidal Nuno Pitcher
2014 New York Yankees Masahiro Tanaka Pitcher
2015 New York Yankees Slade Heathcott Outfielder
2016 New York Yankees Johnny Barbato Pitcher
2017 New York Yankees Gleyber Torres Second Baseman
2018 New York Yankees Miguel Andujar Third Baseman
2019 New York Yankees Stephen Tarpley Pitcher
2020 New York Yankees Clarke Schmidt Pitcher
2021 New York Yankees Deivi Garcia Pitcher
2022 New York Yankees Clarke Schmidt Pitcher
2023 New York Yankees Anthony Volpe Shortstop
2024 New York Yankees Spring Training April 2024 to be Announced
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 15, 2024 21:41:27 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner?
Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster?
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Post by inger on Jan 15, 2024 21:49:45 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner? Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster? As good a guess as any… |
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Post by posadafan24 on Jan 15, 2024 22:15:21 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner? Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster? Thats almost a given with 4 guys in the rotation that have a hard time staying healthy lately |
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Post by pippsheadache on Jan 15, 2024 22:54:31 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner? Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster? The one guy on that list I never heard of is Jon Weber, and he was relatively recent. I looked him up and it appears that in 2010 it came down to him or Marcus Thames for the fifth OFer position and the Yanks took Thames supposedly because they wanted another right-handed bat. Some things never change. I thought for sure that Eric Duncan at least got the proverbial cuppa Joe in the bigs, but obviously he didn't. For those of us from a certain vintage, it was great to see the name Arturo Lopez again. |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 16, 2024 15:26:41 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner? Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster? The one guy on that list I never heard of is Jon Weber, and he was relatively recent. I looked him up and it appears that in 2010 it came down to him or Marcus Thames for the fifth OFer position and the Yanks took Thames supposedly because they wanted another right-handed bat. Some things never change. I thought for sure that Eric Duncan at least got the proverbial cuppa Joe in the bigs, but obviously he didn't. For those of us from a certain vintage, it was great to see the name Arturo Lopez again.
Clipper |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 16, 2024 15:49:19 GMT -5
Bob Hooper was my High School Gym Teacher at New Brunswick Senior High School from 1968-1969. He was the 1st MLB player that I have met. We use to talk about his playing days. He told us stories about the A's Team Owner/Manager Connie Mack. His managing the Orioles minor league team with Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell and Dean Chance. Also he had spoke every highly of the 1950's era New York Yankees players that he knew. At our 1969 Senior HS Sports banquet, he spoke about being proud of being a MLB player during the 16 MLB teams era. He strongly felt that money and players greed was going to greatly change the game. He still suffered from his arm issues from his MLB days, but he always had a smile and take the time to talk to you. I saw him several times while I was in the Navy in the early 1970's. I had lost touch with him. I was deeply sadden, when I heard about his death in 1980.
Clipper
Bob Hooper
This article was written by Joseph Wancho, Updated and Edited by Clipper
It was the kind of trade that barely got noticed. A few lines buried within the stories of the daily newspaper and perhaps mentioned in the “transactions” column in the back of the sports section. During the season it might have been mentioned on the local sportscast, with some statistics mixed in. But the news that Cleveland had traded pitcher Dick Rozek and a minor-league player to the Philadelphia Athletics for pitcher Bob Hooper barely caused a ripple. It was, after all, December 19, 1952, and even baseball fans were more caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season than the swap of a little-used pitcher (Rozek) and a minor-league infielder (Bobby Wilson) for a pitcher with a history of arm trouble (Hooper).
The Indians were in position to challenge the New York Yankees for the American League flag in 1953. Their pitching staff had boasted 3 20-game winners in 1952 (Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia and Early Wynn). Tribe skipper Al Lopez was forced at times to use the Big 3, as they had come to be known, in various relief roles. He was hoping that the addition of Hooper and perhaps Dave Hoskins would improve the team’s 2nd-line pitching.
The Indians found out soon enough how their new pitcher would fare. Cleveland opened the 1953 season in Detroit, winning the opener 6-0. In the 2nd game, both teams were swinging the lumber, and the score was 9-8 in favor of the Indians at the end of 5 innings. Starting pitcher Mike Garcia had given up 7 runs in 4 innings, while relief man Ted Wilks had pitched a scoreless 5th inning.
Into the game came Hooper, he would shut the door on the Tigers, surrendering just 2 hits over the final 4 frames. Hooper showed some moxie in the 8th inning. The Tigers’ Owen Friend hit a shallow fly ball to center field. Center fielder Larry Doby, 2nd baseman Bobby Avila, and shortstop Ray Boone all converged on it. None of the 3could make the play, and Friend, seeing that 2nd base was unguarded, raced to the bag. Hooper hustled to the base and took the throw from Doby. He applied a backhand tag on Friend, erasing the runner for the 3rd out. He was awarded the victory in relief. “See, I told you,” said Hooper. “I told you that when the season started my arm would be good and strong. My arm feels fine. No pain at all.” (Hal Lebovitz, “Hooper’s Pitching Lifts Tribe’s Hopes for Stronger Bullpen,” Cleveland News, April 17, 1953). Lopez, who had intended to use Hooper for only an inning or 2, was elated with his new pitcher’s early success. “It was one of those games that could have gotten away and have been a pain to remember later on,” said Lopez. “We’ve had too many like that in the last 2 years, Hooper landed this one.” (Frank Gibbons, “Bullpen Bonfire Kept Hooper Hot,” Cleveland Press, April 17, 1953.)
Robert Nelson Hooper was born on May 30,1922 in Leamington, Ontario. It is unclear what circumstances brought Hooper to live in New Jersey with his Uncle and Aunt, Mr. and Mrs. William Herdman. The Herdmans lived in South Orange, NJ, where William made a living as a butcher. Bob had attended grade school and then Columbia High School, both in South Orange.
Bob Hooper was signed by the New York Giants out of high school. Over the next 2 years, he had played for 5 teams in leagues ranging from Class D to A-1 (he played for 4 of the teams in 1942) with a 10-9 won-lost record. He would serve in the US Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945, training as a pilot. After he was discharged from the service, Hooper would return to the Giants farm system. He was unable to post a winning record until 1948, when he went 20-9 with a 2.45 ERA at Jacksonville of the Class A South Atlantic League. After that breakout season, he was drafted by Detroit, he was assigned to the AA Buffalo Bisons of the International League, where he went 19-3 in 1949; including an 11-game winning streak as the Bisons, managed by Paul Richards, finished in 1st place, but lost to the Montreal Royals in the playoff finals.
Hooper got a break when the Philadelphia Athletics had purchased his player contract after the season. Three of the starters on Manager Connie Mack’s mound corps were southpaws (Bobby Shantz, Lou Brissie, and Alex Kellner) and Mack was looking to even the rotation out with a right-hander. Not only did Hooper start 20 games in 1950, he had relieved in 25 others, earning him the nickname "the Leamington Workhorse."
The 1950 Athletics were 52-102, finishing in last place in the American League. Of those 52 victories, 15 belonged to Hooper, who was the only Athletics pitcher to record double-digit wins. (11 of his victories came against 2nd-division teams.) He also showed control problems, walking 91 in 170 innings, while striking out 58 batters. It was a trend that would hamper him for most of his MLB pitching career.
In 1951, Hooper had developed a sore arm in spring training camp that was brought on by a pinched nerve. It became a yearly occurrence that he would develop arm trouble of some sort in camp after the offseason. The Athletics would improve to 70-84 record in 1951, under new Manager Jimmy Dykes (Connie Mack had retired). Hooper was 12-10, with a 4.38 ERA with 5 saves in 38 games; lowering his walk total to 61 in 189 innings. He was a thorn in the side of Chicago and his old friend, White Sox Manager Paul Richards, that season. He had stopped Chicago’s 14-game winning streak on June 2nd, by scattering 5 hits and striking out 3 in the 5-1 win. On June 15th, he had stopped the Chisox again, halting their road winning streak at 15. This time Hooper went into extra innings in the 4-3 Athletics win. On July 15th, with Chicago trailing league-leading Boston by 1 game, Hooper would shut down the White Sox yet again. He would surrender 1 unearned run in a 3-1 victory. His 3-run HR with 2 out in the top of the 9th backed his fine, pitching performance.
“He helped me, I’ll tell you,” said mound mate Joe Coleman. “He taught me how to throw a slider, and he had a great one. It’s thrown like you throw a football. You grip down on the outside of the ball and the ball slides across the plate. To the batter, it looks like a fastball, and then all of a sudden, it’s gone.”
Hooper’s 12-victory season was the last in which he reached double digits in the win column. He would suffer constant shoulder and arm injuries that earned him more innings coming out of the bullpen than as a starter. “Towards the end of his career he had shoulder problems,” said Joe Coleman. “That bothered him a lot. It’s what they call rotator cuff today. They didn’t have a cure at that time. Today, they can take care of it in no time.”
After he was traded to Cleveland, Hooper was given cortisone shots that relieved his pain for a brief time. But the Indians were hoping Hooper would give them some productive innings in relief, as their starting rotation was not only set, it was supreme. “Those guys won 20 games a year. The only time you could pitch for them was in doubleheader,” a said Outfielder Barney McCosky, a teammate of Hooper’s in both Cleveland and Philadelphia.
In 1953, Cleveland would finish 2nd to New York for the 3rd consecutive year, Hooper contributing 5 victories, all in relief. The next season, the Indians finally knocked down the Yankees’ door, breaking through with a then-record 111 victories (43 losses) and winning the American League pennant by 8 games. Hooper had appeared in only 17 games, but he did not record a decision. Hooper would have a 4.93 ERA with 2 saves in 17 appearances. He was seeing less time with the emergence of Don Mossi and Ray Narleski getting regular calls from the bullpen by Manager Al Lopez. Nor did he make an appearance in the 1954 World Series against his old team, the New York Giants, who swept Cleveland in 4 games.
The Cincinnati Reds had purchased Hooper’s player contract just before the 1955 season. “Both Birdie (Tebbetts) and I think Hooper’s worth the gamble, said Reds General Manager Gabe Paul. “Birdie, you know, played on the same club with him and knows what, but Hooper was ineffective for the Reds.” He would make his last MLB pitching appearance on May 14th in relief against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He would surrender 6 hits, 3 walks and 7 runs in just 2/3 of an inning. His final MLB pitching career record was a 40-41 mark with an ERA of 4.80 and 25 saves in 194 games.
Meanwhile, Hooper’s old friend Paul Richards had been named General Manager in Baltimore in an effort to right the Orioles’ losing ways. Richards was given complete control of the baseball operations; he had hired Hooper to manage in the minor leagues. From 1957 to 1960, Hooper would manage Baltimore farm teams in the lower levels of the minors. One of his minor league teams, featured 3B Brooks Robinson, OF Boog Powell and P Dean Chance. In 1963, he was an MLB Scout for the New York Mets organization.
After his days were done on the diamond, Hooper would return to New Jersey. During his playing days, he had taken courses at the Panzer College of Physical Education. He would receive a bachelor’s degree in education from Panzer, which has since merged with Montclair State University. Bob Hooper had taught physical education at the Washington School in New Brunswick and then he was at New Brunswick Senior High School (1968-1979), until he retired in 1979. Bob Hooper died on March 17,1980, after suffering a heart attack. He was survived by his wife, Helen Coyle Hooper and their daughter, Barbara.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 16, 2024 22:25:28 GMT -5
Earle Combs; The Yankees 1st Great CenterfielderThis article was written by Ralph Berger, Edited by Clipper Modesty and mental and physical toughness embodied the spirit of Earle Combs. His ego never outgrew those values during his baseball career and the remainder of his life. The ultimate team player, he was kind, a gentle man whose life was guided by the Bible. In those still rough and tumble times of baseball he stood out as an anomaly and as a beacon of light in a sport that was still under the pall of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. That he was a baseball player and a good one was only the surface of a man who lived his life as purely as he knew how.
Combs was the man in center field between Bob Meusel in left and Babe Ruth in right, a respected ballplayer though eclipsed by his flamboyant teammates. Fred Lieb wrote of Combs, “If a vote were taken of the sportswriters as to who their favorite ballplayer on the Yankees would be, Combs would have been their choice.” Quiet, modest, and intelligent, Combs said upon his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1970, he said, “I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me.”
Earle Bryan Combs was born in Pebworth, Kentucky on May 14, 1899. Of Scottish-German ancestry, he was 1 of 6 children of hill farmer James J. Combs and Nannie (Brandenburg) Combs of Owsley County, Kentucky.
This modest man started out to become a schoolteacher after having graduated from Eastern Kentucky State Normal School (now Eastern Kentucky University), where he played basketball, ran track and played baseball, batting .591 in his final year. Combs began his teaching career in 1-room schools in Kentucky. However, he soon found out that he could make more money as a professional baseball player. Batting .444 for the Harlan, Kentucky, team, he was signed by the Louisville Colonels. His 1st game as a professional player was inauspicious. He made several errors in the outfield, the last giving the opposition the 2 runs they needed for the win. About his error that lost the game Combs said, “As I went after the dropped ball I was tempted to keep right on going, climb the fence and not stop running until I got to Pebworth.”
Combs sat at his locker after the game downcast and wondering what his life would be as a schoolteacher. He had married Ruth McCollum in 1921 and was concerned about being a breadwinner. His doubts about his baseball career were quickly put aside. Joe McCarthy, the manager of the Colonels, knew he had a good, smart player in Combs and told him, “Look, if I didn’t think you belong in centerfield on this club, I wouldn’t put you there. And I’m going to keep you there.” Combs responded by running down fly balls with his great speed and hitting .344.
In 1923, Combs had batted .380 for the Louisville Colonels and in 1924 the Yankees bought him for $50,000 and 2 players. He did not immediately report to the Yankees spring training camp because he had been promised a percentage of his purchase price that the Colonels had not paid. For all his modesty and gentlemanly demeanor, Combs was not above fighting for what he believed was his due, saying, “I am not a dumb animal to be browbeaten, cowed, lashed, coerced or goaded into anything I do not think is right.” The Colonels paid.
When Combs did report to the Yankees, Miller Huggins sat him down and had a long talk with him. At Louisville he had been called “The Mail Carrier” because of his base stealing and speed. Huggins, however, told Combs not to worry about stealing bases but as a leadoff man to wait out the pitcher, get on base any way he could, and let the big guns in the lineup, like Ruth, drive him in. Huggins ended the talk with “Up here we will call you the Waiter.” Combs, sensing that Huggins knew what he was talking about, put aside his ego, carried out his skipper’s orders, and served the team well in his new situation. Because of the Yankees’ great sluggers, Combs never stole more than 16 bases in a season.
Combs was considered in his time the best leadoff man in the American League. Even with his patience in getting walks and sacrifices he collected at least 190 hits 5 times and wound up his career with a batting average of .325. A left-handed hitter, he could get an extra couple of steps toward 1st base, enabling him to beat out infield hits. He was not a pull hitter and used the entire field to spray line shots for hits to all fields. Once he lined a pitch in the gap, it often resulted in a 3-base hit. He led the league in triples 3 times and finished his Yankees playing career with 154 triples, averaging more than 1 3-bagger for every 10 games.
Indeed, triples were Earle Combs’ specialty. He hit at least 10 in every season in which he played at least 122 games. Three times (1927, 1928, and 1930) he ran out 20 or more, leading the league each time. His 23 3-baggers in 1927 are the most in an American League season since 1917, equaled only by Cleveland’s Dale Mitchell in 1949. The Deadball Era trio who had better single-season totals is impressive – Sam Crawford, Joe Jackson, and Ty Cobb.
He got off to great start, hitting .400 in the 1st 24 games. Then misfortune struck when he fractured his ankle and was out the rest of the 1924 season. His injury contributed to the Yankees’ missing out on the pennant, when they finished 2 games behind the 1st-place Washington Senators. Combs would return for the 1925 season, with his ankle fully recovered. He would slammed out 203 hits, scored 117 runs and batted .342. But the Yankees did not win the flag. Ruth was out much of the season and several other players had sub-par years. The Yankees would finished in 7th place.
The 1926 Yankees-with Ruth back in shape, Lou Gehrig coming into his own, and Tony Lazzeri at 2nd base-won the pennant. They faced the St.Louis Cardinals in the World Series. They lost to the Cardinals when in a memorable moment Pete Alexander struck out Lazzeri with the bases loaded, just after Lazzeri had lined Alexander’s previous pitch barely foul into the left field seats.
Then came the magnificent year of 1927, Lindbergh flew the Atlantic solo, Dempsey and Tunney had their controversial long count fight in Chicago and the Yankees with arguably the greatest team ever sailed easily to the pennant. Ruth hit his then astounding 60 HRs and Earle Combs set a club record with 231 hits not to be broken until Don Mattingly eclipsed it in 1986 with 238 hits. Showing his great patience at the plate, Combs set the table time and time again for Ruth and Gehrig and their cohorts. Defensively the only knock on Combs was his weak arm. As the years went by, he strengthened his throwing arm through exercises, but it was never the rifle he would have wanted. Accordingly, Bill James in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract ranks Combs only 34th in his pick of center fielders.
Although overshadowed by Ruth and Gehrig, Combs was a fan favorite. His quiet demeanor and dogged determination to do his best without much ado endeared him to the fans, so much so that the fans in the right field section of Yankee Stadium took up a collection and bought him a gold watch. Those knowledgeable fans understood his ability to get on base and set the table for the upcoming sluggers as well as his ability to chase down flyballs with his great speed. Combs was always considered the gentleman of the Yankees, earning him the name of the “Kentucky Colonel” for his good manners and quiet dignity. Combs neither smoked nor swore and read the Bible diligently, not caring who knew about it.
Miller Huggins loved the unassuming Combs and Gehrig. Huggins’ sudden death in 1929 devastated the team. Combs profoundly felt the loss of Huggins. The Yankees finished 3rd under Manager Bob Shawkey in 1930. In 1931, Joe McCarthy, Combs’ manager at Louisville, became the Yankees’ skipper. The following year the Yankees won the American League pennant and defeated the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. That was the series in which Ruth was said to have called his HR shot by pointing toward the center field bleachers in Wrigley Field. Was it Ruth’s intent to let the Cubs bench and pitcher Charlie Root know where he was going to deposit the next pitch? Combs recalls the event that day. “I can’t say whether the Babe was actually pointing to the bleachers. He may have been pointing to the pitcher. What I do remember is that the Cubs who had been on Ruth the entire series were on the top step of their dugout really letting Ruth have it. When he smashed that line drive into the stands the Cubs players in the dugout all fell backward as if they had been machine-gunned.”
In 1934, Combs crashed into a wall chasing a fly ball, fracturing his skull and incurring shoulder and knee injuries. He spent 2 months in the hospital, much of it on the critical list, as doctors feared for his life as well as his career. But Combs with his characteristic mental and physical toughness from his hospital bed said, “You see I’m made of tough stuff” and vowed to return to the Yankees. He would returned in 1935, he would play in 89 games and also coached. But misfortune struck again, and Combs was out the rest of the season with a broken collarbone. That final injury caused Combs to retire as an active player at the age of 36.
Combs became a full-time coach with the Yankees in 1936. Among his 1st assignments, he was asked to teach a young ballplayer the special circumstances of playing center field in spacious Yankee Stadium. That young player just up from the AA San Francisco Seals was Joe DiMaggio. Coincidentally, DiMaggio broke Combs’ and Roger Peckinpaugh‘s jointly held Yankee club record of 29 consecutive games with a hit on his way to a Major League record of hitting in 56 consecutive games in 1941. Combs with his unwavering loyalty to his team helped the young DiMaggio adapt to the center field position in Yankee Stadium.
Combs took his teaching abilities with him in MLB coaching stints for the Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies through the 1954 season. He then would retire to his 400-acre farm in Kentucky.
After his retirement Combs participated in various business and civic ventures. He was a member and the chairman on the Board of Regents of Eastern Kentucky University, his alma mater. A generous person, he quietly and anonymously paid the fees of several needy students attending Eastern Kentucky University.
After a long illness Earle Bryan Combs died on July 21,1976 in Richmond, Kentucky, at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife Ruth; sons Earle Jr., Charles, and Donald; brother Conley; sister Elsie Seale; and 12 grandchildren. He was buried in Richmond Cemetery.
This modest, quiet intelligent man from the hill country in Kentucky started out to be a teacher, only to find he had the ability to be a fine professional baseball player. When he gained the respect of his baseball peers, he did not change as a person. He remained the ultimate team player, avoiding the self-indulgent ego he might have embraced. Ruth, Gehrig and the rest of Murders Row may have delivered the fatal blows, but Earle Combs set up the scenes of the crimes. He was the rare individual willing to stand up for himself when the occasion called for it and intelligent enough to be the team player if it meant the success of the whole.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 16, 2024 23:18:05 GMT -5
Any predictions on the 2024 Dawson Award winner? Maybe Will Warren forcing his way onto the Yankees roster? The one guy on that list I never heard of is Jon Weber, and he was relatively recent. I looked him up and it appears that in 2010 it came down to him or Marcus Thames for the fifth OFer position and the Yanks took Thames supposedly because they wanted another right-handed bat. Some things never change. I thought for sure that Eric Duncan at least got the proverbial cuppa Joe in the bigs, but obviously he didn't. For those of us from a certain vintage, it was great to see the name Arturo Lopez again. |
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Post by posadafan24 on Jan 17, 2024 0:19:05 GMT -5
The one guy on that list I never heard of is Jon Weber, and he was relatively recent. I looked him up and it appears that in 2010 it came down to him or Marcus Thames for the fifth OFer position and the Yanks took Thames supposedly because they wanted another right-handed bat. Some things never change. I thought for sure that Eric Duncan at least got the proverbial cuppa Joe in the bigs, but obviously he didn't. For those of us from a certain vintage, it was great to see the name Arturo Lopez again. I remember duncan had some hype when he was in the yankees minors |
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 17, 2024 15:59:23 GMT -5
Former Yankees and Angels Pitcher Eli GrbaThis article was written by Chuck Boyer - Chuck Johnson, Edited by Clipper
1960 Topps Baseball Card
On December 6, 1960, the American League had awarded Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., expansion franchises that would play in the league beginning in April 1961. With only 4 months to put a franchise together, Los Angeles Owner Gene Autry first hired Bob Reynolds as Team President and Fred Haney as General Manager. When it came time to pick a field manager, their 1st choice was Casey Stengel, who had been fired by the New York Yankees after the 1960 season. Stengel turned down the offer, but provided insight on players he thought would be of immediate help to the Angels. With just 8 days to prepare for the expansion draft, the 3 executives took Stengel’s advice to heart. On December 14th, they would chose right-handed pitcher Eli Grba of the Yankees, making him the 1st player ever chosen in an expansion draft and the 1st player in Angels history.
A native of Chicago, Eli Grba was born on August 9, 1934. His father, Joseph Grba, left the family early on, leaving his mother, Eva, to raise her only child as a single parent. Working as a waitress during the day and a factory worker at night, she afforded Eli the opportunity to participate in sports as a child. He became a 3-sport star at Bowen High School on Chicago’s South Side. “Basketball was my favorite,” Eli said, “even after I made the major leagues, I played semipro in the offseason, sometimes as many as 40 games.”
Baseball was the sport that came calling, however, as Grba’s exploits at Bowen and in summer leagues attracted the attention of Boston Red Sox Scout Chuck Koney. After graduating in the spring of 1952, Grba signed with the Red Sox and was sent to play at Salisbury, North Carolina, of the Class-D North Carolina State League.
“Sheriff Robinson was my 1st manager,” Grba recalled. “As a matter of fact, Robinson was my manager my 1st 3 seasons in the minors.” A catcher during his 13-year minor-league playing career, Robinson was making his managerial debut with Salisbury in 1952 and, Grba said, “We just hit it off.”
Grba learned his lessons well, as he was an all-star that 1st season in Salisbury and again in 1953 with Corning of the Class-D Pony League, where he led the league in games started, innings pitched, and strikeouts.
After 1 more solid season under Robinson’s tutelage, with San Jose in 1955, the Red Sox would placed Grba placed on the fast track, bypassing 3 levels of competition and moving him up to Triple-A San Francisco (Pacific Coast League) for 1956. San Francisco was managed that season by Eddie Joost and then, after Joost was fired in June, future Hall of Famer Joe Gordon. Not wanting to tip the cart and upset the veteran pitchers on the staff, Joost at the start of the season had dispatched Grba, the youngest full-time pitcher on the staff, to the bullpen. “I went from over 220 innings the previous 2 years to less than 100 (93⅓),” Grba said. “I was a starter, and I wanted to pitch.”
Grba reported to spring training in 1957 with the Red Sox but finished it with the New York Yankees. On March 14th, he and outfielder Gordon Windhorn were traded to the Yankees for outfielder Bill Renna. “I hated the trade.” Grba said, “I grew up a White Sox fan and (the Yankees would) come in and beat us all the time.” Before he could establish himself with his new team, however, another team soon came calling: the U.S. Army. With the start of the season just 2 weeks away, Grba tried, unsuccessfully, for a deferment. After being inducted, he was sent to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. He later was stationed at Fort McPherson, in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of the next 2 years, he played baseball and basketball for his base teams, and upon his discharge, he reported to St. Petersburg, Florida, for spring training with the Yankees in 1959.
The Yankees sent Grba to Triple-A Richmond to start the season. Grba had gotten stronger during his Army hitch and was throwing harder, but the Yankees thought he needed a 3rd pitch to complement his fastball and curve. In spring training Coach Ralph Houk “asked what I thought I needed to get to the major leagues,” Grba said. “I never could learn a changeup, so I just said a slider.” After a brief session with Minor-League Pitching Coach Eddie Lopat, Grba was throwing a modified slider, or cutter as it came to be called. Again, Grba would pitched out of the bullpen.
His work paid off, as Grba was recalled by the Yankees in July. He reported to the team at Boston’s Fenway Park, where he made his MLB pitching debut in relief on July 10th, pitching a hitless inning. The next day Manager Casey Stengel sent him to the mound again and this time he was reached for 3 runs (2 of which scored on a wild throw) in 2⅔ innings. His 1st MLB start and win came 8 days later in Yankee Stadium against his favorite team as a child, the White Sox. It was a 6-4 victory, and all 4 runs off Grba were unearned.
Grba spent the rest of the season with the Yankees, winning 2 games and losing 5 with a high 6.44 ERA. He would reported to spring training in 1960 confident in his role with the team, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. “I made the team,” Grba said, “I even rode the team train back to New York.” But once in New York, Manager Stengel had a change of heart and Grba was sent down to AAA Richmond.
Grba pitched well in Richmond, going 7-1 in 9 starts before being recalled in early July. He remained with the Yankees for the rest of the 1960 season, winning 6 games and losing 4 (3.68 ERA) in a mix of starting and relief roles. He was on the Yankees’ World Series roster against the Pittsburgh Pirates, although his only appearance came as a pinch-runner for Elston Howard in Game 6.
Shortly after the World Series, which the Yankees lost on Bill Mazeroski’s Game 7 walk-off HR, the Yankees had advised Grba that he would be among the players they would leave unprotected in the coming expansion player draft. The Angels would selected Grba 1st overall and in 1961, he reported to spring training in Palm Springs, California.
As the season opener approached, Angels Manager Bill Rigney had selected Grba to start the 1st game in the franchise’s history, so on the cool, windy afternoon of April 11,1961, Grba took the mound in Baltimore in front of 37,352 fans. The Angels scored 7 runs in the 1st 2 innings and went on to win, 7-2. Grba pitched a complete-game 6-hitter. The weather on the East Coast at the time played havoc with the schedule; 2 rainouts in Baltimore were followed by another in Boston and then 2 more in New York before Grba’s next start, which came against his former teammates in Yankee Stadium on April 20th. In his return to New York, Grba gave up a pair of HRs and 5 RBIs to Mickey Mantle as the Angels lost, 7-5.
On April 27th, Grba was tabbed by Rigney to start the Angels’ home opener, against the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field. He went 6⅓ innings, allowing 6hits and 4runs, 3 on a HR by Twins catcher Earl Battey, as the Angels lost, by the score of 4-2.
Grba won 11 games and lost 13 in 1961, finishing 2nd on the pitching staff in wins, innings, and starts. He spent the entire 1962 season with the Angels as well (8-9, 4-54 ERA), but, in his own words, “drinking was starting to affect my pitching.”
Manager Bill Rigney had had enough. The Angels tried to trade Grba twice and finally sold him to the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. Grba bounced around the minor leagues for the next few years, even making the International League all-star team with Toronto in 1964, before his drinking finally forced him out of the game as a player in 1967.
“I was drinking heavy and I didn’t care about anything,” Grba said, “My priorities were all gone. Bob Lemon saw me one day and said, “I’ve never seen a pitcher lose his stuff as fast as you did.”
Grba bounced around from job to job and rehab center to rehab center until, in his words, he “hit the limit” on August 1, 1981. Living and working at a detox center in El Monte, California, he was sneaking back into his room at 2:30 A.M. when he lost his balance and fell to the floor. Realizing then how he had disappointed those closest to him – family, friends, and teammates –he decided right then that things had to change.
As of 2018, he is still sober, 33 years and counting.
Grba’s sobriety also afforded him a chance to get back into the game. In 1982, he was hired as the pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers’ AAA team in Vancouver. After a year in Waterbury with the Angels’ Double-A team, Grba tried his hand at managing with Reno in the California League in 1989. With the help of Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Lee Thomas, a good friend, Grba would joined the Phillies organization and spent 2 years with Rookie-level Princeton as manager and pitching coach. In 1993, he went to work as a Scout under Farm Director Del Unser. He scouted for 5 seasons, retiring after the 1997 season.
Grba and his 4th wife, Regina, resided in Florence, Alabama, until his death at the age of 84 on January 14, 2019. He had 2 children from previous marriages, a son, Nick, and a daughter, Stacy and 2 grandchildren. Nick spent 26 years with the Air Force, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and retired with the rank of staff sergeant. Stacy also served overseas in the Air Force. In 2011, the Angels celebrated their 50th anniversary as a franchise. Among the events were ceremonies honoring people who were part of Angels’ history since the beginning. The 1st person the Angels honored was the 1st player in franchise history, Eli Grba.
“What I think about sometimes is about how I messed it up,” Grba said of how he let drinking destroy his career and three marriages. “Baseball has been a secondary thought to me ever since I got sober, I didn’t leave the Angels the way I wanted.”
For most of the 43,853 fans in attendance on April 8, 2011, Grba’s appearance was a symbolic one, but for Eli it was sentimental. “It’s nice to be recognized as the 1st, nice to be remembered, and it’s an honor.”
He went out to the mound and threw a strike, just as he had done 50 years earlier.
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Post by kaybli on Jan 17, 2024 20:32:18 GMT -5
Index updated on first post of the thread.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 18, 2024 17:38:31 GMT -5
Reserve Yankees Outfielder Jack Reed
Written by Thomas Van Hyning; Edited by Clipper
Jack at Old Miss John (Jack) Burwell Reed played the outfield in the regular and post-season for the fabled 1961 New York Yankees and contributed to their pennant-winning efforts in 1962 and 1963. He was Mickey Mantle’s defensive replacement for most of these 3 seasons. Jack was a terrific high school/college athlete in Mississippi, winning the state quarter-mile run title as a high school senior in 1950 and starting at safety for the 1952-1953 University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Rebels football team. Jack Reed is one of only 4 intercollegiate student-athletes to play in a major college football bowl game and World Series contest, having done so in the January 1, 1953, Sugar Bowl, when Ole Miss played Georgia Tech; then, playing in 3 1961 World Series games for the New York Yankees versus the Cincinnati Reds. His only MLB HR, a 22nd-inning game-winner, was hit in Detroit on June 24,1962, in the longest game in New York Yankees history, both in time (7 hours) and length (22 innings).
Jack Reed was born in a Vicksburg, Mississippi, hospital on February 2,1933, to Burwell Swayze Reed, a farmer and Hallie Slaughter Reed. Jack’s dad owned a 2,000-acre plantation in Silver City, a small Mississippi Delta town in Humphreys County. Jack and his siblings, James and Nancey grew up on the family’s plantation, 6 miles from Belzoni, the county seat. Jack’s favorite big-league team, the St. Louis Cardinals, played back-to-back World Series versus the 1942 and 1943 Yankees, when Jack was 9 and 10 years old. Cardinals’ games could be heard on local radio stations throughout the Deep South in the 1940s. Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was Jack’s favorite major league player.
Jack enjoyed watching Ole Miss football and baseball games. One of his all-time favorite athletes was Charlie Conerly, the future New York Giants star quarterback, who starred on the 1942 and 1946-1947 Ole Miss football teams and was a fine Ole Miss baseball player. Jack’s baseball career formally began as a 9th grader at Silver City High School in 1947. His 1948 high school team made it to the post-season, but was eliminated by Lee High School, based in Columbus, Mississippi. Billy Switzer was Columbus’s star pitcher and later played with Jack at Ole Miss. “Back in high school and college Jack had a good arm, good batting ability…quick wrists, literally hit the ball out of the mitt,” said Switzer, via phone, May 6,2010.
The Reed household opted to send Jack to the Gulf Coast Military Academy (GCMA) in Biloxi, a 6-hour Greyhound bus trip from Silver City, for his last 2 high school years. Jack roomed with Edd Tate Parker. Martin Trauth was Jack’s Company Commander at GCMA. Parker and Trauth went on to play football at Ole Miss in the early 1950s. Jack’s athletic skills blossomed at GCMA, a more competitive environment than Silver City. Mike Campbell, Jack’s football coach at GCMA, was a “great motivator,” according to Jack, per one of our phone interviews, and later a top assistant to Darrell Royal at the University of Texas. One opponent, the St. Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in 1941 featured Felix “Doc” Blanchard, who won the 1945 Heisman Trophy for Army. Jack played in Biloxi’s Shrimp Bowl, against Baton Rouge High School.
Non McCallahan coached Jack in baseball at GCMA, with Jack his star pitcher and shortstop. Jack excelled in track & field, practicing and competing in his specialty—the quarter-mile run and relay races. The 1950 State High School track & field events took place at Mississippi College in Clinton, where Harry Craft, who would be his 1st manager in pro baseball had attended. Jack won the quarter-mile in 52.2 seconds and helped GCMA win the 880-yard relay race state title. Tom Swayze, Johnny Vaught’s top football recruiter at Ole Miss, recruited Jack to play college football and baseball. Ole Miss had winning football seasons the 2 years Jack started at safety: 1951 (5-3-1) and 1952 (8-0-2). The Rebels would finished #7 nationally in 1952 before playing Georgia Tech in the 1953 Sugar Bowl. National rankings were determined before bowl games.
Jack’s 1951 collegiate football highlights included a 21-17 upset win over Paul “Bear” Bryant’s favored Kentucky Wildcats, “a great day for Ole Miss”, per Jack’s comments; and a season-ending 49-7 trouncing of arch-rival Mississippi State, propelled by Showboat Boykin’s 7 touchdowns. Jack’s best game was November 14, 1952, when the #3 Maryland Terrapins came into town, but fell short to the Rebels, 21-14. This put Ole Miss on the national college football map. Karl Ottan, a Ole Miss baseball teammate of Jack’s in 1952 and 1953, and a cousin of Mel Ott—told me via phone, on May 11, 2010, “that win put us in the [1953] Sugar Bowl; Jack was all over the field that day—had a lot of speed at safety and a good knowledge of the game.” The 1953 Sugar Bowl, in New Orleans against Georgia Tech, propelled Jack into collegiate football and major league baseball sports immortality as 1 of 4 collegiate student-athletes to play in a major college football bowl game and a World Series contest(s). Jack earned a track and field letter at Ole Miss, for scoring 5 points in a dual meet. He ran the 100-yard dash in 10.2 seconds and the 220-yard run in 22.6, but baseball was his favorite sport. Jack had played the 1952 and 1953 college seasons, earning All-Southeastern (SEC) Conference honors, the latter season. Ole Miss was a combined 19-20, including a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to Notre Dame, on April 4, 1953. Karl Ott remembered, in our May 11, 2010, phone conversation, that he flied out for “the last dad gum out!” Ott: “Jack Reed was my baseball teammate in 1952 and 1953; a great baseball player who couldn’t play his freshman year [due to rules]…a good fielder and a heck of a hitter.”
Jack and Be Be Hopkins of Tennessee were involved in a close batting 1953 race, but Hopkins won it the last day. Jack’s .400 batting average got noticed by scouts with Cleveland, Detroit, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the New York Yankees. Atley Donald, the Yankees MLB Scout, who had scouted Jack at semi-pro games in the early 1950s. Jack also played in the National Semi-Pro Baseball Tournament hosted by Wichita, Kansas. After Atley had scouted Reed at one semi-pro game near Silver City, Hallie Reed treated Atley and Betty [Atley’s wife] to a sumptuous meal. “Atley used to come over and watch me [and my brother] play semi-pro ball,” said Reed. “Dad owned a lot of land, a cotton plantation and I spent many hours helping him. Many years later, we visited the Donalds at that big cattle ranch in Choudrant, Louisiana. Atley and I enjoyed fishing together.”
Twenty-year-old Jack Reed signed a Yankees contract in the summer of 1953, then he drove to Kansas City to join the AAA Blues managed by Harry Craft. Jack was befriended by Alex Grammas, the team’s shortstop, who played with Jack’s older brother Jim at Mississippi State. Craft had managed and helped develop Mickey Mantle at Independence in 1949 and Joplin in 1950. He, more or less, told Jack “what to expect” in professional baseball. The 1953 Blues would finished 88-66 in the American Association; won the league post-season title in a 7-game series versus Toledo; they had a powerful line-up with Bill Skowron, Bob Cerv, Elston Howard, Victor Pellot Power, Grammas, et al.
In 1954, Jack would start with the Quincy Gems in the Class B, Three-I League. He was hitting .288 in 15 games, when he was sent to Winston Salem, a Class B Carolina League team.There Jack would hit .287, in 84 games for a 44-94 last-place team. This was overshadowed after the Carolina League season ended on September 6,1954, when Jack married Mabel Louise (Lou) Trantham in Belzoni. Jack would play the entire 1955 season with the Class A Binghamton Triplets, managed by ex-Yankees player George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss and led the league in hits (172) and triples (13).
Stirnweiss was A-ok in Jack’s book, teaching him how to “bunt for base hits” and stressing fundamentals to the whole team. The top power hitter was catcher Johnny Blanchard, the loop’s leading HR hitter [34], who according to Jack was my “best friend through our playing days.” The team’s best pitcher was Jim Coates, a future New York Yankee. Roger Maris was an outfielder with the 1955 Reading Indians. The Triplets’ season came to end when they lost a best-of-5 series to the Allentown Cardinals.
There was no pro baseball for Jack in 1956-1957, due to a 22-month commitment with the U.S. Army. This included 6 months of basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, followed by 16 months in South Korea. Jack returned to Silver City determined to have a banner year in 1958. Jack would suit up for the 1958 AA New Orleans Pelicans, never missing a game, leading the Southern Association in runs [120] and hits [198]. Jack felt his Manager, Charlie Silvera, “was a good manager who got a raw deal” when the last-place Pelicans fired him during the season. Silvera had played 9 of his 10 MLB seasons with the Yankees, he was Yogi Berra’s back-up catcher from 1949-1956. Jack’s 1958 roommate was a 29-year-old pitcher from Bath, Pennsylvania, Angelo “Wimpy” Nardella. Tom Tresh , a 19-year-old shortstop, joined the team and showed promise. Jack’s siblings, parents and Lou saw him play in New Orleans and Memphis. The New Orleans Times Picayune sports section gave Jack nice coverage and press. Jack befriended Cal Ermer, skipper of the 1st place and league champion Birmingham Barons.
The 1959 New York Yankees defending World Series Champions had invited Jack to spring training camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. One highlight was a photo taken of Jack and Casey Stengel, published in the Sunday magazine of the Times Picayune. Jack would present Stengel with an Ole Miss “M” jacket, one with sentimental value to the “Old Professor.” In late January 1914, Stengel drove to Oxford, Mississippi, from his Kansas City home, at the invitation of William Driver, Stengel’s high school baseball coach, and now baseball coach at Ole Miss. joyable experience. Jack had played in the same outfield with Mickey Mantle, in 1959 spring training games. He found Mantle to be pleasant and friendly to him and other Yankee hopefuls. But spring training at the big-league level was very competitive, and the Yankees had a set outfield with veteran Hank Bauer
in RF, Mantle in CF, and Norm Siebern in LF, with Hector Lopez to be acquired early in the 1959 season. Jack was sent to the AAA Richmond Virginians (V’s).
Steve Souchock, an ex-Yankee player (1946-1948), would manage Jack at Richmond in 1959 and 1960, would penciled Jack in for 144 outfield starts and 5 other 1959 games. The only other Virginian, who played more games was Deron Johnson with 154, in the OF/3rd base. Jack’s road roommate was Shortstop Fritz Brickell, who shared playing time with Clete Boyer. Joe Gibbon, an ex-Ole Miss pitcher, who pitched for the 1959 Columbus Jets, who were managed by Cal Ermer. Gibbon told me, “Jack is a good friend and a good person.” Gibbon’s 2nd place Jets were eliminated by the 3rd place Havana Sugar Kings; the 4th-place Richmond V’s upset 1st place Buffalo Bisons. Jack went to Havana in the regular/post-season, and said, “it wasn’t any different than playing in the U.S.” The Sugar Kings would bested the V’s, 4 games to 2, to win the 1959 International League title. The 1960 Richmond V’s would finish 2nd to the Toronto Maple Leafs, before losing their semi-final series with the Rochester Red Wings. Jack still roomed with Fritz Brickell and started two-thirds of the team’s games. Ken Hunt and Deron Johnson, plus Jack, got the most outfield playing time. Catcher Jesse Gonder had a fine season, while Eli Grba and Bill Stafford were the V’s top pitchers. Jack Reed continued to plugged away, hoping to fulfill his dream of playing with the Yankees.
Roger Maris would join the 1960 Yankees; he would win back-to-back MVP Awards in 1960 and 1961. Mickey Mantle was relatively healthy in 1960 and most of 1961. Several 1961 changes in the Yankees farm system and parent team would help Jack. Cal Ermer would become the new Richmond Manager. Ermer, per Jack’s written responses, “help a lot of major league players.” Ralph Houk was named the Yankee skipper prior to the 1961 season. Houk knew the Yankee farm system inside-out and liked disciplined and team-oriented players such as Jack Reed, with strong work ethics. Jack made the Yankee ballclub out of spring training, at age 28. His MLB player debut was April 23,1961; he would play in 28 games for the Yankees, mainly as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement for Mickey Mantle; and was Rollie Sheldon’s road roommate. Jack was sent back to Richmond, but he was recalled in time to make the post-season roster.
Bobby Richardson, a fellow Southerner from Sumter, South Carolina and a person of faith like Jack, recalled Jack stayed with him and his family, circa 1961-1962, in Ridgewood, NJ, before Jack and Lou found a home to rent. Jack also would live at the Bronx’s Concourse Plaza Hotel. Richardson commented: “Unfortunately, for Jack, his situation was playing behind 2 of the very best [outfielders] Mantle and Maris. Mantle had to wrap both legs with bandages before each game. Maris was a fine athlete; very good at breaking up a potential double play…could throw a rolling block into me, in my 1st full season [1957] when Maris was with Cleveland. I had to adjust or would land in left field.” (May 4, 2010, phone conversation with Richardson.)
Ralph Terry reminded me in a May 3, 2010 phone conversation, that Jack was a fine golfer, plus a good outfielder who “could go get ‘em; Jack had a good jump on the ball.” Jack told me the foursome of “Mantle, Terry, Stafford and myself would play golf on off-days.” Jack developed close friendships with his 3 golfing buddies; with Johnny Blanchard; Bobby Richardson; and Tom Tresh, his 1962-1963 road roommate. Roger Maris kept to himself; Jack emphasized Maris was a complete player, run, hit with power, with a good arm. Mantle, per Jack, “could do it all, run, hit with power from both sides of the plate; could have been a world class sprinter.”
The 1961 Yankees would hit 240 HRs and would win 109 games, before besting Cincinnati, 4 games to 1 in the World Series. Rollie Sheldon was a 1961 big league rookie who told me he and Jack were treated great by the veteran players; “Whitey Ford would say, ‘Hey rook, go get me a Coke.’” Sheldon: “Jack was always on time and ready to better himself even though he knew his game time was minimal. He always did the pre-game activities with enthusiasm to stay sharp and [was] always ready to enter the game. Jack would never complain. He knew his role, was happy to be a part of a great team that was in the public eye,” per Sheldon’s May 2010 written answers.
Jack Reed would play his 1st World Series game on Wednesday, October 4,1961, at Yankee Stadium. He had replaced Johnny Blanchard, who pinch-hit for Hector Lopez in the home 8th inning. Jack went to center field to start the 9th and Roger Maris moved to right, before a paid attendance of 62,397. Whitey Ford retired Jerry Lynch on a pop out to Boyer; Eddie Kasko on a grounder, Tony Kubek to Bill Skowron; and Vada Pinson, who popped out to Kubek, as the Yankees won the game by the score of 2-0. Jack had replaced Mickey Mantle in center field in Game 3 at Crosley Field, when the Reds came up for their last at-bat, trailing 3-2. Maris’s HR in the 9th gave New York and Luis Arroyo their margin of victory. Jack was on the visitors’ diamond in Game 5, when the Yankees clinched it, with a 13-5 win. He had replaced Blanchard in the 9th, with Maris moving to right and Jack taking over in center. Jack told me he was “scared” in the 1st game, but he did realized the 1961 Yankees were special, a team that “didn’t think they could lose.” After Game 5 final, Jack rode the train home to Silver City, Mississippi, with his family.
Jack would receive the 1st of his 2 World Series Championship rings early in the 1962 season, the season he would hit his only MLB HR. This HR blast was the game-winner in an epic 22-inning, 7-hour contest, at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, on June 24,1962. The Yankees would use 21 players, including 7 pitchers; while Detroit used 22 players, also had 7 pitchers on the mound.
Yogi Berra, who caught the entire game and wrote these responses in May 2010 to my 4 questions:
Memories? “It was long. We were supposed to eat at my cousin’s house in Detroit after the game. We were late.”
How did it feel catching 22 innings? “Tired.”
Did you call most of the pitches? “Yes.”
Please comment on Jack Reed’s 2-run HR, which followed a Roger Maris walk? “Good timing. Glad he hit it.”
Rollie Sheldon told me via mail: “Jack had to do it; HE was the only one, who still had some strength!”
Bobby Richardson had started the top of the 22nd inning with a line drive to Steve Boros, playing 2nd. Richardson recalled his 11 at-bats—still a Yankees single-game record and his wife watching it on TV, from Ridgewood, New Jersey, when we conversed via phone on May 4, 2010. Richardson: “Jack came in as a defensive replacement in the 13th inning…and we were thrilled with the home run!” Roger Maris walked, before Jack batting clean-up had homered. Ralph Terry did not pitch, but stated Jack’s HR was well hit and came off of “The Vulture” Reliever Phil Regan. Frank Lary started for Detroit; had only lasted 2 innings; he had allowed 7 hits and 7 earned runs. Bob Turley, the Yankees starter, also was knocked out in the 1st. Yankee Relievers Jim Coates, Bill Stafford, Marshall Bridges, Tex Clevenger, Bud Daley and Rookie Jim Bouton followed; with Bouton’s 7 scoreless innings enough to earn the 9-7 win.
Jack would play his 3rd and final season with the New York Yankees in 1963, one where the Bronx Bombers would finish with a 104-57 record to win their 4th straight American League pennant. Jack was in more games (106) than Maris (95) or Mantle (65), he would finished 2nd on the team with 5 stolen bases, behind Bobby Richardson’s 15 steals. The Yankees were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, behind the great pitching of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres.
When 1964 season had started, Jack was a Player-Coach for the Richmond V’s. He would room with Catcher Jake Gibbs, the former All-American football and baseball player at Ole Miss. Preston Gomez would managed the V’s, his was on loan from the Dodgers. Mel Stottlemyre was the team’s top pitching prospect, after his call-up, who would help the parent club win the 1964 American League pennant. Rollie Sheldon would pitch well in 9 AAA starts, he would compliment Jack on his coaching ability when he wrote this in May 2010: “Jack was easy going, calm and direct when he directed our participation in pre-game warm-ups. On the bench, he would pass along game situation strategy; i.e., this is a good pitch count to steal, hit and run, etc. He was right on as a coach and took that to his managing position.”
Yankees General Manager Ralph Houk wanted Jack to remain in the Yankee system as a Manager, he would offered him the managing slot with the Class A 1965 Ft. Lauderdale Yankees (FSL). Jack would lead Ft. Lauderdale Yankees to the FSL title with an 87-51 record. Rod Carew, the All-Star 2nd baseman for the Orlando Twins was the “league’s best player,” according to Jack.
The 1966 Columbus Confederate Yankees in the AA Southern League, were managed by Jack. Steve Whitaker, with 20 HRs, was the HR threat, for a club which finished 63-76. Jack noted the Yankees farm system in the mid-1960s “did not have many power hitters as the organization was accustomed to in prior decades.”
Jack’s final season in organized baseball was with the 1967 Binghamton Triplets, a team that he managed to an 82-58 1st place finish in the AA Eastern League, followed by a best-of-5, post-season series win over Elmira. Jerry Moses, from Yazoo City, Mississippi ,who caught for Pittsfield in Boston’s farm system and Jack knew him since Yazoo City is only 20 miles from Silver City. Jack: “We played small ball and it paid off, Dave McDonald [1st baseman] led the team in HRs.”
Except for 7 Yankees Old-Timers Games, Jack Reed never managed or played baseball again, due to the passing of his father and the need to run the family farm. Jack would stay in Silver City, from 1968 on, after his dad passed away. Cotton, soybean, wheat, and catfish were the top crops. Jack would later spend 11 years as a Purchasing Director for Country Select, in Isola, Mississippi.
Several treasured moments came, when Jack played golf with Joe DiMaggio and “got to know him very well.” And Jack was 1 of 11 ex-Yankees, including Bobby Richardson, Jim Coates and Ralph Terry, to attend the 45th anniversary of the 1962 World Series, held in San Francisco.
In retirement. Jack and Lou live in Silver City. Their 4 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Biloxi, Mississippi; Houston, Texas; and Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Jack summarized his Ole Miss athletic career and New York Yankee years as a “Dream Come True.” Jack Reed would pass away at the age of 89 on November 10, 2022, in Silver City, Mo.
Sources
Research for this article included phone conversations with Jack Reed, between February-August 2010, plus Jack’s written responses to biographical questions and his review and edits of my draft article. I conversed by phone with 3 of Jack’s New York Yankee teammates: Jim Coates and Ralph Terry both on May 3,2010; Bobby Richardson on May 4,2010; plus, a trio of his college baseball teammates at Ole Miss: Carroll Jarvis and Billy Switzer (both on May 6,2010); and Karl Ott, May 11,2010. Yogi Berra furnished responses via mail correspondence focusing on the June 24,1962, New York Yankees-Detroit Tigers 22-inning contest. Rollie Sheldon would provide written answers to questions about Jack as a Yankees teammate during the early 1960s and the 1964 season with the Richmond V’s. Ralph Houk, Jack’s Manager with the New York Yankees, shared some insights with me, via mail, in the early 1990s, on Yankee prospects of the 1950s and his 1956-1957 Puerto Rico Winter League managing experience with the San Juan Senators. Houk would pass away on July 21,2010, at age 90. Joe Gibbon, an ex-big leaguer and Ole Miss baseball player, provided feedback on the 1959 International League (AAA) season, when Gibbon pitched for Columbus; whileJack had played for the Richmond Virginians. Betty Donald, widow of Atley Donald, the Yankees MLB Scout who had signed Jack Reed in 1953, did some historical commentary on Jack Reed as a true Southern gentleman. Ashley Mangrum and Daniel Snowden, University of Mississippi Athletic Department, facilitated photo(s) of Jack Reed.
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Post by fwclipper51 on Jan 18, 2024 20:26:19 GMT -5
Former Yankees Reserve Infielder Fritz Brickell
This article was written by Stephen Roney, Edited by Clipper
 1961 Topps Baseball CardFritz Brickell’s biggest claim to fame is probably that he was the Los Angeles Angels’ starting shortstop for the 1st 7 games of their inaugural season in 1961. But he had a brief MLB playing career and he died of cancer at the age of 30.
Fritz Darrell Brickell was born on March 19, 1935, in Wichita, Kansas. His father was George Frederick “Fred” Brickell, who was an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies from 1926 to 1933. His mother was Zerita Marie Himebaugh. He had a brother named Dudley. Fritz credited his dad with teaching him to swing hard and “to hustle, hustle, hustle.” Fritz was not a big man, variously listed between 5-feet-5 and 5-feet-6 and around 150 or 160 pounds (baseball-reference.com says 157 pounds), and not particularly fast.
Brickell had attended East High School in Wichita, where he appears in yearbook photos on both the football and basketball teams despite his lack of size, but not on the baseball team. He graduated in 1953 and was signed by MLB Scout Tom Greenwade of the New York Yankees, after playing in the Kansas State semipro tournament. The Yankees sent him to Joplin of the Class C Western Association, where he finished the season.
In 1954, Brickell was a Western Association All-Star, when he hit .306 with 11 HRs and 97 RBIs for St. Joseph (New York had moved its affiliation from Joplin) and earned an invitation to the Yankees’ rookie school the following spring. He was assigned to Binghamton of the Class A Eastern League but was bothered by a pulled leg muscle for most of 1955, playing in only 97 games and slowing his progress. After the season, Brickell would married Mada Joan Butts in St. Joseph.
In 1956, Brickell moved to Birmingham, where he rebounded for a .281 season, earning another trip to the Yankees’ school in 1957 and a promotion to Triple-A Denver Bears, where he had replaced Tony Kubek. Denver Manager Ralph Houk said, “This boy Brickell is farther advanced right now than Kubek was at this same time last year.”
Comparing Fritz to Kubek, Frank Haraway wrote, “Brickell bounds around like a little rabbit, grabbing everything in sight and getting the ball away with amazing speed. Both are sure-handed. … Brickell hits the longer ball. He is an excellent pull-hitter and can hit the towering ball that goes for a home run as well as the sharp line drive to any field.”5 He was listed as having a batting fault and a tendency to rush his throws, and told Haraway, “I’ll bet three-fourths of my errors last year were throwing errors. My problem is to learn how much time I have and not hurry the throw when I don’t have to.
Ralph Houk said, “Fritz makes the play on the slow-hit ball coming in with the best of them.” “And I don’t know anybody any better at starting the double play from the ball hit into the 3rd base-shortstop hole. He does that as well as any big leaguer I’ve seen. … At the plate he’s improving all the time and has amazing power for a little guy. His power is to all fields, too, so the defense never knows quite how to play him.”
A scouting report in the March 1958 issue of Baseball Digest described Brickell this way: “Not ready. Strong arm, but erratic thrower. Agile, with good hands and gets ball away fast. Great hustler. Good minor league hitter. Will not hit big league pitching. Stands away from plate; likes low ball.”
On April 22,1958, Brickell was a guest on the CBS television program To Tell the Truth, on which celebrity panelists tried to guess which of 3 contestants was the one described by the host. Actor Jim Backus was the only 1 of the 4 panelists, who correctly identified Brickell. Eight days later, on April 30th, he would make his MLB player debut, entering the game as a defensive replacement after Bobby Richardson was batted for. He would played again on May 11th, but was returned at cutdown time to AAA Denver, where he was “the darling of the Denver fans … for his fielding ability as well as his pixie appeal.” At the behest of Yankee manager Casey Stengel, he was working on hitting to right field, and was hitting .266 in July, when he suffered a broken ankle. After recovering, he played for Licey in Dominican League that winter.
Brickell’s stature rose a bit in the March 1959 Baseball Digest scouting report: “Handicapped by broken leg much of last year. Has quick arm and fair range. Hitting deficiency may keep him out of majors.” Yankees Catcher John Blanchard, who had played with Brickell in 1957 and 1958, told a sportswriter, “He’s great at coming over the bag on a double play. He goes into both holes very well, and you ought to see him come in on slow-hit grounders. He’s marvelous.”
Brickell was recalled by the Yankees in June 1959. On July 25th, he would hit his only MLB HR in Detroit off of future teammate Reliever Tom Morgan. Soon after, he was sent back down to AAA Richmond to make room for Infielder Clete Boyer. He did not report promptly and was suspended by the team.
The March 1960 Baseball Digest scouting report said of Brickell that it was “questionable whether he could handle major league pitching for respectable average.” He twisted his knee on opening day of that season while with AAA Richmond. He would returned on June 3rd and spent the entire season there. His stock rose with the Baseball Digest evaluators in March 1961: He “could help some big-league club and may stick with Yankees as utility infielder.” By this time, Fritz was getting tired of the minors. He said, “I never really felt, I had a chance to play in the big leagues. I know I was hurt down here last year, but the year before, Stengel hardly used me at all. I only played a few innings, then back to the minors I went. You can’t do anything if you don’t get a chance to play. Ralph’s given me the chance and I’ve been lucky enough to cash in on it.”
Brickell had a hot spring in 1961 for the New York Yankees, hitting .368 in exhibition games and that may have contributed to creating interest from the brand-new California Angels. Yankees General Manager Roy Hamey had been trying to trade Brickell as an extra piece, but “found no great demand for him.” Finally, Angels General Manager Fred Haney offered pitcher Duke Maas, who had been picked from the Yankees in the expansion draft. Sportswriters in both cities lauded the trade as a steal (each from their own point of view).
The deal was completed on April 4th, just a week before Opening Day. Four days later, on April 8th, Brickell’s father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 54. At his mother’s insistence, Fritz would remained with the Angels. He was the starting shortstop on opening day, April 11th. With the Angels already leading the Baltimore Orioles 7-0, Brickell made 2 errors on 1 play in the 2nd inning, allowing the Orioles’ 1st run to score. They were the 1st 2 errors in Angels history.
Brickell was the Angels’ starting shortstop in their 1st 7 games in 1961 and in 13 of their 1st 20 games. After a 3-for-11 start, he went into a 3-for-38 free-fall. He made his last start on May 8th, and his last appearance on May 15th.
Brickell was savaged in the local press. Braven Dyer wrote in The Sporting News, that Ken Hamlin and Brickell “try hard, but just don’t have the speed and jump to cover the ground which a major league shortstop should cover.” Hank Hollingsworth wrote, “Wasn’t Willie Rigney carrying his Angel ‘youth movement’ a bit far by constantly playing the inept Fritz Brickell at shortstop and letting the very scrappy Rocky Bridges wither in the dugout? Mr. Brickell isn’t even close to hitting his weight and Fritzie’s a mere 150-pounder.” New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote, “Fritz Brickell makes the mistake of holding the bat far down on the end, like all little men, who seem determined to prove they are sluggers” On May 24th, the Angels would sell Brickell to the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs (International League). He would hit a career-high .307 at Toronto that season, but he never played in the major leagues again.
In 1962, Brickell would played mostly 3rd base. He spent some time on the disabled list with various knee problems and would finished the season in Louisville. He retired from pro baseball after the season because of injuries, then he went into the sporting goods business in Wichita.
By 1965, Brickell had contracted cancer of the jaw. Former Yankees teammate Mickey Mantle held a hitting exhibition on August 29th for “Fritz Brickell Appreciation Night” at the National Semi-Pro tournament in Wichita. Brickell would pass away on October 15,1965 in Wichita. Funeral services were held at the Broadway Mortuary in Wichita. Pallbearers included former teammates Dick Sanders, John Blanchard, Mark Freeman, Frank Leja, Deron Johnson, John Gabler and Sam Suplizio. He was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, St. Joseph, Missouri.
He was survived by his wife, Joan; son, Mark; daughter, Laura; brother, Dudley; and his mother, Zerita Brickell. (His mother married Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes later that year. She died in 1974.) Fritz’s wife, M. Joan (Butts) Brickell, died on September 15, 2001 in St. Joseph .Brickell was inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame, part of the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame, in 1976. He joined his father as the only father-son combination in the Kansas Hall.
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