Carl Erskine: Ace Right-Hander for the Boys of Summer

Carl Daniel Erskine, born and raised in Anderson, Indiana, but famed for his twelve seasons as a stellar right hander for the Brooklyn Dodgers in baseball’s postwar era, proved not only to be talented pitcher but also an exceptional teammate and person.

One of the Dodgers of 1952-53 portrayed in Roger Kahn’s 1971 baseball classic, The Boys of Summer, Erskine pitched for a Dodger team that he still loves-a ball club featuring exceptional players like Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Billy Cox, Preacher Roe, Joe Black, Clem Labine, George “Shotgun” Shuba, and Erskine himself.

After the cheering stopped, the Erskines had a fourth child, Jimmy, who was born with a genetic abnormality now called Down’s syndrome. Rather than keep an executive position with a men’s shirt firm in the New York area, Carl and Betty moved Dan, Gary, Susan, and the baby back home. In Anderson, Kahn observed, Erskine believed he could help give Jimmy the chance to be “fully human,” a motive which suggests a measure of Carl’s compassion.

Erskine had a 122-78 big-league record and a 4.00 ERA over 12 seasons. He posted double-digit winning years for Brooklyn from 1951 through 1956. But his greatest season came in 1953, when he led the National League in won-lost percentage at .769, while fashioning a 20-6 mark.

Erskine began showing his talent, skill, and fortitude by winning his first five games as a rookie for the Dodgers in 1948. Despite a sore arm caused by a shoulder injury in his first start, he came through with an 8-1 ledger in 1949. But as an indicator of the competitiveness in the majors during the postwar era, Carl spent half of his first three seasons in the minors attempting to rehab a shoulder muscle tear.

“Oisk,” as Dodger fans often called him, also rose to the challenge in the World Series. Carl played in five October classics for the Dodgers, winning two games, losing twice, and setting a World Series record of 14 strikeouts on October 2, 1953, against the New York Yankees, a standard that lasted exactly ten years­ until southpaw Sandy Koufax fanned 15 Yankees en route to a 5-2 victory on October 2, 1963.

As a further mark of his ability to pitch big games, Erskine hurled two no-hitters, one in 1952 against the Cubs and one in 1956 against the archrival New York Giants. He also pitched his last complete game in the majors on May 26, 1958. Erskine stopped Robin Roberts and the Phillies the day after visiting his longtime battery mate and friend Roy Campanella, who was lying paralyzed in a New York hospital.

“They had Roy strapped in a special bed facedown when I visited him in New York,” Erskine remembered in 2003. “We talked, and he said they had a TV rigged so he could watch ball games. It was the first time I saw him after his auto accident in January 1958.”

“It sounds corny to say it, but seeing Roy gave me some sort of weird inspiration. The next day I went out and pitched my last complete game in the majors, and we beat the Phillies, 2-1.”

Born on December 13, 1926, in Anderson, Carl grew up playing catch with his two brothers. Later, he played sandlot, park league, and American Legion ball. The high school coach, Charles Cummings, asked the hard-throwing youth to play baseball. In the spring of 1941 as a freshman, Carl threw batting practice and made trips with the team. But as a midterm student, he ended up playing four varsity seasons for Anderson High.

While Carl blossomed as a high school hurler, World War II formed the backdrop of his teenage years. The Dodgers scouted the 5’10” right hander, sending Stanley Feezle to keep in touch with Erskine’s development. Carl graduated in June 1945, and, with the war winding down, he was drafted into the Navy. Three weeks into boot camp, as he was training for carrier duty, the war ended after the United State dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.

His orders changed, and Erskine spent the rest of his service time at the Boston Navy Yard. In the summer of 1945, the Navy wouldn’t let him try out for the base team. But one Sunday in August he went to see a semi-pro team practice in Milton, a suburb of Boston. At first the coach, Ernest Sorgi, said they didn’t need any pitchers, but then he gave the sailor a tryout.

“He was being nice,” Erskine explained in 2003. “When he said I could throw to a catcher, I pulled off my Navy jumper, they gave me a glove and a ball, and I pitched in my bell bottoms.”

“I threw the first one past the catcher! I threw a few more fastballs, and the coach wanted me to throw curves. I threw my curve, and the catcher couldn’t handle it either.”

”After a few more pitches, Ernie Sorgi came over to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘Son, what are you doing next Sunday?’ I pitched the rest of the season for him.”

Sorgi was a “bird dog” for Billy Southworth, manager of the Boston Braves. As a result, Carl pitched batting practice for the Braves in the spring of 1946. The Braves wanted to sign him, and they offered a $2,500 bonus.

Because the Dodgers had scouted Erskine in high school, Carl and his high school catcher, Jack Rector, traveled to Brooklyn and spent a week working out at Ebbets Field in the summer of 1945. The young men enjoyed the adventure after graduation, and before the Navy took Erskine.

“When I was being pushed hard by the Braves,” Erskine recollected, “I already decided I wanted to play for the Dodgers, because they treated me great the New York experience.

“I called the Dodgers and said, ‘Hey, I’m getting pushed by the Braves, and they are offering a bonus.’ They offered $2,500, which is probably what my dad made all year in 1945.”

“Mr. [Branch] Rickey said, ‘Don’t do anything. Just sit tight.’ My parents did come to Boston, but the Dodgers brought them to town, not the Braves. Mr. Rickey signed me, and when I was discharged a few weeks later, they sent me to Danville, Illinois, in the Three Eye League. I reported on July 25, and I finished the season with Danville.”

Erskine lost his first three games at Danville. But after thinking about quitting pro ball, he came back to win his last three contests. The right hander threw a good overhand fastball and a sharp-breaking overhand curve. He also threw a changeup, and he changed speeds on his curve.

After the season was over, Happy Chandler, the commissioner of baseball, declared Erskine a free agent. The Dodgers had violated baseball’s directive not to sign players until they were formally discharged from the service.

Carl recalled, ‘”Mr. Rickey had paid me a bonus of $3,500. Nobody got cash money for signing. They might give you a car if you were a hot prospect, and you could buy a Chevrolet or a Ford for under $1,000. But cash was unheard of in those days.”

“The commissioner said the directive had wording that could have been misunderstood, so they allowed me to sign with any team, including resigning with the Dodgers. The Phillies, the Pirates, the Cubs, the Red Sox, and the Braves all made me offers. But I agreed to resign with the Dodgers for another $5,000. That was big money in those days!”

“Ten years later, in 1956, I pitched a no-hitter against the Giants. Dizzy Dean interviewed me after the game, and he said, ‘Who signed you, son?’

“I said, ‘Branch Rickey.’

“Dizzy said, ‘He’s the stingiest man ever lived. I played for him in St. Louis and he starved me. I’ll bet he starved you too, didn’t he?’

“I said, ‘Actually, Mr. Rickey gave me two bonuses,’ and I told him the story.

“Dizzy turned to the cameras, ‘Folks, this here young fella deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, not because he’s pitched two no-hitters, but because he got two bonuses out of Branch Rickey!’”

Carl added, “That’s how I signed with the Dodgers, and by a stroke of luck, that’s one of the smartest moves I ever made, because I got to play with this great team for twelve seasons.”

In 1947 Erskine spent the season with Danville and pitched well, notching a 19-9 record and a 2.94 ERA in a league-high 233 innings. That winter he pitched in Havana, Cuba. Carl started the 1948 season with Fort Worth in the Double-A Texas League. He went 15-7 in 23 games before being called up by the Dodgers in late July.

Erskine recalled, “I joined the Dodgers in Pittsburgh. I first saw action in the big leagues on July 25, two years to the day after I reported to Danville in 1946. They put me in the bullpen. Late in the game, in the seventh inning, Hugh Casey, the experienced old relief pitcher—they didn’t call them ‘stopper’ in those days—got in trouble.

“I came in and got through the inning. The Dodgers used a pinch-hitter for me in the ninth, and they scored some runs. We won, 7-6, and I got the win on my first day in the big leagues.

Talking to sportswriter Charlie Park on July 23, 1948, Carl said about his first game:

“I was shaking in my shoes. Johnny Hopp was on first base and there was one out. The batter was Ralph Kiner. He lined a ball to left field that looked like extra bases, but George Shuba made a sensational catch and then threw to first to double Hopp, who was clear around to second. We went on to win and I picked up my first victory for pitching in that one inning.” Carl added that several years later he ran across Shuba. They rehashed Erskine’s first game, and Shuba remembered that he trapped the ball hit by Kiner.

Reflecting on his 1948 season in 2003, Erskine said, “Next I pitched in relief against the Cardinals for two innings with the score tied 1-1. We scored in the ninth, and I got another win.”

On August 7 Erskine made his first start against the Cubs in Chicago:

“It drizzled the whole day, and I pitched into the seventh inning, and I did well.

“I remember the pitch to Bill Nicholson, a left­ handed-hitting power hitter for the Cubs. I struck him out on a high fastball, and I felt this sharp, hot stab in the back of my shoulder, and I’d pulled a muscle. I’m a kid in my first start. I finished the game, but I was uncomfortable.

“Now I’m 3-0 with a complete game. The Dodgers hadn’t had a complete game in a long time, but the next day I could hardly lift my arm.

“You know, you don’t go in the trainer’s room when you’re a rookie, and I didn’t say much to anybody, but my arm was killing me. On the second day I just kind of loosened up. The third day you rested, and the fourth day you pitched again.”

Erskine took the mound against the Phillies at Ebbets Field on August 9:

“I started against the Phillies in Brooklyn. By the sixth inning, I am hurting so bad that my stomach is nauseous. I’m pitching with this muscle tear.

“When I went to the bench, I spoke to Burt Shotton, our interim manager. Mr. Shotton, who was a real gentleman, was the interim because they had suspended and fired Leo Durocher.

“I said, ‘Mr. Shotton, I hurt my shoulder pitching in the rain the other day. It’s killing me, and I’m really in bad pain.’

“He looked at me with surprise on his face, and said, ‘Son, you’re pitching a shutout. Just go right ahead. You’re doing fine.’ He didn’t want to hear that I hurt my shoulder.

“I finished the game, and we beat the Phillies, 2- 1, and now my record was 4-0. Nobody is going to believe this kid has a bad arm.”

On August 17 Erskine, saying nothing about his arm, started in Philadelphia:

”A few days later I pitched against the Phillies, and I had a shutout until the eighth inning. We beat them, 10-1. Now I’m 5-0 with three complete games, but I’ve really been pushing this arm. From that point until the end of the season, I was 1-3. I ended that half-season at 6-3, but I did a lot of damage to my shoulder.

“I went home that winter, not knowing what to do, so I didn’t do anything. When I went to spring training in 1949, I could hardly throw. I was really struggling.

“With a bad spring and a very competitive pitching staff, I lost one game and the Dodgers sent me back to Fort Worth. It wasn’t to rehab. They sent me back there because I wasn’t pitching well. Pitching in the good sunshine in Fort Worth in 1949, I won 10 games. My arm was feeling a little better, and they recalled me.

“For the rest of the ’49 season, I went 8-1 for the Dodgers, and we won the pennant by seven percentage points. I started and relieved down the stretch, and I think I won eight straight.

“I go home again at the end of the ’49 season, and I don’t know what to do. I’m just struggling to get by and trying to do my best. But there’s no rehab or no attention given to any problem I might have.

“So I go to spring training in 1950, and I experience the same thing-a real hard spring, very difficult. I don’t know if there’s scar tissue, or what. I’m just having a real hard time.”

Carl’s high school coach saw him pitch on TV and called to say his delivery had changed:

“I said, ‘Well, I’ve had some tenderness in my shoulder. I guess I’m overcompensating.’

“Remember that even though I was 8-1 at the end of the 1949 season, when I had a bad spring, they sent me back to the minors again, to triple-A Montreal.”

But pitching in Canada turned out to be good medicine for Erskine:

“I met a doctor in Montreal, Charles LeTourneau. He was head of the Veterans Hospital in Montreal. He took me under his wing and had me do physical therapy at his hospital. They did a study on my arm motion and tried to decide which muscles were affected. He gave me a weight training program. With that program, I kept on pitching regularly and won 10 games in Montreal.

“The Dodgers finally brought me back, after Mr. Rickey came and watched me pitch three times. I pitched and gave up one run in three games. They finally brought me back, and I stayed.

“The Dodgers said to me, ‘Look, you tell us when you’re ready in the spring. You tell us when your arm feels like you can pitch.’ From then on for the rest of my career, I was able to pace myself in the spring and get ready.

“But to this day I never got rid of that muscle problem in the back of my shoulder. I am semi­ disabled in my right arm. Apparently, the muscle I damaged must have atrophied. But I don’t have any strength to do certain things over my head or reaching behind me. I just can’t do it. I can’t even pick up a briefcase in the back seat of my car with my right arm.

“Somehow I was able to pitch around that injury. But I had a frustrating career in warming up to see if I could get loose. Some days I couldn’t get loose. But I took my turn anyway, and I just didn’t pitch well.

“Duke Snider was my roommate for ten seasons, and he knew I was fighting this problem all the time. But the trainers, the front office people, the managers, I don’t think any of them ever had a clue what I was battling!”

Erskine chuckled and said, “But in all fairness, I didn’t say much at the time. It was so competitive in those days. The Dodgers had 26 farm teams and almost 800 players under contract. They had a bunch of pitchers, hard-throwing young guys in the minors. When you faltered, as I did in those first couple of years, you’re gone. You’re back in the minor leagues.

“When they gave you the ball, you pitched. You had to be productive, or you didn’t stay. That’s the way it was for everybody.

“But I never wanted to be known as a sore-armed pitcher. I never wanted to read that. So, I never said much. I gutted it out. I’m not the only guy who’s ever done that. But in my case, I got to be a starting pitcher for a number of years, and I pitched for some great teams.”

Putting his experience into perspective, Erskine observed:

“In all of my experience until the mid-1950s, the coaching staffs and managers were non-pitchers.

You will hardly ever find a pitcher who was a coach or a manager. They say 70 percent of winning or losing is pitching, but all the managers and coaches were infielders, outfielders, or catchers. Most of the pitching coaches were catchers.

“They couldn’t help a pitcher. The only thing a catcher could tell you was whether your stuff was good when he caught it. But he couldn’t come out to the mound and say, ‘Look, you’re over-striding,’ or ‘You’re releasing too soon.’ He couldn’t help with mechanics.

“My first pitching coach was Clyde Sukeforth. He’s a catcher. My second was Bobby Bragan. He’s a catcher. My third was Joe Becker. He was a catcher.

“Later, the Dodgers hired Ted Lyons, who was an outstanding pitcher in the American League. Ted Lyons got discouraged because Charlie Dressen, the manager, wouldn’t even talk to him. Dressen didn’t want any advice about pitching.

“The manager could tell when the pitcher was tired, or when he could start. And Dressen was a good manager. But he did not accept advice from a pitching coach, and that was typical.”

Erskine, a 165-pounder with black hair, brown eyes, and a positive personality, struggled throughout his major league career. Despite pitching with ongoing pain, he accomplished more than most hurlers-and as Carl pointed out, he played on some great Dodger teams.

Brooklyn won the 1949 pennant by one game over the Cardinals. But the Yankees won the World Series in five games. Erskine pitched one shutout inning in relief in game four, a 6-1 Yankee win. He also worked two-thirds of the sixth inning in game six, yielding three runs, as the Yankees closed out the series with a 10-6 victory.

In 1950, when Erskine compiled a 7-6 mark after spending the first half of the season in Montreal, the Dodgers ranked second, two games behind the Philadelphia’s “Whiz Kids.” But the Phillies lost the World Series to the Yankees in four straight.

The Dodgers enjoyed a stellar year in 1951, but the Giants, winning 37 of their last 45 games, tied Brooklyn on the final day. Erskine enjoyed his first full season as a Dodger, fashioning a 16-12 record based on 19 starts, nine relief wins, and seven complete games. But New York won the finale of a three-game playoff when Bobby Thomson homered off Ralph Branca on October 3, 1951, breaking the hearts of Brooklyn’s players and fans.

Erskine and Clem Labine shared the bullpen that October afternoon with Ralph Branca. But Labine had pitched the day before and won, 10-0, and Clyde Sukeforth, warming up Erskine, had to tell Charlie Dressen, “They’re both ready. However, Erskine is bouncing his overhand curve.” Dressen said, “Let me have Branca,” and Thomson hit the “shot heard ’round the world.”

Kahn’s Boys of Summer covers in detail the 1952 and 1953 Dodgers. During those seasons, Erskine produced records of 14-6 and 20-6, pitching around his arm problem. The Yankees, however, won the World Series both years, despite heroic efforts by the Dodgers.

Erskine’s single best effort in 1952 came when he no-hit the Cubs at Ebbets Field on June 19. Only pitcher Willie Ramsdell, who walked on four pitches in the third inning, prevented Erskine from pitching a perfect game. In the first inning, Carl Furillo blasted a bases-empty homer and Roy Campanella hit a two-run shot. Andy Pafko hit a solo homer in the second. After sitting out a 44-minute rain delay in the fourth, Erskine completed the no-hitter and won, 5-0, improving his record to 6-1 for the first­ place Dodgers.

When Erskine no-hit the Giants at Ebbets Field on May 12, 1956, he allowed two base runners. Willie Mays walked with two outs in the first inning, and Alvin Dark opened the fourth by drawing a base on balls. Mays followed with a screaming liner toward left field, but Jackie Robinson dived and made a sensational catch, rescuing the no-hitter.

Erskine held the Giants at bay until the ninth, when left-handed batting Whitey Lockman hit an apparent home run to right field, but the ball curved foul at the last instant. Erskine then retired Lockman on a grounder to the mound. Carl polished off the gem by inducing Dark to bounce another one to the mound. The Dodgers won, 3-0, thanks to a bases­ loaded walk to Jackie Robinson in the third and RBI hits by Duke Snider and Gil Hodges in the seventh.

Those three runs allowed the slow-starting Erskine to improve his record to 2-2, following his 11-win season in 1955. For his sterling effort, Carl received a $500 check from Dodger president Walter O’Malley after the game.

When reminded by a reporter that bonuses weren’t allowed for special feats, O’Malley told Erskine to consider his contract amended.

Replied Carl, “You got off cheap, Mr. O’Malley. I was about to ask for a $1,000 raise!”

Talking about his second no-hitter in the clubhouse afterward, the modest Hoosier explained, “I don’t think I had overpowering stuff. Matter of fact, I didn’t have overpowering stuff in either of my no-hitters. Just a good fastball and my control was all right. I used more changeup pitches today than the last time.”

In the 1952 World Series, Brooklyn won the opener at Ebbets Field, 4-2, behind the dominating hurling of rookie Joe Black and homers off the bats of Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, and Pee Wee Reese.

But the series seesawed as the Yankees won the second game, 7-1, behind a fine performance by Vic Raschi. Erskine started the second game, worked five-plus innings, allowed six hits and four runs, and took the loss.

In game three Brooklyn took the lead as Preacher Roe pitched the route, yielding three runs on six hits. Yogi Berra and Johnny Mize homered for New York, but the Dodgers collected 11 hits and won, 5-3. The Yankees won game four, 2-0, as Allie Reynolds threw a four-hit shutout.

Rising to the occasion at Yankee Stadium, Erskine pitched one of his greatest games, winning game five in 11 innings, 6-5. After giving up five Yankee runs in the fifth inning, including a three-run blast by “Old Jawn” Mize, the gritty Brooklyn right hander­ hurling on his fifth wedding anniversary-blanked New York for six innings, retiring 19 straight batters. In the top of the eleventh, Duke Snider gave the Dodgers a 6-5 lead, doubling off the right field wall to score Billy Cox. Mize scared Dodger fans when he launched an Erskine pitch deep to right in the eleventh, but sportswriter Joe Williams noted, Carl Furillo “went up like the price of sirloin to make a one-handed catch, just as the ball was dropping into the stands.”

Undaunted by playing the final two games at Ebbets, the Yankees won both. Raschi, with relief from Reynolds, won game six, 3-2. New York’s Eddie Lopat pitched the first three innings of game seven, and Reynolds worked the next three, picking up the win. Raschi got one out in the seventh, and Bob Kuzava blanked the Dodgers the rest of the way.

Joe Black started and lost the seventh game, Roe pitched 1½ innings and gave up one run, and Erskine hurled two shutout innings. New York got single runs in the fourth through the seventh innings, before Carl took the mound. Billy Martin made a game-saving catch of Jackie Robinson’s bases-loaded infield popup with two outs in the seventh. Kuzava slammed the door, and the Yankees collected their winning World Series checks for the fourth straight season.

In 1953 Erskine, in his third full season with Brooklyn, enjoyed his best year, going 20-6, leading the NL with a winning percentage of .769, and helping the Dodgers win their second straight pennant.

The ’53 Dodgers were one of the best teams ever. They led the NL with a 105-49 ledger, topping the second-place Milwaukee Braves by 13 games. Brooklyn paced the league in runs scored with 955, home runs with 208, team batting average at .285, team slugging percentage at .474, and stolen bases with 90 (the Cubs ranked second with 49). While the pitchers staff ranked third in ERA with 4.10 (the Braves were first with 3.30), they ranked first with 819 strikeouts.

Many Dodger hitters enjoyed fine seasons. Catcher Roy Campanella, Erskine’s receiver and friend, was voted the senior circuit’s MVP, as Campy crashed 41 home runs and produced 141 RBI. Duke Snider hit .336 with 42 homers and 26 RBI, first baseman Gil Hodges had 31 homers and 122 RBI, right fielder Carl Furillo won the NL batting title with a .344 average while hitting 21 homers and driving in 92 runners, Jackie Robinson hit .329 with 12 homers and 95 RBI, Pee Wee Reese enjoyed a fine year at shortstop and also hit 13 home runs, Billy Cox proved to be the league’s best third baseman, and Jim Gilliam, hitting .278 and playing second base, won NL Rookie of the Year honors.

Erskine led a fine mound staff with his 20-6 mark and 3.54 ERA. But Russ Meyer went 15-5, Billy Loes was 14-8, Preacher Roe had an 11-3 season (Roe was a combined 44-8 from 1951 through 1953), and Clem Labine was 11-6, thanks to a league-high 10 wins in relief.

During the season Erskine, the Dodgers’ player representative, who didn’t drink, swear, or carouse, and who read his Bible on road trips, lived with his family in an apartment in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. The right hander was popular on and off the diamond.

Describing the hurler when he was named on September 29, 1953, to start the opener of the World Series, sportswriter Bill Roeder observed, “Erskine is the small boy’s concept of a model big leaguer. Besides being a success, he is handsome, intelligent, pleasant­ spoken, clean-living. And also a sharp dresser.”

In the 1953 World Series, however, the Yankees won the title in six games, again seeming to get a clutch hit or make a big play when the chips were down. Erskine started the opener, but it wasn’t his day. He worked only one inning, yielding four runs­ fueled by Billy Martin’s bases-loaded triple. Gilliam, Hodges, and pinch-hitter George Shuba all slugged homers for the Dodgers. But behind Allie Reynolds and John Sain, the Yankees won, 9-5.

Eddie Lopat outdueled Preacher Roe in game two, 4-2, boosted by a solo homer by Martin and a two-run shot by Mickey Mantle. Martin, the Yankees’ hitting star, collected 12 hits, a record for a six-game series.

Still, Erskine helped Brooklyn get back on track by winning game three, 3-2, setting a World Series strikeout record with 14, including four whiffs each of Joe Collins and Mickey Mantle. Two days after a pitched ball broke a knuckle on his right hand, Campanella gave Brooklyn the lead with a remarkable homer in the eighth. Carl closed the game by getting Collins, who feared a fifth strikeout, to tap one back to the mound on a nasty curve that almost hit the dirt.

The Dodgers tied the series in game four behind Billy Loes, 7-3, but New York came back to win games five and six. In the finale at Yankee Stadium, Erskine started and hurled four innings, giving up six hits and three runs. Carl Furillo tied the game at three-all in the top of the ninth with a dramatic two-run homer. But in the bottom of the ninth, Billy Martin’s hit off Clem Labine won it for the Yankees, 4-3.

Erskine enjoyed three more good seasons, notching records of 18-15, 11-8, and 13-11 from 1954 through 1956. Led by Willie Mays, the Giants won the pennant in 1954 and swept the Cleveland Indians in four straight. But the Dodgers won pennants in 1955 and 1956, finally outlasting the Yankees in the ’55 World Series.

Brooklyn’s team was changing by 1955. In the fall classic, Erskine made one appearance. He started game five and worked three-plus innings, allowing three runs on three hits. The Dodgers came from behind to win, 8-5, and Clem Labine got the victory with 4½ innings of solid relief. In the climactic seventh game, Johnny Padres, a southpaw in his third season, won a 2-0 thriller, scattering eight Yankee hits.

In Brooklyn’s final pennant summer, 1956, Erskine was cut to $26,000 (his salary peaked at $30,000 in 1954), Jackie Robinson played his final season, and the Dodgers lost a seven-game World Series to the Yankees. Oisk started and lost the fourth game, giving up three runs on four hits. Don Drysdale, a future Dodger star, pitched the last two innings. With the clubs tied at three games each, Carl finished his World Series career by pitching a scoreless ninth inning in game seven. But the Yankees crushed Dodger hopes that afternoon with a 9-0 victory.

Erskine’s life off the field-he was a lay minister who earned the nickname “Deacon” in his first Dodger season-caused the U.S. Junior Chambers of Commerce to name him on the organization’s list of America’s “Outstanding Young Men for 1956.” Reputed never to say no to a worthy cause, Carl often worked in youth camps and taught baseball to Little Leaguers.

On January 10, 1957, Red Smith observed that among the Jaycees’ top young men, Reverend Bob Richards, the Olympic pole vaulter, was “an amateur athlete and a professional clergyman, the other [Erskine] a professional athlete and an amateur parson.”

Erskine pitched three more seasons, the Dodger finale in Brooklyn in 1957, when he struggled with shoulder pain but produced his last winning record, 5-3, and the first two seasons in Los Angeles. After going 0-3 in the early part of 1959, Erskine walked away from the game he loved on June 15. Under Walt Alston’s shrewd management, the Dodgers, pitching younger stars like Don Drysdale, Roger Craig, and Sandy Koufax, regrouped and won the pennant and World Series-a victory that netted each Dodger a check for $11,231.

On June 28, 1959, sportswriter Melvin Durslag wrote, “Throughout his time in the majors, Carl has been one of baseball’s noblemen, a remarkably high­ type individual. Off his recent form, the Dodgers won’t miss him as a pitcher, but they will miss him as a gentleman.”

Speaking to Bill Roeder during spring training in April 1957, Pee Wee Reese said, “I’d rate Erskine right next to Whitlow Wyatt as one of my all-time pitchers on the Brooklyn ball club. Carl’s a real competitor for as nice a guy as he is. You know him, he’s a nicey nice guy, but he wants to beat you. Like with me, he’ll work the pickoff play any time I want to try it. Some pitchers never bother looking around.”

Returning with his family to Anderson, Indiana, Erskine launched a second career running an insurance business. Later, he served as president and director of Star Financial Bank. For 12 years he also coached baseball at Anderson College, where his teams won four Hoosier College Conference titles. In 1997 he was inducted into the university’s Sports Hall of Fame. Retired from banking, Carl still participates in Dodger fantasy camps at Vero Beach, Florida.

Involved in a variety of community activities and charitable concerns, including the Special Olympics, Babe Ruth Baseball, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Carl kept his family first. He always managed to find plenty of time for Jimmy, reported Roger Kahn, who interviewed Carl and Betty at their home in Anderson in 1969.

Looking back in 2003, Carl said, ”Aside from the special days you would expect to be highlights, I think the most rewarding feeling is for me to be respected by other players on my team and on the opponents’ teams as a quality major league player—to have fellow players know I belonged there. I was good enough to stay for 12 years as a major leaguer. It answered my dream as a kid, to be able to grow up and have people say, ‘He played in the big leagues.’ “

An exceptional person who was a clutch big-league pitcher, Erskine left an indelible mark on one of the greatest teams in baseball history.

The Dodger hero epitomizes the kind of ballplayer that boys and fathers dream about when they travel to a ballpark, watch clubs like Brooklyn perform, and-in the irrational daydreams of the fan’s mind­ make the mental leap from being a spectator to being a major leaguer, good enough to put on uniform number 17, take the mound, and pitch in the big time, just like Carl Erskine.

JIM SARGENT is a professor of history and Dean of the Social Sciences Division at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. He has written more than 50 profile articles about former major leaguers and players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.