Jess Pike

Jess Pike’s story isn’t one of glory, fame, or the ascent to the top of the baseball world. Pike’s story is, instead, about a persistent commitment to the game that paid off in small victories and one short stint in the spotlight. Born in a tiny Great Plains town to a large family of Native American heritage, Jess Pike’s unlikely journey to the big leagues took him around the United States. His 14-year professional baseball career spanned over a dozen ballclubs in leagues from the West Texas-New Mexico League to the US Navy. In the middle of it all, Pike climbed to the highest level for 16 games with the New York Giants.

Jess Willard Pike was born on July 31, 1915, the third son of Henry Sylvester and Edna Alice (Smith) Pike, in Dustin, Oklahoma. Dustin sits roughly 70 miles south of Tulsa and has never had a population above 800.1 Pike’s mother, Edna, was born in Creek Nation Indian territory in 1887. Her parents, Rannie and John Smith, were each part Native, with Rannie born in Indian territory and John migrating to the region from Alabama. The small town where the family lived was named Spokogee, a Creek word for “exalted.” Edna’s native name was Pett.

The Fort Smith and Western Railway tracks reached the small town in the early 1900s. In September 1902, a gun battle between the Willis Brooks family and an outlaw gang led by Jim McFarland broke out in Spokogee. The feud had been simmering for years because Brooks held McFarland responsible for murdering his son. Willis Brooks was killed in the fight along with his brother Clifton. The marshal arrested McFarland and his gang, but they were later acquitted. Two years after the bloody battle, the town officially changed its name to Dustin (the Creek word for “prairie town”).

Pike’s father, Henry, worked in farming and later real estate. Henry and Edna married in 1903 when he was 24 years old, and she 16. A boxing fan, Henry named his son after the “Great White Hope,” Jess Willard, the heavyweight who knocked out the champion Jack Johnson, three months before Jess Pike’s birth.2 Henry was of Irish descent, and Jess listed his nationality as Native and Irish on a baseball questionnaire in 1946.3 Jess had two older brothers, two younger brothers, and three younger sisters.

A multisport youngster, Pike was nicknamed “Biddie” by friends. His time in school left much to be desired as he developed a reputation for “skipping study hall,” and his classmates described him as “lazy bones.”4 At 16 years old, Pike was arrested and charged with second-degree burglary for stealing $23 from the Red Star garage in Weleetka, Oklahoma.5 He was held on a $2,000 bond.6 A 6-foot-2 and 170-pound multisport athlete as a teenager, Pike was a football star, playing quarterback as a “triple-threat man,” successfully passing, running, and kicking for the Weleetka High School Outlaws.7

Raised in Weleetka, Pike attended the Connors State School of Agriculture in nearby Warner. In 1935 he joined the Yellow Cab baseball team of Oklahoma City. The “City Cabbies” won the Daily Oklahoman medal for winning the Class-B championship. Pike went south to Mount Pleasant, Texas.8 On June 3, 1935, while employed by the Mount Pleasant baseball club, he married his former high-school classmate Dorothy Jean Allen.9 

Pike joined the Monahans Trojans in 1937. He pitched in one game, going all nine innings and taking the loss. Also in 1937, Pike played at Seminole10 under fellow Oklahoman Bennie Warren, who went on to spend six years in major-league baseball. Pike participated in the Denver Post Tournament along with fellow Muskogee player Allie Reynolds.

Pike started his professional career in 1939 with the Cedar Rapids Raiders of the Class-B Illinois-Iowa-Indiana (Three-I) League. He converted to the outfield, where he played 110 games, covering all three spots. About the move, Pike said, “Heck, right, left, center, what’s the difference after you learn to play the outfield? You can play them all after a little while.”11 With the Raiders, he tied for the team lead in home runs with 13 while batting .304 and slugging .486.

In 1940 Pike split his time between the Buffalo Bisons of the Double-A12 International League and the Winston-Salem Twins of the Class-B Piedmont League. With the Bisons, he played in 23 games, garnering 24 hits but little power as he hit just one double, triple, and home run. But over 119 games with the Twins, Pike clubbed 11 home runs and 11 triples, co-leading and leading his team respectively.

Pike next joined the Knoxville Smokies of the Southern Association in early 1941. On May 8 Smokies manager and future Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom announced that Pike had supplanted Hubert Shelley, though he remained uncertain which outfield position Pike would play. Two days later, a slide into second base landed Pike in General Hospital after the play knocked him unconscious.13 Pike stayed with the Smokies for 32 games before moving on to the Elmira Pioneers of the Class-A Eastern League.

With Elmira, Pike’s finest moment came on September 3 against the Wilkes-Barre Barons, who had Bob Lemon on their roster. After the Barons starter, Red Embree, took a no-hitter into the 10th inning, Pike hit a home run that won the game for his club.14 Overall, Pike stuck in Elmira for 63 games, batting .259 with nine doubles. Pike finished the year with the Oklahoma City Indians for five games playing under Hall of Fame manager Rogers Hornsby. Pike’s numbers, especially his power production, remained way down all year. Over 100 games across three leagues, Pike managed just two home runs.

For the 1943 season, Pike’s contract was purchased by the Indianapolis Indians. With the Indians, Pike enjoyed his best season up to that point as a professional. Over 425 plate appearances, he recorded 113 hits, with 13 doubles, 6 triples, and 7 home runs, for a .318 batting average. Pike also walked 61 times, helping to bring his on-base percentage to a team-leading .422. Three years later, Pike commented that he most owed his baseball career to Donie Bush, the former major-league shortstop who managed Indianapolis during the 1943 campaign.15 In late September 1943, the Philadelphia Phillies purchased Pike’s contract from the Indians for an undisclosed amount of cash and two players to be named later. The Phillies expected Pike to report the following season.16 However, in November Pike was called up for World War II military service.17

The general manager of the Phillies, future Hall of Famer Herb Pennock, signaled that Pike was a “promising outfielder … now in the Navy.”18 Pike spent all of the 1944 season and most of 1945 in the Navy. Stationed at the Bainbridge Naval Training Center in Maryland, Pike joined the base’s baseball club. Dick Sisler, the son of George Sisler, future major-league All-Star, and later a hero for the 1950 pennant-winning Phillies, was also on the club. The Pike and Sisler pairing proved to be formidable for Bainbridge. On June 19, Pike’s triple and run scored on Sisler’s hit helped Bainbridge defeat the Boston Red Sox 5-2 in an exhibition game in front of 8,000 sailors.19

The war over, Pike rejoined the Indianapolis club, now the Boston Braves’ Double-A affiliate, at the end of the 1945 season. To end the year, he played in 22 games and batted .333 with a .415 on-base percentage, continuing the success he saw with the club before his tour in the military. Both statistics would have put him in the top two on the team had he had enough at-bats to qualify.

In September 1945 the New York Giants purchased Pike’s contract from the Indians for cash and two players.20 On January 2, 1946, the Ponca City News reported that the Giants’ 37-year-old player-manager Mel Ott intended to continue his playing career until minor leaguers showed him they could do better. He name-dropped Pike as a potential option, in addition to fellow minor-league outfielder Willard Marshall.21

Pike joined the Giants in April and made his major-league debut on April 18. He was 30 years old and had played pro ball for the better part of a decade, and he finally had his chance on the big stage at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. In his first game, he went hitless against the Dodgers, but he did manage two walks in five plate appearances. Pike platooned for the next few games. His first big-league hit didn’t come until the first game of a doubleheader on April 28, 10 days after his debut. He clubbed a three-run first-inning home run off Brooklyn’s starter, Joe Hatten. In the second game of the doubleheader, Pike knocked in another two runs with a single off Ralph Branca. Over the two-game set, Pike drove in five runs for his best day as a big leaguer.

Pike failed to record a hit in his next start, on May 2, but on May 3 he tallied a hit and did the same in each of his next three starts, including his first double in Cincinnati on May 5 and his first two-hit game on May 7. Pike added his first triple and another RBI against Boston on May 11, but he also struck out three times. He didn’t record another hit for the Giants, but he did manage one more run with the help of two future Hall of Famers when, on May 12, he reached on a first-inning fielder’s choice, took third on Johnny Mize’s single, and scored on Ernie Lombardi’s bunt single.22 After that, Ott plugged Pike in as a pinch-hitter three more times, but he failed to get on base.

At the end of May, the Giants optioned Pike to the Jersey City Giants, their Triple-A affiliate. In 16 games, Pike hit .171 with seven hits, including one home run, one double, and one triple, and 6 RBIs. By June 2 (according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle), the Giants had started seven different players in right field in an ever-shifting outfield.23 Pike was one of the seven and one of four who had appeared in left field for the club.

Pike remained with Jersey City for the duration of the 1946 season. He hit there like he couldn’t in New York, and his power started to emerge. On June 9, his first-inning home run provided all the runs his team needed to defeat Buffalo.24 A few weeks later, Pike’s Giants headed to Montreal. In a 16-2 drubbing by the Montreal Royals, featuring Jackie Robinson, Pike provided the only Jersey City runs with a two-run homer over the scoreboard off African American pitcher Roy Partlow.25 Over 96 games with Jersey City, Pike clubbed 9 home runs and 13 doubles. His OBP was .363, partly due to 48 walks. He had 11 stolen bases.

In early 1947 Pike was briefly obtained by San Diego before he moved to the South Atlantic League to play for the Charleston Rebels, managed by Chick Autry. In 86 games with the Rebels, Pike batted .291 and hit 8 home runs. He stayed on with Charleston the following year and posted similar numbers, though his homers ticked up slightly to 14, and he posted 113 walks.

By the late 1940s, Pike settled into a home in Sherman Oaks, California, where during the offseason, he worked as a carpenter for movie studios. Pike was a hunting enthusiast who indulged in the hobby, especially duck hunting, during his free time.

Now a 33-year-old minor-league journeyman, Pike signed on with the Bakersfield Indians of the Class-C California League in mid-April of 1949. At 10 years older than the average player in the league, Pike set career highs in multiple statistics, putting up his best season as a professional ballplayer. Soon after signing, Pike spearheaded the first of three consecutive wins over Visalia by hitting a two-run home run. The homers never stopped coming. A few days later, Pike thumped a 377-foot home run against the Ventura Yankees.26 Three days after that, a Pike home run sparked yet another Bakersfield victory, this time against Santa Barbara.27 By June 15, Pike brought his season total to 13 when he smacked two home runs in one game against Ventura.28

On August 2 Pike would have set the record for walks in league history (held by Bob DiPietro) in a season, but the game was ruled off the books.29 and Pike had to wait some more before entering the history books. Pike was also on pace to break the record for runs in a season, held by Tommy Glaviano of Fresno (142). Pike had 134 at the time.30 Pike wound up obliterating the record, taking an additional 60 walks before the season was out. The Bakersfield Californian announced that when Pike returned home from the team’s August road trip, the elder statesman would hold three new records. He then broke the league home-run record of 31 on August 17. By season’s end, Pike set new league highs for walks (194), home runs (37), runs scored (167), and RBIs (156) in one season.

Pike also defined himself as a fan favorite during his time with Bakersfield. On August 24 he and home-plate umpire John Yelovic devised to play a trick on the crowd. Pike played the entire ninth inning with a starter’s gun in his hip pocket. They planned for him to get near enough to the Yelovic to stage a fake shooting. Both parties were in on the gag, but ultimately, they failed to pull it off.31

After the season, Pike’s personal life was struck by tragedy. His wife, Dorothy, was killed in an automobile accident in Sherman Oaks when her car collided with another one. The couple had four children.32

In 1950, now the “California League’s home run king,”33 Pike moved up north and joined the Modesto Reds. On April 27 he returned to Bakersfield and the “fence-busting left-handed batter”34 once again put on a show. He hit a double in the first inning, then homered in the fifth inning to drive in two runs. For the season, he hit .251 with 25 home runs and 100 RBIs. 

In April of 1951, the night before Pike was scheduled to head to San Fernando with his Reds teammates, he was held for the investigation of a murder. Pike was arrested after Floyd Napoleon Smith tripped on a curb and split his skull in front of the 400 Club in Modesto. Pike and Smith argued inside the tavern before Pike followed Smith outside, and the two exchanged punches. The accident occurred when Smith stood up and started after Pike before falling over the curb. Pike told police he went to the club searching for the woman who had been babysitting his children.35 Witnesses inside the club said Smith had been bothering Pike, saying, “[A]ll ball players are tramps.” Smith allegedly threw the first punch. Police charged Pike with manslaughter36, but the next day his lawyer declared he had been found “blameless.”37

By mid-April Pike was back with the Modesto ballclub, where he joined forces with Dick Wilson, forming a combination that the year prior had produced 55 home runs between them, as Wilson had clubbed 30 (and 154 RBIs) of his own. Pike got into 93 games between Modesto and his old club in Bakersfield, swatting 14 home runs. He rounded out his career in 1952, playing 18 uneventful games with Bakersfield before latching on with the Mexicali Eagles of the Southwest International League. After 16 seasons as a pro, Pike hung up his spikes.

Pike aspired to become a manager when his playing days ended, but that dream never came to fruition. He never managed a professional club. Instead, Pike stayed in the Chula Vista area of Southern California. He spent 30 years breeding thoroughbred racehorses. He was a member of the National Left-Handed Golfers Association. Pike married Barbara Mary Todd, a lifelong resident of San Diego, who owned an import-export business.38 Pike’s sister, Chris, was married to Edgar McFadden,39 a sports journeyman who pitched in the Cleveland Indians farm system, scouted for Cleveland and Cincinnati, and worked in the front office for the NHL’s Washington Capitals.40

Pike died at 68 years old on March 28, 1984, in San Diego. He was survived by three brothers, three sisters, his wife, his son Gary, three daughters, Donna Jean, Catherine, and Jessica (all from his marriage to Dorothy), as well as 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Pike was buried in Glen Abbey Memorial Park in Bonita, California.41

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Paul Proia for his research support.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Kathy Weiser, “Brooks-McFarland Feud,” Legends of America, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/brooks-mcfarlandfeud/ (last accessed October 17, 2022).

2 “Willard Pike Plays with O.C. Indians,” Weleetka (Oklahoma) American, April 16, 1941: 1.

3 Jess Pike, Publicity Questionnaire for American Baseball Bureau, March 26, 1946, https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/30479868?h=db30b7 (last accessed October 22, 2022).

4 Cornella Gaston, “Kitchen Favorites,” Weleetka American, November 23, 1933: 6.

5 “Hold Weleetka Youth,” Okfuskee County (Oklahoma) News, December 25, 1930: 1.

6 Details are unclear about how Pike’s burglary charged was resolved.

7 “School Notes,” Weleetka American, October 13, 1932: 4.

8 “Willard Pike Plays with O.C. Indians.”

9 “Allen Announces Marriage of Daughters,” Weleetka American, June 13, 1935: 5.

10 “Willard Pike Plays with O.C. Indians.”

11 “Willard Pike Plays with O.C. Indians.”

12 After World War II, the Double-A classification was elevated to Triple A.

13 “Pike Hurt in Slide,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, May 10, 1941: 5.

14 F.X. Welsh, “Do You Know That?” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, September 4, 1941: 26.

15 Jess Pike, Publicity Questionnaire for American Baseball Bureau.

16 Associated Press, “Phillies Purchase Jess Willard Pike,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 25, 1943: 4.

17 “70 County Men Ordered for Induction,” Okemah (Oklahoma) News Leader, November 16, 1943: 1.

18 “Phillies Bill Lee Is Placed in 1-A,” Lima (Ohio) News, February 10, 1944: 21.

19 Associated Press, “Bainbridge Beats Sox,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, June 20, 1944: 15.

20 Associated Press, “Giants Buy Indianapolis Outfielder Jess Pike, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 27, 1945: 20.

21 Associated Press, “Ott Plans to Play With Improved Giants,” Ponca City (Oklahoma) News, January 22, 1946: 8. 

22 Associated Press, “Braves Take Double Win,” Rutland (Vermont) Daily Herald, May 13, 1946: 6.

23 “Lefties Galore Set for Giants,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 2, 1946: 25. 

24 Associated Press, “Little Giants Turn Back Bisons, 2 to 0, Syracuse Post-Standard, June 9, 1946: 46.

25 Associated Press, “Royals Parade to 16-2 Triumph On 22-Hit Attack,” Syracuse Post-Standard, June 25, 1946: 12.

26 John Peri, “Hard Hitting in State Circuit,” Stockton (California) Evening Standard and Sunday Record, April 27, 1949: 35. 

27 United Press, “Indians Capture 6th Straight Win,” Oakland Tribune, April 30, 1949: 10.

28 United Press, “Pike Hits Two Homers,” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, June 15, 1949: 28.

29 The Bakersfield Californian newspaper, reporting on Pike’s new records, makes no mention of why the original record-breaking game in Modesto was ruled off the books.

30 Walter Little, “Little Quotes,” Bakersfield Californian, August 18, 1949: 29.

31 Walter Little, “Little Quotes,” Bakersfield Californian, August 25, 1949: 29.

32 “Hold Services for Mrs. Dorothy Pike, Victim of Accident,” Van Nuys (California) News, November 10, 1949: 8.

33 John Peri, “Ports and Reds Clear Decks for Tomorrow,” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, April 20, 1950: 34.

34 “Tribe Faces Bruising Red Sox; Pike Is Rough for Former Mates,” Bakersfield Californian, April 28, 1950: 27.

35 “Jess Pike, Modesto Outfielder, Jailed as Result of Fatal Fistic Altercation,” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, April 2, 1951: 32.

36 While no official court record was found, it’s likely the case against Pike was dismissed.

37 “Manslaughter Charge Against Pike; Attorney Says He Is Blameless,” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, April 3, 1951: 23.

38 “Barbara Mary Todd Pike (Obituary),” Chula Vista (California) Star News, December 8, 1988: 7.

39 Edgar Burdette McFadden, The Sporting News Contract Card, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/132646/rec/1 (last accessed October 22, 2022).

40 Edgar McFadden Obituary, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dayton/name/edgar-mcfadden-obituary?id=29178353 (last accessed October 17, 2022).

41 “Jess Pike, Horseman, Major Leaguer (Obituary),” Chula Vista Star-News, April 1, 1984: 24.