With that swing of the bat, along with the 714 that preceded it, Hank Aaron not only passed Babe Ruth as major-league baseball’s home run leader. He also made a giant leap in the integration of the game and the nation. Aaron, an African American, had broken a record set by the immortal Ruth, and not just any record, but the all-time major-league home run record, and in doing so moved the game and the nation forward on the journey started by Jackie Robinson in 1947. By 1974 Aaron’s baseball career was within three years of sunset, but the road he’d traveled to arrive at that spring evening in Atlanta had hardened and tempered him, perhaps irrevocably, in ways that only suffering can produce. Aaron finally shrugged off the twin burdens of expectation and fear that evening, and few have ever stood taller.

Henry Louis Aaron was born February 5, 1934, in Mobile Alabama, to Herbert and Estella (Pritchett) Aaron.1 Among Henry’s seven siblings was a brother, Tommie, who later played in parts of seven different seasons in the major leagues. For whatever such records are worth, the brothers still hold the record for most career home runs by a pair of siblings, 768, with the elder Henry contributing 755 to Tommie’s 13. They were also the first siblings to appear in a League Championship Series as teammates.

Henry was born in a poorer neighborhood of Mobile called “Down the Bay,” but he spent most of his formative years in the nearby district of Toulminville. Aaron’s father worked at a local shipyard performing manual labor.2 The Aaron family lived on the edge of poverty, in part due to the general economic conditions of the Great Depression, so every member of the family worked to contribute. Young Henry picked potatoes and tended the Aaron garden, and also worked for an ice-delivery truck, among other odd jobs, and while his parents could not afford proper baseball equipment for recreation, Aaron still practiced in endless sandlot games by hitting bottle caps with ordinary broom handles and sticks.3

One of the consequences of this self-coaching was that he developed a cross-handed batting style, a habit he kept until his early days as a professional. In fact, it was not until he was in spring training with the then-Jacksonville Braves that coach Ben Geraghty convinced him to switch hands in his grip. “He came in and was unorthodox as a hitter; he hit cross-handed,” minor league teammate Johnny Goryl said during a 2011 interview. “He went to Jacksonville to play for a Ben Geraghty who got him to hit more conventionally without the cross-handed grip. That’s when his power started surfacing, and the rest was all history.”4 But in high school, Aaron was a gifted athlete and starred in both football and baseball at Central High School for two years. On the diamond he played shortstop, third base, and some outfield on a team that won the Mobile Negro High School Championship during his freshman and sophomore years.  

In 1949, the 15-year-old, 140-pound Aaron – inspired by the exploits of Jackie Robinson, whom he’d seen on several exhibition passes through Alabama –tried out with the Brooklyn Dodgers but did not earn a contract offer, likely due to his unorthodox batting grip. Now a high school junior, he transferred to the private Josephine Allen Institute for his final two years of education. The Allen Institute had been founded by Clarence and Josephine Allen in 1895. The Allens were unusually accomplished, educated, and wealthy for Black Americans in that time and place, and their school provided critical education for many children who would have otherwise been denied due to race.

Aaron had been playing for the semipro Pritchett Athletics since age 14, and during those games, and in some of his softball contests, he drew the attention of scout Ed Scott, who convinced Henry and his mother that it would be a good move to sign with the Mobile Black Bears, a semipro team, for $3 a game.5 Estella granted her son permission to play, but only on the condition that he did not travel, thus limiting him to local games.  

On November 20, 1951, despite his mother’s concerns about his not continuing on to college, Henry signed for $200 a month with the Negro American League champion Indianapolis Clowns. Scout Bunny Downs had discovered Aaron playing with the Black Bears during an earlier exhibition, and Aaron flourished with Indianapolis, helping guide the team to the 1952 Negro League World Series crown. In 26 games, he posted a .366 batting average, hit five home runs, and stole nine bases. The series, and the season, allowed Aaron to showcase his range of skills not just for regional scouts, but for several major-league organizations as well.

Following the championship, two telegrams reached Henry – one with an offer from the New York Giants, and a second with an offer from the Boston Braves. Aaron chose the latter, evidently because of a $50-a-month difference in salary, and Boston immediately purchased his contract from Indianapolis.6 On June 14, 1952, Aaron signed with Braves scout Dewey Griggs, and reported to the Class-C Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Bears. Despite playing in only 87 games, Aaron batted .336 with 9 homers, 19 doubles, and 61 RBIs, earned a spot on the league’s All-Star squad, and was selected as the Northern League’s Rookie of the Year. As impressive as his on-field performance was, though, it may have even been exceeded by his calm mien both on and off the diamond. The teenager’s demeanor seemed impenetrable to the occasional bigots in the stands, and the clear absence of racial incidents that season proved his maturity in a way that could not be measured by simple interviews. Aaron not only showed the Braves that he was a wonderful prospect on the field, but also that he could handle the inevitable racism with detachment.

The next season found him and Black teammates Horace Garner and Felix Mantilla on the Jacksonville Braves (South Atlantic League). Given Mantilla’s superior ability at shortstop, Aaron moved to second base for the season.7 Along with two other players from the Savannah (Georgia) Indians, Fleming “Buddy” Reedy and Elbert Willis “Al” Isreal, the quintet broke the color line in the South Atlantic or Sally League (or SAL), playing in the heart of old Dixie without the top-cover of a sympathetic national press.8 Aaron, playing second base, almost single-handedly forced the Jacksonville fans to accept him, regardless of race, by leading the entire league with a batting average of .362, and also being the top producer with 115 runs, 208 hits, 36 doubles, 338 total bases, and 135 runs batted in (RBI) title. To cap the first integrated season in SAL history, Aaron led Jacksonville to the title and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player.9 Because many parts of the South were still governed by Jim Crow laws, circumstances that forced the Black players to live in separate accommodations and dining on the road, one pundit wrote, “Henry Aaron led the league in everything except hotel accommodations.”10

That year Henry also met a young woman named Barbara Lucas.11 On a lark, she had decided to attend a Jacksonville game one night early in the season, and watched Aaron single, double, and homer. On October 6, 1953, Aaron, not yet 20, and Lucas were married and within a year welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Gaile.

Aaron spent part of the offseason playing winter ball in Puerto Rico, learning to play the outfield and working with coach Mickey Owen on his batting stance, refining his new swing after switching his grip months earlier. On March 11, 1954, in spring training, Henry was penciled into the Braves’ starting lineup as leadoff hitter and right fielder. He homered and singled. Two days later, on March 13, Milwaukee’s left fielder Bobby Thomson severely fractured his right ankle sliding into second base. In the ensuing lineup shuffle, Aaron took his spot as a regular outfielder. The young slugger made the most of his chance.12

The Braves purchased Aaron’s minor-league contract just as spring training ended. On Tuesday afternoon, April 13, 1954, Aaron made his major-league debut in the season opener at Cincinnati, playing left field and batting fifth. Two days later, on April 15, he doubled in the first inning off Cardinals pitcher Vic Raschi for his first major-league hit, and a week later in St. Louis, on April 23, he victimized Raschi again, this time for his first home run. Aaron fractured his left ankle sliding into third base on September 5, ending his season with what would be the only significant injury of his career. Still, in his first 122 big-league games, he batted .280, homered 13 times, and finished fourth in the voting for Rookie of the Year. In 1955 Aaron was moved to right field, and there his league-leading 37 doubles, .314 batting average, and .540 slugging percentage helped him earn the first of 21 consecutive All-Star team slots en route to finishing ninth in NL MVP balloting.

During the early days of his career, Milwaukee’s public relations director Don Davidson began referring to Aaron as “Hank,” not “Henry” as he was known by those close to him, to make the quiet player appear a bit more accessible.

In 1956 Aaron hit .328 to win the first of his two NL batting titles, led the league in doubles (34) and hits (200), and was named The Sporting News NL Player of the Year. He would lead the league four times in doubles and twice in hits. It proved to be mere foreshadowing for the following year.

Aaron’s 1957 baseball season began under less-than-ideal circumstances when he missed his train in Mobile and reported one day late to spring training in Bradenton, Florida. Because he had signed a new contract during the offseason, one that raised his salary to $22,500 for the coming campaign, Aaron’s conspicuous tardiness drew the attention of national papers like The Sporting News, as well as the Milwaukee press. The other potential omen came with the distribution of his Topps baseball card. It was printed as a photographic reverse, with Hank appearing to bat left-handed. On closer inspection, his uniform number “44” is reversed, and clearly underscores the mistake, but the Topps corporate leadership chose not to correct the error and reprint the card.

Regardless of what the baseball card showed, Aaron was not affected on the field. Over that March in Florida he batted .390 with 11 home runs, despite missing seven games due to a sprained ankle. Manager Fred Haney, in the March 27 edition of The Sporting News, was quoted: “He [Aaron] hasn’t reached his potential yet. I expect him to do better this year. That’s how we’ve got to improve to win the flag.” Aaron tinkered with his approach in the batter’s box, switching from a 36-ounce bat to a 34-ounce model, and he opened the 1957 season by batting safely, and scoring, in the Braves’ first seven games.

The public praise rolled in during those early weeks. On April 24 Sporting News writer Dick Young noted that Dodgers coach Billy Herman “rates Hank Aaron over Willie Mays as a hitter – and over everyone in the N. L. for my money.”13 The following week, in the same magazine, Bob Wolf wrote: “Whether or not he wins the triple crown, or even two-thirds of it, Aaron certainly must be considered the favorite in the batting derby … and while Aaron isn’t high on his chances of leading the league in homers or runs batted in, he agrees that he should repeat as batting king.”14 After 25 games,  Aaron was hitting at a .369 clip and had committed no errors in the field.

Stan Musial, however, was not as impressed as the reporters who followed the team. In a June 26 Sporting News article by Cleon Walfoort, Musial left no room for doubt, stating, “[Aaron] thinks there’s nothing he can’t hit. He’ll have to learn there are some pitches no hitter can afford to go for. He still has something to learn about the strike zone.” His reference to Aaron as an “arrogant hitter” drew a response, cited in the same article, from Pittsburgh manager Bobby Bragan. “Sure, Aaron’s a bad-ball hitter and he always will be, but it would be a bad mistake to try to change him.”15

Given the late arrival to spring training, Musial’s comments, and a general undertone in the wider reporting on Aaron and what was occasionally dismissed as a lack of effort, Haney again came to his slugger’s defense. “That loping gait of Hank Aaron’s is deceptive. You’d almost get the impression he wasn’t hustling at times, but he’d be about the last player you could accuse that of. He just runs as fast as he has to, and you’ll notice he always seems to get to a fly ball or a base in time when there’s any chance of making it.”16

Normally such an offensive outburst would result in a nearly automatic selection to the NL All-Star team, but according to a retrospective article from ESPN, a huge glut of votes from Cincinnati elected Reds to eight National League starting positions. “The lineup was so stacked, in fact, that Commissioner Ford Frick felt he had to intervene, so he replaced outfielders Gus Bell and Wally Post with two guys named Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.”17

The All-Star Game was little more than a brief respite in Aaron’s terrific season. On July 5 he surpassed his 1956 season home run total when he hit number 27 off the Cubs’ Don Elston, which, by mid-month, prompted The Sporting News’ Bob Wolf to begin touting the hitter’s chances for the Triple Crown. Despite his preseason protestation that he did not see himself as a power hitter, after 77 games he was on pace to tie Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record, and on August 15 he smacked career homer number 100. One week later he drove in his 100th run of the season. All the numbers, though, paled in comparison to a single swing of the bat the following month.

On September 23, in the bottom of the 11th inning facing St Louis, Aaron stroked a breaking ball over the fence at County Stadium. The two-run shot was the only homer that Cardinals pitcher Billy Muffett surrendered all year, but the walk-off win clinched the NL pennant for the Braves. Aaron was carried off the field that night by his jubilant teammates, and he always remembered that hit, that game, and that night as one of the greatest moments of his career.

In a February 26, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel retrospective, baseball commissioner Bud Selig was quoted: “Henry Aaron in ’57 was, well, he was a player for the ages. I have never seen a hitter like him. Forget our relationship. I’m telling you in the ’50s, when you watched Hank Aaron, you knew you were watching something really special.”18 That year, Aaron led the NL with 44 home runs, 132 runs batted in, 369 total bases, and 118 runs scored, but failed to meet his batting goal of .350. Instead, he finished a “mere” fourth in the league race with a .322 average. It was enough to earn him the only Most Valuable Player trophy of his career.

He followed that with 11 hits, including three homers, in 28 at-bats in the World Series. His .393 average certainly contributed to the Braves’ world championship, and was a fitting conclusion to a remarkable season. Both the man and his team walked off the field after the final out that October as, unquestionably, the best in baseball.

The year 1957 was also special for the Aarons for other reasons. In March, Barbara had delivered their first son, Hank Jr., and in December twins Lary and Gary arrived. Tragically, Gary died in the hospital, but the family carried on. It would grow once more, in 1962, with the birth of youngest daughter Dorinda.

In 1958, due in large part to Aaron’s 30 home runs, the Braves returned to the World Series, but lost to the Yankees in seven games. Although Henry Aaron only finished third in MVP voting for the year, he did win his first Gold Glove award. The following year the rising star appeared on the television show Home Run Derby, and won six consecutive matches – along with $13, 000 – before falling to the Phillies’ Wally Post. Afterward, Aaron noted that he changed his swing to help him hit more home runs because “ … they never had a show called ‘Singles Derby.’”19

His 1959 season was, arguably, the best of Aaron’s extraordinary career. Not only did he lead both major leagues in hits (223), batting average (.355), slugging (.636), and total bases (400), he committed only five errors all season while winning his second of three Gold Glove awards. The fielding mark is even more impressive in that, although he played 144 games as right fielder, he also played 13 in center and even five full games in the infield, at third base.  

Aaron hit his 200th career home run on July 3, 1960, off Cardinals pitcher Ron Kline, and on June 8, 1961, he joined Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock, and Frank Thomas as the first quartet to hit successive homers in a single game, a 10-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1963 he led the NL in home runs and RBIs, and also became the third-ever member of the 30/30 club, stealing 31 bases and socking 44 homers. That year Aaron barely missed winning the Triple Crown, losing the batting title to Tommy Davis by a scant .007 points, finishing in a tie with Dick Groat for fourth place in the major leagues with a .319 batting average.

He continued to excel throughout the decade. In the mid 1960s, though, the Braves uprooted the team and moved to Atlanta, as far south as any team in the major-league game. From a 2014 interview by Aaron, published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, he “was not upset that his team would be moving to the segregated South. Aaron, who had grown up in Mobile, Alabama, played for the Jacksonville Braves and had traveled throughout the South when he was in the minor leagues. “It was something I had to get used to … I’m going to be playing baseball.

Coming up through the minor league system, I had always been affiliated with the Braves,” Aaron said. Because he cared about playing baseball, it didn’t matter if he was in Milwaukee or Atlanta. “I don’t have to be associated with anybody but the baseball players.”20

In 1966, the first season for the Braves in Georgia, Aaron hit his 400th career home run off Bo Belinsky in Philadelphia, and crested the 500-plateau two years later, in 1968 against Mike McCormick and the San Francisco Giants. He moved into third place on the all-time career home run list on July 30, 1969, when he passed Mickey Mantle with number 537. Despite his personal successes, and another third-place finish in the MVP race, the Braves were swept in three games by the improbable New York Mets in the new League Championship series. In the inaugural NLCS, Aaron batted .357 with three home runs.

The 1960s marked the peak of Aaron’s career. From 1960 to 1971, he averaged 152 games per season. In an “average” season, Aaron batted .308, scored 107 runs, amassed 331 total bases, hit 38 homers, and drove in 112 runs. This was all the more remarkable in that the time frame is widely remembered as the “decade of the pitcher,” yet Aaron gave no quarter when batting against some of the best in the game. Don Drysdale was his most frequent career home run victim, yielding 17, but the slugger also punished luminaries like Sandy Koufax and Juan Marichal, along with a wide array of less-gifted hurlers.   

His gift in the batter’s box flowed through his hands and wrists. In the 1990 book Men at Work:  The Craft of Baseball, author George Will summarized Hank’s approach: “Henry Aaron once said, ‘I never worried about the fastball. They couldn’t throw it past me. None of them.’ That was true, but that was Aaron, he of the phenomenally quick wrists and whippy, thin-handled bat.”21 Despite standing six feet tall, Aaron weighed a mere 180 pounds, almost scrawny in comparison to later sluggers, but his unique physical talent allowed him to wait on the pitcher for a split second longer than most other hitters, to seemingly pluck the ball from the catcher’s glove with his bat, and made him one of the most feared sluggers in the league.  

With his 3000th career hit, a single against the Cincinnati Reds on May 17, 1970, Henry Aaron became the first player ever to reach the dual milestones of 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. That year, with his 38 homers, he established a new NL record for most seasons by a player with 30 or more home runs. The following year, on April 28, Aaron hit homer number 600 off future Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry, joining Ruth and Mays in a most exclusive power-hitting fraternity. With his career-high 47 home runs that year he also set a new league record for most seasons with 40 or more homers with seven, and set an unofficial mark for “close-but-no-cigar” when he finished third in MVP balloting for a sixth time.

On the personal front, things between Henry and Barbara came to a head. The couple had been having marital difficulties since 1966, and had drifted apart. In February 1971, they formalized the separation with a legal divorce. Two years later, in 1973, Aaron married Billye Williams, a former Atlanta television journalist, in Jamaica.

Despite major-league baseball’s first labor-related work stoppage in 1972, Aaron passed Mays on the all-time home run list when he hammered number 661 off Reds pitcher Don Gullett on August 6. The impact of the strike wouldn’t really show until the following season. The two weeks that were lost to pension benefit negotiations represented eight lost opportunities for Aaron to continue his chase of Ruth’s career home run record, and by the end of 1973, with the national media working itself into a lather over Aaron’s pursuit of the iconic total, he ended the season with 713, one shy of tying the Bambino.

The stresses on the player, the team, opposing pitchers, and the sport that were spawned – or perhaps revealed – by Aaron’s 1973 season have been chronicled in a variety of sources. He retained an essential quiet dignity with the media and never allowed the moment to cause him to break in public, although a lesser man certainly might have cracked. Aaron received, literally, thousands of letters every week, and the torment prolonged over the winter of 1973 due to the strike in 1972. In 1973, however, the nation was a scant decade past the passage of the contentious Civil Rights Act, and less than a generation since Rosa Parks had refused to move to the back of her bus, so overt bigotry was not nearly as foreign as it might be now. Some of the letters that Aaron opened, however, are almost unbelievable for any era.

Some of the notable ones from the collection at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (spelling is verbatim):

“Hi, Hank,

I sees you hit 711 homers. When I goes to sleep every night I pray as follows:

1 – That you’se stop hitting these cheap homers

2 – That the pitchers stop lobbing in the ball for you to hit.

3 – That youse have a good accident when youse hit 713 and never been able to play another game.

4 – That youse get good and sick.

5 – That Babe Ruth is the best homer hitter & 714 is always the record.

6 – That youse get mugged by one of our brothers of the Black Panther Party.”

Another one, from mid-1973, read:

“Dear Hank Aaron,

Why are they making such a big fuss about your hitting 701 home runs.? sic

Please remember, you have been at bat over 2700 more times than Babe Ruth. If Babe Ruth was at bat 2700 more times he would have hit 814 home runs.

So, Hank what are you bragging about. Lets have the truth. You mentioned if you were white they would give you more credit. That’s ignorance. Stupid.

Hank, there are three things you can’t give a Nigger. A black eye, a puffed lip or a job.

The Cubs stink, the Cubs stink, Hinky Dinky, Stinky Parlevous. The Cubs are through, the Cubs are through, Hinky Pinky Parlevous.”

These are just a tiny sample of the venom and rage directed at Aaron throughout the later stages of his quest. In a third letter, a self-described “50 year old White Woman from Massachusetts” wrote, “To Hank Aaron: A Rotten Nigger … .you must have made every intelligent white man hate you and your opinions even more … ”.22 Describing those letters as mere irrational raving is reasonable nearly 40 years after the chase, but at the time, with a Black player pursuing the record of a White one, the threats seemed very real.

On the positive side, once the nation became aware of the bigotry, public support for Aaron poured in. But Aaron, perhaps channeling his inner Jackie Robinson, took the field without apparent regard for the attention surrounding his play. Atlanta opened the 1974 season in Cincinnati, and although the Braves management wanted Hank Aaron to break Ruth’s record in Atlanta, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn decreed that Aaron had to play at least two of the thee-game road series.

Aaron sat on his 713 total for one at-bat, hitting number 714 on April 4 off Cincinnati’s Jack Billingham. On April 8, in front of 53,775 fans in Atlanta, Aaron finally broke the record with a fourth-inning shot off the Dodgers’ Al Downing. Dodgers radio announcer Vin Scully captured the moment: “What a marvelous moment for baseball; what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia; what a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly for Henry Aaron. … And for the first time in a long time, that poker face in Aaron shows the tremendous strain and relief of what it must have been like to live with for the past several months.”23 

The euphoria lasted all season, until October 2, when Aaron hammered his 733rd, and final, homer in Atlanta for the Braves. One month later, on November 2, Atlanta traded the all-time home run king to the Milwaukee Brewers for minor-league pitcher Roger Alexander and outfielder Dave May. “When Bud Selig called me,” [Aaron, talking about the trade] said to the New York Times. “I was too sleepy to get all the details … All I know is that I’m happy to be going back home. This is the first time I’ve ever been traded. If I was being traded to a city like Chicago or Philadelphia, I’d frown on it. But I’m going back to Milwaukee … I’m going back home.”24

Hank Aaron became a “designated hitter.” The next season, on May 1, 1975, Aaron became the all-time RBI leader, and on July 20, 1976, he hit the 755th home run of his career in Milwaukee’s County Stadium. He appeared in his final major-league game on October 3, calling it a career after 3,298 games.

In that career, Aaron scored 2,174 runs, and is the all-time leader in RBIs (2,297), total bases (6,856), and extra-base hits (1,477). The total bases figure is ‘just another stat’ at first blush, but Aaron’s lead over Albert Pujols, #2 on the list, is 645, or almost 10%. It is one of Aaron’s most remarkable displays of dominance across all eras. His 12,364 at-bats remain the second highest total ever, and he is on many of Major League Baseball’s “top ten” lists, including doubles, plate appearances, and hits (3,771). Even more remarkable is that he remains on these lists more than 35 years since he last took the field. In his otherwise hilarious and irreverent book Catcher in the Wry, former Aaron teammate and longtime Brewers’ broadcaster Bob Uecker is quite serious when he observes that, “[Aaron] was the most underrated player of my time, and his.”  This period included tremendous players like Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente, yet Aaron did more for less recognition than anyone else. Uecker continued, “I asked him once if he felt slighted. He said, ‘What difference does it make?’”25

After retiring, Aaron returned to Atlanta as vice president of player development for the Braves, and on August 1, 1982, was formally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, although an inexplicable 2.2 percent of the ballots did not contain his name. He also worked for a time for Turner Broadcasting, and opened Hank Aaron BMW in Atlanta. His auto empire eventually grew to multiple dealerships in Georgia, although he sold all but one in 2007, and he expanded his business venture to include a number of smaller restaurants as well. The 755 Restaurant Corporation grew to 18 fast-food venues in the Southeast, including several Church’s Fried Chicken outlets.

It was not a simple, happy ending. In 1984, brother Tommie passed away due to leukemia. Older brother Hank later said in an interview: “I was sitting in my office one day in 1982,” Aaron wrote later wrote, “when my brother Tommie walked in and told me that he had some kind of blood disorder … the whole time, Tommie never demonstrated any pain until the very last night before he passed … It was the hardest night of my life.”26

In 1990 he wrote his autobiography, I Had a Hammer, and in April 1997 the Mobile Bay Bears (Southern League) christened “Hank Aaron Stadium” in Mobile. In 1999 Major League Baseball created the Hank Aaron Award to be awarded to the best offensive performers in each league each season, and in 2000 Aaron was named to MLB’s All-Century Team. In 2001, he was awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal by President Bill Clinton, and in 2002 was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

That slew of awards underscores Aaron’s fame and his relevance not only to baseball’s past, but also to America’s history. He was a Black man who successfully challenged the record of a White player whose legacy borders on mythical, and he did so with a poise so unshakable that it remains a study in professionalism. Naturally taciturn in public, he was only rarely able to convey his inner feelings with words, but he reserved one of his finest moments for the end of another controversy-laden home run chase, by Barry Bonds in 2007. When Bonds finally hit his 756th homer, Aaron’s face appeared on the JumboTron scoreboard in San Francisco, and he relayed a message to his replacement:

“I would like to offer my congratulations to Barry Bonds on becoming baseball’s career home run leader. It is a great accomplishment which required skill, longevity, and determination. Throughout the past century, the home run has held a special place in baseball and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of those years. I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historical achievement. My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams.”

Henry Aaron passed away in his sleep on January 22, 2021, just two weeks shy of his 87th birthday.27 He is buried at South View Cemetery in Atlanta.28

Dignity. Pride. Courage. Those are words often reserved for describing heroes. They also describe Henry Aaron.

Photo credits

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Trading Card Database, Atlanta Braves.

Notes

1 “Henry Aaron,” Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702-1981; Alabama Department of Archives and History, online: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61266/images/41904_539897-00023?pId=61280

2 Bill James, “Henry Aaron,” The Baseball Book: 1990 (New York: Villard, 1990), 161.

3 Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York, Harper Perennial, 1991), 14.

4 Nick Diunte, “Hank Aaron’s Lone Season in Puerto Rico Forever Altered His Path to the Hall of Fame,” Forbes.com, January 22, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickdiunte/2021/01/22/hank-aarons-lone-season-in-puerto-rico-forever-altered-his-path-to-the-hall-of-fame/

5 Aaron and Wheeler, 32.

6 Aaron and Wheeler, 53.

7 James, 161.

8 Isreal’s last name is often spelled “Israel” – like the nation, but Baseball-Reference.com uses “Isreal”. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=isreal001elb. Of note, however, is that his father Frank’s World War II draft card spells the name (and in the signature), “Israel”.

9 “Henry Aaron, Negro Athlete, Is Voted Sally’s Most Valuable,” Panama City News Herald, August 19, 1953: 5.

10 Larry Schwartz, “Hank Aaron: Hammerin’ Back at Racism,” ESPN.com, accessed September 20, 2024, http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00006764.html

11 Howard Bryant. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Random House, 2010), 56.

12 Bryant, 69.

13 Dick Young, “Clubhouse Confidential,” The Sporting News, April 24, 1957: 17.

14 Dick Young, “Aaron Whipping Up Plate Breeze Aided By Lighter Bludgeon,” The Sporting News, May 1, 1957: 11.

15 Cleon Walfoort. “Aaron Turns Bad Pitches Into Base-hits,” The Sporting News, June 26, 1957: 7.

16 Walfoort, 7.

17 Steve Wulf, “The stuff of legends: In 1957, Cincinnati fans stacked the All-Star team too,” ESPN.com, June 29, 2015, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/13168334/1957-cincinnati-fans-stacked-all-star-team-too 

18 Gary D’Amato, “Seasons of Greatness: No. 2 Hank Aaron 1957,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 26, 2012, http://m.jsonline.com/more/sports/brewers/140517023.htm

19 “Images from Hank Aaron’s chase for the career home run record,” ESPN.com, January 22, 2021, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30759553/images-hank-aaron-chase-career-home-run-record

20 Maria Saporta, “Hank Aaron reflects on past 50 years in Atlanta; Braves move to Cobb,” Atlanta Business Chronicle, October 24, 2014, https://saportareport.com/hank-aaron-reflects-on-past-50-years-in-atlanta-braves-move-to-cobb/sections/abcarticles/maria_saporta/

21 George Will, Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball (New York: MacMillan, 1990), 206.

22 Archives, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York (visited: 2011).

23 Jon Paul Hoornstra, “Relive Hank Aaron’s 715th Homer Through Vin Scully’s Historic Call,” Newsweek.com, accessed September 20, 2024, https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/relive-hank-aaron-s-715th-homer-through-vin-scully-s-historic-call/ar-BB1lioQU 

24 Alex Coffey, “The Braves Trade Hank Aaron to the Brewers,” BaseballHall.org, accessed September 20, 2024, https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/inside-pitch/the-braves-trade-henry-aaron

25 Bob Uecker and Mickey Herskowitz, Catcher in the Wry (New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 1982), 167-168.

26 Aaron and Wheeler. I Had a Hammer; 434.

27 Richard Goldstein, “Hank Aaron, Home Run King Who Defied Racism, Dies at 86,” New York Times, January 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-dead.html

28 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/221485980/hank-aaron

Jeff Bagwell was a dominant player in the National League for most of his 15-year career. Eight seasons he drove in more than 100 runs. Nine times he hit 31 or more home runs and scored over 100 runs. In 1994 he was unanimously selected as the Most Valuable Player. Despite these and other accomplishments, Bagwell’s career was shadowed by controversy because he played during the steroid era and his reputation, justified or not, marred by that juxtaposition of timing.1

Many felt this issue played a substantial role in his being delayed selection to the Hall of Fame during his first six years of eligibility. While conclusive evidence never surfaced that Bagwell used steroids, his reputation seemed to rest with the concept of inductive reasoning expressed by the old phrase, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” His election to the Hall in 2017 went a long way toward dissipating the cloud over his reputation.

Jeffery Robert Bagwell was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 27, 1968, the only child of Robert and Janice Bagwell. Baseball entered his life early: His father had pitched in college at Northwestern University and subsequently on a semiprofessional basis.2 Janice, who eventually became a police officer, played softball into her 20s. She later recalled that Jeff “could throw a ball before he could walk. When he was six months old, we’d throw a ball to him and he would throw it back.”

Bagwell attended Xavier High School in Middletown, Connecticut, and although playing shortstop for the school, his main sport was soccer. Soccer notwithstanding, he received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Hartford and came under the tutelage of coach Bill Denehy. Denehy, a former major league pitcher, soon realized Bagwell’s potential, converting him into a third baseman that quickly became a team star.3

While Bagwell performed well for Hartford, he thought major league scouts noticed his playing summer ball. He recalled, “I got my chance in the Cape Cod League. … A lot of players from the best programs in the summer came to play there. Albert Belle was playing there. Frank Thomas. I only hit about .205 that year, but I looked at those guys and decided I could play with them.” Next year he hit over .300, and Boston selected him in the fourth round of the 1989 amateur draft.4

Assigned to the Class A Winter Haven Red Sox in the Florida State League he batted .310, exhibiting little of his eventual power, collecting just two home runs. His performance still earned him promotion to New Britain, the Red Sox Class AA team in the Eastern League. There Bagwell hit .333 to win the batting title and was named the league’s MVP. Again, he generated little power with only four home runs on the year.

As the season ended, word came out of Boston on August 30, 1990, that the 22-year-old Bagwell had been traded to the Houston Astros for Larry Andersen, a 37-year-old relief pitcher. It was then and still is, considered one of the worst trades in baseball history. Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman, who received the bulk of criticism for this transaction, spent many of his ensuing years explaining his reasons for trading Bagwell.

In a tight pennant race as the 1990 season entered its final month, Boston needed bullpen help badly after their best reliever Jeff Reardon was lost for several weeks due to surgery. Andersen looked like the best potential available help, but Houston wanted a minor league prospect in return.

Bagwell had shown potential at third, but he was at the end of the queue for the position in Red Sox system. Gorman felt he could fill a yawning hole for Boston to “win now” without much sacrifice.5 Years later, Bagwell commented on the trade from his perspective. ”The Red Sox were in a pennant race. They needed help. I was third on their chart at third base. They had Wade Boggs. They had Scott Cooper at Pawtucket. You look at that, and you look at their situation—they bring in free agents all the time.”

At the time, the trade devastated Bagwell: ”I was one of the saddest guys you’ll ever see. All my life everything had been Boston. I was born in Boston. My father was from Watertown; my mother was from Newton, both outside Boston. … our house was one of those places where you couldn’t mention the word Yankees. … Every weekend the television would be tuned to … [t]he Red Sox. No other games. My grandmother Alice Hare, she’s 81 years old, she still lives in Newton, and she can tell you anything … about the Red Sox. I called her to tell her the news. She started crying.”6

Andersen pitched well the last month of the season. In 15 games he posted a 1.23 ERA helping Boston to secure a division championship. As a free agent during the winter, he eventually signed with the San Diego Padres. Those 15 games do not begin to match against Bagwell’s spectacular career with Houston.7

Although he no longer had to compete against Cooper or Boggs, Bagwell still had to contend with Ken Caminiti, well entrenched at third for the Astros. Bagwell came to spring training expecting to be assigned to Houston’s farm club in Tucson. But his play so impressed the Astros that two weeks before the season opener, Houston decided to bring him to the majors—as a first baseman. Bagwell went through a crash course learning how to play the position. In the time remaining until Opening Day he manned first in minor league games during the morning and for the Astros in the afternoon. The Sporting News put it succinctly: “Rookie Jeff Bagwell never played first base before this spring, but the position is his to lose. It’s up to his bat.”8

But that put him in a tenuous position, because Bagwell started slowly, hitting just .100 early in the season. But when he came up to bat in a tie game against the Braves, his first major league home run won the game. The next day he homered again. By the end of April his average had improved to a more respectable .254. And he continued to hit well, finishing the year at .294 with 15 home runs and 82 RBIs, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in a romp with23 of the 24 first place votes.9

Bagwell’s power numbers surprised baseball observers. During his two Double A minor league seasons, he hit six home runs in 932 at bats—or one for every 155 at bats. His 15 home runs for Houston came at the rate of one every 36.9 at bats. Bagwell’s home run total was all the more impressive for having been amassed in the cavernous Astrodome. He also exhibited unique plate discipline for a rookie, gathering 75 walks, 10th in the league. This contributed to a .387 OBP, fifth in the league. Both his power and patience at the plate would improve over the years, each becoming a signature part of his game.

Houston finished last in the NL West in 1991 at 65-97, tying a franchise record for futility. Since winning the division championship in 1986, they had descended into consistent mediocrity. In place of such departed luminaries as Jose Cruz, Glenn Davis and Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio and Bagwell were coming on board. And they would anchor a team that made the 1990s the most successful decade in Houston’s franchise history.

While the season had not been successful for Houston, Bagwell immediately sensed a key difference from the minor leagues. ”I’ll tell you what made the greatest impression on me during the whole year. We were in Atlanta when the Braves clinched the pennant. We’d played them early in the season, and maybe 10,000 people were at the game . . . at the end of the season, the place was filled every night. All these people were singing and cheering, celebrating. It made you think. You play in the minor leagues and it’s all individual, really. . . . everybody is always looking up, trying to figure where he’s going to go next.” In “major league baseball [, t]he individual didn’t matter. Winning mattered. I watched the Braves, and everything came into focus for me: This is what I want for us.”10

Bagwell successfully avoided the sophomore jinx in 1992. Playing in all 162 scheduled games, his home run total increased to 18.While his average dipped to .273, a careful review of his performance indicated a more disciplined hitter. Strikeouts decreased from 116 to 97 and walks increased to 84, seventh in the league. Part of Bagwell’s success may well have involved his unique batting stance.

Numerous unusual batting styles pepper baseball’s history. Mel Ott’s lifting his right leg, a “foot-in-the-bucket” stance as he began his swing or Stan Musial’s “peeking around the corner” approach come distinctly to mind.11 Bagwell’s was equally unique. It has been described as a “crouching-tiger, hidden dragon” batting stance or more indelicately, “like he is sitting on the john.” He stood in the batter’s box with his legs spread wider than his shoulders in an exaggerated crouch.12With his bottom hand over the knob of the bat, he lifted his left foot a few inches and unleashed a forceful uppercut swing. “That wide stance keeps him from over striding,” Joe Torre observed, “which can be your biggest problem when you’re trying to hit for power.” Despite his odd stance, Bagwell still hit with authority.13 And as unorthodox as his stance appeared, it served another purpose, minimizing Bagwell’s strike zone, a factor in his ability to coax a walk.

His unique stance caused Bagwell repeated injuries three consecutive seasons beginning in 1993. That year he began to come into his own. Batting .320 with 20 home runs and 88 RBIs in mid-September, Bagwell broke his hand on a pitch from the Phils’ Ben Rivera. His next two seasons ended prematurely for the same reason. An examination of his swing indicated Bagwell’s hands dipped into the strike zone making them vulnerable to injury. After his third broken hand in 1995, he began wearing a protective pad over his batting glove.14

While the season ended early for Bagwell, it marked Houston’s steady improvement. After having finished last in 1991, the Astros progressed to fourth in 1992 and third in 1993. Bagwell as well as players like Craig Biggio, Caminiti, and Luis Gonzalez were improving. Pitcher Daryl Kile blossomed in 1993 going 15-8. In the strike-shortened 1994 season, both Bagwell and the Astros improved markedly.

In just 400 at bats, Bagwell scored 104 runs and drove in a league-leading116.He hit .368, second behind Tony Gwynn’s .394, but what really caught everyone’s breath was his .750 slugging percentage. At the time it ranked seventh highest all-time in a season, second best in the NL, just behind Rogers Hornsby’s .756 in 1925. On June 24, he hit three home runs in a game against the Dodgers, two coming in the sixth inning. Indeed, between May 16 and July 24 Bagwell hit two or more home runs in a game five times. “Crazy stuff happened that year,” Bagwell recalled. “Every pitch that I was looking for, I got. And when I got it, I didn’t miss it. It was ridiculous.”15Lost amidst Bagwell’s hitting exploits was his receiving the NL Gold Glove Award at first base, a testament to his well-rounded abilities.

Unfortunately, the 1994 season ended when players went on strike in mid-August due to acrimonious disputes with team owners over several issues. Houston trailed Cincinnati by half a game when the strike took effect. Whether the Astros could have continued to hold their own in the race was problematic though. Because the day before the strike commenced, Bagwell was hit by a pitch from San Diego’s Andy Benes that broke the fourth metacarpal on his left hand, the same bone he broke a year earlier. “I can’t believe this happened to me two years in a row” he said after X-rays confirmed he would be out several weeks—essentially until the end of the season.16 But a day later the season ended anyway. Paradoxically, timing of the strike benefitted Bagwell in ways unforeseen at the time.

Despite the truncated season, players were still selected to receive individual awards. The BBWAA unanimously choose Bagwell as the National League’s MVP. He was only the 11th player and fourth National Leaguer to win every writer’s first place votes. “It’s very flattering. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine.”17

Strong conjecture had it that if the season had continued with Bagwell sidelined the award might have gone elsewhere. Matt Williams of the San Francisco Giants who finished second in the MVP voting had 43 home runs when the strike started and on a pace to hit over 60. With the Giants in the thick of the pennant race he could well have supplanted Bagwell in the voting. Bagwell did win the award however, the first and only Astro through 2014 to do so. Despite his spectacular year however, Bagwell’s achievement is always less lustrous because it happened in the “strike shortened season.”

Once play resumed in 1995, Houston was expected to contend as they had in 1994. Bagwell and Biggio began dominating the Astros’ offense, and within a year they gained nickname, “The Killer B’s.” Over the years other “B’s”—Derek Bell, Carlos Beltran, and Lance Berkman—came to prominence, but Bagwell and Biggio remained constants.

The team performed well; on July 30 they were just 3½ games behind the Reds when Bagwell was hit on his left hand by San Diego’s Brian Williams, taking him out of the lineup for several weeks. “I was getting it X-rayed and I was moving it pretty good,” said a frustrated Bagwell. “I thought, O.K. it’s probably going to be O.K. That’s the same thing I said last year, and that’s the same result. I don’t know whether to change my stance. I’ve taken all the precautions.”18 Of the pennant race, he noted: “I can’t tell you how sad I am about this right now because . . .we’re playing great baseball. We’ve still got a great team and everything, but I know my production was helping, at least.”19 From then on a special pad protected Bagwell’s batting glove, and he never suffered this injury again.

Bagwell proved prescient. The team had gone 9-21 in his absence and was 13½ games behind the Reds, well out of the race. He had started the season slowly, hitting just .183 at the end of May, but in the next two months he had improved to .283 and was on a batting spree. Bagwell finished at .290 with 21 home runs. A fall off from 1994, but he would more than make up for it the next several seasons as his and the Astros’ potential came to full fruition.

Bagwell undertook a rigorous training program after the 1995 season. He gained 20 pounds and enhanced his endurance for the rigors of grueling seasons by a concentrated period of weight lifting, change of diet, plus the use of creatine and androstenedione.20 In later years those entering the Astro’s gym were welcomed by a banner reading, “Bagwell’s Gym. Work Hard. Play Hard. Or Leave,” a testament to his intense work ethic. “It’s pretty impressive when you watch a guy like him,” observed Geoff Blum, a later teammate. He “knows what he has to do, and he puts his mind to it and he does it.”21While successful in the short term, Bagwell later came to feel his regimen shortened his career, that his muscular buildup contributed greatly to shoulder problems forcing his retirement in 2005 at age 37.22

By the start of 1996, Bagwell was one of the senior members on the Astros if not by age then by tenure. He had become a forceful influence on how Houston prepared for games, i.e., with maximum effort and players held accountable for their actions. Discipline fostered camaraderie, and Bagwell made sure everyone on the team was part of the team.23 His and Biggio’s leadership propelled the Astros to new levels of play.

His workout regimen generated tremendous results. The 1996 season began a run of performances that established Bagwell’s reputation as one of the most dominant players of his era. That year he batted .315, hit 31 home runs, drove in 120 runs, and led the league with 48 doubles. It was the first of six consecutive seasons where Bagwell scored and drove in at least 100 runs, averaging 128 runs scored and 126 RBIs per year during this stretch.

Some of the numbers he put up were spectacular. In 1999 Bagwell drew 149 walks (including a major league record six in one game), at the time the third highest single season total in the National League. Twice that year he hit three home runs in one game. The following year he launched a career-high 47 homers and scored 152 runs, fourth highest in the NL since 1900.

Bagwell had become a complete ballplayer. In 1997 he stole 31 bases and hit 43 home runs. In 1999, 30 stolen bases and 42 homers. One of only 13 major league players to have accomplished 30 home runs and steals in a season more than once, Bagwell and Joe Carter remain the only first basemen to reach the 30-30 club through 2014.While Bagwell was at the peak of his career Houston took division championships in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001, the best run in franchise history. Of the 13 games played in the four post-season series however, Houston managed but a single 5-4 victory over San Diego in 1998. Unfortunately, in the other three series Houston confronted the Atlanta Braves and their buzz-saw starting rotation of Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz. Bagwell’s performance in these series was equally dismal, just .174 with no extra base hits and just four RBIs.

In 2002 and 2003 both Bagwell and his team declined. Houston finished second both years but failed to make postseason competition. Bagwell’s run of 100 RBI seasons ended with 98 in 2002. He achieved an even hundred RBIs in 2003, but his peak-year production had waned. His slugging averages dipped into the low .500s, well below what had become customary for him. Still a strong hitter, at 35 years old he no longer dominated as he once had.

Beginning in 2001 pain began flaring in his left shoulder. He underwent surgery in the offseason to extract bone spurs and restore a torn labrum.24 Eventually he developed arthritis in the other shoulder, an affliction that worsened over time.25 By 2004, his career entered the twilight: Bagwell’s average fell to .266 with “only” 27 home runs and 89 RBIs. His defense suffered too. The first baseman who could whip a ball to third on bunts eventually got to the point where he had trouble merely throwing to infielders between innings.26 Ironically, he had the best post-season of his career in a seven game series that St. Louis ultimately won. Bagwell hit .318 with two home runs, the second helping break open the fifth game.

As the 2005 season began, Bagwell played through April until the pain in his right shoulder became intolerable. On May 4, after going 0-5 in a loss to Pittsburgh he was hitting just .250 with only 3 home runs in 88 at bats. The next day he asked Astros’ manager Phil Garner to be pulled from the lineup. “I couldn’t hit, I couldn’t throw, if I played, I’d just be hurting the team.”27 By September, following shoulder surgery, he was well enough to join an Astros team contending for a wild card spot in the standings. Playing exclusively as a pinch hitter he drove in his last major league run on a ground out against the Cubs, providing an insurance run in a critical 3-1 win. For Houston’s win that day and the next allowed them to finish one game ahead of the Phillies for the wild card position.

The Astros finally beat their longtime nemesis Atlanta Braves to win the Division Series then defeated the Cardinals to win the NL pennant. But the Chicago White Sox swept them in four straight games in the World Series. Bagwell went 1 for 8 as a DH and pinch hitter, just one of many Astros stymied by Chicago’s pitching in a closely played series. Bagwell’s ground out as a pinch hitter in the fourth game proved his last major league appearance.

Bagwell went to spring training in 2006 to see if he could still contribute on the field. But legal issues, specifically who was going to pay Bagwell’s estimated $15.6 million salary for the year, muted Houston’s welcome. The situation was awkward. The Astros had obtained a disability insurance policy on Bagwell when he had signed a multi-year contract in 2001. And at this point the team essentially had to prove that Bagwell became disabled between the end of 2005 and January 31, 2006, when the policy expired. So Bagwell’s appearance in camp threw Houston’s claim that he was disabled into question. Amid the legal maneuvering, it was revealed that a physical examination of Bagwell in January 2006 concluded he could only throw a ball 35 mph, and then only for short distances.28 Based on that assessment, the attending physician declared Bagwell totally disabled.29

Bagwell appeared in a few practice games but had to quit several when his shoulder became too sore to continue. He was hitting just .219, but the major obstacle to continued play remained his arm. He simply could not throw a ball to meet major league standards. The chances of additional surgery succeeding were minimal. The conclusion was obvious.

Bagwell had given it all to come back. “You have to do everything you can to try and play. If not you’ll be kicking yourself.” Houston placed him on the DL, and Bagwell recognized the reality: “I may never play again.”30 He was right. A few months after the 2006 season ended, he officially retired from the game.31 “[I]t’s been a great ride,” he said. “I wish I could still play and try to win a World Series here in Houston but I’m not physically able to do that anymore. I’m OK with that.”32

Bagwell’s lifetime stats are impressive: .297 batting average, 449 home runs, 1,529 RBIs, 79.6 WAR, and .948 OPS. But there was more to Bagwell than robust numbers. He was a role model in the clubhouse, a “consummate professional” who, along with Biggio set the bar for how an Astro approached the game. Houston’s best years remain the heart of the “Killer B” years (1996-2001) during which the Astros won four of six division championships, the finest years of the franchise.

The Astros wanted Bagwell to stay connected with the organization and so signed him to a personal services contract through 2009, mostly to spend time working in player development. Bagwell’s post playing career has been largely low key and private. Although he has had intermittent assignments with the team, Bagwell’s aversion to travel and devotion to his family have been his guiding principles.

He did not totally avoid the limelight however. On June 28, 2007, his longtime teammate and friend Craig Biggio singled against the Colorado Rockies to get his 3,000 hit. Biggio’s family joined him on the field, and he insisted Bagwell come out to be with him as well. It was Bagwell’s first appearance before Houston’s fans since he retired.33 A few months later Houston retired his Number 5 before Bagwell, his family, and more than 42,000 onlookers.

In mid-season 2010, the Astros asked Bagwell to become their batting coach. Last in hitting, the team hoped his expertise and rapport with players could improve their output. Their hitting did improve over what remained of the season, but Bagwell, citing family obligations, turned down a proffered two-year contract to continue the job. “My decision came down to the times that these coaches put in, the effort they put in, and my family.”34 He returned to his personal services agreement occasionally spending time with the club, usually in spring training helping younger players.

In 2011 Bagwell became eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame. More than anything else this has kept his name in the media and before fans over the years. The first year he was eligible he received 41.7 percent of the writer’s votes for induction. Every year since he consistently received over 50 percent of the vote with a high of 59.6 in the 2013 election.

Whether he deserved induction was a controversial subject over the years. Several factors delayed his induction. On a few occasions, most recently in 2015, he was up against a crowded field of worthy candidates, which tended to concentrate votes on first-time eligible players.35 A second and more serious consideration is that Bagwell’s career peaked in the late 1990s coinciding with what has become known as baseball’s steroid era. One of the major side effects of this period was to cast a pall of suspicion over virtually all its players, including high performers like Bagwell.

Several aspects of Bagwell’s career prompted questions about steroid use. Ken Caminiti, one of his teammates and close friend on the Astros, publicly admitted he took steroids during his career, a fact dramatically underscored when he died of a drug overdose at the age of 41, just three years after retiring from the game. For Bagwell it suggested guilt by association.36

His physical growth led to further conjecture. The slim 185-pound minor league third baseman grew to 220 at the peak of his career. Creation of a bodybuilder’s physique and its subsequent reduction in size as a career waned was “typical” of players found to have used steroids—and another factor fueling speculation about Bagwell’s career.37

These perceptions seemed relevant because of the curve of that career. He started out with just six home runs in two minor league seasons and averaged fewer than 20 per year during his first three years in the majors. At the top of his game he had successive seasons of 31, 43, 34, 42, 47 and 39 home runs. Bagwell surged almost simultaneously with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, two sluggers whose drug use subsequently sullied their career reputations. Their and others’ accomplishments generated questions about the proliferation of home runs hit during this period. It became a centerpiece of suspicion that something might be amiss.38

These sorts of associative considerations fueled speculation that Bagwell used steroids or PEDs. He was never linked to use of drugs, however, either through the drug testing policy, various investigations, or legal actions. Bagwell consistently denied employing drugs or steroids on numerous occasions. But he has come to believe that whatever he says will not matter. In a 2009 interview, Bagwell observed that his is a no-win situation. “I know what I did; I know how hard I worked. If someone thinks I took crap because I was in that era, what am I going to do to show them I didn’t? I can’t go take a blood test now.”39

Bruce Jenkins, Senior Sports Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, acknowledges that while steroid suspicion was a factor for several voters, there is another point of consideration. “I certainly can’t speak for the bulk of national baseball writers, but I know that many are suspicious of Bagwell—without proof, as you say. I’ve always voted for the best players—Bonds, McGwire, Clemens, etc.—so that’s not a factor for me. I always found Bagwell just a bit short of Hall of Fame material. Heck of a player, I don’t mean to knock him, just my personal opinion. And I do know that some other writers feel that way, as well.”40

Because of the controversy over drugs, Bagwell increasingly showed ambivalence about getting into the Hall because even if elected, it would be an empty accomplishment. Induction into the Hall is not what defines him, “I keep telling people this and people don’t understand it. . . . Baseball does not define me as a person. It’s what I do with my kids, and as a husband, that’s going to define me. It’d be an honor, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve got other things to do in my life too.”42

Amid the discussions, Bagwell went on with his life. Twice divorced, he remarried in August 2014. He and his wife Rachel have five children in their blended family.44  He lives in the Houston area and occasionally works with the Astros, most recently spending several days with them in the spring of 2015 as a special instructor.45

Just when it seemed Bagwell would stay in a Hall of Fame netherworld, a change took place in how players were selected for induction. A rules change in voter eligibility seemed to generate greater support for his induction. Beginning with balloting in 2016, voters were required to have ten years of continuous membership in the Baseball Writers Association of America as well as be active members or been active members in the Association in the ten years prior to balloting. This had a practical effect of removing more than 100 voters from the process, many of whose careers paralleled the steroids era. The elimination of this bloc of voters seemed to signal a more tolerant perspective of players from that time frame.

It was reflected in a change of voter patterns. Mike Piazza, thrice denied induction was selected with the 2016 vote. Players suspected of steroid use such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling saw their support increase. Bagwell received 71.6 percent of the vote, missing election by 15 out of the 440 votes counted.

That trend continued for many of these players in 2017, most dramatically for Bagwell who was selected for induction receiving more than 82 percent of the votes, higher than anyone else on the ballot. He was formally inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 30, 2017 surrounded by family, friends, fans – and teammates. Most prominent of these was Craig Biggio.  

While Bagwell’s credentials were questioned for years there was never any question how his teammates viewed him. Astros pitcher Mike Hampton once called Bagwell “the ultimate teammate,” in an interview. “Bagwell and Biggio let it be known that there was an Astros way of doing things. The Bagwell and Biggio way was to demand accountability, starting with themselves. Bagwell was particularly quick to deflect credit for his success, explaining ‘that’s my job,’ and to readily accept blame—often for the failures that weren’t even his. His ability to connect with teammates knew no barriers, racial or otherwise.”46

This description, echoed by many, more than any outside voting process reflected the highest compliment a player can receive. It speaks well of a one-time skinny Red Sox prospect who indeed had “a great ride.”

Last revised: August 1, 2017

• Related link: Get your copy of SABR’s Jeff Bagwell in Connecticut: A Consistent Lad in the Land of Steady Habits, on the Hall of Fame slugger’s early years

Notes

1 The author would like to express his appreciation for Mr. Bill Francis at the Baseball Hall of Fame (HoF) who provided a copy of material from Jeff Bagwell’s HoF file for this article and to Tom Schott for his editorial skills in improving this piece.

2 Bill Ryan, “Sergeant, Mom, Her Dream is Still Fenway Park”, Bill Ryan, New York Times, August 28, 1994, A1.

3 Ibid.

4 Leigh Montville, “Trade Deficit Jeff Bagwell Has Proved by Trading him to the Astros, the Red Sox Made a Ruthian Blunder,” Sports Illustrated, Vol. 79, No. 4, July 26, 1993: 44-48.

5 Lou Gorman, One Pitch From Glory: One Decade of Running the Red Sox, (Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2005), 137-39.

6 Montville, “Trade Deficit Jeff Bagwell.”

7 See, for example, “The List: Readers Pick Most Lopsided Trades,” http://espn.go.com/page2/s/readers/worstdeals.html

8 “Rolling the Dice,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1991, 10.

9 Pittsburgh first baseman Orlando Merced received the other first place vote.

10 Montville, “Trade Deficit Jeff Bagwell.”

11 See Alfred M. Martin, Mel Ott, The Gentle Giant, (Lanham MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003), 23-25, and James M. Giglio,Musial: From Stash to Stan The Man, (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2001), xi.

12 Steve Campbell, “Jeff Bagwell knows he did things the right way in a Cooperstown-worthy career. But if the Hall doesn’t call the former Killer B? ‘I’m good’ he says,” Houston Chronicle clipping, July 28, 2009. Bagwell’s HoF file; Tom Verducci, “One of a Kind – A self made slugger with a screwy stance,” Sports Illustrated, Vol. 91, No. 3, July 19, 1999: 56-61.

13 Tim Windal, “The Swing is the Thing,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, July 27-August 2, 1994, 36.

14Verducci, “One of a Kind.”

15 Ibid.

16“Benes Pitch Breaks Bagwell’s Hand,” The Washington Post, August 11, 1994, D4.

17 Robert Mcg. Thomas Jr., “Bagwell’s Latest Stat: All the M.V.P. Votes, New York Times, October 28, 1994, B13.

18 Murray Chass, “Different Departures for Bagwell and Kruk,” ibid., July 31, 1995, C3.

19 “Astros Lose Games but lose Bagwell,” The Washington Post, July 31, 1995, B7.

20Verducci, “One of a Kind.”

21 Jose De Jesus Ortiz, “Bagwell turns to weight room to regain shoulder strength,” Houston Chronicle, November 26, 2002.Bagwell’s HoF file.

22 Jerry Crasnick, “Jeff Bagwell Tires of Steroid Talk,” ESPN.com, December 29, 2010,http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hof11/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=5963276.

23 See, for example, Campbell’s “Jeff Bagwell knows he did things the right way in a Cooperstown-worthy career. But if the Hall doesn’t call the former Killer B?” and John Smith, “Stats alone no measure of this man,” Houston Chronicle, December 16, 2006, sports section, 1.

24 Ortiz, “Bagwell turns to weight room.”

25 Richard Justice, “Bagwell reaches limit of pain,” Houston Chronicle clipping, May 10, 2005, from Bagwell’s HoF file.

26 ESPN.com News Service, “Bagwell acknowledges he might ever play again,” March 26, 2006.

27 Richard Justice, “Bagwell reaches limit of pain,” Houston Chronicle clipping, May 10, 2005, Bagwell’s HoF file.

28 Jose De Jesus Ortiz, “Bagwell insurance claim denied,” Houston Chronicle clipping, March 28, 2006 from Bagwell’s HoF file.

29 The Houston Astros and Connecticut General would eventually settle the matter in a confidential agreement in December 2006. See Brian McTaggart, “Insurance Settlement Reached,” Houston Chronicle, December 2006, from Bagwell’s HoF file.

30 Jason Stark, “Bagwell acknowledges he might never play again.’” ESPN.com News Service, March 26, 2006.

31 A private settlement was reached on the Astro’s insurance claim in December 2006. Alyson Footer, “Report: Astros settle insurance claim,” MLB.com, December 15, 2006.

32 Brian McTaggart, “Bagwell retires, remembers ‘great ride,’” Houston Chronicle clipping, December 2006,Bagwell’s HoF file.

33 “Biggio Gets His 3,000 Hit in Houston,” New York Times, June 29, 2007, D4.

34 Zachary Levine, “Bagwell cites family reasons,” Houston Chronicle clipping, October 28, 2010, Bagwell’s HoF file.

35The 2015 HoF selectees were: Bagwell’s teammate Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz.

36 See for example Asher B. Chancey, “The Bagwell Conspiracy,”http://baseballevolution.com/asher/bagwellconspiracy.html or Harold Friend, “Jeff Bagwell is Guilty Until Proven Innocent,” April 20, 2012,http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1153441-jeff-bagwell-is-guilty-until-proved-innocent-of-steroid-use or Adam Spolane, “If Frank Thomas is a Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell Should Be Too, January 8, 2014,http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/01/08/if-frank-thomas-is-a-hall-of-famer-jeff-bagwell-should-be-too/ for several online articles concerning Bagwell and Caminiti.

37 See http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/01/08/if-frank-thomas-is-a-hall-of-famer-jeff-bagwell-should-be-too/ and Richard Justice, “Steroids? Not me, says Bagwell,” Houston Chronicle clipping, February 25, 2004,Bagwell’sHoF file.

38 One measure of this phenomenon: In the 1980s, just 13 major leaguers hit 40 or more home runs in a season. In the 1990s, 71 players did it, and more than 60 homers in a season happened four times. During the previous 90-plus years only Babe Ruth (in 1927) and Maris (in 1961) achieved this mark.

39 Steve Campbell, ‘B’ all, end Hall?” Houston Chronicle, July 28, 2009 from Bagwell’s HoF file.

40 Email, Bruce Jenkins to author, July 19, 2015.

41 For a dissenting view to Jenkins’, see Dayn Perry, “Hall of Fame candidate breakdown: Jeff Bagwell,” August 27, 2015, http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24906915/hall-of-fame-candidate-breakdown-jeff-bagwell.

42 Ted Berg, “New Astros instructor Jeff Bagwell on his Hall of Fame case: “I don’t expect to get in,” USA Sports Today, March 10, 2015, http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/03/jeff-bagwell-houston-astros-hall-of-fame-spring-training-instructor-mlb.

43 Jerry Crasnick, “Jeff Bagwell Tires of Steroid Talk,” ESPN.com, December 29, 2010.http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hof11/columns/story?id=5963276

44 The author wishes to thank Bob Dorrill of the SABR Houston/Larry Dierker Chapter for information on Bagwell’s post-career life.

45Evan Drellich, “Jeff Bagwell takes small step back into baseball with the Astros,” March 10, 2015,   http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2015/03/10/jeff-bagwell-takes-small-step-back-into-baseball-with-astros/#30721101=0

46 Steve Campbell, ‘B’ all, end Hall?” For others’ views on Bagwell, see Richard Justice, “Astros retire Bagwell’s No. 5,”Houston Chronicle, August 26, 2007, and Tom Haudricourt, “Biggio, Bagwell finally there,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 20, 2005.

When the curtain rang down on the 1969 season, Ernie Banks was just three home runs shy of 500. But the Chicago Cubs first baseman was not one to dwell on personal achievements. He was probably preoccupied with the disappointing year enjoyed by his team; 1969 was the closest he or many of his teammates had come to a post-season. But Banks was a glass-half-full type of person. Blue skies and better days were ahead.

As the 1970 season commenced, Banks was assigned an unfamiliar role — serving as a backup to Jim Hickman at first base. His at-bats would be less frequent, and accordingly so were his home runs. Banks’ daughter Jan asked him to please “get it over with.” On May 12, 1970, Banks was only too happy to oblige. Facing Atlanta’s Pat Jarvis in the second inning, he deposited the 1–1 offering into the left field bleachers. Because of dark clouds and threatening skies, the crowd was sparse at Wrigley Field. But the 5,264 in attendance cheered loudly, demanding a curtain call from Mr. Cub. They knew full well the significance of the clout; Ernie Banks was the ninth player in major league history to reach 500 home runs.

“The pitch was inside and up,” Banks said. “They’ve been pitching me inside lately, because I haven’t been getting around on the ball.”2 As Banks rounded the bases, and doffed his cap at home plate in acknowledgment of the cheering fans, many thoughts went through his head. “I was thinking about my mother and dad, about all the people in the Cubs’ organization that helped me and about the wonderful Chicago fans who have come out all these years to cheer us on,” Banks said. “You know, I felt it was the fans last Saturday who helped me hit that number 499 homer and today my number 500. They’ve been a great inspiration to me.”3

The Cubs won the game 4–3 on a single by Ron Santo in the bottom of the eleventh. The win kept Chicago atop the National League’s Eastern Division. Billy Williams, who also homered in the game, later said that there was no way the Cubs were going to lose and spoil Banks’ day. As the celebration carried on in the clubhouse, Banks leapt onto a chair and said “The riches of the game are in the thrills, not in the money.”4 For many, a statement like that might come across as lip service. But coming from Ernie Banks, those words rang truer then the Bell Tower at the Merchandise Mart.

Ernest Banks was born on January 31, 1931, in Dallas, Texas. He was the second oldest of Eddie and Essie Banks’ 12 children. Following World War I, Eddie Banks joined the Dallas Black Giants. The Black Giants were a traveling team, and for eight seasons, Eddie played catcher. Their schedule took them to Kansas City, Shreveport, Oklahoma City, and many other cities across the country. When his playing days were over, Eddie worked as a chain store warehouse porter for 25 years.

When Ernie was eight, Eddie presented him with his first glove and ball. Eddie would come home from work, wanting to play catch with his son. “I wouldn’t have anything to do with them,” said Ernie. “So dad gave me 10 cents to play catch with him. From then on, whenever he wanted to play catch, he’d bribe me with nickels and dimes.”5

“The bat came later, and that almost wrecked everything,” says Eddie Banks. “Drives off Ernie’s bat broke so many windows in the neighborhood that we were always in trouble. He smashed so many windows that I was almost broke trying to pay for them.”6

Ernie Banks attended Booker T. Washington High school. He excelled in football and basketball, but the school did not offer baseball as an extra-curricular activity. As a substitute, Ernie played softball. Like many children finding their way, he was introverted and shy. “I thought talking to human beings was just something that could make things complicated and unpleasant. So I didn’t talk much. I just watched people.”7 

Bill Blair, a graduate of Washington High School, spotted Banks’ ability on the softball field. In Blair’s opinion, if Banks could excel at softball, it was not that big of a big leap to do just as well in baseball. Although Banks was only a sophomore, Blair appealed to his parents to allow their son to try out for a traveling team based in Amarillo, Texas. Johnny Carter, owner of the misleadingly-named Detroit Colts — a feeder for professional Negro Leagues teams — visited the Banks household, promising that Ernie would return for his junior year of high school.

The year was 1947, and Jackie Robinson had just broken into the major leagues a couple of months earlier. But the realization of others joining him any time soon was just a dream. “I didn’t understand anything about playing baseball,” said Banks. “I started playing and it was enjoyable. Most of my life I played with older people on my team, in my league. I learned a lot about life. Every day in my life I learned something new from somebody.”8 Many of the players he faced were in their thirties, or even forties, and had much more experience in baseball — and life. 

The Colts traveled through Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. For a teenager, such an adventure certainly beat getting up early with his father to pick cotton, shine shoes, or do any of the other menial jobs Banks had held back in Dallas. His performance on the field was superb, and he won the shortstop job after just a few days of training. The youngster who was skeptical about playing baseball homered in his third at-bat of his first game.

Banks returned to the Colts following his junior year of high school. Playing against the Kansas City Stars, Banks impressed Stars manager “Cool Papa” Bell both with his unruffled behavior off the field and his ability on the diamond. “His conduct was almost as outstanding as his ability,” said Bell.9

Bell promised Banks a spot with the Kansas City Monarchs if he completed his senior year of high school. Bell had already recommended Banks to Buck O’Neil, the Monarchs skipper, who was already happy with his current shortstop, Gene Baker. But on March 8, 1950, the Chicago Cubs signed Baker to be their first black player. Even though Baker was good enough to play in the majors, his talent did not approach Ernie’s.

The Monarchs offered Banks $300 a month, and Eddie and Essie Banks gave their assent. For Ernie Banks, a new life opened up. He was fortunate to join an organization with a history of success in the Negro Leagues. Kansas City was a pillar of black baseball. “‘Cool Papa’ Bell was the first one who impressed me. Buck O’Neil helped me in many ways. He installed a positive influence,” Banks later noted.10

In 1950, Banks’ first season with the Monarchs, he played shortstop and hit a reported .255. “Playing for the Kansas City Monarchs was like my school, my learning, my world,” said Banks. “It was my whole life.”11 As great as an education he may have received as a member of the Monarchs, his greatest thrill to date was just ahead. He was offered the opportunity to barnstorm with the “Jackie Robinson All-Stars,” which also included Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Larry Doby, who were touring with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League. Banks made $400 for the tour and, more importantly, received lessons from Robinson on turning the double play.

Banks was then drafted into the United States Army, reporting to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. His battalion reported to New Orleans in early 1952 and traveled by boat to Germany, where Banks served the rest of his two-year hitch. He was discharged in January 1953.

Although Brooklyn and Cleveland contacted Banks to attend tryouts, the young shortstop made a beeline back to Kansas City. By this time, many blacks had turned their attention away from the Negro Leagues and toward the majors. As more black players left the Negro Leagues, interest waned and attendance dropped. Buck O’Neil knew it was only a matter of time before his prized player would also leave.

In September 1953, the Chicago Cubs offered the Kansas City Monarchs $20,000 for the rights to Banks and pitcher Bill Dickey. Banks, who signed a contract for $800 a month,12 debuted in the majors on September 17, 1953. Gene Baker, called up from Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League, played his first game three days later. “They knew we were going to bring Baker to the Cubs, and they knew he’d need a roommate,” said Lennie Merullo, a former Cubs infielder then working as the club’s chief scout. “One reason they signed Banks was so that Baker would have a roommate. That’s true. You couldn’t isolate a guy.”13

The Cubs were not paying $20,000 just for a roommate. Ernie did not spend a day in the minors, reporting directly to Cubs manager Phil Cavarretta. Banks played the last 10 games of the 1953 season and didn’t sit again until August 11, 1956, by which time he had played 424 straight games. In 1955, Banks’ second full season in Chicago, he stepped in the national spotlight. He was ranked third in home runs (44) and fourth in RBI (117) and hit .295. Banks also led all shortstops with a .972 fielding percentage.

He appeared in his first All-Star Game in 1955, the first of 14 midsummer classic berths for Banks. That season, he set a major league record with five grand slam home runs. The last one came in St. Louis on September 19. “Naturally, I knew I needed another one to break the record, but I never dreamed it would happen to me,” said Banks. “Then the kid [St. Louis pitcher Lindy McDaniel] gave me a fastball that was a bit outside, and I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it. It was one of the best pitches I‘ve hit all season, but it’s still hard to believe.”14

“Of course, Ernie Banks was a good hitter, even at the beginning,” said Ralph Kiner, a pretty fair hitter in his own right. “I liked watching him. He would lightly rap his fingers on the bat; he looked like he was playing the flute.”15 Banks played a full-blown symphony in both 1958 and 1959, when he was twice honored by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) as the National League’s MVP. The Sporting News also named Banks its N.L. Player of the Year for both seasons. In 1958, he topped the NL in home runs, RBIs, and slugging percentage, and the following year topped the league in RBIs and ranked second in homers. He also led all shortstops with a .985 fielding percentage and committed only 12 errors. Both of these statistics set major league records for shortstops.16

“Ernie Banks was a super guy. My kids loved him. Could he ever hit! He had just had back-to back MVP seasons despite playing for a bad ballclub. He had his fourth straight year with over 40 homers and way over 100 RBIs,” said his 1960s teammate Frank Thomas.17

“I don’t try to hit home runs. I just try to meet the ball and get base hits,” Mr. Cub noted. “I’m swingin’ at better pitches than I did in previous years. I’m not letting those strikes get by. I try to stay ready to hit the fastball. If I’m fooled by the pitch, I take it. I protect myself when the ball is outside and concentrate on hitting strikes.”18 Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts noted, however, that Banks was never the most patient hitter: “He doesn’t take many bad pitches; he swings at them.”19

In 1960, Banks again paced the NL in home runs with 41. He also knocked in 117 and led the league again in fielding percentage, winning his only Gold Glove. Ron Santo joined the club in mid-year and added some power and offense to the lineup. The following season, Billy Williams won Rookie of the Year honors from both The Sporting News and the BBWAA, forming with Santo and Banks a three-headed monster. “My second year I hit behind Banks, and he hit 29 home runs, and I spent about 29 times in the dirt,” said Santo. “I used to say to him, ‘You’re hitting the home runs. Why am I spending time in the dirt?’ He just laughed. That’s the way it was then. You accepted it. You didn’t think twice about it. This was all respect.”20

For 1961, Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley designed a plan under which the Cubs would operate without a manager “as that position is generally understood.” An eight-man staff, augmented by other coaches from the organization, would take turns directing the major-league team and rotating through the minor-league system. This unique and radical idea was called the “College of Coaches.” This approach, which Wrigley called “business efficiency applied to baseball,” was questioned by most and ridiculed by many.

Early in 1961, then-head coach Vedie Himsl asked Banks if he would mind moving to the outfield. Banks had never played the outfield, but he always put the good of the team first, and agreed so that the Cubs could promote Jerry Kindall, a bonus baby signing from 1956.

Banks was a fish out of water in left field, but Chicago center fielder Richie Ashburn helped give him direction. Banks made 23 starts in left field from May 23 through June 14 and also put in a few games at first base before returning to shortstop. His consecutive game streak of 717 ended on June 23 because of his ailing knee; he had banged his left knee on the brick wall at Candlestick Park and was moved back to shortstop. The knee, originally injured in the Army, continued to give him trouble.

Ernie returned to first base in 1962. Kindall was traded to Cleveland and André Rodgers was inserted as the starter at shortstop. “This presents many problems,” said Banks. “Not the least of them is what to do with my feet. Sometimes I seem to have too many and sometimes not enough. I took a whirl at first base last year and I knew even less about it than I do now.”21

On May 25, 1962, Cincinnati’s Moe Drabowsky — a former teammate — plunked Banks in the head with a pitch. Although he did not lose consciousness, Banks was dazed and was sent to the hospital for observation for a couple of days. Two days later after being released, Banks hit three consecutive home runs against Milwaukee at Wrigley Field.

Banks’ offense began to suffer, as he hit 37 home runs and drove in 104 runs in 1962 but slumped in other categories. Although Buck O’Neil, who was scouting for the Cubs, soon joined the staff and was the first black coach in the majors, Wrigley’s “College of Coaches” concept was otherwise a failure. Bob Kennedy, a former major league outfielder, was named the lone head coach in 1963, but over the next three years, he had to deal with a dozen or so revolving coaches.

Banks slumped badly in 1963. He suffered most of the season from sub-clinical mumps, in which the disease remains in the blood without breaking out, and was sidelined for the last three weeks. He also missed games because of a sore right knee and a heel bruise. He did set a major league record with 22 putouts at first base on May 9, 1963, as Dick Ellsworth topped Pittsburgh 3–1 on two hits.

The Cubs improved some in that season, but promising second baseman Ken Hubbs — the 1962 Rookie of the Year — died February 15, 1964, when he crashed a small plane into an ice-covered section of Utah Lake. He was 22 years old.

To make things worse, on June 15, 1964, the Cubs shipped outfielder Lou Brock to St. Louis in a six-player deal. In sixth place but only 5½ games off the pace, the Cubs were trying to bolster their pitching corps, but Ernie Broglio, the centerpiece of the deal, had a bad arm and was out of baseball two years later. The Cardinals used Brock differently than had the Cubs, utilizing his speed. He became the all-time leader in stolen bases, running all the way to Cooperstown.

The Chicago front office hired Leo Durocher to take the helm for 1966. “The Lip” had piloted three other clubs to pennants and captured a world championship in 1954 with the New York Giants. His clubs finished either second or third nine other times. Most felt that Durocher’s rough-and-ready style was just what the Cubs needed.

In his fourteenth season, Banks was sick of losing. Even for a player with a sunny disposition, losing can take a toll. “I am happy Leo is here. I am delighted. I think Durocher — “Leo the Lip” as they say — will shake things up. He will be able to do things that some of the others could not do. If Leo gets the Cubs going, I will be happy to play a part even if I am not here when we eventually win a pennant. Just winning and being in the first division would be great incentive for the fellows around here,” said Banks.22

Although Banks was in a good frame of mind, others painted a different picture. “He [Durocher] disliked Ernie from the go,” wrote broadcaster Jack Brickhouse. “It was just that Ernie was too big a name in Chicago to suit Durocher.”23

“I can remember Ernie and Leo were constantly feuding,” recalled Ferguson Jenkins. “Leo was always giving Ernie Banks’ job away. Every spring he’d give it away to John Boccabella or George Altman or [Willie] Smith or Lee Thomas, and Ernie would win it back again. Ernie knew that Leo did not like him. There was no ‘Come over for tea and crumpets’ with Ernie for Leo…Ernie was always going to spring training, and someone always had his job, and Ernie would always win it back.”24

Curiously, Banks was named as a “player-coach” during spring training 1967. All of the right comments were made and speculation about Banks’ playing time diminishing was dismissed. “I’m very happy about it,” said Banks. “I’m looking forward to working with the younger players. It’s all very gratifying.”25

Despite the clash between the Cubs star and the skipper, Chicago finished in third place in 1967 and 1968. Although they were a distant third behind St. Louis and San Francisco both times, this was unfamiliar terrain. Glenn Beckert at second base and Don Kessinger at short were as solid as any DP combo in the league. Randy Hundley came over from San Francisco and was a solid catcher for several seasons. The pitching staff, led by Ferguson Jenkins who would win 20 games six years in a row, was taking shape. Banks’ batting average was on the decline, but he slugged 32 homers in 1968.

The National and American Leagues split into divisions for the first time in 1969, creating a playoff system. Both leagues had an East and West Division, each with six teams. The Cubs were placed in the N.L. East. All signs pointed to Chicago ending its post-season drought in 1969 and for their fans, there was no better way to spend the summer than at Wrigley Field. Jenkins and Bill Hands both won 20 games, while Santo, Banks, and Williams combined to smack 73 round trippers and drive in 324 runs. It was also in July 1969 that the phrase “Let’s Play Two” was attributed to Banks. The Cubs were to play a game in 100-degree heat and Banks, looking to inspire his teammates, uttered the phrase. Sportswriter Jimmy Enright reported it and credited Ernie.26

At the end of August, the Cubs held a 4½-game lead over second-place New York. A two-game series at Shea Stadium in early September featured Jenkins and Hands against the Mets’ best hurlers, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. The Mets took both games to slice their deficit to a half-game. Chicago never recovered, going 8–12 the rest of the season. Conversely, the Mets went 18–5 and cruised to the division title by a margin of eight games. “I admit we played horseshit in the last few weeks,” said Durocher. “We’ve played some of the worst baseball I’ve seen in years. But that doesn’t discount the fact that the Mets played like hell. They got in a streak and couldn’t lose.”27

The Cubs made a strong bid again for the playoffs in 1970, trailing Pittsburgh by 1½ on September 19. But a 4–7 record to close the year made them bridesmaids again. For the first time, Banks was used primarily as a reserve. Even when he got the chance to play, Banks was disrespected by Durocher. Once the manager sent Jim Hickman, like Banks a right-handed batter, to pinch-hit for him against a southpaw. “Hickman told me later it was one of the toughest things he ever had to do,” said Brickhouse.28

Ernie Banks retired from major league baseball at the conclusion of the 1971 season. He was 40 years old. Over his 19-year career he hit .274, made 2,583 hits, pounded out 512 home runs and 407 doubles, and drove in 1,636 runs. He was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, his first year of eligibility. He, Cal Ripken Jr., and Honus Wagner were the shortstops on Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team in 1999.

Banks was the Cubs’ first-base coach in 1973 and 1974, remained in the Cubs organization on a personal services contract for most of the next two decades. He was named to the Cubs Board of Directors in 1978.

Banks also had his own sports marketing firm and was employed by World Van Lines for more than 20 years. He also worked for the Bank of Ravenswood in Chicago. Even when he was still playing baseball, Banks bought in to a Ford automobile dealership in 1967, becoming the second African American in the U.S. to own one. He also served on the board of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1969.

In 1982, the Cubs retired his #14. On Opening Day in 2008, the team unveiled a statue of Banks outside of Wrigley Field.

In 2013, Banks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony at the White House. It is the highest honor a United States civilian can receive. “That’s Mr. Cub — the man who came up through the Negro Leagues, making $7 a day, and became the first black player to suit up for the Cubs and one of the greatest hitters of all time,” said President Barack Obama. “In the process, Ernie became known as much for his 512 home runs as for his cheer and optimism, and his eternal faith that someday the Cubs would go all the way. That is something that even a White Sox fan like me can respect. He is just a wonderful man and a great icon of my hometown.”29

Banks, and his wife Liz, spent his later years in Southern California. He played golf regularly with his twin sons, Joey and Jerry, and tasted the creations of his daughter Jan, a local chef. He planned for the future and lived comfortably; during the 1960s, Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley offered Ernie the chance to invest in a trust fund. Banks put aside half his salary and at age 55 cashed in more than $4 million. He was the only player to take Wrigley’s advice.

On January 23, 2015, in Chicago, Ernie Banks died at age 83, setting off a round of mourning fitting one of the city’s most beloved citizens.

Notes

1 Phil Rogers, Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the Summer of ’69, Chicago: Triumph Books, 2011, 5.

2 The Sporting News, May 30, 1970, 5.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Rogers, 29.

6 The Sporting News, February 17, 1960, 3.

7 Lew Freedman, Game of My Life: Chicago Cubs; Memorable Stories of Cubs Baseball, Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, 2007, 104.

8 Rogers, 58.

9 Rogers, 59.

10 Freedman, 106.

11 MLB.com, February 1, 2012.

12 Peter Golenbock, Wrigleyville, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996, 349.

13 Goldenbock, 347.

14 Chicago American News, September 20, 1955, 23.

15 Danny Peary, We Played the Game, New York: Hyperion, 249.

16 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 17, 1959.

17 Peary, 464.

18 Chicago Daily News, August 29, 1959.

19 Ibid.

20 Golenbock, 380.

21 The New York Times, May 18, 1962.

22 Newsday, March 3, 1966.

23 David Claerbaut, The Greatest Team That Didn’t Win: Durocher’s Cubs, Dallas: Taylor Publishing, 2000, 26.

24 Golenbock, 399.

25 The Sporting News, March 18, 1967, 19.

26 Gerald C. Wood and Andrew Hazucha, Northsiders: Essays on the History, and the Culture of the Chicago Cubs, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2008, 101.

27 Rogers, 227.

28 Claerbaut, 26.

29 MLB.com, November 11, 2013.

30 Wood and Hazucha, 101.

Don Baylor was a hustling player who ran the bases aggressively and stood fearlessly close to home plate as if he were daring the pitcher to hit him. Quite often they did, as Baylor was plunked by more pitches (267) than any other player in the 20th century, leading the American League eight times in that department and retiring as the category’s modern record-holder (though he’s since been passed by Craig Biggio). Notoriously tough, Baylor wouldn’t even acknowledge the pain of being hit, refusing to rub his bruises when he took his base. “Getting hit is my way of saying I’m not going to back off,” he explained. “My first goal when I go to the plate is to get a hit. My second goal is to get hit.”1

Baylor played for seven first-place teams in his 19 seasons and was a respected clubhouse leader, earning Manager-of-the-Year recognition in his post-playing career. The powerfully built 6-foot-1, 195-pounder hit 338 home runs and drove in 1,276 runs, and clicked on all cylinders when he claimed the AL Most Valuable Player award in 1979. Not only did he lead the California Angels to their first-ever playoff appearance by pacing both leagues in both runs scored and RBIs, he proved unafraid to kick 30 or so reporters out of the clubhouse. After a critical loss in Kansas City late in that season’s pennant race, the press corps made the mistake of asking losing pitcher Chris Knapp about a “choke” within earshot of Baylor, who promptly ordered them to leave.

Baylor broke into the majors with the Baltimore Orioles when the Birds were in the midst of winning three straight pennants. The Baltimore players policed their own clubhouse with a “kangaroo court” that handed down a stinging but good-natured brand of justice for a variety of on- and off-field infractions. Before he’d even played in the majors, a 20-year-old Baylor ran afoul of the court by predicting — even though the Orioles had a trio of All-Star outfielders plus skilled reserve Merv Rettenmund — “If I get into my groove, I’m gonna play every day.” Court leader Frank Robinson read the quote aloud in the Baltimore clubhouse, and shortstop Mark Belanger warned Baylor, “That’s going to stick for a long time.” Indeed, Baylor was known as Groove in baseball circles even after he retired.2

Don Edward Baylor was born on June 28, 1949, in the Clarksville section of Austin, Texas. His father, George Baylor, worked as a baggage handler for the Missouri Pacific Railroad for 25 years, and his mother, Lillian, was a pastry cook at a local white high school. Don had two siblings, Doug and Connie, and going to church on Sundays was a must in the Baylor family.

Baylor was one of just three African-American students enrolled at O. Henry Junior High School when Austin’s public schools integrated in 1962. One of the friends he made was Sharon Connally, the daughter of Governor John Connally, and Baylor would never forget hearing her screams from two classrooms away when Sharon learned over the school’s public-address system that her father had been shot along with President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

At Stephen F. Austin High School, Baylor had to ask the football coach three times for a tryout, but by his senior year he had made honorable mention all-state and got a half-dozen scholarship offers, including ones from powerhouses like Texas and Oklahoma. Baylor also played baseball, as a sophomore becoming the first African-American to wear the school’s uniform, and being named team captain for his senior season. After a tough first year under a coach who wasn’t accustomed to dealing with blacks, Baylor benefited when a strict disciplinarian named Frank Seale, who believed in playing the game the right way, took over the program for his last two seasons. “Frank was not only my coach, but my friend,” said Baylor. “He looked after me and made me feel like I was part of his family.”3 When Baylor finally got to the World Series two decades later, Frank Seale was there.

After suffering a shoulder injury serious enough to inhibit his throwing for the rest of his career, Baylor decided to spurn the gridiron scholarship offers and pursue a career in professional baseball. Some teams, like the Houston Astros (who opted to draft John Mayberry instead), were scared off by Baylor’s bum shoulder, but the Baltimore Orioles selected him with their second choice in the 1967 amateur draft. Scout Dee Phillips signed Baylor for $7,500.

Baylor reported immediately to Bluefield, West Virginia, where he wasted no time earning Appalachian League player-of-the-year honors after leading the circuit in hitting (.346), runs, stolen bases, and triples under manager Joe Altobelli. “Alto taught me the importance of good work habits,” Baylor recalled. “He was a tireless worker himself, serving as manager, batting-practice pitcher, third-base coach, and, when you got right down to it, a baby sitter.”4

The 1968 season started with a lot of promise. In 68 games for the Class-A Stockton Ports, Baylor smashed California League pitching at a .346 clip to earn a promotion to the Double-A Elmira Pioneers of the Eastern League. He stayed there only six games, batting .333, before moving up to the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings. In 15 games against International League pitchers, Baylor batted only .217 and was benched for the first time in his life by manager Billy DeMars. “I felt frustration for the first time in my career,” Baylor admitted. “Maybe DeMars hated young players, period. I also noticed that his favorite targets were blacks like Chet Trail, Mickey McGuire, and a guy from Puerto Rico named Rick Delgado. I felt that DeMars did not have my best interests at heart. I was trying very hard to learn, but I got nothing from him.”5

Nonetheless, the Orioles invited Baylor to his first big-league spring training in 1969, and he got to meet his role model, Frank Robinson. Soon, Baylor was even using the same R161 bat (taking its model number from Robinson’s first MVP season in 1961) that the Orioles right fielder did so much damage with. With it, Baylor began the season by hitting .375 in 17 games for the Class A Florida Marlins of the Florida State League. He spent the bulk of the year with the Double-A Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, hitting .300 in 109 games to earn a Texas League All-Star selection.

After a strong spring training with the Orioles in 1970, Baylor returned to Rochester to bat third and play center field every day. Midway through the season, he reluctantly moved to left field because manager Cal Ripken believed Baylor’s weak arm would prevent him from handling center in the majors. Baltimore’s Merv Rettenmund insisted that Baylor remained a triple threat. “He can hit, run, and lob,” quipped the Orioles outfielder.6 Pretty much everything else that happened that season, however, couldn’t have been scripted more perfectly for Baylor. He was married before a summer doubleheader, and tore through the International League by leading all players in runs, doubles, triples, and total bases. The Sporting News recognized Baylor as its Minor League Player of the Year. He batted .327 with 22 home runs and 107 RBIs, and was called up to the Orioles on September 8. Ten days later, Baylor made his major-league debut at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, batting fifth and playing center field against the Cleveland Indians. The bases were loaded for his first at-bat, against right-hander Steve Hargan, and Baylor admitted feeling “scared to death.”7 He didn’t show it, though, driving the first pitch into right field for a two-run single. In 17 at-bats over eight games, Baylor batted .235.

After the 1970 season Baylor went to Puerto Rico to play for the Santurce Crabbers in the winter league. The manager was Frank Robinson. “There I would get to know Frank even better because he was my manager and hitting guru,” Baylor remembered. “Mostly he taught me to think while hitting. He would say, ‘A guy pitches inside, hit that ball right down the line. Look for certain pitches on certain counts.’ Frank also wanted me to start using my strength more. Frank knew there was a pull hitter buried somewhere inside me and fought to develop that power. In Santurce, Frank worked with me to strengthen my defense and throwing. I wound up hitting .290.”8

With nothing left to prove in Triple-A but no room on the star-studded Orioles roster, Baylor returned to Rochester in 1971 and made another International League All-Star team. He put up strong all-around numbers, hitting .313 with 31 doubles, 10 triples, 20 homers, 95 RBIs, 104 runs scored, 79 walks, and 25 steals as the Red Wings won the Little World Series. The Triple-A playoffs went on so long that Baylor got into just one major-league game after they finished.

He returned to Santurce with the island still celebrating Roberto Clemente’s MVP performance in the 1971 World Series, in which he helped the Pittsburgh Pirates dethrone the Orioles. “When Roberto played in Puerto Rico that winter I got a chance to witness up close what a great player he was,” Baylor recalled. “In a game against Roberto’s San Juan team, I tried to score from second base on a hit to right. I know I had the play beat. I ran the bases the right way; made the proper turn, cut the corner well. But by the time I started my fadeaway slide catcher Manny Sanguillén had the ball. I couldn’t believe it. I was out.”9

Baylor wound up hitting .329 to win the Puerto Rican League batting title. He was confident that he’d be on some team’s major-league roster in 1972, but was shocked when the Orioles cleared a spot for him by dealing away Frank Robinson before Baylor returned from Latin America. The Orioles effectively had four regular outfielders in 1971 (Robinson, Merv Rettenmund, Paul Blair, and Don Buford), so Baylor still had some competition in front of him.

Baylor got into 102 games with an Orioles team that missed the playoffs for the first time in four years. By hitting .253 with 11 home runs and 24 steals, he was named to the Topps Rookie Major League All-Star Team. He became a father when Don Jr. was born shortly after the season ended. Baylor came back from Puerto Rico to get his son, before the family returned to the island together to help him get ready for the next season.

Much like the Orioles, Baylor started slowly in 1973, but heated up when it mattered most. Baltimore was in third place in mid-July, and Baylor was batting just .219 with four homers in 219 at-bats. Starting on July 17, though, he mashed at a .366 clip the rest of the way, contributing seven home runs and 30 RBIs as the Orioles played .658 ball and won the American League East title going away. Baylor batted .273 in his first taste of playoff action before sitting out a shutout loss to Catfish Hunter in the Series’ decisive Game Five.

He played enough to qualify for the batting title for the first time in 1974, batting a solid .272 when the average American Leaguer hit 14 points less. The Orioles were eight games out on August 28, in fourth place, when Baylor and the team caught fire again for another furious finish. Baylor batted .381 as the Birds went 28-6 to finish two games ahead of the Yankees before losing in four games to the Oakland A’s in the American League Championship Series.

Baylor joined the Venezuelan League Magallanes Navigators that winter, displaying good patience and power with seven homers, 32 RBIs, and 29 walks in 56 games while batting .271. When major-league action got underway in 1975, Baylor’s talents continued to blossom. He hammered three home runs in a game at Detroit on July 2, and smacked 25 overall. That made the league’s top 10, and his .489 slugging percentage was also among the leaders. With 32 stolen bases, Baylor cracked the AL leader board for the fourth of what would eventually be six consecutive seasons. Though the Orioles finished second to the Red Sox, Baylor’s name appeared towards the bottom of some writers’ MVP ballots. He was only 26 and going places, just not where he imagined.

Just a week before Opening Day in 1976, Orioles manager Earl Weaver pulled Baylor out of an exhibition game unexpectedly. “When he told me to sit beside him I knew something was wrong, Baylor recalled. ‘I hate to tell you this,’ Earl said quietly, ‘but we just traded you to Oakland for Reggie Jackson.’ I looked at Earl but he couldn’t look at me. I was stunned. I started to cry right there on the bench. ‘Earl,’ I sobbed. ‘I don’t want to go anywhere.’”10 Weaver believed Groove would one day be an MVP, but the Orioles sent him packing in a six-player deal to land a guy who’d already won the trophy. Other than a career-high four stolen bases on May 17, and his best season overall for swipes with 52, the highlights were few and far between for Baylor in 1976. He didn’t hit well at the Oakland Coliseum, and batted just .247 with 15 homers overall. On November 1, Baylor became part of the first class of free agents after the arbitrator’s landmark decision invalidated baseball’s reserve clause.

Just over two weeks later, Baylor signed a six-year, $1.6 million deal with the California Angels, but he struggled to justify his salary for the first half of 1977. When manager Norm Sherry got the axe midway through the season, Baylor was hitting a paltry .223 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs. Dave Garcia took over as skipper, and hired Baylor’s ex-teammate Frank Robinson as his hitting instructor. Under the Hall of Famer’s tutelage, Baylor broke out to bat .281 with 16 homers and 75 RBIs the rest of the way. He never looked back.

Baylor finished seventh in American League MVP voting in 1978 after a breakout season that saw him smash 34 home runs, drive in 99 runs, and score 103. The surprising Angels logged their first winning season in eight years and remained in the West Division hunt until the final week, but Baylor will always remember that September for one of his saddest days as a ballplayer. Teammate Lyman Bostock made the last out of a critical one-run loss on September 23 in Chicago, then stormed by Baylor ranting and raving before exiting the clubhouse after a fast shower. “Veterans know enough to leave other veterans alone,” Baylor said. “So when Lyman walked by, I didn’t say a thing. I didn’t know there would be no next time for him.”11 Bostock was shot to death that night in Gary, Indiana. The career .311 hitter was only 27.

Baylor propelled the Angels to their first playoff appearance in franchise history in 1979, batting cleanup in all 162 games and earning 20 of a possible 28 first-place votes to claim MVP honors. His totals of 139 RBIs and 120 runs scored led the major leagues, and he added career bests in home runs (36), on-base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.530), and walks (71) while striking out just 51 times. He batted .330 with runners in scoring position. Baylor struggled while battling tendinitis in his left wrist in June, but sandwiched that down spell with player-of-the-month performances in May and July. He earned his only All-Star selection, starting in left field, batting third, and getting two hits with a pair of runs scored. In his first at-bat, he pulled a run-scoring double off Phillies southpaw Steve Carlton. On August 25 at Toronto, Baylor logged a personal-best eight RBIs in one game as the Angels romped, 24-2.

In the 1979 playoffs, Baylor and the Angels met the same Baltimore Orioles club that developed him, but a storybook ending was not in the cards. Though Baylor went deep against Dennis Martinez in California’s Game Three victory, he batted just .188 as the Angels lost three games to one.

As wonderful as 1979 played out, the 1980 season was a nightmare. The Angels started slowly, and were buried by a 12-28 stretch during which Baylor missed nearly seven weeks with an injured left wrist. He struggled mightily when he returned, batted just .250 with five homers in 90 games, and missed most of the last month with an injured right foot. The Angels went from division champions to losers of 95 games. The next season, 1981, Baylor became almost exclusively a designated hitter, and remained one for the balance of his career. Though he batted a career low (to that point) .239, his totals of 17 homers and 66 RBIs each cracked the American League’s top 10 in the strike-shortened season.

In 1982 Baylor homered 24 times and drove in 93 runs as the Angels made their second postseason appearance in what proved to be his last season with California. After beating the Brewers in the first two games of the best-of-five Championship Series, the Angels dropped three straight and were eliminated. It certainly wasn’t Baylor’s fault; he batted .294 and knocked in 10 runs in the series.

Baylor became a free agent for the second time in November 1982, and signed a lucrative deal to join the New York Yankees. In three seasons with the Bronx Bombers, he was twice named the designated hitter on The Sporting News’ Silver Slugger team (1983 and 1985), and averaged 24 home runs and 88 RBIs. His batting average declined from a career-best .303 to .262 to .231, however, and they were not particularly happy years as Baylor feuded with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. In 1985 Baylor was selected as the winner of the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award, presented annually to a major leaguer of exceptional character who contributes a lot to his community. He was recognized for his work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the 65 Roses (so-named for the way one child pronounced Cystic Fibrosis) club.

The Yankees traded Baylor to the Boston Red Sox shortly before Opening Day in 1986 for left-handed-hitting designated hitter Mike Easler. Though Baylor struck out a career-high 111 times and managed to bat just .238 in ’86, his 31 home runs and 94 RBIs were his best since his MVP year. He also established a single-season record by getting hit by pitches 35 times. The Red Sox won 95 games to beat out the New York for the American League East title, with Baylor operating a kangaroo court as his mentor Frank Robinson had done in Baltimore. On the night Roger Clemens set a major-league record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariners, Baylor fined him $5 for giving up a single to light-hitting Spike Owen on an 0-2 pitch. In the American League Championship Series, against the Angels, Boston was two outs from elimination in Game Five when Baylor smashed a game-tying, two-run home run off 18-game winner Mike Witt to spark an amazing comeback. Baylor batted .346 in the seven ALCS games, but started only three of seven World Series contests against the New York Mets as designated hitters were not used in the National League ballpark. This time the Red Sox let a Series clincher slip away, losing to New York in seven games.

Baylor turned 38 in 1987, and he posted the lowest power totals since his injury-plagued 1980 campaign, declining to 16 homers and 63 RBIs. He did reach a milestone on June 28, his 38th birthday, when he was hit by a pitch for a record 244th time. “Change-ups and slow curves feel like a butterfly, a light sting,” he said. “Fastballs and sliders feel like piercing bullets, like they’re going to come out the other side.”12 He added that getting hit in the wrist by a Nolan Ryan heater in 1973 was the worst feeling of all.

The Minnesota Twins, making a surprising playoff run, craved Baylor’s right-handed bat and presence and acquired him from the Red Sox for the final month of the 1987 season. Baylor batted .286 to help Minnesota reach the postseason for the first time in 17 years, and his eighth-inning pinch-hit single drove in the go-ahead run in Game One of the ALCS against the Tigers. Baylor batted .385 in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, including a game-tying two-run homer off John Tudor in Game Six, helping the Twins to a comeback victory en route to the title.

Baylor wrapped up his playing career with a return to the Oakland Athletics in 1988. Though he batted just .220 in 92 games, the club won 104 regular-season contests and became the third American League pennant winner in a row to feature Baylor on its roster. Oakland defeated the Red Sox in the ALCS but lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in an upset, and Baylor struck out against National League Cy Young winner Orel Hershiser in his only at-bat. In the offseason Baylor called it a career after 2,135 hits with a .260 batting average, 338 home runs, and 1,276 RBIs. He stole 285 bases and was hit by a pitch 267 times.

Baylor returned to the big leagues for a two-year stint as the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach beginning in 1990, and spent 1992 in the same role with the Cardinals. In 1993 he was named the inaugural manager of the expansion Colorado Rockies, and earned Manager-of-the-Year honors in 1995 when he led the third-year club to a playoff berth faster than any previous expansion club. Pitching coach Larry Bearnarth observed, “He doesn’t lose his cool very often. On the other hand, he can be intolerant sometimes of people who don’t give their best. He is very direct and he never varies from that, so players are never surprised. If he has something to say, he just says it like he’s still a player, like players used to do to each other.”13

Baylor’s Rockies played winning baseball for two more years, but he was fired after the club fell under .500 and slipped to fourth place in the five-team division in 1998. He turned down an offer to become a club vice president, instead opting to become a hitting coach again with the Atlanta Braves. After earning rave reviews for helping Chipper Jones develop into an MVP candidate, Baylor got another chance to manage in 2000 with the Chicago Cubs. Despite 88 wins and a surprising third-place finish in his second year in Chicago, Baylor was fired after a Fourth of July loss in 2002 with a disappointing, highly-paid club sputtering in fifth place. Overall, he went 627-689 as a major-league manager.

Baylor resurfaced with the Mets the next two seasons, serving as a bench coach and hitting instructor under Art Howe, while battling a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. When the Mets changed managers, Baylor moved to Seattle in 2005 to work with Mariners batters. In 2007 he worked part time as an analyst on Washington Nationals telecasts. After three years out of a major-league uniform, Baylor returned to the Rockies in 2009 as their hitting coach, before moving on to hold the same role with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2011-12).

The Angels brought him back in 2014, but he suffered a freak fracture of his right femur on Opening Day catching the ceremonial first pitch from Vladimir Guerrero, at the time the only other Angels player to win a MVP award.  Baylor came back to serve through the end of the 2015 season before settling into retirement with his second wife, Becky, who he’d married in 1987.

On August 7, 2017, Baylor died from complications in his 14-year battle with multiple myeloma. He was 68. Frank Robinson, Bobby Grich and writer Tracy Ringolsby spoke at his funeral before he was laid to rest at Texas State Cemetery in Austin. 

This biography originally appeared in “Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles” (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), edited by Mark Armour and Malcolm Allen. An updated version appears in “The 1986 Boston Red Sox: There Was More Than Game Six” (SABR, 2016), edited by Bill Nowlin and Leslie Heaphy, and “Major League Baseball A Mile High: The First Quarter Century of the Colorado Rockies” (SABR, 2018), edited by Bill Nowlin and Paul T. Parker.

Last revised: October 3, 2022 (zp)

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Daniel Gutiérrez, Efraim Alvarez, and Daniel Gutiérrez hijo, La Enciclopedia del Béisbol en Venezuela (Caracas, 2006).

Craig Neff, “His Honor, Don Baylor,” Sports Illustrated, June 16, 1986.

Notes

1 Jack Friedman, “For Don Baylor, Baseball Is a Hit or Be Hit Proposition,” People, August 24, 1987. 

2 Don Baylor, Nothing But The Truth: A Baseball Life (New York: St. Martins Press, 1990), 47.

3 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 32.

4 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 38-39.

5 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 44-45.

6 Detroit Free Press, March 4, 1980: 42.

7 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 52.

8 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 60.

9 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 68.

10 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 80.

11 Baylor, Nothing But The Truth, 125.

12 Friedman, “For Don Baylor.”

13 Howard Blatt, “Ultimate Player’s Manager Baylor is Tough But Fair With Rockies,” New York Daily News, July 15, 1995.

Two firsts were combined into one event in 1987 as the first Most Valuable Player Award won by a member of a Canadian team also happened to be the first MVP won by a player of Dominican descent. The player in question, George Bell, played in 12 seasons from 1981 through 1993 for three major-league teams. That 1987 season was the peak offensive year for the right-handed left fielder and designated hitter, as he hit 47 home runs and edged out Detroit Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell for the honor.

Jorge Antonio Bell Mathey was born on October 21, 1959, in the Dominican Republic town of San Pedro de Macorís. This southeastern Dominican town has produced so many baseball players that it is sometimes called “the cradle of shortstops.” This list of greats from San Pedro de Macorís include Bell’s contemporaries Henry Rodríguez and Sammy Sosa, who would both figure in Bell’s own transaction history.

Bell was originally signed as a 19-year-old by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978. Two years later, the Toronto Blue Jays, at the urging of legendary scout Epy Guerrero, selected Bell from the Phillies in the 1980 Rule 5 draft. Bell would spend most of the remainder of his career with the Blue Jays, earning induction into the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence, an honor shared with only 10 others as of 2018.

The Blue Jays opened the 1981 campaign in Detroit against the Tigers on April 9 and Bell was there. With the Blue Jays trailing 5-2 in the top of the eighth inning, Bell was brought in to run for Toronto’s cleanup hitter, John Mayberry. Three straight outs meant that Bell got no action as a runner, but he stayed in the game as a left fielder for the Tigers’ half of the eighth inning. Only one ball was hit his way – a triple over his head and off the wall by Al Cowens.1 After another fruitless pinch-running appearance, Bell was left on the bench for nearly two weeks. His first plate appearance came on April 21 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers. Bell entered the game in the seventh inning to play left field in a 6-0 losing cause. He batted in the bottom of the ninth inning with his team trailing 6-2 and facing Moose Haas and grounded out to shortstop. The next day Bell made his first start, in right field and batting third in a batting order that was struggling. The struggles would continue, as the Brewers took the game 8-1 and the Jays fell to 3-9. Bell began the game with two groundouts back to the pitcher but got his first major-league hit in the fifth inning with a double to right field off Mike Caldwell. He did not score.

Bell’s rookie campaign was cut short when he ran into an outfield wall chasing a foul ball on June 9. He did not return until August 10 and finished his rookie campaign batting .233/.256/.350 in limited duty. Those numbers are not eye-catching but there were flashes of power and speed in his game even at 19 years old, and he garnered some American League Rookie of the Year votes.

Bell spent 1982 in Syracuse with the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate, but another injury-riddled year saw him get into only 37 games with 131 plate appearances. It was no surprise, therefore, when the Blue Jays had him start 1983 (still just his age 23 season) in Triple A. When he was called up, to start on July 12 in Kansas City, Bell made the most of his opportunity and hit a two-run home run and a double as the designated hitter. Other than a final abortive comeback attempt in 1993, Bell was done with the minor leagues for good.

The Blue Jays were hitting their stride in 1984, Bell’s first full season in the major leagues. Behind the pitching of Dave Stieb and the veteran Doyle Alexander and the developing outfield trio of Bell, Lloyd Moseby, and Jesse Barfield, this year was the beginning of a period of winning baseball in Toronto. Bell was a big part of that success. The 1984 team under manager Bobby Cox finished a distant 15 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the AL East, but the signs of good things to come were developing. All three of those outfielders were 24 years old and coming into their own. Bell ended the season with a batting line of .292/.326/.498 and perhaps most importantly stayed on the field the whole season, playing in 159 games primarily as a corner outfielder. He finished the year with 26 home runs, a number that was very consistent throughout the remainder of his career, other than the one MVP year with 47. His consistent appearances in the lineup were also a feature of Bell’s career right up until the very end as he avoided any long layoffs until the end of his career in 1993.

It was Bell’s successful 1984 season, and the lack of recognition he felt about it, that began a reputation for being hostile (or at least uncooperative) to the media that hounded Bell for the rest of his career. He was often referred to as laconic, especially in comparison to his longtime and loquacious teammate Barfield.2 In 1984 the Toronto sportswriters voted Dave Collins as the team MVP over Bell. During spring training in 1985, Bell declared that he was no longer speaking to newspaper reporters and accused them of racism in their selection.3

In 1985 the Blue Jays finally got over the hump and won the AL East with a record of 99-62, edging out the New York Yankees by two games. Bell was at the heart of the batting order, anywhere from third to fifth with the cleanup spot being his through the second half of the season. The Jays lost the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals in seven games. Bell did not have a home run during the series but did contribute three doubles to the cause.

The next year the Jays slid back a bit but Bell contributed in his incredibly consistent way, with a slash line of .309/.349/.532. He also began to get recognition as one of the game’s best, finishing 1986 in fourth place in the MVP voting. But much more was to come in 1987. That season the Jays had the same outfield of Bell, Moseby, and Barfield while adding the young designated hitter Fred McGriff. Jimmy Key and Jim Clancy had come to join Stieb on the pitching staff. Things looked good. It was a tight race and only a season-ending sweep at the hands of the Tigers saw the Jays miss the playoffs again, finishing just two games behind the Tigers. But George Bell had his career year.

Bell led the league in only one offensive category, with his 134 runs batted in pacing the American League. He paired that with his career-best and club-record 47 home runs, bested only by Mark McGwire’s 49. All these home runs came from Bell’s 6-foot-1, 190-pound frame. The Most Valuable Player voting was tight (only 21 points) between Bell and Detroit’s Trammell. Trammell won the division title on the field, but Bell won the respect of the writers for the way in which he helped his team throughout the year. Interviewed by telephone when the award was announced, Bell said, “I’m very happy. … Because when you win the MVP everything shows that you’ve worked hard. That you’re a winner. It’s one of the greatest things that’s (happened) to me in the last three years.”4

Controversy stalked Bell in the 1988 season. Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams wanted to make him a designated hitter. This plan offended Bell’s pride in his role as a major-league star. He felt it was an undue attack on his defensive abilities; it would have made him the youngest regular designated hitter in the American League. Things blew up in a spring-training game on March 17 when Bell refused to take the bat when he was due up. He was suspended for one day and fined $1,000 but the resentment lingered.5 Bell “won” the argument as he played in only seven games as a designated hitter in 1988, and 149 in his preferred left field.

Jimy Williams was fired after a 12-24 start to the 1989 campaign and new manager Cito Gaston more regularly made the move of Bell to DH, saying, “People refuse to believe that George is a team player, but he is. George just wants to be respected and dealt with straight-up.”6 Bell’s time at DH increased to only 19 games but the precedent had been set as the Blue Jays improved under Gaston to win the AL East before losing in the ALCS again, this time in five games to the Oakland Athletics.

The following season, 1990, was Bell’s last before free agency. He had a solid and consistent year, with a line of .265/.303/.422, earning his second All-Star selection while contributing to the Blue Jays’ 86-76 record as his designated-hitter role kept creeping up, with 36 appearances. Bell had seemingly adjusted and reconciled himself to his perceived lack of respect as one of baseball’s best with his own confidence in his performance. He told USA Today’s Chuck Johnson in June, “I don’t think people compare me in the category of superstar. I think they compare me as a so-so player. Nobody gives me credit. But I go out there and play my game. I don’t care.”7

After the 1990 season Bell had his first chance at the free-agency market. He signed with the Chicago Cubs for a guaranteed three-year $9.8 million, going to the National League, where the designated-hitter question would not be an issue. Bell joined Andre Dawson in the Cubs’ outfield, so the Cubs now had both 1987 MVP winners. Bell was a Cub for just 1991, earning a National League All-Star selection with his .285/.323/.468 line and 25 home runs.

During 1992 spring training, Bell was traded across town to the Chicago White Sox and back to the American League. Coming the other way in the trade to the Cubs were pitcher Ken Patterson and a young Sammy Sosa. The White Sox saw Bell and his power as the key to getting them over the hump in the AL West. Bell was also much more amenable at this point in his career to a role that emphasized time at designated hitter with a bit of time in left field. He responded with a very solid 1992. The power was still there but the batting average began to slip, and the strikeout total began to rise, just slightly. Still, his 25 home runs and .255/.294/.418 line in 1992 were a solid contribution.

The following year was more a disappointment for himself; he hit only 13 home runs, his fewest since 1983, and had a batting a line of .217/.243/.363. He missed 40 games in July and August after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. When he returned in September, it was clear that something was still wrong. The White Sox did win the division in 1993 but Bell did not appear in the ALCS, which Chicago lost to the Blue Jays. Bell responded by making very harsh comments about manager Gene Lamont.8 The White Sox responded by declining to pick up Bell’s $3.3 million option for 1994 and released him on October 13.

Bell chose to retire at this point, returning to his native Dominican Republic. He has spent most of his time in retirement on his 37-foot boat and golfing, enjoying the sun and waters of his native land. He has also done some short-term coaching with the Dominican World Baseball Classic teams.9 In 1996 he and former teammate Dave Stieb were the charter inductees to Toronto’s Level of Excellence.

Throughout the years, Bell spent time with the Blue Jays as a minor-league instructor and consultant. In 2013 he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. As of 2018, Bell’s name was still high on leaderboards of Blue Jays hitters. He was fourth in runs batted in (740), fifth in hits (1,294), and sixth in home runs (202). His 47 home runs in 1987 rank second in single-season total for a Toronto slugger (Jose Bautista, 54 in 2010). He was one of only two Blue Jays to win the AL MVP award, being joined by Josh Donaldson in 2015.

Last revised: October 29, 2022

Sources

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

Notes

1 Dave Matthews, “Sparky Uneasy with Tiger Victory,” Lansing (Michigan) State Journal, April 10, 1981: C-2.

2 For example, in a piece by Maury Allen, “Barfield, Bell Help Jays gel,” New York Post, June 9, 1987.

3 Marty York, “Who’s This Guy, George Bell?” The Sporting News, July 13, 1987: 16.

4 Jim Donaghy, “Bell Lures AL MVP Title Across Border,” Albany Times Union, November 18, 1987: D-1.

5 Neil McCarl, “Blue Jays’ DH Role: It’s No Bell Prize,” Toronto Sun, March 26, 1988: 22.

6 “Behind the Seams,” USA Today, August 11, 1989: 6C.

7 Chuck Johnson, “Bell Confident He’ll Eventually Earn Respect,” USA Today, June 26, 1990.

8 Mike Shalin, “Benched Bell Trashes Lamont,” New York Post, October 9, 1993.

9 Teresa Nickerson, “Interview of the Month,” torontobluejays.com, February 6, 1997, retrieved November 1, 2018..

Johnny Lee Bench was born on December 7, 1947, in Oklahoma City, the son of Ted, a truck driver, and Katy Bench. The family moved a few times in the area but eventually settled in Binger, about 60 miles west of Oklahoma City, when John was about 5. He had two older brothers, Teddy and William, and a younger sister, Marilyn. It was in Binger that John remembered first playing ball, using, as many kids from his generation recall, balls and bats kept together with electrical tape. Ted had been a ballplayer, playing in high school and in the US Army, but by the time World War II ended he was too old. Instead, he poured his dreams into his three boys, all of whom played organized ball in the area. Ted started a boys’ team when Johnny was 6, buying the uniforms and driving the team to games in his truck. Johnny played catcher right away. “My father said catching was the quickest way to the big leagues, because that’s what they wanted,” Bench recalled.1

Bench remembered being inspired watching fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle on television as a kid. Mantle was from Commerce, nearly 300 miles away, but his rise to stardom helped plant a seed of possibility in the youngster’s head. By the second grade Bench was telling his teacher that he was going to be a major-league ballplayer, and within a few years he was practicing his autograph to prepare for his future. He played catcher and pitcher throughout his youth in organized leagues, from Little League through American Legion. While starring in both basketball and baseball at Binger High School (he was All-State in each sport), and excelling academically (valedictorian in his class of 21), he did a lot of hunting and worked hard—picking cotton, working in the peanut fields, and mowing lawns. His high-school years were also marred by a tragic accident—a bus carrying his baseball team lost its brakes and rolled down a 50-foot ravine, killing two of Bench’s friends and teammates. Bench was knocked unconscious but otherwise escaped physical harm. The details of the event remained with him for many years, however.2

In June 1965, in baseball’s first free-agent draft for amateurs, the Cincinnati Reds selected Bench in the second round, the 36th overall pick. Bench briefly considered attending college on a baseball/basketball scholarship, but instead signed with Cincinnati scout Tony Robello for $6,000 plus college tuition. Bench was assigned to Tampa of the Florida State League, where he played with Bernie Carbo and Hal McRae. He hit .248 with two home runs, but drew good reviews for his defense. The next spring he trained with the Reds, also in Tampa, and the 18-year-old was confident. “To tell the truth,” he recalled, “I wasn’t overwhelmed.”3 While some youngsters take years to feel comfortable with their major-league teammates, Bench immediately felt, and acted, like a leader.

Reds manager Don Heffner considered keeping the 18-year-old Bench in 1966, but instead sent him to Hampton, Virginia, to play for the Peninsula Grays in the Single-A Carolina League. All he did there was win the league Player of the Year award, hitting .294 with 22 home runs before being called up to Triple-A Buffalo. Before he left, the Peninsula club retired his uniform number 8. Bench’s stay in Buffalo was not so kind—in his very first inning for the club he took a foul tip on his right thumb and broke it, ending his season. What’s more, on his long drive back to Binger, driving a 1965 Ford Fairlane he had bought with his bonus money, he collided with a drunk driver and wound up in the hospital. Again, as in the bus crash in high school, Bench felt lucky to escape, only having to endure 27 stitches in his scalp.

Still just 19, Bench returned to Buffalo in 1967 and starred, hitting .259 with 23 home runs and playing great defense. Buffalo was a veteran team, filled with former major leaguers in their 30s. Bench later credited the veterans on the club for being supportive and not resentful of his future and promise. Steve Boros, who roomed with Bench, was particularly helpful, teaching the youngster how to focus on the game with all the distractions available to a young man away from home.4 After the season Bench was named the Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News.

The Reds promoted Bench in late August, and he started 26 games down the stretch for a team out of contention. He got his first hit off the Phillies’ Chris Short on August 30, and his first home run off the Braves’ Jim Britton in Atlanta on September 20. Bench did not hit well that month (.163 and the one homer) but the Reds saw enough to make a commitment, trading two-time Gold Glove and three-time All-Star catcher Johnny Edwards (just 29 years old) to St. Louis to clear the way for the 20-year-old Bench. In March 1968 he was one of five young players featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, beneath the headline “The Best Rookies of 1968.”5

Bench’s rise to stardom was rapid. After playing briefly in two early season contests, he got his first start on April 17 and stayed in the lineup for 81 straight games. In all, he caught 154 games, a record for a rookie catcher, and hit .272 with 15 home runs and 82 RBIs. These were excellent numbers in 1968, when the league average was .243. Bench’s power numbers led all league catchers, and his 40 doubles were third in the league for all players. Though he started slowly, by September he was batting fourth for the team that scored the most runs in the league. Bench was selected to his first All-Star Game, catching the ninth inning of the National League’s 1-0 victory in Houston’s Astrodome, and was named the NL Rookie of the Year after the season.

It was for his defense that Bench garnered his most praise. Of his throwing arm, which would keep would-be base stealers honest for the next decade, Roy Blount, Jr. wrote, “It is about the size of a good healthy leg, and it works like a recoilless rifle.”6 Bench had grown to 6-feet-1 and 200 pounds, but he seemed both larger and more agile. He had huge hands—he could palm a basketball in high school, and could hold seven baseballs in his throwing hand (a feat he was often called on to perform for the cameras). He caught one-handed, one of the first catchers to do so, with his right hand resting behind his back to protect it from foul tips—Bench had broken his thumb in Buffalo in 1966, after all. He used a hinged catcher’s mitt, rather than the prevalent circular “pillow” style, allowing him to better make plays on bunts or on plays at the plate. After Bench took a high throw and tagged out a Chicago runner in his rookie year, Cubs manager Leo Durocher exclaimed, “I still don’t believe it. I have never seen that play executed so precisely.”7 Herman Franks, the Giants’ manager (and former major league receiver), saw Bench make a similar play against his club, and said afterwards that Bench was the “best catcher I’ve seen in 20 years.”8 It was no surprise when he became the first rookie catcher to win a Gold Glove for his defense.

Along with his great catching, Bench stood out for his confident leadership at a young age. The Reds pitchers marveled at how great a game he could call, how well he knew the league’s hitters so quickly. In 1967, during his late-season call up, the 19-year-old went out into the infield and told veteran shortstop Leo Cardenas to reposition himself for the upcoming batter. Cardenas screamed at his catcher and did not move, but this did not change Bench’s belief that he had acted properly. In his rookie year he would often go out the mound and tell the pitcher to bear down, or throw harder, or not be afraid to throw the curve to the next hitter. The 20-year-old once deigned to instruct Jim Maloney, the team’s star pitcher, who stared at him in disbelief. Manager Dave Bristol waved Bench back to the plate, then smiled and told the pitcher, “You know, he’s right.” Maloney soon came around. “So help me, this kid coaches me. And I like it. … When you’re in a big sweat and nervous, he can calm you down more ways than I have ever seen.”9

One of the best players in the game as a rookie, Bench got better still. His world-class defense remained stellar, as he won Gold Gloves in his first ten seasons and became arguably the greatest defensive catcher in history. In 1969 he hit 26 home runs, drove in 90 runs, and batted .293, establishing himself as the best-hitting catcher in the game. He started his first All-Star Game, hitting a long home run and a single, before getting robbed of a second home run by Carl Yastrzemski’s leaping grab over the left-field fence at Washington’s RFK Stadium. The Reds rode their great hitting into the NL West race before ending in third place, four games behind the Atlanta Braves.

After the season the Reds hired Sparky Anderson as manager, promoted a few key rookies, and became a juggernaut. The 1970 club had a ten-game lead in mid-June and never looked back, finishing with 102 wins and an easy division title. Bench led the way with an astonishing season, topping the league with 45 home runs and 148 RBIs and easily capturing the league MVP award. Although the season ended in disappointment in a five-game World Series loss to the Baltimore Orioles, Johnny Bench had become as big as baseball star as there was—a 22-year-old seemingly without weakness on the field, and a handsome and articulate person off the field. Not surprisingly, he was besieged with endorsement opportunities and banquet invitations. He went to Vietnam with Bob Hope and the USO, golfed with Arnold Palmer, talked and sang on talk shows, appeared in the television program Mission Impossible, and began hosting his own weekly television show in Cincinnati. As Bench later put it, “My push for visibility during the offseason, even at age twenty-two, was intentional.”10

After a heavy workload in Bench’s first two seasons, Anderson began “resting” him by playing him at other positions for entire games or for partial games—in 1970 he started games at first base and all three outfield positions, a total of 22 games. His biggest offensive performance of 1970 came in a July 26 game at the new Riverfront Stadium in which he played left field: 4-for-5, including three home runs, all off Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton. Throughout the remainder of his prime catching years, Bench generally started 20 or 30 games at other positions, keeping his bat in the lineup while giving his legs a bit of a rest.

The 1971 season was a bump in the road for the Reds (who fell to fourth place) and for Bench (who hit just .238 with 27 homers). The team played without an injured Bobby Tolan all year and also had off-years from Tony Perez and several other players, and Bench’s drop of 87 RBIs (from 148 to 61) is telling both for Bench’s performance and the fewer baserunners ahead of him. He still won his usual Gold Glove, and hit a long home run off Vida Blue in the All-Star Game at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium. But for Bench, it was a humbling season.

Fortified by the acquisition of second baseman Joe Morgan and others in the offseason, Bench and the Reds stormed back in 1972, winning the division by 10½ games and returning to the postseason. In the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive Game Five of the NLCS, Bench’s dramatic lead-off home run to right field against Pittsburgh’s Dave Guisti tied the contest before the Reds plated another run to win the NL pennant. Bench led the way with a league-leading 40 home runs and 125 RBIs, while also drawing 100 walks, for a club that lost a seven-game World Series to the Oakland Athletics. The most memorable image of Bench from that Fall Classic is one he would like to forget. In the top of the eighth inning of Game Three in Oakland, Bench was facing Rollie Fingers with runners on second and third and one out. The Reds were leading 1-0 in the game, but trailing in the series, 2-0. When the count reached 3 and 2, Oakland manager Dick Williams came out to the mound and pointed to Bench and first base, a clear signal that he wanted to walk the slugger. The A’s catcher, Gene Tenace, after returning from the conference on the mound stood to receive an intentional ball, then slyly resumed his position as Fingers threw a slider on the outside corner that Bench took with his bat on his shoulder. A memorable moment, but Bench could take solace that the Reds held on to win the game.

Late in the 1972 season a routine physical examination turned up a growth on Bench’s lung that the doctors could not identify. Telling only close friends and the Reds management, Bench played the end of the season and the postseason with understandable worry hanging over his head. He finally had an operation on December 9. The surgeon had to make a 12-inch incision under his right arm and break a rib, finally extracting a benign lesion that Bench likely got from breathing an airborne fungus. After several weeks of pain from the operation, Bench went to spring training fully healed.

The next two seasons were excellent ones for Bench and the Reds, though the club began to get a reputation as a great team that could not finish it off in October. The 1973 club won 99 games, the most in baseball, yet lost the playoff series to a New York Mets team with 82 wins. The next year they won 98 games, but lost the NL West to the Dodgers. Bench contributed 25 home runs and 104 RBIs to the 1973 club, then 33 and 129 in 1974, his third time leading the league in RBIs.

The Reds finally broke through with their long-expected championship in 1975, winning 108 games (the most in the NL in 66 years) and defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs and the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic seven-game World Series. Bench hit a big double to start a decisive rally in the ninth inning of Game Two and homered off Rick Wise to begin the Cincinnati scoring in Game Three, but all that took a back seat when he embraced Will McEnaney, a famous image captured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, after the final out in the final game. Personally, it was a difficult year despite his success. He hurt his shoulder in a collision at home plate in April and hit well through a lot of pain (28 home runs, 110 RBIs, .283 average), before battling the flu through most of the postseason.

Bench’s off-field life also became very public during the year. He had always had a very active social life, a very eligible bachelor regularly photographed with models and actresses. This ended before the 1975 season when he married Vicki Lynne Chesser, who had been Miss South Carolina and a runner-up in the 1970 Miss USA pageant. Bench saw her in a toothpaste commercial and called her up for a date. The two knew each other for four days when Bench proposed, and seven weeks when they married. By the end of the 1975 season they were separated, and divorced quickly. The two had a large, public wedding, and details of their rocky relationship inevitably found their way into the tabloids as well. Bench soon returned to his bachelor ways. “There used to be a lot of beautiful women down at the ballpark,” said a friend. “Now, they’re going to be back.”11 Bench remained single for the rest of his playing career.

The next season was another great one for the Reds, and Bench’s life off the field was less stressful, but he battled cramps in his back that affected his swing and his throwing. His 135 games were then a career low, and he slumped to hit .234 with just 74 RBIs for a great offensive team. After what might have been his worst regular season, Bench tacked on his greatest postseason, hitting .444 with three home runs as the Reds swept the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees in seven total games. “When Johnny Bench was born,” Sparky Anderson told the press in the raucous clubhouse after the World Series, “I believe God came down and touched his mother on the forehead and said, ‘I’m going to give you a son who will be one of the greatest baseball players ever seen.’ ” For Bench, after his down season, the feeling was even better than 1975; he called it a “personal triumph.”12

Bench had his last big season in 1977, bouncing back to hit 31 home runs, drive home 109 runs, and bat .275, while capturing his tenth consecutive Gold Glove. The Reds fell to 88 wins and second place in the NL West, and the Big Red Machine began to fade away. Tony Perez was traded after the 1976 season, and within a few years Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, and Joe Morgan were wearing different uniforms. Only Bench stayed on, signing a five-year contract at $400,000 per year after the 1977 season. It was big money for the time, but he could have gotten more had he signed elsewhere.

At the end of the 1977 season the 29-year-old Bench had played ten years and many historians had concluded that he was the greatest catcher ever. He had had a couple of “off” years, slumps he attributed to catching every day. During his career he broke six bones in each foot from foul tips, twice broke his thumb, and also battled problems with his back and shoulder from collisions. After his playing career he had left and right hip replacements, injuries he dated back to his bus and car accidents as a teenager. Bench knew the price he paid, but took pride in his reputation for playing with pain. “Are there times I wish I hadn’t caught? Sure. But then I wouldn’t have been Johnny Bench.”13

Bench remained a star for a few more years, though minor injuries kept him out of the lineup or at other positions more and more. He played in just 120 games (with 96 starts at catcher) in 1978, though he continued to hit well (23 home runs). He played a bit more in 1979 (130 games) for new manager John McNamara, and drove in 80 runs. The revamped Reds’ surprising division title brought Bench to the postseason for the sixth and final time, and he finished 3-for-12 with a home run in the three-game NLCS sweep by the Pirates. Bench played in ten postseason series and hit at least one home run in nine of them.

After one final season as a fine-hitting catcher (24 home runs in 114 games), Bench played the infield for the rest of his career. He played first base and battled injuries during the strike-shortened 1981 season, then finished up with two forgettable years as a mediocre third baseman. As he might have said, he was no longer Johnny Bench. He announced his retirement from the game during the 1983 season, and spent the rest of the summer playing to cheers at all the different National League parks. In his final at-bat, on September 29, 1983, he stroked a pinch-hit two-run single off the Giants’ Mark Calvert before the home crowd at Riverfront Stadium. Gary Redus pinch-ran, and Bench’s magnificent career was over.

In the ensuing years, Bench remained a public figure around baseball. He broadcast games on radio and television, and in the 1980s hosted The Baseball Bunch, a syndicated TV show in which a group of boys and girls learned the finer points of the game from Bench and other current or former players. He became a regular public speaker and was often called upon by the Reds or Major League Baseball to speak at a ceremony to honor an old teammate or a new ballpark. An avid and excellent golfer, he participated in many celebrity events during his career, and in senior tour events once he turned 50 years old.

As of 2012 Bench was married to his fourth wife, the former Lauren Biachaai. Bench’s son Bobby was born in 1989 and graduated from Boston University, and Johnny and Lauren had two sons, Justin and Joshua.

Bench was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989, receiving 96 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility. He had made the Reds’ Hall of Fame in 1986, when the club permanently retired his uniform number 5. He was named to Major League Baseball’s All-Century team as the top-ranking catcher, and many organizations have named him baseball’s best-ever catcher. Since 2000 the Johnny Bench Award has been presented after the conclusion of the College World Series to honor the top Division I Baseball catcher. In 2008 the Reds honored him again, with a bronze statue outside the new Great American Ballpark. Fittingly, the statue shows Bench in full gear throwing out a runner with his powerful right arm.

No one has ever done it better.

Last revised: May 1, 2014

This biography is included in the book “The Great Eight: The 1975 Cincinnati Reds” (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), edited by Mark Armour. For more information, or to purchase the book from University of Nebraska Press, click here.

Notes

Many images come to mind when one hears the name Yogi Berra. One of the more obvious is that of a winner. Berra won three American League Most Valuable Player awards and appeared in 14 World Series as a player and another five as a manager or a coach. He won 13 championship rings and holds several Series records. Berra met with numerous roadblocks on his journey to fame, but he overcame them with grit and dedication and went on to become one of the more beloved figures in American sports history.

Berra’s father, Pietro, arrived in New York on October 18, 1909, at the age of 23. He had left Robecchetto, Italy, a town about 25 miles south of Milan, where he was a tenant farmer. Pietro left behind Paolina Lingori, a young girl whom he planned to marry after earning enough money to pay her way to the United States. Paolina Longoni (subsequently, Paulina) arrived on March 10, 1912, aged eighteen. Peter and Paulina married nine days later and settled in a largely Italian section of St. Louis called “The Hill.”

Their first child, Anthony, was born in 1914. The second child, Mario, was born in Malvaglio, Italy, as Paulina, pregnant and homesick, went back to her hometown in 1915 for a visit. While she was there, World War I escalated and mother and child did not return to the United States until September 3, 1919. The Berras had a third son, John, in 1922, and on May 12, 1925, Lorenzo Pietro came into the world. His parents’ desire to assimilate in their new homeland led them to the English translation of Lawrence Peter, which, due to their accent, they pronounced Lawdie.

Lawdie Berra and his family lived on 5447 Elizabeth Avenue, across the street from Giovanni Garagiola and his family; they had a boy named Joe who was Lawdie’s age. The two youngsters spent most of their time playing games with the other neighborhood boys and their favorite sport was baseball. Besides sports, the boys loved to go to the movies. One day they watched a feature that had a Hindu fakir, a snake charmer who sat with his legs crossed and wore a turban on his head. When the yogi got up, he waddled and one of the boys joked that he walked like Lawdie. From then on Berra was known as Yogi. Even his parents called him by his nickname.

As a youngster Berra displayed the stubbornness and determination that carried over to his playing days. This was no more in evidence than when he decided he was going to quit school after the eighth grade. Yogi had never been a very good student and he felt he was wasting his time in school. Pietro disapproved, and enlisted the aid of the school’s principal and the local parish priest to help keep his son in school. Yogi held firm, and eventually his father relented and Yogi went to work in a coal yard. He lost the job because he often left work early to play ball with his friends after they got out of school. Pietro, furious his son would lose a job that paid $25 a week, was able to get Yogi a job working on a Pepsi Cola truck that paid $27 a week. He was fired from that job as well. After much arguing, it was decided Yogi would find a job that would allow him to play ball in the afternoon.

Yogi and Joe Garagiola were stars on an American Legion team that made the playoffs two consecutive years. Garagiola was six feet tall, athletic, and handsome. By contrast Berra, at 5-feet-7 and 185 pounds, was short and dumpy and had an awkward swing in which he chopped at the ball. He would also swing at anything near the plate. The man who ran the team, Leo Browne, arranged a tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals for his star players. Garagiola did well and was offered a contract with a $500 bonus with the order to keep quiet about it until he turned sixteen (the boys were fifteen at the time).

Despite not having a particularly good tryout, Berra was offered a contract but no bonus. Berra knew he could not go home without the same bonus as Garagiola, so he refused the offer. Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey offered a $250 bonus and again Berra refused. Yogi later had a tryout with the St. Louis Browns and once more was offered a contract without a bonus; once more he turned it down.

Browne wrote to his old friend George Weiss, who was in charge of the New York Yankees’ farm system. He said all Yogi wanted was a $500 bonus and whatever he made a month was fine. Berra signed with the Yankees in October 1942 for the $500 bonus he so adamantly desired, plus a monthly salary of $90. Rickey, now with the Dodgers, sent Berra a telegram offering him a chance to sign with Brooklyn but Yogi never responded because he was the property of the Yankees. So Yogi Berra was off to Norfolk, Virginia, to begin his professional baseball career.

Berra batted .253 in 111 games for the Norfolk (Virginia) Tars in 1943, with seven home runs and 56 runs batted in. After the season Berra enlisted in the navy. He became a machine gunner and saw action on D-Day aboard a rocket boat deployed just off the Normandy coast before the soldiers assaulted the beach. Berra spent 10 days on the 36-foot boat before he finally returned to his ship, the USS Bayfield, an attack transport.

Before he was discharged, Berra was shipped to the submarine base at Groton, Connecticut. He played for the base’s baseball team, managed by Lieutenant Commander James Gleeson, a former big-league outfielder. Gleeson had a difficult time believing the squat, awkward-looking seaman was a professional ballplayer, much less property of the Yankees. But in a game between the sailors and the New York Giants, Berra went 3-for-4 and impressed Giants manager Mel Ott so much he called the Yankees and offered $50,000 for Berra. Yankees president Larry MacPhail turned Ott down. Years later MacPhail confessed he had never heard of Yogi, but if Ott thought he was worth that kind of money, then the Yankees should keep him.

In 1946 the Yankees assigned Berra to the Newark Bears of the Class Triple-A International League, managed by former Yankees All-Star George Selkirk. Like Gleeson before him, Selkirk was skeptical that this squat young man was a ballplayer or a Yankee. He forced Yogi to show him the telegram from MacPhail ordering him to report to Newark.

Berra played in 77 games and batted .314 with 15 home runs and 59 RBIs but displayed an erratic arm behind the plate. In the regular-season finale, Berra tied the game with a ninth-inning homer, a game that Newark eventually won. The victory put Newark in the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season, though the Bears lost to a Montreal Royals squad that included Jackie Robinson.

After the loss to Montreal, Berra was called up to the Yankees and made his major-league debut on September 22, 1946, against the Philadelphia Athletics. He went 2-for-4, with a home run off Jesse Flores in his second at-bat. His second home run came the next day.

At spring training in 1947, Berra played mostly in right field, where he showed little skill. He was, however, earning a reputation as a hitter, although one who would often hit pitches well out of the strike zone. Because of Berra’s erratic outfield play, he saw more time at catcher once the season began; this seemed to be the safest place for him to play.

On June 15 he made an unassisted double play in a game against St. Louis. A week later he hit his first grand slam in a win over Detroit, and when he homered again the next day, he had registered six RBIs in two games. On August 26, a group from “The Hill” organized Yogi Berra Night in St. Louis to honor their native son. Before the series in St. Louis, Berra had contracted strep throat in Cleveland and had to be hospitalized. When he arrived in town for his night, Yogi was very nervous about making an acceptance speech. That was the night he uttered the famous line, “I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.”

Berra batted .280 in his rookie campaign, with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs in 83 games. The Yankees faced Brooklyn in the World Series, the first fall classic to be televised. Yogi went 0-for-7 in the first two games, but came off the bench in Game Three to hit the first pinch-hit home run in Series history. Overall, he was 3-for-19 as New York won in seven games.

Berra spent the offseason in St. Louis, where he met a pretty waitress named Carmen Short working at a restaurant co-owned by Stan Musial. Yogi and Carmen hit it off and six months later were engaged. They were married on January 26, 1949, and old pal Joe Garagiola served as best man.

In 1948, Berra had a strong year at the plate, batting .305 with 14 home runs and 98 RBIs while appearing in 125 games (71 as a catcher). The All-Star Game was played in St. Louis that year; Berra made the squad but did not play. The Yanks finished third behind Cleveland and Boston and entered the off-season in the market for a better defensive catcher. This changed when the Yankees surprised the baseball world by picking 58-year-old Casey Stengel as their manager; Stengel nixed any thought of replacing Berra behind the plate.

Casey took an immediate liking to Berra, calling him “my assistant manager.” Stengel had an idea Yogi was much more sensitive than he let on, and decided to act as a buffer against those who criticized or just made fun of his young catcher. He also assigned future Hall of Famer Bill Dickey to act as Berra’s personal tutor. Dickey spent hours working with his student to improve his mechanics behind the plate and teaching him to think ahead during games.

Despite the improvement in his defensive play, Berra had some trouble with Yankees pitchers, especially Vic Raschi and Allie Reynolds, who thought he smothered curve balls and stabbed at fastballs, and thus made it difficult to get close calls from umpires. For his part, Stengel did not yet completely trust Berra either. In some critical situations the manager would call the pitches from the dugout, infuriating the veteran pitchers. Finally, one day in a game against the Athletics, Reynolds had enough. Stengel began waving to Yogi to get his attention so he could call a pitch. Meanwhile, Allie warned his young catcher if he looked into the dugout he would cross him up intentionally.

Berra knew this was not an idle threat and ignored his manager at the risk of being fined. The incident proved to be a turning point in his relationship with the pitching staff; they now felt that they could trust Berra. The season ended with the Yankees sweeping a two-game series against the Red Sox to claim the pennant. Yogi was a disappointing 1-for-16 in the World Series, though the Yanks beat Brooklyn in five games.

By the next season, Berra had established himself not only as a legitimate big-league catcher but also as a rising star in the American League. He had a stellar season in 1950, batting .322 with 28 home runs and 124 RBIs as the Yanks swept the Philadelphia Phillies to win their second straight world championship. After finishing third in the 1950 AL MVP voting, Berra won his first Most Valuable Player Award in 1951, when he led New York to yet another World Series title, this time at the expense of the New York Giants.

The next two seasons were more of the same as the Yanks won their fourth and fifth consecutive titles with wins over Brooklyn. Berra continued to develop his reputation as a clutch hitter, driving home 98 runs in ’52 and 108 in ’53. He batted a robust .429 in the Yankees’ six-game World Series victory in ’53. A second MVP came in 1954 despite the Cleveland Indians temporarily interrupting the Yankees dynasty. That year Berra batted .307 with 22 homers and 125 RBIs.

Berra entered the 1955 season as the highest-paid Yankee, and he earned his $48,000 by winning his second consecutive MVP award and third overall. The season ended in disappointment, however, as the Dodgers were finally able to take a Series from the Yankees. Jackie Robinson stole home in Game One, and Berra argued the call vociferously while jumping up and down. He never stopped insisting Robinson was out and he even signed photos of the play, “He was out.” In the decisive seventh game, Yogi came to the plate in the sixth inning with two men aboard and hit a fly ball toward the left-field corner, but left fielder Sandy Amoros raced over, made a spectacular catch, and turned it into a double play.

The Yankees regained the world championship in 1956 — against the Dodgers — and Berra had a big Series with three home runs, including two off Don Newcombe in the decisive seventh game. Berra batted in 10 runs, yet the highlight of the Series for him was catching Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game Five. Larsen said he did not shake off Berra once during his masterpiece.

Berra slumped to a .251 average in 1957 but was still productive with 24 home runs and 82 RBIs. He followed that with a similarly productive 1958 with a .266 batting average, 22 homers, and 90 RBIs. In those two seasons the Yankees and Milwaukee Braves split the World Series; Milwaukee won in 1957, and New York won in 1958.

The 33-year-old Berra reached some milestones in 1959, including his 300th career home run. He also set records (since broken) for the most consecutive chances by a catcher without an error, and the most consecutive games without an error. The erratic catcher of the early years was now a distant memory.

Though the Yankees didn’t win the pennant in 1959, they did win in 1960, the tenth and final flag under Casey Stengel. Yogi played more in the outfield, appearing in only 63 of 120 games as a catcher. In the thrilling Game Seven against Pittsburgh he hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning that only served as backdrop to Bill Mazeroski’s Series-ending home run in the ninth inning. That fabled shot sailed over left-fielder Berra’s head.

Yogi played three more seasons before retiring after the 1963 World Series. He batted just once in the Series, a sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Even with that loss, he finished with a 10 4 record in Series play. He was named an All-Star 18 times between 1948 and 1962 (including four years when two All-Star Games were played each summer). He started behind the plate for the American League 11 times.

Berra had a career batting average of.285, with 358 home runs. At the time of his retirement, his 306 homers as a catcher were the most ever at the position. He still holds several World Series records, including the most games played (75). In his 18-year career, he drew 704 walks against just 414 strikeouts — proof that this legendary bad-ball hitter indeed hit what he chased.

On October 24, 1963, Berra was named the Yankees’ manager to replace Ralph Houk after Houk became general manager. The Yankees offered Berra a two-year contract but he insisted on a one-year deal as he was not sure he could manage. He would later regret that decision. Berra had intended to keep pitching coach Johnny Sain on his staff, but Sain could not agree on a contract and Berra turned to old friend Whitey Ford to be a player coach. He always believed Ford was one of the more intelligent pitchers and thought he would be outstanding in handling young pitchers.

The 1964 Yankees were not an easy bunch to manage. Veterans Mickey Mantle and Ford were famous for their off-the-field drinking and carousing, and the young players wanted to follow along. Players like Jim Bouton and Joe Pepitone were brash, and the clubhouse was out of control.

The Yankees came out of the gate sluggish, but by early August, Berra somehow had them in first place. Yet they spent the rest of the month playing uninspired and inconsistent ball. The nadir came in mid-August with a four-game sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox that dropped them 4 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox. After the series concluded, the team bus was stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and everyone was feeling impatient.

It was then that one of the more memorable incidents of Berra’s stewardship took place. Infielder Phil Linz pulled out his harmonica and began to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Berra angrily yelled from the front of the bus for him to stop. There are different accounts of what happened next.

According to Mantle, Linz asked him what Berra had said. Mantle reportedly responded, “Play louder.” Linz obliged. When Yogi heard the harmonica again he stormed to the back of the bus, smacked the instrument away, and a heated argument ensued. When news of the confrontation came out, Houk told reporters he had no intention of speaking to Berra about the incident. With Berra’s job security already in danger, this appeared to make his firing a fait accompli.

The Yankees lost the next two games to Boston to fall six games behind but then came on with a rush. They finished August strongly and went 22 6 in September before clinching the pennant on October 3. Their opponent in the World Series was the St. Louis Cardinals, who had also rallied to claim a thrilling National League race.

It was a back-and-forth Series that came down to a seventh-game matchup between Cardinals ace Bob Gibson and 22-year-old Mel Stottlemyre. St. Louis broke through for three runs in the fourth inning with the aid of some sloppy New York defense and Gibson held on to clinch the Series.

Overall, Berra had done a good job with an aging team. Ford had a sore arm and Mantle’s bad legs were making it increasingly difficult for him to cover center field. It was Berra who pushed for Stottlemyre to be called up in mid-August, and the rookie came through with a 9 3 record. It is unlikely the Yankees would have won the pennant without the young right-hander. They had responded well after the Linz episode and Yogi had every intention of asking for a two-year extension. Instead, he was fired and offered a job as a scout.

Across town, the New York Mets had finished their third season of play and two former Yankees were running the show, general manager George Weiss and manager Casey Stengel. With wife Carmen advocating he break with the Yankees after their shabby treatment of him, Berra took Weiss’s offer and joined Stengel’s staff as a player-coach. He caught only two games and batted .222, playing his final game three days before his 40th birthday in May.

Berra stayed with the Mets even though he was passed over for manager on three occasions. The first was when Stengel retired after breaking his hip in August 1965 and the Mets — with Stengel’s input — chose Wes Westrum as his replacement. Salty Parker was tabbed as Westrum’s interim replacement when he resigned in the final week of the 1967 season. In October 1967 the Mets dealt for Senators manager Gil Hodges to replace Parker. Berra knew and respected Hodges and was not upset at being passed over in favor of his old Dodgers rival.

So Berra stayed on to coach under Hodges and won his 11th World Series ring in 1969 when the Miracle Mets upset the Baltimore Orioles. Berra’s opportunity to finally manage the Mets came under tragic circumstances. He replaced Hodges when the Mets manager died of a heart attack on April 2, 1972, after playing golf.

Although Berra had coached under Hodges for four years, he was a different type of manager. Hodges was a disciplinarian who took a more hands-on approach with his players. By contrast, Berra treated his players as adults and left the responsibility of being in shape to them, figuring that just being a ballplayer should be motivation enough to take your job seriously and be prepared. Unlike his predecessor, Berra did not platoon and kept the same lineup, a change the veterans found to their liking.

The Mets were 30-11 on June 1, but beset by injuries they staggered to a third-place finish. On a brighter note for Berra, that summer marked his induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

In 1973 injuries slowed the Mets again and there were rumors that Yogi might not make it through the summer. The team was in fifth place at the end of August, but as players regained their health, the Mets closed the gap in the tightly-bunched National League East.

On September 21 the Mets reached .500 and first place at the same time. With a victory over the Cubs on October 1, the Mets completed their remarkable comeback, winning the division title with just eighty-two victories. They defeated the highly-favored Cincinnati Reds in the National League Championship Series, making Berra only the second manager to win a pennant in each league (Joe McCarthy was the first). In the World Series, the Mets lost to the Oakland A’s in seven games.

The Mets fell to fifth place in 1974 with a 71 91 record, the club’s worst mark since 1966. Simmering trouble between Berra and left fielder Cleon Jones deepened in 1975 and when Jones refused to enter a game as a pinch-hitter, matters came to a head. Yogi refused to let Jones back on the team and demanded he be released. Chairman of the board M. Donald Grant did not want to cut Jones, but Berra remained firm and soon thereafter Jones was waived. The team was struggling and when it suffered a five-game losing streak in early August — culminating with a doubleheader shutout at home at the hands of the last-place Expos — Yogi was fired. Coach Roy McMillan was picked to replace him.

After a 12-year absence, Yogi returned to the Yankees when old friend and teammate Billy Martin picked him to be on his staff in 1976. With Berra on board at the reopened Yankee Stadium in 1976, the Yanks won their first pennant since 1964. Though they were swept in the Series by the Reds, Berra added two more World Series rings with back-to-back titles in 1977 and 1978. Berra was a constant on the Yankees’ coaching staff through the 1983 season despite several managerial changes. He got one more chance to manage when he was named Yankees manager for 1984.

New York struggled early in the season and there was no catching the Detroit Tigers, who cruised to the division title. Prior to the ’85 season, rumors swirled that owner George M. Steinbrenner wanted to fire his manager, but as spring training came around he declared Berra safe for the year. This was a season Yogi looked forward to because the Yankees had acquired his son Dale from Pittsburgh. Not only did Berra not survive the season but he was fired before the end of April with a record of 6 10. Upset that Steinbrenner broke his promise to let him manage the entire year, Berra stayed away from Yankee Stadium until reconciliation in 1999.

While his managing days were now over, his coaching career was not. Houston Astros owner John McMullen offered Berra the Astros’ manager position just three days after he was fired but he turned it down. At the end of the season, he did accept a coaching job with Houston under rookie manager Hal Lanier. Yogi stayed with the Astros through the 1989 season, ending his long and illustrious career in uniform. He had spent seventeen years as a player, two years as a player-coach, eighteen years as a coach, and seven years as a manager.

Berra remained not only a Yankees legend but an American icon as well. A museum dedicated to him opened in Montclair, New Jersey, his and Carmen’s home for more than half a century. There they raised their three sons: Larry, a former minor-league catcher; Tim, who played in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts in 1974; and Dale, who spent the last couple of months of his 11-year career with his dad on the 1987 Astros.

Yogi promoted numerous products — most famously Yoo-Hoo, the chocolate soft drink, and even had a cartoon bear named after him. The former catcher’s Yogi-isms are known worldwide. As one of the oldest and most recognizable Hall of Famers, Yogi Berra maintained a connection back to what many consider the Golden Era of baseball.

He died at the age of 90 on September 22, 2015.

Sources

DeVito, Carlo. Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2008.

Lang, Jack, and Peter Simon. The New York Mets: Twenty-Five Years of Baseball Magic. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1986.

Hernandez, Keith, and Matthew Silverman. Shea Good-bye: The Untold Story of the Historic 2008 Season. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2009.

Palmer, Pete, and Gary Gillette (editors). The 2005 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia. New York: Sterling, 2005.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ber0int-3

Author interview with Jerry Koosman, December 16, 2008.

Vida Rochelle Blue, Jr. was born on July 28, 1949, in Mansfield, Louisiana, a small town in the northern part of the state. He was the eldest of six children born to Vida Blue Sr. and Sallie Blue. His father was a laborer, and Blue remembered having everything he needed, although not everything that he wanted, as he grew up.1 He recalled Mansfield as a town that was still segregated, with a white high school and a black high school, DeSoto High, which Blue attended. As a youngster Blue played baseball and football with his peers. He was a good athlete, and could throw a baseball very hard when he was still quite young.

When he entered high school, the school did not have a baseball team. However, the principal recognized Blue’s talent and formed a school baseball team around him.2 Blue’s pitching prowess got the attention of scouts, including Kansas City A’s scout Ray Swallow. Despite Blue’s wildness – he once pitched a no-hitter and struck out 21 in a seven-inning game, but lost the game due to ten walks – his skill was evident. Blue was equally renowned as a high-school football player, starring as a quarterback. He was recruited by major colleges, including Notre Dame, Purdue, and Houston. Houston was recruiting Blue to play quarterback at a time when there were no African-Americans playing quarterback for major colleges. But Blue’s father died during his senior year in high school, and he decided that he needed to support his family. Baseball would provide that support sooner than football might. He was selected by the Kansas City Athletics in the second round of the 1967 draft and was offered a two-year contract a $12,500 per year. Although he later said he had a stronger desire to play football than baseball, Blue signed with the A’s.

Blue’s professional baseball career began in the Arizona winter instructional league in 1967. He pitched in nine games, striking out 26 batters while walking 22 in 34 innings. At age 18, he reported to spring training with the A’s for the 1968 season, then was assigned to the Burlington Bees of the Class A Midwest League. Blue started the season opener against the Quad City Angels and struck out 17 while giving up only three hits in eight innings. On June 19, in the first game of a doubleheader, Blue pitched a no-hitter in the seven-inning game. Throughout the season, Blue developed his curveball to go along with his dominant fastball, and improved his control. He finished with a record of 8-11 in 24 games, pitching 152 innings and striking out 231 while walking 80.3

For the 1969 season, Blue was assigned to Double-A Birmingham. He pitched in 15 Southern League games, going 10-3, with 112 strikeouts and 52 walks in 104 innings. Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley was anxious to bring Blue up to the majors, seeing him as his next pitching star. Blue was called up in July, and made his major-league debut on July 20, starting against the California Angels. He lost the game, pitching into the sixth inning and giving up home runs to Aurelio Rodríguez and Jim Spencer. He started three more games, including a win on July 29 over the New York Yankees, before being sent to the bullpen for the rest of the season. In his first major-league season, he finished with a record of 1-1, pitched 42 innings, struck out 24 while walking 18, and finished with an earned-run average of 6.64. Joe DiMaggio, then a coach with the A’s, said of Blue, “It was a shame to bring up a kid like that when he hasn’t pitched two pro years. He throws as hard as anybody, but he hasn’t learned to pitch yet.”4

Blue was sent to the Triple-A Iowa Oaks (American Association) to start the 1970 season. There he crossed paths with fellow pitcher Juan Pizarro. Blue learned a great deal from the veteran Pizarro, and later said that “[Pizarro] helped me more than any single person in my career.”5 With Pizarro’s help, Blue made adjustments in his delivery that helped him to achieve greatness. He was rested for a few weeks in the middle of the season because of an injury, but came back to finish the season. In 17 games, Blue put together a record of 12-3 while striking out 165 in 133 innings.

He was called up to the A’s in September, and started the first game of a Labor Day doubleheader against the White Sox in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Although he helped himself by hitting a three-run home run, he was knocked out of the game after giving up four runs in less than five innings. However, in his next outing he pitched a complete-game one-hitter against the Kansas City Royals, giving up a single to Pat Kelly with two outs in the eighth inning. After a lackluster start against the Milwaukee Brewers, Blue faced the division-leading Minnesota Twins on September 21. He was matched against Jim Perry, who would win 23 games and the Cy Young Award that season. Blue was the star that night, however, throwing a no-hitter and walking only one batter. Finley telephoned the locker room after the game to congratulate his new star pitcher and tell him he would receive a $2,000 bonus for the performance. Blue made two more starts that season and finished the season as one of the young star pitchers in baseball. Along with Catfish Hunter, Blue Moon Odom, and Rollie Fingers, the A’s pitching staff was one of the primary reasons the A’s would have high expectations for the next few seasons.

Although Blue made a spectacular splash in 1970, his 1971 season ranked among the great pitching seasons of all time. The A’s made the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 1931. It may have been their best season of the 1970s despite the fact that they won the World Series in the following three seasons, 1972-1974.

Blue pitched the 1971 season opener for the A’s in Washington against the Senators, and took the loss, pitching only into the second inning. He then won ten straight games, including nine complete games, and over the course of the season received the attention of the nation. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time. As a hard-throwing left-hander, the press compared Blue favorably to Sandy Koufax. However, this comparison was clearly difficult for Blue as Koufax was one of the greatest pitchers ever, and his prowess was nearly impossible to match. Veteran player Tommy Davis was one of Blue’s best friends and a roommate that season. Davis helped him to navigate through the heavy load of press requests, as well other demands for his time. Anything Blue did drew the attention of the press. For example, it became known that he carried two dimes in his pocket when he pitched. Although it was likely a charm Blue used in his pursuit of winning 20 games, he would not verify that to the press, which drew even more attention.

Blue’s start on July 9 against the California Angels was perhaps his best performance of the season. Although he did not get a decision in the game (he was going for his 18th win), he went 11 innings, gave up seven hits, no walks, and no runs while striking out 17 batters. The A’s eventually won the game 1-0 in 20 innings. In his next appearance, Blue started the All-Star Game for the American League. Although he gave up home runs to Henry Aaron and Johnny Bench, he was the winning pitcher, the youngest in All-Star Game history. Blue’s performance declined slightly in the second half of the season. He won his 20th game on August 7, and won his next two starts, raising the question of whether he could win 30 games for the season. But after number 22, he won only two and lost four of his last nine starts of the season. Surely he tired as the season wore on. The previous season, between the minors and majors, Blue pitched only 171 innings. In 1971, he pitched 312 innings. He finished the season with a record of 24-8 and a league-leading ERA of 1.82, and allowed the fewest runners per inning in the American League.

In the American League Championship Series, Blue faced off against the defending champion Baltimore Orioles and pitcher Dave McNally in Game One in Baltimore. The Orioles matched the A’s in wins, with 101, and the opening game would be a test of Blue. He had a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth inning, but gave up a run in that inning, and four more in the eighth to lose the game. The A’s were swept in three games, bringing an anticlimactic close to Blue’s magical season.

Despite his dominant regular-season performance, Blue had competition for the American League Cy Young Award. Detroit’s Mickey Lolich had surpassed Blue in wins with 25 to Blue’s 24, and in strikeouts, 308 to 301 (although Lolich pitched a staggering 376 innings). However, Blue edged out Lolich to win the Cy Young Award. Blue actually had an easier time winning the American League Most Valuable Player Award, finishing well ahead of teammate Sal Bando in the voting.

In 1971 Blue became involved in his first controversy with owner Charlie Finley. Finley offered Blue $2,000 to change his middle name legally to “True.” The always creative Finley saw the nickname as another way to market his pitching superstar. Blue declined the offer. He liked his name, thought it unique as it was, and had no desire to change it. Finley however would not let the idea rest. When Blue pitched, his name appeared on the scoreboard as “True Blue.” Finley instructed the A’s radio and television announcers to refer to Blue by the nickname. Blue asked them to stop, and also asked the team’s public-relations people not to refer to him as True Blue in press releases or to use the name on the scoreboard. This situation began the friction between Blue and Finley that blew up after the end of the season.

After his spectacular 1971 season, Blue demanded a pay raise. In 1971 he had made $14,750 in salary and $6,365.58 as his share of the postseason money, and also got a Cadillac as a bonus from Finley. Finley offered a raise, but not nearly what Blue wanted. Bob Gerst, an attorney representing Blue, presented an opening offer to Finley of $115,000. Later he told Finley that Blue would accept $85,000, which was a little less than the average salary paid to the top ten highest paid pitchers in baseball. Finley said he would pay Blue no more than $50,000.

Finley held firm, making the negotiations public and declaring that Blue would not be seeking so much if he had not hired a lawyer to represent him. Both sides made their case to the press and the public, and the acrimonious situation became referred to as “The Holdout.” The situation also served to elevate scrutiny of the reserve clause, which was under new attack by the players. Marvin Miller, director of the Players Association, was critical of Finley and the reserve system.

The holdout extended into spring training. On March 16 Blue and Gerst held a televised press conference to announce that Blue was withdrawing from baseball to take a position with the Dura Steel Products Company. While Blue actually did work for the company for a time, this was obviously an effort to combat Finley as it was clearly Blue’s desire to play baseball.

When the season started, Blue was placed on the restricted list, meaning he could not play for the first 30 days of the season. The major-league season was delayed ten days by a players strike in spring training, and opened on April 15 without Vida Blue. In late April Commissioner Bowie Kuhn organized a meeting between Finley, Blue, and Gerst. They reached an agreement on a $63,000 deal. However, Finley and Blue couldn’t agree on the wording of the announcement of the agreement. Finley did not want to appear as conceding anything, and insisted that he was paying Blue $50,000, an additional $5,000 signing bonus, plus $8,000 for Blue’s college fund. Blue wanted the deal to state what it was: payment of $63,000. Finally, on May 2, Blue signed for the package.6

Although Blue had missed only 18 playing days, he had not been conditioning and practicing as he would have during spring training and was not ready to pitch. He did not make his first appearance, which was only one inning long, until May 24. The 1972 season was tough for Blue. Although he did post a relatively good ERA of 2.80 and allowed only 165 baserunners in 151 innings, he finished with a disappointing record of 6-10.

His team, of course, won the American League West and faced the Detroit Tigers in the League Championship Series. Blue pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, pitching middle relief in Games One, Three, and Four. In each appearance, the games were in the balance, and Blue acquitted himself well. In the fifth and decisive game, Blue relieved Blue Moon Odom in the sixth inning of a 2-1 game, and pitched the final four innings for the save.

In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Blue pitched in relief in Game One, picking up the save, as well as in Games Three and Four. With the A’s leading three games to two, he started Game Six. He was not as sharp as a starter as he had been in relief, and allowed three runs, including a Johnny Bench home run, in 5⅔ innings, and took the loss. The A’s won Game Seven, 3-2.

In 1973 Blue returned to form as an All-Star-caliber pitcher. He went 20-9, with an ERA of 3.28. While he was not the power pitcher that he was in 1971, striking out 158 in 263⅔ innings, he was described by many as a smarter pitcher. A Sports Illustrated article quoted teammate Sal Bando as saying, “In the first part of 1971 Vida was overpowering everybody, now he is overmatching them.”7 The article described Blue’s pitching style: “He jogs out to his position and works with quick efficiency, throwing his left-handed darts out of a fluid, high-kicking motion.” Blue’s pitching repertoire included his highly regarded fastball as well as a good curveball and changeup.

For the first four months of the 1973 season, Blue pitched well, but was often inconsistent. He hit his stride in August, winning six straight starts, including four complete games. He put together another streak of five consecutive wins in September, helping to lead the A’s to a division win over the Kansas City Royals. In the American League Championship Series, Blue started Game One against the Baltimore Orioles’ ace, Jim Palmer. Blue did not make it out of the first inning, giving up three hits and two walks before being relieved by Horacio Piña. Baltimore got four runs in the inning, and won, 6-0.

Blue again faced Palmer in Game Four and pitched much better. Through six innings he shut out the Orioles, giving up only two hits as the A’s held a 4-0 lead. However, after getting one out in the seventh, Blue gave up a walk to Earl Williams, a single to Don Baylor, an RBI single to Brooks Robinson, and a three-run home run to Andy Etchebarren, tying the game, 4-4. He was relieved by Rollie Fingers, who went on to lose the game, 5-4.

In the World Series against the New York Mets, Blue’s postseason troubles continued. He started Games Two and Five, both against Jerry Koosman. In Game Two, a high-scoring affair, Blue gave up solo home runs to Cleon Jones and Wayne Garrett. He was relieved in the sixth inning after allowing two baserunners who would later score. The Mets went on to win the game 10-7 in 12 innings. In Game Five, Blue gave up two runs in 5⅔ innings and lost to Koosman who, with reliever Tug McGraw, shut out the A’s, 2-0. The A’s won the Series, softening the effects of Blue’s lackluster pitching.

In 1974, although his won-lost record was not as impressive as in 1973, Blue pitched equally well. He finished with a record of 17-15 and an ERA of 3.25. He was durable, making 40 starts, and struck out 174 batters in 282⅓ innings. The A’s faced off again against the Orioles in the AL Championship Series. With the series tied one game apiece, Blue started Game Three, matched up again against Jim Palmer. Unlike 1973, Blue pitched brilliantly. He pitched two-hit, no-walk shutout, striking out seven in the 1-0 win. In the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Blue started Games Two and Five, matched up against Don Sutton in both games. In Game Two he was bested by the Dodgers, giving up a run in the second and a two-run homer to Joe Ferguson in the sixth, taking the 3-2 loss. In Game Five Blue pitched five shutout innings before giving up two tying runs in the sixth. After allowing a walk in the seventh, Blue was relieved by Blue Moon Odom, who went on to win the game for the A’s.

The 1975 season was Vida Blue’s best since his masterful 1971 season. He started the All-Star Game and finished the season with a record of 22-11 and an ERA of 3.01. With the departure of Catfish Hunter to the Yankees, Blue and Ken Holtzman starred on the A’s pitching staff and helped to lead the A’s to their best record since 1971. Among his pitching highlights that season, Blue was the starter and one of four A’s pitchers to pitch a combined no-hitter against the California Angels on September 28, in the last game of the season. However, after three straight World Series championships, the A’s were swept in the AL Championship Series by the Boston Red Sox. Blue started Game Two against Reggie Cleveland. He gave up a two-run home run in the fourth inning to Carl Yastrzemski and two more hits before being relieved. Although he had ten more seasons in the major leagues, this was Blue’s last postseason appearance. Over his career, his postseason numbers were unexceptional, with a record of 1-5 and an ERA of 4.31 in 17 appearances.

The 1976 season was another controversial year in Blue’s career, although the controversy was not of his doing. Starting with the departure of Catfish Hunter to the Yankees before the 1975 season and the trade of Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman to the Orioles before the 1976 season, the dynastic A’s were being dismantled. Through mid-June, the A’s were in fifth place in the West Division, 11 games behind the Royals. Blue had a record of 6-6 in 15 starts, with an ERA of 3.09. Then, just a few hours before the June 15 trade deadline, Charlie Finley announced that he was selling Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million, and Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox for $2 million. However, the transactions were held up by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Kuhn and Finley had battled over a number of issues over the years, but this event brought their rancorous relationship to a breaking point. In retrospect, the attempted sale of these players was yet another step in the process of transitioning from the rule of the reserve system and moving toward free agency for players. It foreshadowed transactions in the years to come. Kuhn justified his concern with the transactions, stating: “The issue is whether the assignment of the contracts is appropriate or not under the circumstances. That’s the issue I have to wrestle with. I have to consider these transactions in the best interest of baseball.”8

On the 18th Kuhn announced that the sale of the three players would not be in the best interests of baseball, and disallowed them. Blue thus remained with the A’s. However, with all of the legal threats made by Finley after Kuhn’s ruling, Blue did not pitch again until July 2. Both he and the A’s improved over the remainder of the season. Blue finished 1976 with a record of 18-13 and an ERA of 2.35, and the A’s finished in second place, 2½ games behind the Royals.

In 1977 the team was truly dismantled, not by Finley’s actions, but by his inaction in signing his players who were now eligible for free agency. Joe Rudi, Rollie Fingers, and Sal Bando, who had all been with the team throughout the championship years, left the A’s via free agency. However, Blue had signed a three-year contract before the “trade” to the Yankees, and was ineligible for free agency. The 1977 season was a forgettable one for Blue. He led the league in losses with a record of 14-19, and had an ERA of 3.83. The A’s finished last in the American League West, behind even the expansion Seattle Mariners.

During 1978 spring training, Blue was traded to the San Francisco Giants, giving him a new opportunity. For Blue the A’s got seven players and $300,000. The new environment with the Giants and distance from Charlie Finley helped to restore his career as he became the ace of the Giants’ pitching staff. The Giants were a solid squad, and were in first place as late as August 15 before fading and finishing in third for the 1978 season. Blue started the All-Star Game for the National League, making him the first pitcher to start the game for both leagues. He had a very good year overall, going 18-10 with a 2.79 ERA. He finished third in the balloting for the NL Cy Young Award and was named The Sporting News National League Pitcher of the Year. Although he was only 28 years old and his career would extend on for several years, 1978 was Blue’s last great year. In 1979 he and the Giants saw a significant decline. Blue finished the season with a record of 14-14 and an ERA of 5.01 while the Giants finished 19½ games under .500 and in fourth place. In 1980 Blue rebounded a bit, with a record of 14-10 and an ERA of 2.97. In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he went 8-6 with a 2.45 ERA. It was the first full season in Blue’s career in which he did not win 14 or more games. He did pitch and get the win in the All-Star Game, becoming the only pitcher to win the game for each league.

On March 30, 1982, at the end of spring training, Blue was traded with another player to the Kansas City Royals for four players. He pitched pretty well for the Royals, with a record of 13-12 an ERA of 3.78, and led the pitching staff in strikeouts. He did fade at the end of the season. After throwing a one-hitter against the Mariners on September 13, Blue started four more games, losing his last three decisions while his ERA grew from 3.36 to 3.78. In 1983 Blue struggled mightily. After seven starts and a record of 0-3 he was relegated to the bullpen. He stayed in the pen and made spot starts, but did not pitch well in either role. With a record of 0-5 and an ERA of 6.01, he was released by the Royals on August 5.

At the time, Blue’s problems on the field paled in comparison with his problems off the field. Blue and Royals teammates Willie Wilson, Jerry Martin, and Willie Mays Aikens were implicated in buying cocaine. Blue pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and served 81 days in prison. On December 15, 1983, he was suspended for a year by Commissioner Kuhn. He was out for the 1984 season, then after being reinstated he signed with the Giants in the spring of 1985. Considering that he had missed a full season, Blue pitched respectably as both a starter and reliever, going 8-8 with a 4.47 ERA in 1985. In 1986, he returned to the Giants, pitching exclusively as a starter, and went 10-10 with an ERA of 3.27. Blue was a free agent after the season and signed with the A’s for 1987, but abruptly retired during spring training. It was rumored that he had tested positive for drugs and retired rather than face another possible drug suspension. In announcing his retirement, Blue suggested that he still struggled with drug addiction, stating, “I reached the point where I had to choose between baseball and life.”9 In an autobiography published in 2011, he indicated that he had struggled with substance abuse for much of his career: “Along with all the glory that I’d achieved, there was a growing darkness reaching for me. And the light began to dim as early as 1972.”10 It makes one wonder what his career might have been but for his struggle with drugs.

In 1992 Blue became eligible for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He received a modicum of support in the four years he was considered, with his highest vote total, 8.7 percent, occurring in 1993. He was automatically removed from the ballot in 1995 because of his low vote totals. Some have wondered why Blue did not receive more serious consideration for the Hall of Fame, considering that his career numbers are quite similar to those of his former teammate, Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter. Perhaps the negative impressions created by his drug problems led to his lack of consideration. Regardless of his worthiness for the Hall of Fame, Vida Blue was one of the top pitchers of his time. In his 2001 Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranked Blue as the 86th best pitcher in the history of baseball. Blue finished his career with 209 wins and 161 losses, 2,175 strikeouts, three 20-win seasons, a Cy Young Award, and a Most Valuable Player Award in his 17-year major-league career.

After retirement Blue retained a close association with baseball. He played in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989 and 1990. He became active in philanthropic work, and spoke to a number of audiences about his struggle with substance addiction. Most recently, Blue served as a television analyst for the San Francisco Giants.

Postscript

Vida Blue died at the age of 73 on May 6, 2023. The cause was complications stemming from cancer, according to a statement released by the Oakland Athletics.

Sources

Blue, Vida, as told to Marty Friedman, Vida Blue: A Life (Nashville, Indiana: Unlimited Publishing LLC, 2011).

Clark, Tom, Champagne and Baloney: The Rise and Fall of Finley’s A’s (New York: Harper and Row, 1976).

Clark, Tom, Baseball: The Figures (Berkeley, California: Serendipity Books, 1976).

Clark, Tom, Blue (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1974).

Clark, Tom, Fan Poems (Plainfield, Vermont: North Atlantic Books, 1976).

James, Bill, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001).

James, Bill, and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide To Pitchers (New York: Fireside, 2004).

Kuhn, Bowie, Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner (New York: Times Books, 1987).

Libby, Bill, and Vida Blue. Vida: His Own Story (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972).

Markusen, Bruce, A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s (Haworth, New Jersey: St. Johann Press, 2002).

Neyer, Rob, and Eddie Epstein, Baseball Dynasties (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000).

baseball-reference.com

Notes

1. Bill Libby and Vida Blue, Vida: His Own Story, 16.
2. Libby, 20.
3. Libby, 43-45.
4. Libby, 49.
5. Libby, 51.
6. Libby, 231-248.
7. Ron Fimrite, “Vida’s Down With the Growing-Up Blues,” Sports Illustrated. September 10, 1973.
8. Ron Fimrite, “Bowie Stops Charlie’s Checks,” Sports Illustrated, June 28, 1976.
9. Ron Fimrite, “Oakland A’s Pitcher Vida Blue,” Sports Illustrated, May 19, 1997.
10. Vida Blue, as told to Marty Friedman, Vida Blue: A Life, 55.

Barry Lamar Bonds was born on July 24, 1964, in Riverside, California, to Bobby Bonds and Patricia Howard. The teenagers had grown up next door to each other, Bobby the star athlete and Pat the beauty, and married at 17. Bobby came from a very successful sporting family; his sister, Rosie, competed in the 1964 Olympics as a hurdler, and his brother, Robert, was drafted by both the National Football League and the American Football League before their merger. A year after Bobby and Pat’s wedding, Barry was born, and two weeks after that Bobby signed a professional contract with the San Francisco Giants. He went on to a prolific major-league career, showing both power and speed while playing for eight teams in a 14-year career.

While Bobby was in the minor leagues, Barry lived with his mother in Riverside, where they welcomed a second son, Ricky, a year after Barry, and a few years later a third boy, Bobby Jr. The family also adopted a girl, Cheryl. The children were raised by the metaphorical village, their mother being helped by friends and family around town while Bobby was away playing baseball.

In 1968 Bobby was called up to the major leagues, making his debut with the Giants in June. He quickly established himself, and soon his family came visiting, Barry making his first appearance in a major-league locker room. Bobby and teammate Willie Mays had become close, and Bobby asked Mays to be Barry’s godfather.

In 1969 Bobby moved his family to San Francisco, to the almost exclusively white area of San Carlos. Barry was usually one of few black children where he lived and at the schools he attended. Later in life he referred to himself as having come from Los Angeles, in an attempt to gain some credibility, but black players who had grown up in the inner city would ridicule him for it.

In school Barry was an average student, but his athletic ability dominated people’s perception of him. Some people considered him a bully on the sports fields, although one of his teachers said that wasn’t the case, but rather that “whatever he was playing – Four Squares or dodgeball – he played to win.”1

Bobby was traded to the New York Yankees at the end of the 1974 season, just as Barry was beginning his own baseball career. As a 10-year-old, Barry awed the adults in the San Carlos Little League, where he played for the Lions Club Yankees under coach Lloyd Skjerdal. “It was as if he had appeared out of nowhere – just showed up one day, ready to be a star,” said Skjerdal.2 Barry hit over .400 each season in Little League, showing both the talent and cockiness that would follow him throughout his career.

In 1978 Barry entered Junipero Serra High School, which was well known for its athletic program, producing a number of future MLB and NFL stars, like Jim Fregosi and Tom Brady. Barry’s high-school coach, Tim Walsh, said, “He wanted to be great. A lot of kids just wanted to play. That wasn’t enough for him.”3 Bonds played basketball and football in high school for a couple of seasons, and played well in both, but it was clear that baseball was his preferred sport. He led the league in home runs, and in his senior year he hit .467 with14 homers and 42 RBIs. But he never studied, he was late for practice, and showed up other teams on the field (watching his home runs, for example, something he would continue to do in the major leagues). As scouts came sniffing around, this behavior began damaging his reputation, with scouts noting his arrogance, one even writing “Asshole” under “Attitude/Personality” in his report.4

Bobby had retired from professional baseball, his career derailed by alcoholism, which had turned a number of teams away. Thus the news that he would act as Barry’s adviser in the coming 1982 draft caused Barry’s stock to drop. An expected first-rounder, he fell to the Giants in the second round. They offered Barry $70,000 to sign, but when Bobby said he wanted $5,000 more, the Giants said no thanks, and Barry headed to college.

Barry attended Arizona State, one of the powerhouses of college baseball. A starter as a freshman, he led the team with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs, and dominated the College World Series, though the team finished third. Barry didn’t make friends easily; his college coach, Jim Brock, said: “I don’t think he ever figured out what to do to get people to like him.”5 Bonds in fact made enemies with his attitude, skipping or being late for practice, ignoring team rules, and generally acting as the big man on campus. Brock, trying to settle things in 1984, told the team to vote on whether Bonds should stay on the team. Almost all the players voted against Bonds, which surprised Brock since he had expected them to want to keep his playing ability. Switching his plan, he told them that he wouldn’t remove Bonds since their vote had not been unanimous.6 The team went back to the College World Series, where it lost again, but Bonds set a College World Series record with hits in seven straight at-bats.

Bonds spent a short period in Alaska in the summer of 1983 after signing with the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. Because of school commitments, he never played a game in Alaska. He suited up but did not play in the Alaska Baseball League tournament, then played six games for the Goldpanners in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas, where he went 4-for-18 with no home runs.

In 1985 Arizona State suffered severe penalties for NCAA violations; some players were suspended and the team was banned from postseason play. While the team struggled, Bonds got even better, hitting .368-23-66 and being named a second-team All-American. He decided he would turn pro after his junior year. In June 1985 Bonds was drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he signed a couple of days later for a bonus of $150,000. The Pirates sent him to play for Prince William in the Class A Carolina League, where Bonds performed well, hitting .299 with 13 home runs. This earned him a promotion to the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League the next season. Bonds enjoyed his time in Hawaii, spending days on the beaches and nights in the ballpark, but he wasn’t there long, hitting .311 with 7 home runs in 44 games.

With the Pirates struggling at 17-24, Bonds was called up and made his major-league debut on May 30, 1986, against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Three Rivers Stadium. Looking to use his speed, manager Jim Leyland inserted Bonds into the leadoff spot, where he remained for the next four years. His debut was a day to forget for Bonds, as he went 0-for-5 with a walk and three strikeouts, and the Pirates lost in 11 innings. Bonds got his first hit the next day, leading off the first inning with a double off Rick Honeycutt – and was then immediately picked off second by Honeycutt.

In one of those scheduling oddities, Bonds ended up with a hit before his major-league debut. The Pirates and Cubs had played on April 20, but the game was suspended in the 14th inning with the score tied. The game was made up on August 11, and Bonds, now with the Pirates, pinch-hit in the 17th inning, hitting a single that scored two runs (one of them on an outfield error), which proved to be the difference in the score. Because major-league rules consider the date of a suspended game to be the date on which it began, Bonds is credited with a hit and an RBI on a date more than a month before his official debut on May 30.

It didn’t take Bonds long to show his power, his first major-league home run coming on June 4 in Atlanta off Craig McMurtry, a day that ended with four hits and four RBIs. It took a few more days to get a stolen base, when on June 7 Bonds stole twice against Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets.

Bonds ended the season hitting just .223 and striking out 102 times. But he showed flashes of his future self, with 16 home runs and 36 steals. This was enough for Bonds to finish sixth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting.

Bonds kept improving with the Pirates, and the team followed. Leading off and running wild, he continued to show the combination of power and speed that he had shown in his rookie year. In 1987 the team traded for Andy Van Slyke to play center field, pushing Bonds to left. This was an acknowledgment that Bonds had not been a good center fielder in his rookie season, seemingly ignoring coaching and playing shallow, trying not to show how weak his throwing arm was. The problem with that was that balls hit over his head could roll forever.

Van Slyke won his first Gold Glove after the 1988 season, and Bonds admired the trophy Van Slyke received. “Next year I’m gonna win me one of these,” he said. It actually took him two years, but in 1990 he began a streak of winning eight Gold Gloves in nine seasons. Van Slyke said that Bonds had felt he hadn’t needed to be a good outfielder, but once he decided to, “he willed himself to become great.”7

In June 1987 the Pirates traveled to Montreal for a series with the Expos, and Bonds went to a local strip club, where he met the bartender, Susann “Sun” Branco. After a telephone courtship for the rest of the season, Sun moved to Phoenix to live with Barry at the end of the year, and in February 1988 they were married in Las Vegas.

Leading off for the Pirates, Bonds got better and better each year. He was hitting for power, he was stealing regularly, and was showing all-round ability in everything he did. He wasn’t liked, though, the working-class city of Pittsburgh occasionally seeing him making little effort, while players like Van Slyke busted on every play. Bonds was almost traded a couple of times, the Pirates making it clear that if they got a good package they would make him available. But he stayed, eventually moving in 1990 to fifth in the batting order, behind Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla, where the three would spearhead a powerful middle of the order and bring success to the Pirates. “He’s maturing as a player and he’s coming of age,” said Leyland.8

Bonds’ success gleaned personal rewards as well: his first of 14 All-Star games, and his first MVP award for a 1990 season in which he hit .301-33-114. “I decided this year was time for me to get the respect I deserved for myself,” he said.9 He finished a close second in the MVP race to Terry Pendleton of the Braves the next year, many speculating that Bonds’ personality and relationship with the media cost him enough votes for him to lose the race. He made sure that wouldn’t matter the following year, winning the MVP again in 1992 with another dominant season.

Bonds led the Pirates to three postseasons in a row in 1990-92. In those three playoff series Bonds hit just .191 in 20 games, with one home run, coming in a 13-4 win. In one of the iconic moments in postseason history, the Atlanta Braves beat the Pirates in the 1992 NLCS, the final play of the series being Francisco Cabrera’s hit to left field that scored Sid Bream with the winning run, Bonds’ throw home just too late.

In high school, in college, and in the major leagues, Bonds’ performance when the season was on the line was nowhere near his regular-season performance. This was because the opponents were much tougher, and because those teams, recognizing that Bonds was the biggest threat, generally pitched around him. His postseason mediocrity led Pirates fans to say good riddance when he left, using anything to mask their disappointment at their star player leaving.

As his time in Pittsburgh wore down, it became clear that the small-market Pirates would not be able to re-sign Bonds to the big contract the market could give him. He entered free agency as the premier player on the market, but found himself not as wanted as he thought he would be. His personality and his disdain for both fans and media led some teams to think he would be more trouble than he was worth. They were wrong, of course; it has been shown many times in history that performance on the field can far outweigh actions off it. But still, Bonds’ agent, Dennis Gilbert, had to call around and beg teams to make an offer. Their lukewarm response bothered Bonds, but his agent mentioned any kind of contact to the media, telling journalists how many teams were interested in his player. This ended up becoming somewhat of a joke within baseball circles.

Bonds’ demands to be the highest paid player in baseball were more than even the Yankees could afford. But there was a new owner in San Francisco, and as many new owners do, Peter Magowan wanted to make a splash. Splash he did, signing Bonds to what was then the biggest contract in baseball, for six years and $43 million. Bonds was returning to his childhood home. “Every time I step on that field … I know my godfather’s in center field and my dad’s in right field,” he said.10

Immediately Bonds alienated Giants fans, though, being given Mays’ retired uniform number 24. (He quickly changed to 25 when there was an outcry.) That alienation didn’t last long, as he won the fans over with his performance on the field.

For the rest of his career, even when it seemed as if the rest of the baseball world had turned against him, Bonds was loved in San Francisco. He was theirs and they were his, whether he returned their love or not.

Bonds started with a bang in San Francisco, leading the league with 46 home runs and 123 RBIs (his only RBI title) in 1993, and finishing fourth with a .336 batting average, establishing himself as a legitimate Triple Crown contender. He won his second MVP in a row. But then things changed. Bonds still performed at an outstanding level, but he had set the bar so high that when he didn’t reach those heights he lost MVP votes. For example, in 1995 he finished 12th in the voting, when WAR (wins above replacement) suggest that he was the second-best player in the league, behind Greg Maddux (who finished third in the MVP balloting). Unless he was having a truly dominant season, it seemed, voters were not giving him the benefit of the doubt. “Once you’ve won it a few times, the standards for you are very high,” he said11

In 1996 Bonds became just the second player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season. (Jose Canseco in 1988 had been the first.) Bonds accomplished the 30-30 feat five times, matching his father, Bobby, as the only two players to have five 30-30 seasons. On three other occasions Barry was close, each time having enough home runs but twice finishing with 29 steals and once with 28.

In 1993, Bonds’ first season in San Francisco, the team had made a huge leap, going from 72 wins to 103, but missing out on the playoffs as Atlanta won 104 games that year. The Giants spent the next few years struggling, but setting things up for a run from 1997 to 2004 in which they finished first or second in their division each year.

In 1998 Bonds got one of the ultimate honors: being intentionally walked with the bases loaded, just the fifth time that had ever happened in the major leagues, and the first since 1944. On May 28, with the Arizona Diamondbacks leading 8-6 with two outs in the ninth, Buck Showalter ordered Bonds walked. The next batter lined out to end the game. This was a huge sign of respect for Bonds, and intentionally walking him (albeit without the bases loaded) was a trend that would grow to historic proportions.

Bonds was a very private person, not letting many people into his inner circle even when he was a child. Stories abound about his social interaction, both with teammates and others. He reportedly did things in private for many people, not wanting any publicity about them. Other reports talk of him yelling at youngsters seeking his autograph. In the clubhouse he was disliked, a loner whom other people didn’t get on with at all. His attempts at humor often fell flat, tending to insult others, and when others played pranks on Bonds, he tended to take it as an insult.

Bonds would use the media when he needed to but would ignore them or be rude to them when he didn’t. He spent much of his career telling reporters “tomorrow” when they asked for an interview, but of course tomorrow never came. Much of this attitude came from his father’s career; Barry had seen how the media had treated Bobby when he fell into drinking and wasting his talent. Bobby had instilled the idea that the media would raise you up when they wanted to and tear you down when they were done with you, and Barry took it to heart. He regularly had people in the locker room protecting him from reporters trying to approach, and would often blow off prearranged meetings or interviews.

All these stories paint a picture of a lonely man, one with a desperate need to be loved and admired for his performance but unable to open up and let others in and see beyond the player. Bonds was admired for his feats, but never loved by fans around the league like his contemporaries, people like Ken Griffey Jr. and Sammy Sosa.

Bonds had divorced Sun in 1995, and married Liz Watson in 1998. They had known each other since before Barry married Sun, a friendship that Sun was not happy about. But Bonds had another life on the road, spending many road trips in the company of a girlfriend, Kimberley Bell. That affair would become public knowledge in 2005, causing Bonds much trouble both personally and in legal matters.

Bonds had a son, Nikolai, in 1990 and a daughter, Shikari, in 1991 with Sun. The children did not spend much time with him, living with their mother after they divorced. They would spend a couple of weeks during the summer with their father, but were never close. Bonds had another daughter, Aisha, in 1999 with Liz. He and Liz separated a couple of times, then divorced in 2010.

After the 1998 season things changed for Bonds. He had just watched Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battle for the home-run record, and watched the baseball world’s attention turn to them and away from him. Bonds always wanted to be in the limelight. He changed himself and achieved a new level of greatness because of this. Some say it was a strong work ethic that brought him through. Many others allege he did it illegally, that this was the period when he began using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to boost himself to new heights.

In the winter following the 1998 season, Bonds began working with a trainer called Greg Anderson. Anderson was a low-level steroids user and dealer, hanging out in local gyms. Bonds began exercising with him, lifting weights and working out in an intense fashion. Anderson also introduced him to various steroids, which Bonds took on a regular basis. He showed up in spring training in 1999 having put on a lot of muscle weight. On first seeing him, teammate Charlie Hayes said to a reporter “Did you see my man? … He was huge!”12 But the rapid muscle gain came at a cost; in early 1999 Bonds suffered a torn triceps from stressing his elbow so much. He required surgery and eventually missed a third of the season.13

Bonds set a career high for home runs in 2000, with 49, but that was just a warmup. The 2001 season began with an Opening Day home run, followed shortly by six straight games with home runs. On April 17 he joined the 500-home-run club with a blast into San Francisco Bay off Terry Adams of the Dodgers. In May he hit nine home runs in six games, including three in a game in Atlanta. After a slow July (six home runs) he ended the month with 45, not far off the pace to attack McGwire’s record 70. Bonds passed his own career high on August 11 with his 50th home run of the season, and kept on going.

He had 63 home runs on September 11, when events at the World Trade Center shocked the world and put baseball on hold. It could have been the end of Bonds’ chase for McGwire’s record if the ensuing games had been canceled, but instead they were postponed and baseball resumed a week later. Bonds resumed hitting home runs, and was up to 69 with a week left in the season, when the Giants went to Houston for a three-game series. The Astros were fighting for a playoff spot, and were determined to not let Bonds beat them. They pitched around him all series long, to the ire of their own fans, who had filled the park in expectation. It wasn’t until the ninth inning of the third game of the series, on October 4, with the Giants leading 9-2, that the Astros finally pitched to Bonds. Bonds homered off Wilfredo Rodriguez to tie McGwire for the single-season record. Back at home against the Dodgers the next day, Bonds took care of things quickly, homering in the first and third innings off Chan Ho Park to break the record, and adding another on the last day of the season to set the single-season record at 73.

Bonds was rewarded with the National League MVP for 2001, the first player to win four MVPs. He also signed a new contract with the Giants in January 2002, a five-year, $90 million deal that astounded people because he was 37 years old. With his age and related injuries – a painful degenerative disk in his back – no one expected that he would be playing by the end of the contract.

By now Bonds was feared, perhaps the most dangerous hitter of all time. He was being intentionally walked at all-time record rates, his 68 intentional walks in 2002 blitzing Willie McCovey’s record of 45 in a season. Two years later, in 2004, Bonds was intentionally walked an incredible 120 times, out of a total of 232 walks, which contributed to his reaching base 376 times that season, just three behind Babe Ruth’s record. Teams would rather put Bonds on base and take their chances with anyone else. The Giants reaped the reward, Bonds scoring over 100 runs for them every season from 1993 through 2004 except for strike-shortened 1994 and injury-shortened 1999. Because of all the walks, he usually ended up scoring more runs than he drove in, a factor in his winning just one RBI title, in 1993. Bonds would probably have broken the career RBI record if he hadn’t been walked so much (and spent the first four years of his career leading off). Still, his 1,996 RBIs were fourth all-time when he retired, not far behind Hank Aaron’s 2,297.

Bonds was well rewarded for his performances in the early 2000s. In 2000 he finished second in the MVP race to teammate Jeff Kent, who hit .334-33-125 compared with Bonds’ .306-49-106, and got 22 first-place votes to Bonds’ 6. It is reasonable to say that Kent benefited from hitting behind Bonds in the lineup, and by most advanced statistical measures Bonds was the better player (WAR of 7.7. against 7.2 for Kent).

Bonds then was voted the MVP in four straight seasons, 2001-04. No other player ever won more than two in a row, and Bonds’ total of seven MVPs outstripped everyone else; the next highest total, shared by nine players, is three. Bonds was simply dominating the league. He won two batting titles, hitting .370 in 2002 and .362 in 2004. In 2001 he barely missed breaking Ruth’s single-season OPS record, then he broke it in 2002, and again in 2004.

There are hardly words to describe how dominant Bonds was in that period. Debates will always rage, but statistically Bonds’ efforts from 2000 to 2004 can be claimed as the greatest five-year period ever for a hitter.

But for all Bonds’ personal success, team success proved elusive. In the 15 seasons he played for the Giants, they won just three division titles (1997, 2000, 2003), losing the National League Division Series each time, and Bonds struggled in all three series. In 2002, their most successful postseason while Bonds was there, they finished second in the National League West, and with their wild-card entry into the playoffs, Bonds finally hit well in the postseason, as the Giants beat the Braves in the NLDS, then the Cardinals in the NLCS.

So Bonds got his one appearance in the World Series spotlight that year against the California Angels, and did all he could, having one of the greatest World Series of all time. In his first World Series at-bat he homered leading off the second inning of Game One, and the Giants held on to win 4-3. In Game Two he walked his first three at-bats, but Giants pitching couldn’t keep the Angels down, and even though Bonds hit a solo homer with two out in the top of the ninth to bring the score to 11-10, it merely staved off defeat when the next batter popped out to end the game.

Bonds put on another display of power in Game Three with a homer in the fifth inning, making it three straight games with a home run, but this time the Angels were far ahead and it didn’t make a difference. By now the Angels had awakened to the fact that Bonds was at last a postseason threat, and intentionally walked him three times in Game Four, although the rest of the Giants did enough to squeak out a 4-3 win. They pitched to Bonds again in Game Five (he hit two doubles), but only because the Giants ran away with the game, 16-4. The Series returned to Anaheim with the Giants leading three games to two, and again Bonds was worked around. He homered leading off the sixth in Game Six, but was walked twice and the Giants bullpen blew a 5-0 lead to lose 6-5. And in Game Seven Bonds was quiet, with a single and a walk, but so were the rest of the Giants and the Angels were 4-1 winners to clinch their first World Series title.

Bonds’ one shot at a ring was gone, despite having by far his best postseason ever. He had hit .471 in the World Series with four home runs (tied with several others for second all-time), 6 RBIs and 8 runs scored, with seven of his record 13 walks being intentional (and most of the rest effectively intentional as well).

Off the field, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon. In September 2003 federal agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). Run by Victor Conte, BALCO had for years been supplying both legal and illegal performance-enhancing drugs to athletes across the United States. Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, had introduced him to Conte, and when Conte was questioned, federal agents saidhe admitted that he had supplied various steroids to Bonds. Over the next several months story after story would come out about the allegations against Bonds and many other athletes. In November Bonds won his sixth MVP Award, and at the ensuing press conference, asked about PEDs, he denied any knowledge of them. But in December he appeared before a federal grand jury to answer questions under oath about the relationship he had with BALCO.

A year later, in December 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle printed the supposedly secret grand-jury testimony. Bonds had told the grand jury that he used steroids known as the “clear” and the “cream,” but that his trainer, Anderson, told him they were flaxseed oil and rubbing balm.14 A few months later, Kimberly Bell, Bonds’ longtime girlfriend, told the media that she had seen Bonds using steroids. The case against him was damning.

A longtime knee injury had gotten serious enough that Bonds had required multiple surgeries over the winter of 2004-05. He remained in pain and recovery for much of the 2005 season, and it wasn’t until September that he got back on the field for the last couple of weeks of the season. In 2006 he was almost a shadow of his former self, hitting .270 with 26 home runs – he passed Babe Ruth’s 714 in May – but still receiving plenty of walks of both kinds. He came back again in 2007, with the all-time home-run record in his sights. On August 4 in San Diego he tied Hank Aaron with home run number 755, and three days later, on the 7th, he homered off Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals to break the record. San Francisco celebrated wildly, as the city did most things Bonds, but the rest of the baseball world was angry that a cheater had broken the sport’s most illustrious record. “It will be the most challenged piece of sport history in memory,” one writer wrote15. The widespread belief was that the record was tainted by steroids, and many had moved on to other things, including baseball itself, which was beginning to crack down on the problem. Bonds celebrated, but after taking the record to 762 by season’s end, discovered that the Giants were not interested in re-signing him. He worked out and was ready to play, but following an indictment for lying to a grand jury he was a pariah in baseball, and no team would take a chance on him.

Bonds finished with many all-time records to his name, not just the home-run title. The all-time leader in walks and intentional walks. (His 688 far exceeded runner-up Aaron’s 293.) Third in runs scored, fourth in total bases, fifth in RBIs. All-time leader in games played as a left fielder. Perhaps most amazingly, most telling about his all-round talent, was that of the eight players with at least 300 stolen bases and 300 home runs, Bonds is not merely the only one with 400 of each but also of 500 each. He was far and away the greatest combination threat of power and speed ever.

Bonds may have expected in his retirement to receive many accolades, and enjoy a long and happy life, but things didn’t work out that way. Legal trouble and baseball trouble would follow.

During his grand-jury testimony in the BALCO case, Bonds had made statements that were ambiguous about receiving steroid injections from Anderson. The prosecutors decided that he was evading their questions, and in November 2007 he was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. In 2011 Bonds was convicted on the obstruction charge but the jury deadlocked on the perjury charges. He was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, along with community service and probation. However, after a series of appeals, in 2015 the conviction was overturned. A federal appeals court decided that although his answers were rambling and evasive, he did not lie on the stand. When prosecutors declined to continue their appeals, the criminal case was over.

That hadn’t helped Bonds’ case with baseball voters, though. His name went on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2013, and with Roger Clemens also on the ballot, the issue of PEDs climbed into the spotlight. The thought of many was that players who used PEDs should never be allowed into the Hall of Fame, and both Bonds and Clemens suffered in the voting, each receiving just over a third of votes from baseball writers. In the following years his vote total remained very similar, not moving much in either direction. For a player who was almost certainly Hall of Fame level even before he began using steroids, Bonds was clearly being punished by voters. It remained to be seen whether that sentiment would fade, or whether Bonds would be kept out of the Hall of Fame for many years to come.

In recent years Bonds appeared to be trying to change his public image. He regularly posted on social media about events in his life, and tried to present a positive image. Whether that would be sufficient to sway any Hall of Fame voters was doubtful; decades of treating the media badly are difficult to unravel in a short period. Bonds could spend his life beloved in San Francisco but otherwise disliked in public and in baseball, a sad ending for a career that promised so much and delivered on it all, aided perhaps by steroids but also by a strong drive to be the best.

Last revised: December 1, 2015

Photo credits

Barry Bonds, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

Louis Boudreau Jr. was born on July 17, 1917, in Harvey, Illinois, to Louis Boudreau Sr., of French descent, and Birdie (nee Henry) Boudreau, of Jewish and German descent. Although his mother was Jewish, Lou and his older brother Albert were raised as Christians. His father was a machinist and a semipro baseball player.1

Lou’s father, a good third baseman for a semipro team in Kankakee, Illinois, instilled in Lou a gift for leadership, the drive to excel, and confidence in his ability. He would take young Lou Jr. out to the park and hit him 100 ground balls and count the errors he made. Lou’s parents were divorced when he was seven, and Lou split time with his parents thereafter. His mother married again, to a man who didn’t like sports and paid scant attention to Lou.

Lou went to Thornton Township High School, a school without a baseball team. Boudreau instead became a very good basketball player, an excellent passer and playmaker. At Thornton he met his wife-to-be, Della DeRuiter. They married in 1938.

In 1936, Boudreau entered the University of Illinois, where he majored in physical education and captained both the basketball and baseball teams. Boudreau led Illinois to the Big Ten basketball title in 1937, and was a 1938 All-American. Basketball took a huge toll on his ankles, eventually leading to arthritis. Lou had to tape them before every game of his baseball career. The ankles also earned him a 4-F classification during World War II.

As a college baseball player he averaged about .270 and .285. But all that practice with his dad fielding ground balls showed as he fielded his third base position excellently. The Cubs and Indians both pursued Boudreau and he also fielded offers to act in a movie and to play for $150 a game with Caesar’s All-Americans, a Hammond, Indiana, team in the National Basketball League, a forerunner of the NBA,. But Boudreau felt he owed his loyalty to Cleveland’s Cy Slapnicka, who had done his best to help him maintain his amateur status at Illinois.

The Indians assigned Boudreau in 1938 to a Class C club in the Western Association: he sat on the bench for a week and then was shipped to Cedar Rapids in the Class B Three-I League. After hitting .290 in 60 games, the third baseman was called up to the Indians. He sat on the bench observing Hal Trosky, Ken Keltner, Jeff Heath, Earl Averill, and a young pitcher named Bob Feller. Boudreau played first base and went to bat twice, grounding out and walking.

In 1939, Lou trained with the Indians in New Orleans. Manager Oscar Vitt advised Boudreau to move to the shortstop position, because young Ken Keltner looked to have a lock on third base. Ex-big leaguer Greg Mulleavy, the regular shortstop at Buffalo, was kind enough to take Boudreau under his wing and teach him the job. Lou batted .331 with 17 homers and 57 RBIs in 117 games , earning an August 7,recall to the parent club. Boudreau played 53 games at shortstop for the Indians in 1939, batting .258 with 19 runs batted in. Lou was now in the big leagues for good, but unfortunately lost his father that year. Lou Sr. never got to see his son play in the majors.

The 1940 season looked promising but would be tumultuous for the Cleveland Indians. Feller opened the season with a 1-0 no-hitter, and the Indians were in contention for the pennant all season long. But the season was marred by a rebellion of Cleveland ballplayers (not including Boudreau) who were unhappy with Vitt, who’d been known to bad-mouth his players with derogatory remarks. The 10 players, thereafter known as the “Crybabies.” complained to owner Alva Bradley in early June. Nothing was done and Vitt remained the manager for the rest of the season. The story hit the newspapers immediately, but the Indians continued to play well and went into Detroit on August 22 with a 5 ½ game lead over the second-place Tigers.

Boudreau kept his views to himself, but later wrote, “Had I been asked my opinion, I would have urged them to either wait till the end of the season, or to meet with Vitt himself and not with Bradley. But I wasn’t asked, I didn’t volunteer and the veterans did what they felt they had to do.”2 The Indians didn’t win the pennant that year, losing to Detroit by one game. Boudreau had a good season despite all the turmoil, batting .295, clouting nine homers, and driving in 101 runs. Defensively Lou led all shortstops in the American League.

In 1941, Lou was back at shortstop under popular manager Roger Peckinpaugh. Despite the switch, neither the Indians nor Boudreau fared as well as in 1940. Lou’s average fell to .257 with 10 homers and 56 runs batted in, though he led the league with 45 doubles.

After just a single season, Peckinpaugh was promoted to general manager and while a search was underway for a new manager, Lou sent a letter requesting an interview. On November 24, Lou presented his case. Initially, the vote was 11-1 against him, but George Martin, president of Sherwin Williams Paint Company, felt that a young man would be more desirable at this point than the tried and true. The directors finally agreed on Boudreau, backing him up with a staff of older and more experienced coaches: Burt Shotton, Oscar Melillo and George Susce.

Bradley introduced Lou to the press as the new manager, and one wag wrote, “Great! The Indians get a Baby Snooks for a manager and ruin the best shortstop in baseball.” The general feeling around the city was that Boudreau would not be able to handle both being a ballplayer and a manager, but the press was generally kind.

Soon after Boudreau’s hiring, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Two days later Bob Feller joined the Navy, and Boudreau, like his counterparts on the other teams, spent the next four years not knowing who their players were going to be. .

Not all of the Indians were happy with the new manager. During his first spring training, Boudreau had three players walk into his office (Ben Chapman, Gee Walker and Hal Trosky) to tell him they had asked for the job and could do a better job than he would. During some conferences on the mound, veteran pitchers would give Boudreau a variation of “Listen, college boy, you play shortstop and I’ll do the pitching.” Especially troublesome was Jim Bagby Jr., who Boudreau considered “the nastiest pitcher [I] ever played behind.” When Boudreau would boot a ball, he would hear razzing about going back to college to learn how to play shortstop.

Without Feller, the 1942 Indians went 75-79, 28 games behind the Yankees. Playing in 147 games, Boudreau batted .283, batting in 58 runs. Boudreau felt that the hardest part of his new job was having the sense of when to take a pitcher out. Though he was still learning, he proved able to manage the club and still play good ball at shortstop.

The 1943 club finished 82-71, still 15 ½ games out of first place at season’s end. Boudreau played in 152 games and batted .286 with 154 hits and 67 runs batted in. He led all league shortstops in fielding, and made his fourth All-Star team.

In 1944, the Indians slumped to 72-82, though Boudreau personally had a fine season, leading league batters at .327 and knocking in 67 runs. The next season he suffered a broken ankle and hit .306 in just 97 games, and the Indians finished 73-72. More importantly, the war ended in late summer, and Boudreau looked forward to the 1946 season and the return of real major-league ball.

With all the stars now returned to baseball in 1946, the fans turned out en masse. As usual Ted Williams was tearing up the league. The Indians went into Boston on July 14, for a doubleheader. In the opening game Boudreau went 5-for-5 with four doubles and a homer. Williams went 4-for-5 with three homers, all to right field. The Tribe lost the game, 11-10. Between games Boudreau came up with the famous Williams shift. When Williams came to bat with the bases empty, Boudreau yelled, “Yo,” and all the fielders shifted to the right side of the field. Williams laughed, got back in the box, and promptly grounded out to Boudreau, playing in the second baseman’s position. It wasn’t the first time a shift had been employed, but against a star of Ted Williams’ magnitude, it captured attention. 3

The Indians went 68-86 in 1946. Boudreau hit .293, with 151 hits, six homers, and 62 runs batted in. On June 21, 1946, Bill Veeck became the principal owner of the Cleveland Indians, and vowed to make changes. The Tribe improved to 80-74 in 1947, and Boudreau batted .307, banging out 165 hits with four homers, and 67 RBIs. The nucleus was there and Bill Veeck turned loose his bloodhounds, sniffing out trades that would turn things around. First they acquired second baseman Joe Gordon from the Yankees, along with third baseman Eddie Bockman. The Indians added Gene Bearden to the pitching staff and Hal Peck to the outfield.

The Indians made history in 1947 by signing the American League’s first black ballplayer, Larry Doby. Doby had been a second baseman for the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. Boudreau tried to defuse any tensions about a black ballplayer coming on the roster by personally taking Doby around the clubhouse and introducing him. Some shook his hand while others refused, but Boudreau tried to make Doby’s joining the team as painless as possible.

Veeck thought the Indians needed a new manager. After that year’s World Series, Veeck proposed a deal with the St. Louis Browns that involved Boudreau. Lou also told Veeck that were he deposed as manager he would not play shortstop and would request a trade. These rumors did not sit well in Cleveland, and Veeck received more than 4,000 letters protesting any change. The Cleveland News ran a front-page ballot to elicit fans’ opinions, and 100,000 responses ran 10-1 for Lou Boudreau. Veeck yielded.

Boudreau and Veeck reconciled, and Lou was set as manager for the 1948 season.

Boudreau was upbeat about the 1948 season but knew he had to produce a winner or his tenure as manager would be up. The Indians remained in or near first place all season, locked in a tight three-team race with the Yankees and Red Sox. They added a new pitcher in July by the name of Satchel Paige, an aged but legendary hurler from the Negro Leagues. J. Taylor Spink, in The Sporting News, accused Veeck of signing Paige only as a publicity stunt. But Paige proved his worth, and eventually Spink apologized to Veeck. Boudreau used Paige sparingly as a starter and a reliever, and he had a 6-1 mark in the heat of the pennant race.

Boudreau experienced some hard times during the ‘48 campaign. Veeck had brought Hank Greenberg into the Indians organization to serve as Veeck’s right-hand man and confidant. This dismayed Boudreau, who at best never had Veeck’s ear, and now had to go through another channel before conferring with him. Greenberg and Veeck were always questioning Boudreau’s moves. Every morning during home stands Boudreau had to trudge up to Veeck’s office, where Veeck and Greenberg would fire questions at him. Even on the road he could not escape the telephone constantly ringing with questions from his two bosses.

Nothing was going to stop Boudreau from driving his team to the 1948 American League pennant, not even the plethora of injuries that befell him. During a hard collision at second base, Lou sustained a shoulder contusion, a bruised right knee, a sore thumb, and a sprained ankle. Managing from the dugout while icing down his injuries during a doubleheader against the Yanks, he watched the Indians fall behind, 6-1. The Indians bounced back and scored three runs to make it 6-4. The Indians then loaded the bases, and Lou called time. After selecting his bat he announced himself as a pinch hitter. Injuries or no injuries, he was going to take matters into his own hands. Boudreau ripped a single between the legs of Joe Page, tying the game. The Indians went on to sweep the doubleheader, 8-6 and 2-1.

As the season neared its end in 1948, Boudreau saw that some of his players were becoming a little too anxious. He feared that one or more of his players would say something in anger, sparking an incident that would upset the club. He asked reporters not to come into the clubhouse and they complied, showing the journalistic mores that existed at that time. Red Smith said that during the season “Boudreau managed like mad.”

At the conclusion of the 1948 schedule the Indians and the Red Sox were tied for first place. Some critics said that Boudreau could have avoided the need for a playoff game had he used Paige more, but instead a single-game playoff at Fenway Park determined the American League champion. Boudreau selected Gene Bearden start the game. Many question the choice of a left-hander in Boston with its looming left-field wall, but Boudreau felt that a knuckleball pitcher had a better chance against Boston’s powerhouse team. Feller called the decision “a stroke of genius and a shock to all of us.”

Boudreau took matters into his own hands and had a 4-for-4 performance that included two homers. When the final out was made and the Indians triumphed 8-3, Boudreau on his gimpy ankles rushed over to his wife. Bearden was on the shoulders of his mates, and, Bill Veeck, another casualty of World War II, hobbled out at top speed on his prosthetic leg to join the joyous mob. During his incredible season, Boudreau had slammed out 199 hits, belted 18 homers, and drove in 106 runs with a .355 average, all while guiding his team as manager. Boudreau was voted the Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1948.

The Indians capped off their 1948 season beating the Boston Braves and winning the World Series in six games. Boudreau batted .273 in the series with three runs batted in and fielded flawlessly. Lou Boudreau remains the only manager to win a World Series and win the Most Valuable Player Award in the same season.

Bill Veeck tore up Boudreau’s old contract and gave him a raise to $62,000 a year. Still, when the Indians failed to repeat in 1949, Boudreau knew his time was coming to an end. He felt that Hank Greenberg had a lot to do with his fate as manager. Boudreau didn’t mind Greenberg’s second guessing, but was upset that Greenberg never gave him reasons for disagreeing. Veeck was distant with Boudreau in 1949, never having much to say to him. Lou, playing all four infield positions, batted .284, with four homers and 60 RBIs.

Lou’s last season in Cleveland was 1950. Playing in only 81 games, he batted .269, with just one homer. Ellis Ryan took over as principal owner from Bill Veeck and put Greenberg in charge. As expected, on November 10, the Indians released Boudreau after 12 years as a player and nine as manager. The Red Sox acquired him in 1951 as a utility infielder. Playing in 82 games, he batted .267, with five homers and 47 runs batted in. After the 1951 season, the Red Sox named Boudreau manager. He played four games for the club in 1952, but was a bench-manager for the rest of his career.

Boudreau managed the Red Sox from 1952 through 1954, an event-filled period for the franchise. The team had spent a lot of money on amateur players in recent years, and Boudreau presided over the transition. Bobby Doerr had recently retired, Johnny Pesky and Vern Stephens were traded, and Ted Williams spent most of two seasons in the Marines In the spring of 1953 center fielder Dom DiMaggio suffered an eye injury and was replaced by Tommy Umphlett; when Umphlett got hot, DiMaggio stayed on the bench. DiMaggio was unhappy, but Lou felt that he had slowed down and was letting too many balls drop-in center field. DiMaggio retired and remained bitter at Boudreau for the rest of his life.

Boudreau also chose to move promising rookie Jimmie Piersall from the outfield to shortstop in 1952, a shift that Piersall later claimed led to bizarre behavioral problems and eventual nervous breakdown. When Piersall recovered, Boudreau kept him in the outfield, and Piersall played another 15 seasons. Though the Red Sox posted a surprising 84-69 record in 1953, their regression the next year (69-85) led to Boudreau’s dismissal.

After being fired by the Red Sox in 1954, Boudreau got a job as manager of the Kansas City Athletics, a bad club recently transplanted from Philadelphia. He lasted three years at Kansas City; the team finished sixth once and eighth twice during his tenure.

Boudreau was fired in August 1957. Not long after, Jack Brickhouse approached Lou about being the color man for the Chicago Cubs broadcast team. He auditioned and got the job. Lou was no Demosthenes, and he stumbled over difficult names of players, but his knowledge of the game and his uncanny ability to anticipate what would happen in certain situations was noted. For over two years Boudreau was the Cubs color man, but by 1960, Lou was back into the managing business for the team, while Charlie Grimm was shifted from skipper to the radio booth. A poor team, the Cubs finished in last place 35 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1961, Lou was back in the broadcasting booth.

Della Boudreau stayed home and raised four children. Older son Louis joined the Marine Corps and was wounded in Vietnam. James was a fairly good left-handed pitcher who played in the minors but hurt his arm and gave up baseball. Lou’s daughter Sharyn married Tigers pitcher Denny McLain, who had numerous legal troubles during after his career, including two stints in prison. Older daughter Barbara married Paul Golazewski, a former quarterback at Illinois.

Lou was a part of the Cubs broadcast team for 30 years. When the station chose not to pick up his contract for the 1988 season, Lou was 71 years old, and finally retired, after having been a player, manager, and broadcaster for 50 years.

On July 27, 1970, Lou was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball, introduced Boudreau: “There are hitters in the Hall of Fame with higher batting averages, but I do not believe there is in the Hall of Fame a baseball man who brought more use of intellect and advocation of mind to the game than Lou Boudreau.”

Bob Feller, a close friend of Boudreau, said, “Boudreau was one of the most talented players in baseball in his time, in addition to being one of the classiest human beings you’d ever want to meet.” Feller added, “Even before he was manager, as a 21-year-old shortstop he was our on field leader. Boudreau drew people to him. He had the looks of a matinee idol.”

Lou Boudreau Jr. left his mark on baseball through his intelligence and innovativeness as a manager and by his sterling play at shortstop and his all-out competitiveness. He died in Frankfort, Illinois, on August 10, 2001, at age 84. Della had preceded him in death in 1999. Boudreau was survived by four children and 10 grandchildren. Lou Boudreau is interred in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Frankfort, Illinois.

Last revised: June 21, 2021 (zp)

Sources

Louis Boudreau and Russell Schneider, Covering All the Bases (Champaign, Illinois: Sagamore Publishing, 1993).

Gordon Cobbledick, “The Cleveland Indians” in Ed Fitzgerald, ed., The Book of Major league Baseball Clubs: The American League (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1952).

Robert Feller and Bill Gilbert, Now Pitching Bob Feller (New York: Citadel Press, 1990).

David Halberstam, Summer of ’49 (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1989).

Donald Honig, The American League: A Pictorial History (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1983).

Peter S. Horvitz and Joachim Horvitz, The Big Book of Jewish Baseball (New York: S.P.I Books, 2001).

Franklin A. Lewis, The Cleveland Indians (New York: Putnam, 1949).

William Marshall, Baseball’s Pivotal Era, 1945-1951 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999).

Joseph Thomas Moore, Pride against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988).

Red Smith, On Baseball (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000).

Notes