Mike Naymick

The tallest player in American League history from his 1939 debut until well after he retired, 6-feet-8-inch “Big Mike” Naymick came to the Cleveland Indians organization with a mountain of potential.1 Delivering his pitches with a high leg kick that disoriented many batters, Naymick was said to throw faster than celebrated teammate Bob Feller, but control problems limited his big league career to four disjointed seasons. Let go by Cleveland in 1944, he made a lone appearance for the St. Louis Cardinals, eventual World Series champions, before slipping into minor league obscurity.

Towering over those around him, Naymick was routinely treated as a sideshow, posed in photographs with players a foot shorter or more, often published with clichéd captions like “How’s the Weather Up There, Mike?”2 Articles about his struggles fitting into railroad sleeping cars and comparing his feet to violin cases were reproduced in newspapers nationwide.3 One sportswriter quipped that Naymick’s “size 17 shoes have been photographed oftener than a Hollywood sweater girl.”4

Rebuffed by the Army for his oversized feet, Naymick was one of many 4-F ballplayers who filled out major league rosters during World War II while those deemed fit for military service were busy soldiering. Unable to secure a major league assignment coming out of spring training in 1945, Naymick quit so that he could help the war effort, inspecting airplane parts in a Michigan factory. After marrying and starting a family in Traverse City, he relocated with his employer to Stockton, California, where he lived out his days.

***

Michael John Naymick was born on August 26, 1917, in Berlin, Pennsylvania, a small town about 75 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. He was one of nine children born to Steve and Katherine (Petrus) Naymick, Czechoslovakian natives who came to the US in 1898 as teenagers.5 In the early 1900s, the young couple passed through Cleveland, home to thousands of ethnic Slovaks.6 A coal miner prone to getting into violent street fights while in his 20s, Steve was incarcerated in a Pittsburgh jail between 1907 and 1910 for assault and battery.7  By 1930, he was back living with his family in Weirton, West Virginia. Like most of his neighbors, Steve worked at the nearby Weirton Steel Company mill, at that time “West Virginia’s largest employer, the state’s largest taxpayer and the world’s largest tin plate producer.”8

Mike’s name first appears in print during the winter of 1934-35 as “Slim” Naymick, the 6-feet-6 star center of Weirton High’s basketball team.9 He also played for the town team in a regional semipro league sponsored by the Wheeling Intelligencer newspaper.10 A standout pitcher at first, control problems led to Naymick’s release, but he caught on with another local club, where former major league hurler Elmer Knetzer helped him develop a “sharp-breaking curve.”11 Naymick’s school had no baseball team, but in addition to basketball he swam for the school team (swimming was long his second-favorite sport), threw the javelin and discus for the track team, and was a center on its football team.12 Naymick’s high school accomplishments weren’t limited to the field of play. His academic performance earned him the honor of serving as class salutatorian at his January 1936 graduation.13

After high school, Naymick went to work at Weirton Steel. That winter he played for a mill-sponsored basketball team that was filled with former college ballplayers. In the spring and summer, he pitched for the champion Mechanical team in the company’s inter-department league.14 He also moonlighted a few times for a semipro baseball team in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.15 Along the way Naymick drew an offer to attend Yale University from Smoky Joe Wood, the school’s baseball coach, but turned it down because the offer didn’t include funding.16

Before the summer was out, Naymick was signed to an Indians contract by Buzz Wetzel, owner of their Zanesville Grays affiliate.17According to one account, Wetzel signed the 18-year-old after an exhibition game in Weirton where Naymick “shot them over so fast [Grays] players could not see the agate coming let alone swing at it.”18 In announcing the signing, Wetzel declared that Naymick’s “freak method of delivery [a high leg kick] will make him an attraction in any ballpark.”19

Set to report for the 1937 season, Naymick went back to work at the mill, but found time to pitch a little batting practice for the Indians at League Park, alongside high schooler Bob Feller.20 The next spring, as the 17-year-old Feller readied for a rookie season in which his fastball earned him a new AL single-game strikeout record, outfielder Earl Averill told Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Gordon Cobbledick, “we’ve got another kid around there who’s faster and tougher to hit at [than Feller].”21 Hearing that Cleveland had a prospect who could outthrow Feller, St. Louis Browns manager Rogers Hornsby said, “If he is, he’s using a cannon.”22

Naymick’s emergence in 1936 left a lasting impression on pitcher Jimmie DeShong of the Washington Senators. Over 20 years later, he told a story about hearing “twin explosions” as he was walking up the tunnel before a 1936 game with the Indians at Griffith Stadium. Realizing the sound was Feller and Naymick warming up, DeShong turned to his manager, Bucky Harris, and asked that Harris never pit him against either of the Indian hurlers.23 DeShong misremembered when it happened – Naymick didn’t pitch for Cleveland that year – but the story illustrates how some major leaguers considered him just as intimidating as Feller.24

New Orleans fans had the first opportunity to compare the two speed merchants in competition on March 18, 1937, when the hometown Pelicans faced the Indians in a spring exhibition game. Feller pitched the first few innings for Cleveland, with Naymick tossing the last few for New Orleans. Cobbledick called Naymick “far and away the most impressive of the three New Orleans flingers,” adding “He has a beautiful fast ball and a puzzling delivery, and apparently needs nothing but experience and control to make him a strong candidate for the big league.”25

Assigned to Wetzel’s Springfield (Ohio) team in the Class C Middle Atlantic League, Naymick immediately became a curiosity. The Akron Beacon Journal reported that he paid a whopping $25 a pair for “special baseball shoes.” The Springfield News called him “the tallest pitcher in captivity” and published a photograph taken at ground level to prove it.26 The youngest starting pitcher in a rotation that included future major leaguers Ken Jungels, Mike Palagyi, and Clay Smith, Naymick went 8-7 in 22 starts, striking out 126 but walking a league-high 133 batters.

Looking past Naymick’s problems finding the plate, the Indians invited him to their training camp the following spring, where he dropped many a jaw. Cleveland Press sportswriter Stuart Bell suggested he be called “Mount Naymick” and gushed that Naymick’s speed “makes Feller’s fast ball look like a change of pace.”27  Veteran catcher Rollie Hemsley, acquired in the offseason from the Browns, saw Naymick’s wildness as something he could tame. “That guy can’t miss,” he told reporters. “He can throw a ball through a brick wall, but somebody had to coach him on control. I can do it. I’m going to ask [manager] Oscar [“Ossie”] Vitt] to let me coach him.”28

A highly visible member of the Cleveland roster on Opening Day, April 20, Naymick was sent back down to Springfield the next day.29 In his first appearance there, Naymick lost to the Homestead Grays in a pre-season exhibition, allowing 11 runs in relief while surrendering home runs to Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard.30  Springfield’s starting pitcher in its May 6 regular season opener, he was shelled for seven runs in less than two innings, and was optioned soon thereafter to Oswego (New York).31 There, his fastball became “the sensation” of the Class C Can-Am League.32 In his Oswego debut, Naymick set a Can-Am record with 15 strikeouts, a mark he broke with a 16-strikeout game in late August.33 In between, he no-hit the Gloversville Glovers.34

On September 8, Naymick was called up to Cleveland, having gone 10-12 for Oswego, with a 4.18 ERA, a league-record 230 strikeouts, and a league-high 181 walks.35 Two infielders elevated with Naymick from other affiliates, Lou Boudreau and Ray Mack, made their major league debuts the next day. However, the season ended without Naymick making his.

Naymick opened the 1939 season with the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Raiders, a new Indians farm team in the Class B Three-I League.36 He was a “one-man gang” in his first start, a 13-strikeout masterpiece – but allowed five runs and never recorded an out in his next.37 After Naymick fanned 11 and walked 13 in start number three, the Cedar Rapids Gazette took to giving him nicknames: “Big Mike” most of the time, but also “Shotgun,” and after a game in which he allowed four home runs, “Hailstorm.”38 The paper also shared a tidbit from club president Harry Johnson that big league scouts told him Naymick “throws with as much speed as Dizzy Dean in his prime.”39

Used as both a starter and a reliever by manager Ollie Marquardt, Naymick finished the year 13-10, with a 4.63 ERA and a league-leading 181 strikeouts. He also topped the Three-I in walks, surrendering 114 in 179 innings. Typically mild-mannered, Naymick couldn’t contain himself during a playoff series that Cedar Rapids lost to the Decatur Commodores. In the sixth inning of the deciding game with Naymick on the mound and the “Commies” leading, he fired a ball at manager/third base coach Tony Kaufmann but missed. Presumably, he was fed up with the heckling from Kaufman’s “razor-edged” tongue.40

In mid-September, the Indians, by then in fourth place and out of the AL pennant race, promoted Naymick, who had recently turned 22. He debuted at League Park against the Detroit Tigers as a reliever in the ninth inning of the nightcap of a September 24 doubleheader. Manager Vitt inserted him for reliever Harry Eisenstat with two out, a runner on second base, and the Indians trailing 9-1. Naymick walked the first batter he faced, hulking former and future AL MVP Hank Greenberg, then retired the less imposing Benny McCoy on a groundout to end the inning. A week later, Naymick started in Cleveland’s last game of the season, at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium. He allowed only three hits but lost 1-0 to Bobo Newsom in a darkness-shortened pitching duel.41

Having whetted the public’s appetite, Naymick drew lots of press attention during the Indians’ 1940 spring training camp in Fort Myers, Florida.42 The Cleveland Press called him a gate attraction; the Cleveland Plain Dealer both dubbed him the best Indians prospect since Feller and questioned whether Feller was any faster than “that big feller.”43 Hy Turkin of the New York Daily News deemed Naymick’s “fast one reminiscent of Schoolboy Rowe’s best.”44 Armed with a new crossfire delivery that he picked up from Hemsley, Naymick struck fear into Grapefruit League opponents.45 Said one anonymous National Leaguer of the big right-hander’s high leg-kick delivery, “First he sticks his foot in your face, then he fans you with the glove and the next thing you know the ball is past you.”46

As impressive as Naymick was, he couldn’t crack the Indians’ starting rotation, which in addition to Feller included southpaw Al Milnar, two-time 20-game winner Mel Harder, and 35-year-old former All-Star Johnny Allen. In his first appearance of the year, a start on April 27, Naymick whiffed only one Detroit batter and walked six – yet earned his first major league win, thanks in large part to Boudreau. The rookie shortstop hit his first two major league homers and drilled a run-scoring single after Naymick had moved a runner to third base with his first hit as a big leaguer. On the short end of the 4-2 score was 18-year-old Hal Newhouser, who was making his second major league start.47

After stumbling in his next few starts, Naymick was relegated to the back of Vitt’s bullpen, brought out only occasionally to pitch the last inning or two in losing efforts.

Cleveland spent the first eight weeks of the 1940 season battling Detroit and the Boston Red Sox for the AL lead, never falling more than three games off the pace. On June 12, the Indians suffered an ugly loss at the end of a 5-8 road trip, coughing up a two-run, eighth-inning lead at Fenway Park. Coming in for Harder, Naymick loaded the bases before fanning Jimmie Foxx to end the bleeding, but not the turmoil. The next day back in Cleveland, a group of veterans met with club president Alva Bradley and demanded that he fire Vitt, charging the skipper with “insincerity, ridiculing of players, and caustic criticism.”48 Particularly galling was how Vitt bad-mouthed them to the press and opposing players. Bradley was unwilling to take action without investigating further, and so a few days later the veterans withdrew their request “for the betterment of the Cleveland Baseball Club.”49 Neither Naymick nor any of the team’s other rookies took part in the short-lived revolt.

Little used over the next few weeks, Naymick was demoted to Wilkes-Barre of the Class A Eastern League in early August. By the end of the month, he was back in Cleveland, brought up by the first-place Indians along with eight other minor leaguers. After a pair of appearances he rode the bench, helplessly watching as Detroit overtook Cleveland to win the pennant.50

After the 1940 season, Bradley allowed Vitt’s contract to expire and rehired former Cleveland manager Roger Peckinpaugh to take his place. Anxious as he might have been to impress the new skipper, Naymick had to wait. A sprained wrist from a wintertime fall kept him off the mound until the exhibition season was well underway.51 Peckinpaugh saw enough to put Naymick on the Opening Day roster but had him farmed out to Triple A Indianapolis before the season was two weeks old.52

Plastered for 15 runs over 8⅔ innings in four Triple A outings, Naymick was optioned to Wilkes-Barre, where his results were equally dismal: 17 runs over 13⅔ innings in four June outings.53 In his last appearance for the Barons, Naymick pitched a single inning of relief, recording all three outs on one pitch; a triple play that he started and Bob Lemon – then a third baseman – completed.54 Having worn out his welcome in Wilkes-Barre, Naymick was sent to Cedar Rapids in the Three-I League. Pitching once again for Ollie Marquardt, Naymick went 5-3, with a 3.22 ERA – and 11 wild pitches – over 67 innings.55

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 brought World War II to American soil, affecting every facet of society, including baseball. Dozens of major leaguers and many more minor leaguers enlisted in the armed forces before the start of the 1942 season, led by Feller, the first professional athlete to volunteer.56 Ineligible to join the military “for reason of overheight and oversize feet,” Naymick was among those who “[kept] baseball going,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt had urged Commissioner Landis to do in his “Green Light Letter” of January 1942.57

Elevated back to the Triple A level, Naymick began the 1942 season with the Indians’ new International League affiliate, the Baltimore Orioles. Playing for longtime American League hurler Tommy Thomas,58 Naymick won his first start despite having a ball ricochet off his head for a double. He also won his second, a one-hitter over Toronto, despite not getting a single strikeout. Yet by July, Naymick was sent back to Wilkes-Barre.59 (It was his third stint in the birthplace of both Planters Peanuts and 1961 AL Rookie of the Year-to-be Don Schwall.) Naymick went 1-1 in 9 relief appearances, allowing 34 runs over 37 innings. And as he’d done everywhere he’d pitched since turning pro, he topped five walks per nine-innings.60

By 1943, the war effort had taken a serious toll on major league rosters, opening the door for many minor leaguers to move up. Cleveland lost relievers Tom Ferrick, Harry Eisenstat, and Red Embree to military service, which made Naymick quite attractive to second-year player-manager Lou Boudreau – regardless of a history of control problems that had the Plain Dealer’s Cobbledick calling Naymick “the perennial enigma of the team.”61 Boudreau told reporters that “[W]e’re going to give Mike all the work we can. We think he has the makings of a real pitcher.” Coach Burt Shotton seconded Boudreau. “I don’t care how often Mike has tried and failed. Just don’t give up on a boy who can throw the ball the way he can.”62

The biggest obstacle facing Naymick entering the season may have been worries that he might wear out his size 17 shoes. Leather rationing, to ensure that military needs were met, meant that he might not be able to get a replacement pair until after the war.63  

Used primarily in late innings, Naymick proved to be Boudreau’s most reliable reliever, registering a team-low 2.30 ERA in 29 outings.64 A diminished pool of talented hitters (from war obligations) helped, as did Naymick abandoning his high leg kick.65 He earned four victories for the third-place Indians, including two in a June 17 home doubleheader and one on May 9 in which he scoring the winning run in the 13th-inning – the only run he ever scored as a major leaguer. Watching this or maybe another of the few games in which Naymick reached base (he was 3-for-16 with no walks in 1943), rookie hurler Allie Reynolds called the sight of his 6-foot-8 teammate sliding into second base the funniest thing he’d yet seen in his baseball career.66

Despite handling just 23 chances, Naymick tied for the 1943 AL lead in errors committed by pitchers, with four.67 He also had a pair of outings that put him on the wrong side of the single-game record book. He issued five of a club-record 17 free passes in an 11-inning loss to the St. Louis Browns on June 12.68 On July 3, he  surrendered an inside-the-park home run to Leon Culberson of the Boston Red Sox that gave the rookie a natural cycle. Two months later, in another fielding adventure, Naymick collided with Culberson on a play at first base that sidelined the outfielder for the rest of the season.69

Anxious to build on what he’d accomplished the year before, Naymick was the first ballplayer to arrive at the Indians’ 1944 spring training facility on the Purdue University campus in Lafayette, Indiana.70 “The league isn’t going to be very tough,” noted Cobbledick, referring to the military’s continuing demand for able-bodied ballplayers as the war approached its crescendo. “It’s a swell chance for a guy like Naymick to discover that he’s as good as they are, or maybe better.”71 The Pittsburgh Pirates were one team already convinced that Naymick was good. When told that “big paycheck” would be facing his squad in an April spring training game, Buccos manager Frankie Frisch said, “my boys won’t like it.”72

The hopes for Naymick proved illusory. Six weeks into the season, he carried an ugly 9.69 ERA and was being called “altogether undependable.”73 Cleveland put him on waivers, and the St. Louis Cardinals claimed him on May 30, one week before the D-Day invasion of Normandy. “Being transferred to the Cardinals is the best break I ever received,” Naymick told reporters after a few weeks with St. Louis. “The fellows are swell, everyone treats me fine and I have a hunch I can win games for the Cardinals.”74

Again, however, the optimism was misplaced. In his post-mortem of Naymick’s time with the Indians, Cleveland Press sportswriter Franklin Lewis concluded, “The guy was just too big… He knew people were looking at him. There wasn’t anything he could do about it.” Lewis felt Naymick never learned how to pitch because “always there was a disturbing thought, some incident that revolved around his size.” The account continued, “Everyone who ever came into contract with Mike thought he should be a great pitcher…[H]e could scare the drawers off the batter who would be afraid Big Mike would hit them between the eyes. But he couldn’t control his pitches and he would walk everybody in the joint.”75

Delayed by his reaction to a tetanus shot and problems getting a big-enough uniform, Naymick finally pitched for the Cardinals on July 7, allowing one run over two innings  against the New York Giants.76 Two weeks later, he was optioned to the Cardinals’ Triple A affiliate in Rochester, New York. Naymick walked 10 in his debut and gave up the winning run on a wild pitch in his next outing on the way to a 1-6 record for the Red Wings.77

Worried back in May 1943 that he might be sent to the minors, Naymick decided then that he would rather take a job directly supporting the war.78 After the 1944 season, he did, having compiled a major league record of 5-7 in 112⅓ innings pitched across 52 games, with 80 walks and 64 strikeouts. Contemporary reports are silent on why Naymick retired when he did, but his obituary tied his decision to an arm injury.79

Still a young man at 27, Naymick found work with the Parsons Company, a manufacturer of aviation parts in Traverse City, Michigan. In June 1946, Naymick married a high school sewing teacher and Michigan State graduate, the former Vera Ellen Gardner.80 The couple had their first child, a boy named William, in May 1948. Four more followed: John (1950), twins Carol and Kathleen (1952), and Jane (1953).81

Not long after settling in the self-proclaimed “cherry capital of the world,” Naymick was once again representing an employer in sporting competitions. At first it was bowling, then softball.82 In early 1946, he organized an industrial team, the Traverse City Merchants, then served as its player-manager for several years.83 Naymick’s name last appeared in a box score pitching for the Merchants in October 1949 against Dizzy] Trout’s All-Stars, a barnstorming team whose  lineup included major-leaguers Roy Sievers, Sherm Lollar, and Czechoslovakia-born Elmer Valo.84

After hanging up his spikes, Naymick became director of a new Traverse City American Legion baseball program. He also helped conduct a local tryout camp in 1953 for the Chicago Cubs; in 1960, he was elected vice president of the Northwest Michigan [basketball] Officials Association.85  A sportsman with broad interests, he also developed a winning golf game and enjoyed hunting.86 Naymick also took prominent roles in a number of Traverse City community activities unrelated to sports. He became a Boy Scout leader and served as a ringmaster for circuses held to raise funds for the Scouts and other local groups.87

With experience, Naymick became a quality control supervisor with Parsons. He was responsible for the inspection of helicopter rotor blades, which had become the company’s specialty. Reminiscent of the many gag photos that he was roped into during his playing days, Naymick appeared in a 1949 promotional photo for the company, where he appeared to be holding a helicopter aloft with one finger.88

In 1968, Parsons – by then also engaged in manufacturing tubing for Saturn V rockets that sent astronauts to the moon – was purchased by Hitco, a California company.89 Two years later, Naymick moved with the Traverse City operation to Stockton, California, leaving his wife and children behind. Following a divorce, Naymick married Thien Nguyen in 1979; they had two daughters, Robyn and Elizabeth.90 After working 42 years for Parsons and its successor companies, Naymick retired in 1986.91

Mike Naymick died in his Stockton home on October 12, 2005, and was buried in San Joaquin Catholic Cemetery. He was survived by his seven children and three grandchildren, Lisa, Sarah and Drew. At that time a 6-foot-10 center for the Michigan State men’s basketball team, Drew had a decade-long professional basketball career in the NBA Development League, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Cassidy Lent, director of the Baseball Hall of Fame library, for providing a copy of the library’s Mike Naymick clippings file. This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Photo credit: Mike Naymick, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted copies of the Weirton (West Virginia) Steel Employees Bulletin, available at https://weirtonareamuseum.advantage-preservation.com/ and websites MyHeritage.com, familysearch.com, Baseball-Reference.com, retrosheet.org, statscrew.com, and stathead.com.

Notes

1 According to Retrosheet’s Lahman database, the AL’s previous tallest player was 6-feet-7½ Walter “Slim” McGrew of the 1922-24 Washington Senators. Not until Gene Conley joined the Boston Red Sox in 1961 did the league have another player of Naymick’s height. Naymick’s mark was eclipsed when 6-feet-10 future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson donned a Seattle Mariner uniform in 1989.

2 See, for example “How’s the Weather Up There, Mike?” Indianapolis News, April 25, 1941: 2-6, and “Talking Over His Head,” New York Sunday Worker, March 24, 1940: 8.

3 See, for example, Jerry Mitchell, “Indian Mound Rookie Steal Show on Giant Train,” New York Post, April 8, 1938: 28 and “Hurler Has Big Feet,” St. Joseph (Missouri) Press-News, May 8, 1940: 14.

4 Bob Myer, “Naymick Stands On His Own Two Good Feet,” Dayton (Ohio) Herald, March 21, 1944: 22.

5 A delayed certificate of birth for Mike’s older brother Stephen, issued by the West Virginia Department of Health in 1962, identifies their parents as born in Czechoslovakia, as well as their mother’s maiden name. MyHeritage.com identifies Naymick’s father as born in Bajorvágás and his mother in Feketekút, towns which lie within the borders of modern Slovakia. The 1930 US census lists the Naymicks residing in Weirton with parents Steve (48) and Catherine (46) and seven children: Joseph (24), Steve Jr. (22), Katherine (17), Helen (15), Mike (12), George (10), and Anna (9). The 1940 US census identifies a daughter not previously listed, Paulene (17) and not Mike, Joseph or Katherine, but otherwise is consistent with the 1930 census. Mike’s eighth sibling, Alex, is listed in Naymick’s obituary (source unknown) found in his Baseball Hall of Fame file.

6 The Naymicks’ second child, a boy named Joseph, was born in Cleveland in 1906, according to a Cuyahoga County marriage license issued to Joseph in May 1925. In the early 1900s, Cleveland was considered to have the largest Slovak population of any city in the world. “Slovaks,” Case Western Reserve University: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/slovaks

7 The 1910 US census puts Steve, his last name spelled Mimick, as an inmate of the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania. He was serving a three-year sentence for stabbing another man during a fight. Steve’s World War I registration card, dated September 12, 1918, identifies him as a coal miner and spells his last name Nimik. “Held on Serious Charge,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 6, 1900: 3; “Man Held on Cutting Charge,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 9, 1905: 12; “Houston News Items,” Canonsburg (Pennsylvania) Notes, February 2, 1906: 5; “Used Brick on His Head,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, June 17, 1907: 2; “Three Years to the Pen,” Canonsburg Notes, September 3, 1908: 1.

8 “Weirton Steel,” West Virginia Encyclopedia Online, https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/936, accessed December 2, 2025.

9 “One-Sided Frays at Weirton,” East Liverpool (Ohio) Review, March 2, 1935: 9; “Ironmen Win Local Event From Triads,” Wheeling (West Virginia) Intelligencer, March 4, 1935: 8; Paul Kurtz, “Junior Date Named,” Pittsburgh Press, March 9, 1935: 8; “Monessen Anchor and Sample Taxi Teams Win in Tourney Here,” Waynesburg (Pennsylvania) Republican, April 11, 1935: 3; “Weir High Team in Sectional Tourney,” Weirton Steel Employee Bulletin, March 1, 1935: 2.

10 “Weirton Defeats Lafferty in League Game,” Wheeling Intelligencer, May 6, 1935: 8; “Weirton Beats Bridgeport and Retains Lead in Loop,” Wheeling Intelligencer, August 26, 1935: 10.

11 “Local Club Promised Pitcher, First Baseman By Pelicans,” Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, March 28, 1937: Sports-2. The name of the team that brought Naymick and Knetzer together was unreported, but Knetzer pitched that summer for a team in the Weirton Industrial League. “Indians Lose to Strippers By 9-7 Score,” Springfield News, September 2, 1937: 19; “Day’s Sporting News and Views,” Hazleton (Pennsylvania) Plain Speaker, September 3, 1935: 10.

12 “Shake Hands With –,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, July 21, 1939: 11; Player Index Card in Michael Naymick Baseball Hall of Fame clippings file; “Merchant Men,” Traverse City (Michigan) Record-Eagle, August 14, 1948: 9; “Today’s Lineup,” Wheeling Intelligencer, October 5, 1935: 9; “Nearly Nine Out of Ten Boys on Weir High Football Squad Have Fathers or Brothers Employed at Weirton Steel Plant,” Weirton Steel Employee Bulletin, November 15, 1934: 5.

13 “36 Graduate at Weirton,” Wheeling Intelligencer, January 16, 1936: 16.

14 “Weirton Team Booking,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, January 4, 1936; “Schulze, Purdy Fives on Sunday’s Program,” Columbus Dispatch, February 7, 1936: 31; “Batteries of Tin Mill and Mechanical Teams Set for Tomorrow,” Weirton Steel Employees Bulletin, May 1, 1936: 1; “Mechanics Win 1936 Inter-Department Baseball Trophy,” Weirton Steel Employees Bulletin, September 18, 1936: 3.

15 See, for example, “Falcons Take Best Game of Early Season,” Canonsburg Notes, July 7, 1936: 6, and “Raccoon Here Tomorrow for Series Clash,” Canonsburg Notes, July 18, 1936: 6.

16 Randall Cassell, “Speed Chief Asset of Giant Naymick,” Baltimore Evening Sun, March 23, 1942: 19. Naymick did not name the coach who extended the offer to him, but Wood, who coached the varsity teams at Yale from 1924 to 1941, would presumably have had sole authority to extend offers to join the team. Michael Foster, “Smoky Joe Wood,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/smoky-joe-wood/

17 “Wetzel Signs Giant to Pitch for Greys,” Zanesville (Ohio) Times-Signal, August 16, 1936: 1-8.

18 “Local Mid-Atlantic Club To Have One of Tallest Players in Captivity,” Springfield News-Sun, March 14, 1937: Sport-3; “Zanesville Grays Here Tuesday,” Weirton Steel Bulletin, July 3, 1936: 7. The line score from Zanesville’s July 7 exhibition against the Weirton Steel All-Stars does not mention Naymick, suggesting that Wetzel concocted the story of how Naymick first caught his attention. “Akron Here to Open Series Tonight,” Zanesville Signal, July 8, 1936: 10.

19 “Wetzel Signs Giant to Pitch for Greys”; Naymick’s dizzying delivery is evident in an undated photograph from his days pitching for the Weirton Inter-department League that was published in 1938. Weirton Steel Employees Bulletin, March 15, 1938: 7, accessed at https://weirtonareamuseum.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=naymick&i=f&d=01011934-12311989&m=between&ord=k1&fn=weirton_steel_bulletin_usa_west_virginia_weirton_19370315_english_7&df=21&dt=30&cid=3000

20 In December 1936, Naymick was listed in the Weirton Employee Bulletin as playing in the Inter-department Basketball League, indicating that he was still an employee. “Officemen and Strip Steel Set For Opening Game,” Weirton Steel Employees Bulletin, December 23, 1936: 10; Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 6, 1944: 13.

21 Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 24, 1943: 18. Detailing Averill’s assertion several years later, Cobbledick placed the conversation during early July, before Feller had made his debut, but his recollection was off. Naymick pitched that same day for the amateur Raccoons of Canonsburg, with the game account making no mention of him having yet signed with a major league club. “Falcons Take Best Game of Early Season.”

22 Pete Zurlinden, Jr., “Sports Whirl,” Dayton Herald, February 24, 1937: 13.

23 Al Clark, “The Sports Shop,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Evening News, August 14, 1957: 42.

24 Slugger Rudy York was one position player who likely considered Feller and Naymick equally unpleasant to face. A lifetime .153 hitter off Feller in 131 plate appearances, he went 0-for-16 against Naymick.

25 Gordon Cobbledick, “Feller Strikes Out 5 in 3 Innings; Indians Win, 7 to 0,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19, 1937: 20. In his column, Cobbledick mentions that Naymick pitched batting practice for the Indians at their home ballpark, League Park, the previous season. Presumably he did so late in the year, after his signing.

26 Jim Schlemmer, “Tallest Hurler,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, April 30, 1937: 33; “Up in Air,” Springfield News, April 20, 1937: 15. Reports of Naymick’s foot/shoe size varied widely during his first few years as a professional. The Akron Beacon Journal’s size 13½ claim was among the smallest.

27 Stuart Bell, “Maybe He Should Be Called Mt. Naymick,” Cleveland Press, April 4, 1938: 22; Stuart Bell, “Beanpole Naymick Is Good Prospect – Rollie,” Cleveland Press, April 5, 1938: 20.

28 “Beanpole Naymick Is Good Prospect – Rollie.”

29 “Flag-Raising Ceremony – Billy Sullivan Hits, but Is Stopped at Second,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1938: 13; “Naymick Back in M-A,” Akron Beacon Journal, April 21, 1938: 24. Naymick was the only ballplayer mentioned by name in a Cleveland Plain Dealer caption accompanying a photograph of the team taken during a pre-game flag-raising ceremony.

30 “Indians Bow to Grays by 13-9 Score,” Springfield News, April 30, 1938: 6.

31 “Indians Are One Up on Ducks, Ancient Rivals,” Springfield News, May 7, 1938: 6.

32 Harold Boian, “Bates Hits Homer as Dayton Pounds Out 10-5 Victory,” Dayton News, May 17, 1938: 18; “Mike Is Sensation,” Springfield News, May 29, 1938: 10.

33 “New Strikeout Mark,” Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, August 25, 1938: 14. In a 1939 interview with the Scranton (Pennsylvania) Scrantonian, a former Can-Am umpire claimed that Naymick fanned 17 and walked 22 in a summertime night game. The author’s review of New York and Ontario newspapers that covered the Can-Am league failed to identify such a game.

34 “Iron Man Act, No-Hit Game, and Runaway,” Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard, August 17, 1938: 8.

35 “Markell Runs Two-Year Whiffing Total to 554,” The Sporting News, September 15, 1948: 34; “Solters Floored by Thrown Ball,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 9, 1938: 16. Naymick’s Can-Am strikeout record was topped by Schenectady’s Duke Markell in 1948, who tallied 270.

36 Formerly a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, Cedar Rapids had suffered through having its entire roster made free agents in March 1938 by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis as punishment for the Cardinals’ abuse of minor league agreements. Kevin Stiner, “Commissioner Landis Frees 74 Cardinals Farmhands, ” National Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/inside-pitch/commissioner-landis-frees-74-cardinals-farmhands, accessed November 21, 2025.

37 Tait Cummins, “Mike Naymick Turns in Superb Pitching,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 13, 1939: 6; “Bad Pitching, Six Errors Cost Raiders 9-7 Decision,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 18, 1939: 10.

38 Naymick Goes Good,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 20, 1939: 6; “Raiders Take Opener from Waterloo Red Hawks, 11-6,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 30, 1939: 6; Tait Cummins, “Mike Naymick Give Up 4 Homers, Triple,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, June 1, 1939: 14.

39 “Rotarians Hear Talks on Meaning of Flag and on Local Baseball,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, June 12, 1939: 2.

40 “Decatur Beats Raiders in Third of Set, 5 to 3,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, September 8, 1939: 16; Tait Cummins, “Red Peppers: Hot Sport Chatter,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, September 8, 1939: 17.

41 Gordon Cobbledick, “Feller’s 24th Clinches 3d Place; Newsom Blanks Tribe in 2d,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 2, 1939: 14.

42 Avery Little, “Short Waves,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 21, 1940: 17. The tallest major leaguer was 6-feet-9 Johnny Gee of the National League Pittsburgh Pirates.

43 Franklin Lewis, “Naymick Looks Like Gate Attraction,” Cleveland Press, March 27, 1940: 16. Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 14, 1940: C1; Rookie Holds Yanigans to 1 Scratch Hit,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 12, 1940: 16.

44 Hy Turkin, “Rising Rookies,” New York Daily News, May 12, 1940: 34.

45 “Mike Naymick,” Springfield News, March 29, 1940: 21.

46 All Sports,” Detroit News, April 12, 1940: 29.

47 Afterwards, Naymick told reporters that he was especially happy to have won, feeling it would cheer up his brother George, who was in a Weirton hospital. At that time, all seven of Naymick’s siblings worked for the Weirton Steel. “Does It for Kid Brother,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 28, 1940: 1-C; “Tribe Rookie Aids Brother with Victory,” Cincinnati Post, May 1, 1940: 13.

48 “Cleveland Demands Firing of Manager,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 14, 1940: 16.

49 Frank Gibbons, “Bradley ‘Instructs’ Vitt After Tribe Signs for Peace,” Cleveland Press, June 17, 1940: 24.

50 The Indians were eliminated after losing the first game of a season-ending series with Detroit. The Tigers’ starting pitcher and winner of that game was Floyd Giebell, an alumnus of the same Weirton Steel baseball league that Naymick had played in before turning pro.

51 Ed McAuley, “Naymick May Make It,” The Sporting News, March 27, 1941: 6.

52 “Peace, It’s Wonderful! These Indians Start Fight for Pennant Tuesday,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 13, 1941: 5-C; “Naymick Farmed to Indianapolis,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 24, 1941: 18. Naymick did not get into a single regular season game before his demotion.

53 Based on game logs compiled by the author from game summaries and box scores published by the Indianapolis Star, Wilkes-Barre Record and Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican. Baseball-Reference.com does not, as of November 2025, show Naymick playing for Wilkes-Barre in 1941.

54 Walter Graham, “Early Wynn Continues His Stellar Twirling for Nats,” Springfield Republican, June 16, 1941: 10. The winning pitcher in that contest for the opposing Springfield Republicans was 21-year-old Washington Nationals prospect and future Indian Early Wynn. Wynn, together with Lemon, who was converted into a pitcher when he proved unable to hit major league pitching, became the core of the Indians rotation in the late-1940s. Jon Barnes, “Bob Lemon,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bob-lemon/.

55 “Three-I League Averages: Final Unofficial Averages,” Evansville (Indiana) Press, September 14, 1941: 20. No Three-I pitcher with two or more decisions threw wild pitches more often than Naymick did (1 every 6.1 innings). With three errors in 27 chances, Naymick also had among the lowest fielding percentages among Three-I pitchers with at least 10 appearances (.889).

56 Thomas Harrigan, “From 25-game winner to naval hero,” MLB, December 8, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/bob-feller-enlists-in-navy-for-world-war-ii

57 “Recruiting Officer Balks at Size of Naymick’s Feet,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Union, August 20, 1940: 12; Bob Stedler, “Sport Comment,” Buffalo Evening News, March 26, 1942: 33; Craig Muder, “President Roosevelt Gives ‘Green Light’ to Baseball,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/roosevelt-sends-green-light-letter, accessed November 24, 2025. First rejected by a Marines Corps recruiter in 1940, in the following three years Naymick was called up twice by local draft boards and told he was ineligible each time. Dave Hoff, “Shoe Rationing Is ‘Big Worry,’” Springfield News, March 25, 1943: 15.

58 Thomas won 117 games for the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators (and none for the three other clubs he played for) during a 12-year major-league career that ended in 1937.

59 C.M. Gibbs, “Orioles Take Both Games of Twin Bill from Buffalo for First Victories,” Baltimore Sun, April 20, 1942: 12; James A. Linthicum, “Sunlight on Sports,” Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1942: 26; “Nayman Wins 1-Hitter, 9-1,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 24, 1942: 24.

60 Naymick walked 24 batters, equaling 5.8 walks-per-nine-innings. Statistics are based on a game log compiled by the author from game summaries and box scores published in the Wilkes-Barre Record and Binghamton (New York) Press. In Naymick’s one win, on August 20 over the Binghamton Triplets, the Barons rallied in the top of the seventh to overcome a three-run deficit. The first run of that rally was driven in by the ace of the Barons’ pitching staff, Allie Reynolds, pinch-hitting for Naymick. “Barons Rally In 7th To Cop Wild Game,” Wilkes-Barre Record, August 21, 1942: 17.

61 Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 18, 1943: 30-A.

62 “Hard Labor Ordered for Tribe’s Naymick,” New York Daily News, March 24, 1943: 57.

63 Ed McAuley, “Mike Naymick, Too Long to Fit as Soldier, Toes Hill Again with Cleveland, but Finds He’s Short on Shoes,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1943: 3.

64 Ed McAuley, “Tribesmen Nosing Upward in Race as Batters Find Eyes,” The Sporting News, June 24, 1943: 1.

65 Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 10, 1943: 19. Cobbledick suggested that Vitt had encouraged Naymick to use his high leg kick “because it always got a laugh from the crowd.”

66 Franklin Lewis, “Bits and Bites of Sports Chosen and Chewed,” Cleveland Press, November 29, 1943: 20.

67 Naymick’s .826 fielding percentage was more than 130 points below league average and significantly lower than the fielding marks of the three pitchers he tied with for the league lead in errors: Dizzy Trout (.956 on 91 chances), Steve Sundra (.938 on 61 chances), and Charles Wensloff (.926 on 54 chances).

68 In that game, a ninth-inning substitution forced shortstop Boudreau to catch for the first time in his career and starting pitcher Jim Bagby to come into the game to play shortstop for the only time in his 10-year career. The 17 walks were the most issued by any AL team in a game since 1920. The franchise record was broken on September 14, 1971, when Indians pitchers walked 19 Washington Senators in a 20-inning marathon split over two days.

69 “Tobin Another Joe Cronin?” The Sporting News, September 2, 1943: 13.

70 Gordon Cobbledick, “Boudreau To Try Gromek in Infield, Grant as Fly Chaser,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 13, 1944: 14. Wartime travel restrictions had prompted the Indians to move their training camp from Florida to Purdue in 1943. David W. Pugh, “The Cleveland Indians in Wartime,” Who’s on First: Replacement Players in World War II, Marc Z. Aaron and Bill Nowlin, eds. (Phoenix, SABR: 2015),  https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-cleveland-indians-in-wartime/

71 Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 6, 1944: 13.

72 Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 6, 1944.

73 Gordon Cobbledick, “Plain Dealing,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 21, 1944: 16.

74 Brainard Platt, “Platting Sports,” Dayton (Ohio) Journal, June 20, 1944: 6.

75 Franklin Lewis, “Naymick Too Big to Become Ace Big League Hurler,” Cleveland Press, June 1, 1944: 22.

76 “Lanier on Hill for Cards Tonight in Cincinnati,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 8, 1944: 5B; “Platting Sports.”

77 “Fauth, 7 Weeks Out of School Helps Put Herd in 2d Place,” Buffalo Evening News, July 24, 1944: 8; “Naymick Loses 3-Hitter, 2-1,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 30, 1944: 23.

78 Dennis Dalton, “Majors Or War Work,” Ashland (Ohio) Times-Gazette, May 7, 1943: 9.

79 Obituary in Naymick’s Hall of Fame clippings file

80 “Miss Gardner To Wed,” Jackson (Michigan) Citizen Patriot, June 2, 1946: 27; “Merchant Men.”

81 Gladys M. Franks, “News About These Alumni,” The Record: Spartan Alumni Magazine,” July 1948: 13. https://onthebanks.msu.edu/recordFiles/162-565-803/19480701sm.pdf; “John Naymick Has Birthday Party,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, August 18, 1960: 12; “Celebrate Birthday,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, February 19, 1960: 15; Gladys M. Franks, “News About These Alumni,” The Record: Spartan Alumni Magazine,” September 15, 1954: 12. https://onthebanks.msu.edu/recordFiles/162-565-955/19540915sm.pdf

82 See, for example, “Bowling Results,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, November 14, 1944: 6 and “Bombers Fight for 2nd Place,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, August 17, 1945: 5.

83 “Traverse City Cherry Capital of the World,” Sidney (Ohio) News, August 10, 1937: 8; “Attention, Baseballers!” Traverse City Record-Eagle, January 18, 1946: 8; “Parson’s Shuts Out Cadillac, 9-0, in Opener, Traverse City Record-Eagle, May 6, 1946: 8.

84 George Weeks, “Trout’s All-Stars Sink T.C. Merchants in Finale, 9-0,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, October 17, 1949: 11.

85 “Legion Baseball Program Advances,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, May 17, 1951: 13; “70 Try Out for Chicago Cubs,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, July 13, 1953: 14; “Bob Klieman to Head NW Officials in ’60-61,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, March 24, 1960: 17.

86 “Falstaff Sets Bowling Mark,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, May 5, 1961: 17; “Record Field Competes in Hagen Meet,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, July 25, 1960: 8.

87 See, for example “Court of Honor,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, February 6, 1950: 2 and “Ringmaster,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, April 5, 1963: 1.

88 “Blades Are Made Here,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, August 17, 1949: 16.

89 “Parsons Tubing Used in Saturn V-Missile System,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, January 24, 1968: 31; “Parsons Corp. Sold to California Firm,” Traverse City Record-Eagle, March 25, 1968: 1.

90 Various online people-finding websites list Robyn’s birth year as 1968, and Elizabeth’s as 1978.

91 Obituary in Naymick’s Baseball Hall of Fame clippings file.