Alyea’s great-grandfather, the first Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea, was a co-founder of the Hillside Cemetery Association in adjacent Union Township (now Lyndhurst) in 1883, and he also served as Rutherford’s postmaster. This Alyea was married to Martha Brinkerhoff, a member of another Dutch family long established in northern New Jersey. Brant himself was the son of Garrabrant III (1918-92), who drove the Inter-City Lines bus from Paterson to New York that ran through Rutherford,1 and the former Janet Olcott (1924-90), a legal secretary.2 Garrabrant III and Janet had four other children.

Early in his life, Brant was known as Ry, from his middle name, to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, who variously went by Gary and Brant. By the time he reached college, he was known as Brant, but articles chronicling his athletic career in the local newspapers continued to show him as Ry through his high-school career.

Already tall at the age of 12, Alyea took the field as a first baseman for the Rutherford National all-star team in the 1953 Little League tournament, batting fourth. The team opened play against a neighboring league, Lyndhurst East. That contest, begun on Monday, July 27, turned into a marathon that was played over two days. Alyea’s first hit tied the game, 2-2, in the third inning, and the contest stayed deadlocked well past its scheduled six-inning length. The umpires stopped play for darkness after 10 innings and brought both teams back the next evening to complete the game. Finally, catcher Eugene Cole homered over the center-field wall in the top of the 17th to give Alyea’s team a 3-2 victory. The writer for the South Bergen News, Rutherford’s weekly paper, credited Alyea, who finished 2-for-7, with “several circus-day scoop-ups at first.”3 Alyea’s counterpart in the cleanup slot, Lyndhurst center fielder Tom Longo, went 4-for-7. He went on to play three seasons as an NFL defensive back for the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

Alyea lettered in three sports at Rutherford High School, playing quarterback for the Bulldogs and starring in basketball and baseball. He accepted a scholarship to Hofstra College in Hempstead, New York, a seemingly perfect fit as the small Long Island institution was established on a campus bequeathed by a Dutch lumber magnate, William Hofstra, in the 1930s, and their athletic teams were known as the Flying Dutchmen. More significantly, Hofstra would give Alyea the opportunity to play basketball as well as baseball. The basketball team was then coached by another Dutchman originally from New Jersey, Butch van Breda Kolff. Alyea and the Dutchmen enjoyed significant basketball success in the NCAA College Division. In the 1959-60 season, they finished 23-1, losing only to Wagner College of Staten Island by two points in January, but that loss cost them the conference title and they were not selected for postseason play.4 The next year, Alyea led the Dutchmen in scoring and rebounding, and Hofstra was selected for the small-college tournament, in which the team was eliminated by Albright College.5

In baseball, Alyea’s play, especially his power, attracted the attention of scouts. He had the opportunity to sign after he hit 13 home runs in 30 games for a team that won its conference championship, but he stayed at Hofstra for another season to play basketball. He eventually signed with the Cincinnati Reds in the spring of 1962. By then Alyea had grown to his full height of 6-feet-5. The Reds assigned him to Geneva (New York) of the Class-D New York-Penn League, and he clubbed 32 home runs while hitting .319 in 105 games. Those healthy numbers made Alyea a prime target in the Rule 5 draft, which at that time covered all first-year players who had not been placed on the 40-man roster, and Alyea was snatched up by the Washington Senators.

Over the next two seasons, Alyea moved up the ladder, playing for the Peninsula Pilots of the Carolina League and then the York White Roses of the Eastern League. In those two seasons he hit just 29 home runs, but his right-handed power again manifested itself when he got to Triple-A. He hit 27 homers while batting .269 as an outfielder and first baseman for the Hawaii Islanders in 1965. That performance earned Alyea a call-up to Washington at season’s end, and his major-league “debut” came on September 11 against the California Angels at D.C. Stadium, when he was announced as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Mike McCormick in the sixth inning with two on and two out. But when the Angels brought in Bob Lee to replace George Brunet, Senators manager Gil Hodges countered by sending up Jim King to hit for Alyea. King hit a three-run homer to give Washington a 4-3 lead, but the Angels rallied to win 6-5.

Alyea’s first trip to a major-league batter’s box came the next day. The Senators came into the day 18 games under .500, and only 840 fans showed up for the Sunday afternoon game on a day that saw the nation’s capital receive nearly two-thirds of an inch of rain. With runners on first and second, one out and the Senators leading 3-0 in the sixth inning, Hodges again turned to Alyea, this time to pinch-hit for lefty-hitting second baseman Don Blasingame. Alyea crushed left-handed pitcher Rudy May’s first pitch over the left-field wall, doubling the Senators’ lead.

In the waning days of the 1965 season, Alyea played in six more games, pinch-hitting in four and starting at first base in two others. He managed just two more hits in 12 at-bats, both coming in one game; one was a three-run homer against John O’Donoghue of the Kansas City A’s on September 28.

After the season Alyea played in winter leagues in Nicaragua and Venezuela. This became a staple of his life both before and after he became a major-league regular.

Alyea returned to Honolulu for 1966, but he batted just .218 although he did hit 21 home runs. That performance saw him demoted to York for 1967, and he spent two-thirds of the season there and the remainder on loan to the Montgomery Rebels of the Southern League, then a Tigers farm club. For the entire year at Double-A, he batted .229 with 14 homers, although he drew 54 walks and cut his strikeouts from 164 in 1965 to 110. That was enough to persuade the Senators to move Alyea back up to Triple A for 1968, and at Buffalo he hit .253 with 31 homers, earning a call-up on July 26. For the rest of that season, he batted .267 and hit six home runs for the Senators, earning 33 outfield starts.

Ted Williams took over as Senators manager for 1969, and Alyea had a productive season, playing a career-high 104 games, mainly as a corner outfielder although he did appear a few times at first base. The next spring the Senators dealt him to Minnesota in return for pitchers Joe Grzenda and Charlie Walters. With the Twins in 1970, Alyea made an immediate impact with his bat, as he smacked two home runs and drove in seven runs in an Opening Day 12-0 Twins victory over the White Sox at Chicago.6 That April he was also involved in a very unusual play, described by Don Mankowski of SABR in 2000:

“Earl Wilson, who pitched for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers between 1959 and 1970, was an excellent hitter as pitchers go. He hit 35 home runs in an 11-year career. And, once, he almost homered while striking out. After a fashion.

“Wilson’s Tigers trailed the Twins 2-1 in the seventh inning of an April 25, 1970, game at Bloomington, Minnesota. Batting against Jim Kaat, Wilson swung and missed a third strike, and it looked as if the inning were over.

“But not so fast! Kaat’s catcher Paul Ratliff didn’t hold on to the ball and umpire John Rice refused to call Wilson out. Ratliff rolled the ball back toward the mound and made himself scarce. Noting that the entire Minnesota team had left the field, Wilson took off around the bases.

“Two Twins [is that redundant?] had the semblance of mind to hurry back on the field as Wilson tore around third. Brant Alyea grabbed the ball and threw to Leo Cárdenas, covering at home plate. Wilson was caught between third and home, and retired by Cárdenas’s return throw to Alyea. Wilson, who was throwing a three-hitter, pulled a hamstring muscle on the play and had to leave the game.

“The Tigers managed to tie the game at 3-3 in the top of the ninth, but afterward Harmon Killebrew singled home Tony Oliva to win the game.

“Because Alyea just happened to be the left fielder and Cardenas the shortstop, the play on Wilson had to be scored K767, that is, Strikeout: putout left fielder to shortstop to left fielder. Ratliff got an error in there, so maybe that’s not quite correct.”7

Alyea delivered career highs in the three Triple Crown categories, batting .291 with 16 homers and 61 RBIs in 94 games. He was on the Twins’ postseason roster in 1970, appearing in all three games of their American League Championship Series loss to the eventual World Series champion Baltimore Orioles. Starting twice in left field, he went hitless in seven at-bats, although he scored a run in Game One.

That winter Alyea returned to Venezuela and set a record there by clubbing 15 home runs in a 55-game season. But back home in 1971, Alyea’s production dropped significantly. The Twins dropped him from their 40-man roster at season’s end, after Alyea hit just .177 with two home runs in 79 games.

The Oakland Athletics claimed Alyea in that winter’s Rule 5 draft, and in the spring of 1972 he played in 10 games for the A’s, going 3-for-13, before being shipped to the St. Louis Cardinals in a trade for infielder Marty Martínez on May 18. With the Cards he played in 13 games, batting .158 (3-for-19). He also played in 11 games for the Triple-A Iowa Oaks, batting .410 in Triple-A. The A’s brought him back on July 23, and he went 3-for-18 the rest of the season with one home run. But his season ended prematurely; in a game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, he hit a ball into the gap off Jim Palmer and Alyea pulled a muscle in his groin while rounding first on what turned out to be a double. Although he played in four more games, that injury effectively finished Alyea for the year, as the A’s signed Matty Alou for the stretch run that led to the first of their three straight World Series titles.

Alyea attempted to rehabilitate his injury without surgery. He was sent to the Texas Rangers in November to complete a trade for pitcher Paul Lindblad, but his nagging injury left him unable to make the team. He finished his professional career with 48 games for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1973, playing the newly created position of designated hitter. He underwent surgery a few years later, and contemplated a return to the game in 1977 at the age of 36, but never made it to Florida to try out.

Like most players of his era who did not earn a full pension for playing 10 seasons, Alyea had to find regular work after his playing days. By 1986 he was a pit boss at an Atlantic City casino. That spring, he learned that a son he had fathered at the end of the 1966-67 winter season in Nicaragua was a prospect who had been discovered by the Toronto Blue Jays. That led to a reconnection with the young man, Brant Jose Alyea, whom he had not seen since the Central American nation was plunged into unrest in the 1970s.8 The younger Alyea spent six seasons in pro ball, briefly reaching Triple-A with the Texas Rangers and hitting .281 with 49 home runs, including 25 with Gastonia of the South Atlantic League in 1988.

After his time with the casino, which lasted just over a decade, Alyea hooked on with an automobile dealership near Philadelphia for another decade or so. He lived in the Philadelphia suburbs until his death at home on February 4, 2024.9

Sources

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

Notes

1 The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), October 10, 1992: A-10.

2 The Record, March 6, 1990: A-9.

3 South Bergen News (Rutherford, New Jersey), July 30, 1953: 17.

4 George Vecsey, “A Shot That Sank a Season,” New York Times, March 1, 2012: B18.

5 Hofstra University men’s basketball media guide 2004-05, 122, 132,

6 Dave Wright, 162-0: Imagine a Twins Perfect Season: The Greatest Wins! (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2010).

7 Don Mankowski, “Odd Strikeout,” post to SABR-L mailing list, May 10, 2000.

8 Peter Gammons, “A New Land, an Old Bond,” Sports Illustrated, June 30, 1986, 66.

9 “Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea, IV”. Burns Funeral Homes, Philadelphia, Pa. Online obituary accessed March 19, 2024.

The last baseball on the wall displayed the number 3, which belonged to Cleveland outfielder Earl Averill. He was likely the least recognizable of the quartet. His years (1929-1939) in Cleveland were not punctuated with a pennant. The team finished no higher than third place and no lower than fifth in the American League standings during Averill’s tenure. Cleveland had competitive teams with good players; however, during the decade of the 1930s, when Averill was with the Indians, they could not put it all together for one season. New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington all won pennants during those years, while Cleveland was left looking forward to next season.  

Despite the club’s lackluster performance, Averill’s offensive impact could not be overlooked. When he was traded to Detroit in 1939, he was the Indians’ team leader in seven offensive categories. In 2024 Averill remained the franchise leader in runs (1,154), RBIs (1,084), triples (121), total bases (3,200), and extra-base hits (724). Averill is also in the top five in five other offensive categories.1

Averill finally reached the World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 1940. Although he was a backup outfielder at this point of his career, Averill proved how valuable he could be, batting .308 as a pinch-hitter.

In 1975 the Veterans Committee elected Averill to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally, 34 years after he played his last professional season, he took his rightful place with the game’s greatest players.

Howard Earl Averill was born on May 21, 1902, in Snohomish, Washington. He was the youngest of three children (brother Forrest and sister Valera) born to Jotham and Anna (Maddox) Averill. Jotham Averill died in 1904 and Anna had to take on work in a shingle factory to support her family.  

Averill dropped out of high school his freshman year. He worked in lumber mills and on road crews. He was not a big man (5-feet-9½, 160 pounds), but the hard labor resulted in brawn and muscle in his upper body. Averill played baseball on the Snohomish town team, battling neighboring cities after work and on the weekends. Although the players did not receive a salary, fans often took up a collection for the player who distinguished himself the most in the game. Averill was often the recipient of this largesse, one time receiving a pot of $80.

On May 15, 1922, Averill married Gladys Loette Hyatt in Mount Vernon, Washington.2 Earl and Loette were married 61 years and had four sons: Howard, Bernard, Earl, and Lester.3 

In 1924 citizens of Snohomish raised money to send Averill to Seattle to try out for the Seattle Indians of the Pacific Coast League. However, manager Red Killefer was not as impressed with his abilities and sent Averill home.

The Averill family grew to four when Bernard was born in 1925. Averill played two days a week for Bellingham (Washington), earning $15 a game. He also worked for the county painting bridges and picked up other jobs to support his growing family. After a few weeks in Bellingham, he moved on to Anaconda (Montana), where the baseball team paid $250 a month.4 Averill batted .430 at Anaconda, drawing interest from the San Francisco Seals of the PCL.

Averill won a spot on the Seals’ roster during spring training in 1926. Before long he was slashing line drives all over Recreation Park in San Francisco as well as the other venues in the league. In his three years with Seals, Averill averaged 250 hits and 50 doubles, 26 home runs, and a .342 batting average.5  

What was the secret to Averill’s hitting success? Why, it was sauerkraut juice. When Averill mentioned to Seals manager Nick Williams that he might give up the bitter elixir in favor of milk, Williams balked. “If you do, I’ll run you clean out of the joint,” threatened Williams. “If there are base hits in sauerkraut juice, as I suspect, you are going to drink lots of it and what is more, I think I’ll drink some myself and hit in a pinch.”6 

In 1928 Cleveland general manager Billy Evans had a pocket full of cash as he headed to the West Coast to sign players. The first player on his list was Seals outfielder Roy Johnson. But Detroit beat Evans to the punch and signed Johnson. Next was another outfielder, Smead Jolley. Seals pitchers Duster Mails and Dutch Ruether interceded, sending Evans in a different direction. “Forget Jolley. Forget Johnson, too. Buy that Averill,” they told Evans.7    

Evans took their advice, plunking down $45,000 to acquire Averill. “The Snohomish slugger came fast last season,” wrote the San Francisco Examiner. “He was always a good hitter, but last season he polished up his play in the outfield; learned how to play for batters and once he learned the lesson, did not forget it.”8

When Indians owner Alva Bradley first saw Averill, he said to Evans, “You paid all that money for a midget.”9 Bradley and the rest of the Indians would soon learn that Averill packed plenty of power in his compact body.

In 1929 Roger Peckinpaugh was in his second season as the Cleveland skipper. The year before, the team finished the season with a 62-92 record. Averill and fellow rookie outfielder Dick Porter garnered many of the headlines during the ’29 spring training. However, Irving Vaughan, beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, doused any hope that Cleveland fans might have for their team, writing, “There may be some improvement if a rookie comes through, but while these happenings are always looked for, they occur only about as often as Halley’s comet whistles through the heavens.”10

Maybe he wasn’t a comet, but Averill quickly became a star. Cleveland opened the 1929 season on April 16 against Detroit at League Park. Averill, playing center field and batting third in the lineup, came to bat in the bottom of the first inning. Detroit starter Earl Whitehill threw the rookie a fastball on a 0-and-2 count. The left-handed-hitting Averill sent a towering drive over the 45-foot right-field fence. The blast warmed the chilled crowd as Averill became the second American League player to homer in his first big-league at-bat.11

Later in the game, in the top of the sixth, the Tigers had a baserunner on first when Averill lunged forward and caught a sinking line drive off the bat of Detroit’s Marty McManus. Both plays contributed to the Cleveland 5-4 win. “Whitehill apparently thought he could slip a fast one by me,” said Averill. “I was all set, took a healthy swing and as the ball hit the bat, I knew it was going somewhere.”12 

Decimating minor-league pitching on the West Coast was one thing, but hitting against major-league talent was another. Averill batted .332 his rookie season and set a team record for home runs in a season at 18. As a team, the Indians finished in third place.

Averill also demonstrated a keen batting eye. While some home-run hitters tend to be free swingers and would rack up the whiffs, Averill did not. In the first 11 seasons of his career, he totaled more walks than strikeouts. He was the perfect hitter who combined hitting for power and average. 

Despite his size, Averill wielded one of the heaviest bats in the league. His bat was 36 inches long and weighed 42 ounces. Averill would also swing a 44-ounce bat from time to time.13

While many batters stand toward the back of the batter’s box to better pick up a pitch, Averill had a different philosophy. “I virtually straddled the plate,” he said. “The farther you stand in front, the smaller the break on the ball when you meet it. “I kept two things in mind at the plate. One was that I was up there to swing; the other was to keep my eye on my target. That was the pitcher’s cap. I always aimed for that, tried to go to the middle. But, if the ball was outside, I’d hit to left.”14 

One of Averill’s signature games occurred on September 17, 1930, at League Park. In a doubleheader against Washington, he smashed three home runs in the opener and drove in eight runs to set a team record in Cleveland’s 13-7 victory. In the second game, Averill came to the plate in the first inning with two runners aboard and smacked a drive to deep center field. He raced around the bases for an inside-the-park home run, his fourth home run and 11th RBI for the day.        

Averill was not the only formidable batsman in the Cleveland lineup. In 1930 the Indians hit .304 as a team. Besides Averill, who hit .339, their lineup consisted of Porter (.350), Johnny Hodapp (.354), Eddie Morgan (.349), Charlie Jamieson (.301), and Joe Sewell (.289). But opposing teams batted .305 against the Indians pitching staff. The result was an 81-73 record, earning the club a fourth-place finish, 21 games behind first-place Philadelphia.

Peckinpaugh was replaced as manager by Walter Johnson on June 9, 1933. Peckinpaugh was a players’ manager and Averill was sorry to see him go. “He knew more baseball than the rest of them put together,” Averill said, comparing Peckinpaugh to his other managers.15 Johnson had recent success as a field manager, guiding the Senators to 92 and 93 wins in 1931 and 1932. However, he had been replaced by Joe Cronin, who led the Senators to the AL pennant in 1933.      

The 1933 season was a historic one for major-league baseball. The year marked the first-ever All-Star Game, pitting the best players of the NL against the AL. Billed as “The Game of the Century,” the game was played on July 6, 1933, at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Cleveland pitchers Oral Hildebrand and Wes Ferrell joined Averill as members of the American League squad. Averill was the only one of the trio to see action, pinch-hitting for Washington pitcher Alvin Crowder in the bottom of the sixth inning. Averill singled sharply to center field to drive Cronin in from second base, giving the AL a 4-2 lead that ended up being the final score.

Hal Trosky moved into the Cleveland lineup as the starting first baseman in 1934. Averill and the young Iowa slugger each played in all 154 games. They combined for 66 home runs and 255 RBIs. Trosky became another solid player in the lineup, one who could hit for power and average.

After the season, Averill joined a traveling all-star team that went to Japan. Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, Lou Gehrig, Lefty O’Doul, and manager Connie Mack were among the party who made the trip.

Averill was awarded a Japanese sword for being the first American player to hit a home run against the All-Nippon Stars. He treasured the gift for years.16 “The Earl of Snohomish has been doing some long-distance clouting on his own hook in the land of cherry blossoms,” wrote Ed Bang of the Cleveland News. “Truth be, he has experienced no trouble in holding to the pace of the other sluggers. It so happens that Averill is the smallest member of the ‘Big Four’ home run manufacturers and that being the case, he should inspire the Japanese players far more than those Goliaths – Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx.17 

“The Japanese are small in size, and their main drawback is our national pastime, which they appear to have adopted as their own, has been their inability to pack enough force to drive the ball for the well-known bacon-getting route. However, since they have not seen Averill, who, while small, still is well-muscled and has perfect timing at the plate, they have evidently concluded they, too, can develop the well-known punch at bat.”18 

On June 28, 1935, the Indians had a day off and were enjoying a team picnic. “Earl threw a firecracker that didn’t go off,” said Mel Harder. “When he picked it up, it exploded. Joe Vosmik and I put him in a car and took him to St. Luke’s Hospital. It looked bad. There was a lot of blood.”19 This incident resulted Averill getting his nickname, Rock.20  

Averill missed three weeks as his right hand healed from the burns and scars caused by the firecracker. Vosmik replaced Averill for the All-Star Game, which in 1935 was played at Cleveland Stadium.

There had been weeks of speculation, especially in the Cleveland media, about the security of Walter Johnson’s job as manager. He dismissed popular players Willie Kamm and Glenn Myatt from the team because he felt that they were no longer useful. The Indians (37-26-1) were 2½ games behind New York (40-24) on June 30. They went 2-13-1 from July 1 to July 18. Obviously, Averill’s injury did not help the situation. “I’m 100 percent for Walter and I think the whole team is for him,” said Averill, “The boys have found Walter is on the level and has plenty of guts.”21  

Despite Averill’s stance, Johnson was fired on August 5 and replaced by Steve O’Neill, a former Indians catcher and a coach on Johnson’s staff.

In 1935 Averill did not bat over .300 for the first time in his career. He rebounded the next season in a big way, posting a .451 batting average in the month of July. His season average was .374 and climbed to over .380 in August. Averill was leading the AL in hitting going into September, but Chicago’s Luke Appling batted .477 in September to surpass Averill, .388 to .378, for the season. Averill led the league in hits with 232.

While Averill was hitting line drives around AL ballparks, a teenager from Van Meter, Iowa, joined the Indians. Bob Feller was 17 years old when he started his first game for Cleveland, against the St. Louis Browns on August 23, 1936. The right-handed fireballer threw a complete-game six-hitter against the Browns. He struck out 15 in the 4-1 win. Feller became, and still is, the face of the Cleveland franchise. 

Another game Averill is known for, perhaps infamously, is the All-Star Game on July 7, 1937, at Washington’s Griffith Stadium. The American League had taken a 2-0 lead on Lou Gehrig’s two-run home run off Dizzy Dean. Averill stepped to the plate and sent a liner back to the mound. “Diz threw that big curve,” said Averill. “The last thing I remember is seeing it break toward the outside of the plate. I was already into my swing. I connected and saw the ball hit him in the toe and bounced right into the second baseman’s glove. 

“That was the third out. Not many people remember that. We passed as Diz was on his way to the dugout. He said, ‘Hey, you didn’t have to hit me with it.’ I laughed. Heck, I wasn’t trying to pull the ball at him, I was just trying to hit the thing.”22 

Dean’s left toe was broken, his plant foot when he pitched. He was not the same pitcher for the rest of his career.

Off the field, a highlight of 1937 was when Averill appeared on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes. There was a tradition by General Mills to choose an athlete, either national or regional, to be in the advertisement on a box of the popular cereal. In Averill’s case, he often started his day with a bowl of Wheaties.23     

Cleveland manager O’Neill failed to move the needle in a positive direction and was fired after the 1937 season. He was replaced by Oscar Vitt. They were like night and day: O’Neill was a friendly, outgoing sort while Vitt was a taciturn, disciplinary type of manager. Club owner Bradley also gave Vitt the power to make trades, undermining general manager Cy Slapnicka and causing tension between the two. Vitt also didn’t make many friends when he stated that he “had only two major leaguers, Feller and Harder.”24  

Averill began the 1938 season on a hot streak. After his average climbed to .397 on May 5, he began to have back pain in Philadelphia. He played through the pain. However, his average started to drop. A groin injury in early September kept him on the bench. Averill hit .330 in 1938, which for most players would have been a very successful season.

Cleveland dealt Averill to the Detroit Tigers on June 14, 1939, for left-handed pitcher Harry Eisenstat and cash. Averill was inserted as the Tigers’ starting left fielder. He batted a career-low with the Tigers, hitting .262 with 10 home runs and 58 RBIs. Detroit finished in fifth place with an 81-73 record, 26½ games behind the red-hot Yankees with a record of 106-45, who went on to sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.

The 1940 AL pennant race came down to Detroit and Cleveland. The Tigers held a two-game lead over the Indians heading into the season’s final three games at Cleveland Stadium. The Tigers won the first game, clinching the pennant.

Cincinnati defeated Detroit in the World Series in seven games. Averill went 0-for-3 in three pinch-hitting appearances. He made the final out of the Series, a 2-1 Reds win.

Averill was released by Detroit and signed with the Boston Braves for the 1941 season. With just two singles in 17 at-bats, he was released after eight games. Averill then returned to the Pacific Coast League, joining the Seattle Rainiers. Also on the Rainiers was Earl Torgeson, also of Snohomish. After the season, Averill retired from professional baseball. In his 13-year career, he hit 238 home runs, 401 doubles, and 128 triples. Averill batted .318 (2,019-for-6,353) and drove in 1,l64 runs.

In retirement, Averill worked in a greenhouse he owned with his brother, Forest. For 20 years, he also owned and operated the Averill Motel in Snohomish. Averill spent time keeping tabs on his son, Earl Douglas Averill, too. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as Earl Jr., the younger Earl carved out a modest baseball career for himself. Primarily a catcher, with some time in the outfield, Earl Douglas played seven seasons with Cleveland (1956, 1958), the Chicago Cubs (1959-1960), the Chicago White Sox (1960), the Los Angeles Angels (1961-1962), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1963). He had a lifetime batting average of .242 with 44 home runs and 159 RBIs.

On February 3, 1975, the elder Earl Averill was elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously by the Veterans Committee. Also elected were Billy Herman, Bucky Harris, Judy Johnson, and Ralph Kiner. Averill was outspoken about how long it took for his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also candid about players who he believed merited inclusion but had not been elected, urging that the voting rules be changed.25

“It’s been a long time coming, but better late than never,” said Averill. “It is wonderful to make it while you are still alive. I’m going on 73. In fact, I told my sons that if I didn’t make it while I was still alive, that they turn it down if I made it afterward.”26

“My ambition is reached. I really longed for this. And, you know, a lot of good ballplayers never make it. I understand that it was a unanimous vote. That kind of makes up for the long wait.”27

Not everyone agreed with the election of Averill. Jack Lang of the New York Daily News wrote, “The moment he’s inducted, Averill pops off that it took baseball too long. Funny thing, but all the while he was waiting to get in, he expressed no resentment. If we are going to have these old geezers popping off after they’ve received the tributes, maybe they don’t deserve them to begin with.”28 

On June 8, 1975, the Cleveland Indians retired Averill’s uniform number 3, joining Feller (19) and Boudreau (5).

In 1983 the All-Star Game was held at Comiskey Park to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The living All-Stars who played in the first game in 1933 were invited to Chicago to take part in the festivities.

About six weeks later, on August 16, Averill died from respiratory problems brought on by pneumonia. He was survived by his wife, Gladys Loette; four sons; numerous grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. “He had a real good time in Chicago, but when he got back he was really down,” said his son Earl. “Of the 33 All-Stars in 1933, only 13 were left. Now with Dad’s death, there are only 12.”29      

Center fielder Doc Cramer, a contemporary of Averill’s , said “Earl Averill was a great hitter and a fine outfielder all around. … Whatever you write about Earl won’t be enough.”30   

Photo credit

Earl Averill, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes          

1 Cleveland Guardians 2024 Media Guide, 272. 

2 Ancestry.com marriage records, Howard Earl Averill, accessed June 8, 2024.

3 A.C. De Cola, “Earl Is Pal to His Sons,” Cleveland Press, July 2, 1936: 21.

4 Vince O’Keefe, “‘Hard Rock’ Earl Averill dies,” Seattle Times, August 17, 1983: E1.

5 It must be noted that the Pacific Coast League played 190-game schedules. 

6 Abe Kemp, “Earl Averill’s Bat Impresses Pirate Leader,” San Francisco Examiner, March 23, 1928: 1.

7 Gordon Cobbledick, “Hometown Fans’ Cash Started Averill on Career to Fame,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 26, 1936: 4.

8 Abe Kemp, “Young Star Outfielder Will Go Up to Big Top,” San Francisco Examiner, November 20, 1928: P-3.

9 Bob Dolgan, “A Man of Talent, Consistency, Class,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 7, 1996: D-6.

10 Irving Vaughan, “Vaughan Sees Tribe Improved This Year,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19, 1929: 26.

11 Luke Stuart of the St. Louis Browns hit an inside-the-park home run at Washington’s Griffith Stadium on August 8, 1921.

12 Earl Averill, “The Biggest Thrill of My Career,” Cleveland News, undated, 1930. Player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

13 Hy Zimmerman, “Gab Session With the Earl of Snohomish,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1965: 5.

14 “Gab Session With the Earl of Snohomish.”

15 Doug Simpson, “The Earl of Snohomish,” Baseball Research Journal,1982. https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-earl-of-snohomish/. Accessed June 15, 2024.

16 Penny Sopris-Kegerreis, “Cast a Vote for the ‘Rock’ of Snohomish,” Monroe (Washington) Monitor and Valley News, January 27, 1999: 8. 

17 Ed Bang, “Scribbled by Scribes,” The Sporting News, December 6, 1934: 4.

18 “Scribbled by Scribes.”

19 “A Man of Talent, Consistency, Class,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 7, 1996: D-1.

20 Bob Broeg, “Averill Shy, Except at the Plate,” The Sporting News, March 8, 1975: 8.

21 Henry W. Thomas, Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train (Washington DC: Phenom Press, 1995), 326.

22 Don Duncan, “Earl Averill Recalls Infamous ’37 Game,” Seattle Times, July 15, 1979: J3.

23 “Cast a Vote for the ‘Rock’ of Snohomish.”

24 William H. Johnson, Hal Trosky: A Baseball Biography (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2017), 80.

25 Transcript of Earl Averill Hall of Fame Induction Speech, Cooperstown, New York, August 18, 1975, in player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.  

26 Hy Zimmerman, “The Earl of Snohomish Feels Like a King,” Seattle Times, February 3, 1975: B1. 

27 “The Earl of Snohomish Feels Like a King.”

28 Jack Lang, “Reds Respectful of Mets Pitching,” player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

29 “His Son Recalls Earl Averill,” player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

30 Simpson, “The Earl of Snohomish.”

Benigno Ayala lives up to his given name, which means “kind” or “friendly.” Following a productive career as a role player, he has bestowed greater gifts on the baseball world, through his work with the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT). Quite a few of his fellow Puerto Rican pros have fallen on hard times since they left the game. “There are really sad stories,” said Ayala in 2009. “And most of them are unknown, because ballplayers are proud. They don’t like to ask.”1 Ayala played five full seasons in the majors and parts of five others from 1974 to 1985. He qualified for a good pension and does not have to worry about life’s necessities – now he is a voice for those in need.

In his playing days, the outfielder wasn’t known for his defense, but he was a pretty fair batting threat in platoon. In its glory years, the Baltimore organization understood the importance of “deep depth,” as manager Earl Weaver called it in 1979. Pitcher Steve Stone detailed the concept in Tales from the Orioles Dugout.

“They were a team that pretty much understood that the spare parts of a baseball team determine whether you win or lose. It’s going and getting . . . [a] Benny Ayala. And then it’s up to the manager after you get Benny Ayala to realize that . . . when they put soft-tossing lefthanders in the game, Benny was good for two hits. Earl put him in a situation where he could be successful. So Hank Peters went and got him, and Earl used him correctly.”2

Ayala came to the plate 951 times in his big-league career, and 86 percent of those appearances were against lefties. It’s no surprise that 35 of his 38 regular-season homers came off southpaws – as did his crowning blow as a pro, his two-run shot off John Candelaria in Game Three of the 1979 World Series.

Benigno Ayala Félix was born on February 7, 1951, in Yauco, a town in southwestern Puerto Rico. He was the first of two sons born to Benigno Ayala and Lillian Félix (there was also a half-brother). The island has sent over 300 men to the majors over the years, yet only three others have hailed from Yauco. The first was pitcher Tomás “Planchardón” Quiñones, a longtime local star who pitched briefly in the Negro Leagues in the 1940s. After Ayala came Mario Ramírez (1980-85) and Mike Pérez (1990-1997).

Ayala himself did not start playing baseball until the age of 11, but in retrospect, he saw some benefits from it. In 2010, he said, “If you start late, you don’t get bored. And when you grow, you have to go through a process of adjustment. I asked guys like Tom Seaver and Rusty Staub about it.”

On January 28, 1971, the New York Mets signed Ayala as a free agent (the amateur draft did not include Puerto Rico until 1990). The scout was Nino Escalera, who covered Latin America for the Mets. “I was in my first year at Rio Piedras Junior College. Whitey Herzog came to Puerto Rico. He was with the Mets at the time. Many years later, Nino told me and Angel Cantres that Whitey said, ‘Go as high as $125,000.’ He didn’t give us the money – he gave us $7,000!”

Escalera, who died in 2021 aged 91, was 80 when Ayala was originally interviewed. Ayala observed, “You know what else he told me? ‘Benny, out of all the guys I signed, you’re the only one who has helped me.’”

Ayala’s first pro team in the US was Pompano Beach in the Florida State League. He hit .279 with 8 homers and 34 RBIs in 63 games, which won him promotion to Visalia in the California League (high A). In the winter of 1971-72, he played in the Puerto Rican Winter League for the first time. “Nino Escalera was a coach for the San Juan Senadores, Roberto Clemente’s team. Angel Cantres went to San Juan after he signed with the Mets, but I didn’t. I said, I’ll see what I can do in the US, then I’ll see who’s interested. I’ll go to a club where I can develop. Arecibo was in the cellar. Cantres had more competition with San Juan.”

Returning to Visalia in 1972, Ayala hit 19 homers, second on the club behind Ike Hampton’s 21. He also had 66 runs batted in, one fewer than Greg Harts (who, like Hampton, appeared very briefly with the Mets). Visalia is an agricultural town with a large Hispanic population, but there were plenty of times when Ayala didn’t feel welcome. “We lived in a bad neighborhood called ‘Sin City’ but it was the only thing we could afford. People threw rocks at us. I remember waiting in a barbershop, and when my turn came, they said, ‘We don’t cut that kind of hair.’ The team owners were good people, though. I remember they owned a chain of hot-dog stands.”

Ayala continued to climb the ladder steadily. In 1973 he was with Memphis (Double A). Serving frequently as a designated hitter, he led the team in home runs (17) and was second in RBIs (68). That winter he led the Puerto Rican league in homers for the first time, as his 14 tied with Jerry Morales. He also tied Jay Johnstone for the league lead in RBIs with 46 and hit .340. To emphasize how strong that circuit was then, the four men who finished ahead of him in the batting race were George Hendrick, Chris Chambliss, Mickey Rivers, and José Cruz, Sr. Yet Ayala won the MVP award.

Ayala did well in spring training 1974, hitting homers off veterans like Woodie Fryman and Bob Gibson. He wasn’t quite ready, though, and Cleon Jones did not take well to an experiment in center field. Near the end of camp the Mets sent Ayala down to their top affiliate, Tidewater. Here too he was the club leader in homers (11) and RBIs (40). The big club called him up in August after Jones got hurt; to make room, pitcher Jack Aker went on the disabled list. Ayala still has the bat he borrowed from Joe Nolan, his teammate with the Tides and later the Orioles.

With that bat, on August 27, Ayala made a memorable big-league debut at Shea Stadium. Batting sixth in the lineup, he stepped in against Houston’s Tom Griffin (a righty!) with one out and nobody on in the second inning. He pulled a high fastball – as he kept repeating on Ralph Kiner’s postgame show, Kiner’s Korner – down the line in left field. The ball stayed inside the foul pole, and Ayala became the first National Leaguer to homer in his first big-league at-bat since Cuno Barragan in 1961. Of course, that made him the first Met to do so too (not to mention, the first Puerto Rican).

A contributor to the Ultimate Mets fan website provided some extra detail. “We were sitting in the left field mezzanine at Shea among this group of 10 or 12 of Benny Ayala’s cousins and extended family who were thrilled to see him in his first major-league game. When he homered in his first at-bat they went BERSERK, hugging and kissing everyone around, including me and my father of course. It was a great memory that I was able to recount with my dad that always drew a smile.”

The rookie did not live with family, however, and although fellow Puerto Rican Félix Millán was present, he remembers that his most helpful teammates were John Milner and Jones. Manager Yogi Berra also did not stack up well against Weaver in Ayala’s estimation. “He was always laughing, he didn’t pay too much attention to the game.”

Ayala did not see any big-league action in 1975. The Mets acquired Dave Kingman in February, which severely impaired his chances of making the big club. In fact, he played just 65 games for Tidewater, missing a big chunk of the early season after Rochester’s Bob Galasso broke his hand with a pitch.

In the winter of 1975-76, Ayala led the Puerto Rican league in homers once again with 14 in 60 games. He finished in a four-way tie for second in RBIs with 39. Coming off this very strong effort, he made the Mets roster in spring training 1976. The team’s new manager was Joe Frazier, his skipper at Visalia, Memphis, and Tidewater. Ayala was not in the lineup on Opening Day but started the next two games. He would get just two more starts over the remainder of April and May, however, and he got only three hits in 26 at-bats (including a pinch-hit homer off Jack Billingham, his last off a righty in the majors). New York then called up Jack Heidemann and sent Ayala back to Tidewater, where he hit just .225 with 12 homers and 48 RBIs.

On March 30, 1977, New York traded Ayala to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for second baseman Doug Clarey, whose big-league career comprised nine games scattered across the ’76 season. Ayala spent the bulk of 1977 with New Orleans in the American Association, where he had a good year (.298/18/73). The Cardinals called him up in September, but he got into just one game, singling in three at-bats.

The Cardinals had a new Triple-A affiliate in 1978, Springfield, but Ayala spent only part of the season there – he went to Columbus in the Pittsburgh organization on loan. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that August, “Columbus was so short of talent that it borrowed players from other minor-league clubs. Players like Hector Torres, an infielder, and Benny Ayala, an outfielder who has a problem. He can’t catch a fly ball.”3 Ayala hit .340 for the Clippers in 59 games, though, lifting his overall mark for the year to .299. He totaled 11 homers and 56 RBIs.

On January 16, 1979, Ayala got the best break of his career. The Cardinals traded him to Baltimore for Mike Dimmel, another player whose big-league career was quite limited (39 games from 1977 to 1979). Ayala had considered going to play in Japan with the Taiyo Whales, but Doc Edwards, his manager in Puerto Rico, was also the manager at Baltimore’s Triple-A team, Rochester.4 Edwards persuaded Ayala to stay, farm director Clyde Kluttz liked what he saw too, and the Orioles called him up at the end of April after Doug DeCinces got hurt.

Earl Weaver used Ayala sparingly in ’79, but he benefited from the AL’s designated-hitter rule. In 86 at-bats across 42 games, he hit 6 homers, drove in 13, and hit .256. He had his only two-homer game in the majors on June 10 at Memorial Stadium. Both were solo shots off his former Mets teammate, Texas Rangers lefty Jon Matlack.

Weaver did not use Ayala in the American League Championship Series, but he got six at-bats in four games during the World Series. He singled off John Candelaria in his first at-bat in Game Three before reaching the Nuyorican for his homer. That blow brought the Orioles within a run at 3-2, and they proceeded to knock out Candelaria in the fourth inning. During that rally, righty Enrique Romo came out of the bullpen, and so Al Bumbry hit for Ayala.

The Associated Press write-up said, “Ayala also didn’t know he was starting until he saw the lineup posted in the clubhouse. Ayala admitted that he never knows when Weaver is going to use him. ‘He doesn’t play me against certain lefthanders,’ Ayala said. ‘It’s mostly if I can hit a certain lefthander.’” Many observers thought the lineup was unconventional, but Earl said, “It was one that helped us get here in the first place. . . . Benny has done that for us a number of times.”5

Ayala enjoyed his best season in the majors in 1980 (.265/10/33 in a career-high 76 games). Always thinking positively, he said, “I don’t mind my role here. I always have a chance to swing the bat with the Orioles and the way Earl uses me is decent.” Frank Robinson, then a Baltimore coach, said, “Benny uses his time wisely, watching and studying the pitchers. He’s not afraid to ask somebody about a certain pitcher either.”6

Ayala’s most dramatic hit that year may have come on September 5 at Memorial Stadium. This could have been the game described in a 1996 article in the Los Angeles Times about Earl Weaver’s golden hunches. “One day, Weaver walked up to [pitching coach Ray] Miller and said, ‘Ray, Benny Ayala. Don’t forget that, Benny Ayala.’ That night, Ayala hit an eighth-inning pinch homer. ‘It just made sense to me in those days . . . to know if I had a hitter sitting on the bench in a situation that was hitting that pitcher good,’ Weaver said. ‘So I made up my lineups accordingly.’ ”7 The three-run blow off Oakland lefty Bob Lacey brought the Orioles within a run at 6-5, and they won it 8-7 with another three runs in the bottom of the ninth.

In the strike season of 1981, Ayala served mostly as a platoon DH with Terry Crowley. During 1982 he was part of a three-man contingent in left field with John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke. In his book Weaver on Strategy, Earl said, “By matching your bench-players’ strengths to your starters’ weaknesses, you can create a ‘player’ of All-Star caliber.” He likened the trio’s total output to having a Reggie Jackson in the lineup.8

That July Ayala told Steve Wulf of Sports Illustrated, “I try to think ahead of time. Say, we are playing Chicago in two weeks. I think how the lefthander pitched me the last time. Sitting on the bench I have a lot of time to think. I try not to be surprised.” Another line in the same article showed his Zen-like calm. On May 19 he hit a three-run homer after a rain delay of an hour and 21 minutes. “When asked if he thought he was in a tough spot, having to face a two-strike count after sitting for so long, Ayala replied, ‘Not really. I just felt like I was pinch-hitting for myself.’” 9

Wulf’s piece was strewn with juicy quotes on Ayala. Earl Weaver said, “He’s so good he knocks himself out of games. I’ll start him against a lefthander, and he’ll hit a three-run homer off him. Then they’ll bring in a righty, and Benny’s back on the bench.” According to Lowenstein, Ayala was “the most profound player on the Orioles. ‘He will sit there, arms folded, for eight innings. If he’s going to hit, I’ll ask him what he’s looking for. He’ll say, ‘Something white. Coming through.’”10 Indeed, Ayala (like many Caribbean players) didn’t walk or strike out much – he got his hacks.

“I always try to take three swings,” Ayala said that summer. “I don’t think the hitter should give the pitcher a strike by taking.” With the arrival of Dan Ford, Ken Singleton had moved from right field to full-time DH, leaving Ayala with spot duty. Yet as always, he stayed positive. “Sure I would like to play more. But the important thing is to stay ready and then do your job when you’re called on.”11

In 2010 Ayala said, “I suffered a lot in the big leagues. It was hard for me to accept my role, but I accepted it quietly. If I don’t play every day, I have it in my mind that I have to work harder. Rod Carew asked me one time, ‘Benny, why are you over there by yourself? Don’t you want to talk?’ I told him I don’t have time. I worked. I studied, so when I get that opportunity against Ron Guidry, I can say, ‘I’m ahead of you.’” Ayala did far better than most against “Louisiana Lightning” – 9-for-28. Changeup artist Geoff Zahn was just his meat (11-for-30 with two homers), but the lefty whom Ayala owned was Mike Caldwell (11-for-21 with three HRs).

Ayala remained in his reserve role with the O’s in 1983, but his effectiveness diminished, as he hit just .221. “I was a little disappointed with Joe Altobelli [who succeeded Weaver], he didn’t give me a chance. Then when he knows he needs me for the postseason, he put me up against John Montefusco, a righty with that overhand curve.”

Ayala hit a sacrifice fly in his only at-bat in the ALCS against the White Sox, capping the three-run 10th-inning rally that won Game Four and the series for Baltimore. He also made his lone at-bat in the 1983 World Series count. In the seventh inning of Game Three, pinch-hitting for Jim Palmer, he lined a single to left off Steve Carlton, past a diving Mike Schmidt. Rick Dempsey scored the tying run. Ayala then scored the go-ahead run, which would stand up as the margin of victory.

When asked about having a World Series ring, Ayala said, “Juan González turned down $150 million from Detroit because he thought there wasn’t a chance for a ring. He should be in the Guinness Book of Records for that!

“You’re on top. You’re a champion. Even now, I’m signing autographs, and people request that I put ‘1983 World Series Champ’ after my name. I’m lucky that I played with legends – six Hall of Famers.”

In 1984 Ayala joked about his infrequent playing time. After getting just four at-bats in the month of June, he said, “I’m an eclipse player. You don’t see me very often.”12 He hit just .212 for the year, and the Orioles announced in late September that they would not offer him a contract for 1985. Bumbry and Singleton were also part of the housecleaning.

Spring training also came and went without any offers. Even Ayala thought it might be the end of the line. “So what’s left?” he said. “Mexico. And I don’t look at myself as a Mexican League player.13 Looking back, he thought he should have paid his own way to camp, as he remembers players like Rob Picciolo and Kurt Bevacqua did.

On April 19, 1985, though, the Cleveland Indians signed the veteran to a minor-league deal. Although he went just 7-for-46 with the Maine Guides (Portland), the Indians called him up in May. Just days after he made it back, he missed a fly ball against the Boston Red Sox – but then drove in the game-winning run. Manager Pat Corrales said, “Benny looked a little ugly in left field, but he was Robert Redford at the plate.”

Ayala spent the rest of the season with Cleveland, hitting .250 (19-for-76) in 46 games. “When I learned to hit to right field, I was 34 years old. I was a low-ball hitter. I liked to uppercut, even in street fights!” His last big-league homer came off Jimmy Key at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium on September 4. The Indians made him a free agent in November 1985, and Ayala’s big-league career ended.

In December 2009, Ayala responded to blogger Bo Rosny’s request for stories about his baseball cards. One anecdote captured a key part of his approach to the game. “In one of them the picture was taken in Chicago that I like a lot; Brooks Robinson [then an Orioles announcer] told me that I was looking good. That was a perfect day to take the picture. He said, ‘Looking good, Benny, in case you have a bad game today.’

“After that I always shave before the game, good haircut, shine shoes, complete clean uniform, brand-new hat. In case I have a bad game, always looking good.”14

In the winter of 1985-86, Ayala returned to the Puerto Rican Winter League after several seasons away. He regretted the hiatus. “After I established myself with the Orioles, I didn’t go back. Relatives told me I was a little bored with the game. It was foolish. I should have played. I could have gone over 100 homers, I’d be one of the few there.” He finished with 68 homers in his PRWL career.

In 1989 Ayala came back to play with the West Palm Beach Tropics of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. One of his teammates was Tim Stoddard., whose career had overlapped with Ayala’s in Baltimore from 1979 through 1983. Ayala recalled, “I went there, I’m a low-mileage player. How can a player like me be injured? I hit very good, but one day I chased a fly ball and didn’t get it. [Manager] Dick Williams said, ‘We aren’t going to stick with you.’”

After his playing days finally ended, Ayala got an interview with Doug Melvin about a job in the Orioles chain but went back home to Puerto Rico. For a couple of years he was batting coach with Arecibo, “but there was not much money, $1,200 a month, and I was nearly killing myself driving.” After that, “I managed a couple of amateur teams, but they were not easy to handle.”

Ayala was married in 1971 to Esperanza “Eppie” Martínez. “I was always visiting her when I was in college. I was in love. I didn’t like school much!” The Ayalas had four children: sons Benigno III, Luis Mario, and Melvin, plus daughter Jesica.

In subsequent years, Ayala’s main endeavor became his professional network. His goal: to help retired Puerto Rican players in such areas as pensions, health insurance, celebrity baseball clinics, training clinics for children, and more. In November 2007 Ayala (in tandem with the Calero & Sullivan Baseball Management firm) held a groundbreaking meeting with 118 former pros from the island and the Major League Baseball Players’ Alumni Association. As a result, the Baseball Assistance Team was able to offer financial and medical support to various men who needed it. Ayala also got involved with setting up memorabilia signings to bring the players some additional money. His network came to include around 250 pros.

Ayala’s role as BAT’s liaison to the Puerto Rican community brings him and his fellow boricuas much joy. He helped his old teammate Angel Cantres after Angel lost a leg following a work-related accident in 2001. After former minor-league pitcher Jacinto Camacho received a new artificial leg to replace his homemade prosthesis, he walked off the plane home to greet his family and completely forgot about his wheelchair. “Times like these are when I know that the work I do with BAT really makes my life worthwhile,” Ayala said.15

In the summer of 2009 Ayala also reached out to former big-league outfielder Ricky Otero. Otero, who had fallen into alcohol and drug addiction, was living homeless in Cancún, Mexico. Though Otero subsequently denied the report, Ayala was able to get him into a rehab program in New York.16 As of 2024, Otero was doing well in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.

Ayala, who turned 73 in 2024, remains actively involved in his professional network and on social media. He dresses with the same attention that he did to looking sharp in uniform. He is a cheerful and chatty man, but his baseball memories feature a serious undercurrent. He said, “Earl Weaver respected you as a major-leaguer. Some people had to be on the field first, but still I feel, ‘Here they treat everyone the same.’ I was very proud to wear that big-league uniform, with that Orioles name up front.”

This biography was originally published in 2010. It was subsequently updated for Puerto Rico and Baseball (SABR, 2017) and again in 2024.

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment to Benny Ayala for his memories (telephone interview, May 2, 2010). All quotations that are not otherwise attributed come from this interview.

Continued thanks to SABR member Jorge Colón Delgado (Puerto Rican statistics).

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted retrosheet.org, ultimatemets.com, and caleroandsullivan.com, as well as Crescioni Benítez, José A., El Béisbol Profesional Boricua (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Aurora Comunicación Integral, Inc., 1997).

Photo Credit

Benny Ayala with Ricky Otero, courtesy of Benny Ayala.

Notes

1 Carlos Rosa Rosa, “Benigno con el prójimo,” El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico), October 16, 2009.

2 Louis Berney, Tales from the Orioles Dugout (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing LLC, 2004), 147.

3 Charley Feeney, “Columbus Turmoil Might Spell Peterson’s Demise,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 8, 1978: 13.

4 Steve Wulf, “It’s the Right Idea for Left,” Sports Illustrated, July 12, 1982.

5 Associated Press, “Baltimore Offense Is Ignited,” October 12, 1979.

6 Ken Nigro, “Hitting Or Sitting, Ayala Happy,” The Sporting News, August 2, 1980: 37.

7 Jason LaCanfora, “Beyond tantrums, was hidden Weaver,” Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1996.

8 Earl Weaver and Terry Pluto. Weaver on Strategy (New York: Collier Books, 1984), 26.

9 Wulf, “It’s the Right Idea for Left.”

10 Wulf, “It’s the Right Idea for Left.”

11 Ken Nigro, “Benny Always Fit as Bird in Pinch,” The Sporting News, August 9, 1982: 27.

12 Robert W. Creamer, “They Said It,” Sports Illustrated, August 27, 1984.

13 Associated Press, “Indians won’t be sending Ayala to Mexico,” May 19, 1985.

14 http://borosny.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-more-card-story-from-benny-ayala.html

15 Baseball Assistance Team, Winter 2008 newsletter (mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2009/bat/bat_winter_2008_newsletter.pdf)

16 “Ricky Otero: de Grandes Ligas a indigente en Cancún,” El Universal (Mexico City, Mexico), September 4, 2009. “Madeja de Contradicciones,” Primera Hora (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico), March 22, 2010.

These dots were widely scattered – as with many Black ballplayers in his day, Bankhead’s career was multinational. He starred in Puerto Rico, made detours to the Dominican Republic and Canada, and then knocked around Mexico well into his 40s. Always a respectable hitter, Bankhead played the field abroad in addition to pitching. Outside the US, he was also a coach and manager.

Though Bankhead was clearly talented – he drew Bob Feller comparisons – he was hindered by control problems and an old injury. Authors Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt also pinpointed a crucial problem: “Like many of baseball’s first Black players, he was thrown into white baseball with the physical tools to succeed but little or no emotional support.”1 Jackie Robinson was Bankhead’s roommate when the pitcher first joined the Dodgers, four months after Robinson broke the color barrier. In his biography of Robinson, Arnold Rampersad said it bluntly: “Some observers, including Blacks, thought that [Bankhead] choked in facing white hitters.”2

Negro Leagues star and raconteur Buck O’Neil offered a more nuanced view. Author Joe Posnanski was there for a conversation between Buck and Satchel Paige’s son Robert:

“See, here’s what I always heard. Dan was scared to death that he was going to hit a white boy with a pitch. He thought there might be some sort of riot if he did it. Dan was from Alabama just like your father. But Satchel became a man of the world. Dan was always from Alabama, you know what I mean? He heard all those people calling him names, making those threats, and he was scared. He’d seen Black men get lynched.”3

Also, while Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber described Bankhead as “a quiet, pleasant man,”4 there were other sides of his personality. Sometimes he simply did not act in his own best interest – he lost two jobs abroad under a cloud. His brothers Sam and Garnett Bankhead both died by gunshot following quarrels (aged 70 and 63, no less); Dan too had a temper, which a weakness for women allegedly provoked. His family life was at times tumultuous. Yet as he battled illness and lived hand to mouth in his final years, this man attained peace.

Daniel Robert Bankhead was born on May 3, 1920, in Empire, Alabama. His parents, Garnett Bankhead Sr. and Arie (née Armstrong), had five boys and two girls who lived to adulthood. His given name appears as simply Dan in his military records, in the Social Security system, and on his gravestone. His son William F. Bankhead believed that his father shortened it at some point.

The town of Empire is a little more than 30 miles northwest of Alabama’s largest city, Birmingham. It is in the coal country that fueled Birmingham’s steel industry. Garnett Sr., who had worked for a lumber company around the time of World War I, labored in coal. The 1920 census shows him on the crew of a coal tipple (or loading facility); the 1930 census lists him as a miner. The sawmills, lumber yards, and mines were all hard and dangerous jobs – but they offered steady pay and a step up from sharecropping for many African Americans. The shadow of Jim Crow then loomed over the Deep South.

Garnett also played baseball. Although the source of the anecdote is not clear, Moffi and Kronstadt wrote that “he was a star first baseman in the Cotton Belt League until the day he saw a man die after being hit by a flying bat.”5

Dan was the third of the five ballplaying Bankhead brothers. The eldest, Sam, was a top-notch Negro Leaguer: a speedy, versatile, good-hitting infielder-outfielder from 1930 through 1950. A hardnosed leader on the field, Sam became a manager late in his career. While still playing shortstop, he was skipper of the Vargas Sabios (Wise Men), champion of the Venezuelan winter league in 1946-47. Sam then led the Homestead Grays during their last two years as an independent club (1949-50). He also managed Farnham in Canada’s Provincial League in 1951 and is recognized as the first Black skipper of a predominantly white team. Negro Leagues author John Holway contended that Sam inspired Troy Maxson, the lead character in August Wilson’s award-winning play Fences.

The second brother, Fred, was an infielder from 1936 through 1948. Joe and Garnett Jr. were both pitchers. Joe was with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, while Garnett pitched briefly with the Memphis Red Sox in 1947 and spent some time with the Homestead Grays in 1948 and 1949. (Another brother, James, born roughly two years before Dan, apparently died young. He appeared in the 1920 census but not in 1930.)

Bankhead attended public schools in Birmingham. In 1940, he became a pro ballplayer with the Black Barons. In a talk with author Brent Kelley, William “Jimmy” Barnes, another young local player who went to the Negro Leagues, recalled how it happened (though his memory was slightly off on the year and the team that signed Bankhead). “I just tried out for a little city league team. Dan Bankhead and I were trying out for third base and we were throwing the ball across the infield so hard.”6

Kelley also heard from another of Bankhead’s contemporaries, Barons infielder Ulysses Redd. “We went to spring training and had a bunch of guys out there – a bunch of shortstops anyway. . . .even Dan Bankhead wanted to be a shortstop at that time, but he was throwin’ so hard they said they would make a pitcher outta him. They did the right thing.”7 Seamheads.com shows a pitching record of 4-1 for Bankhead in 1940 and 7-1 the next year. He pitched two scoreless innings in the East-West All-Star Game, on July 27, 1941.

In the winter of 1941-42, Bankhead went to play ball in Puerto Rico for the first time. The Puerto Rican Winter League was in its fourth season, and a host of great Negro Leaguers were there, most notably Josh Gibson (Santurce) and Willard Brown (Humacao-Arecibo). Sam Bankhead was with Ponce, but Dan was a member of the Mayagüez Indios, who also featured Willie Wells and Buster Clarkson. He won 7 and lost 8.

Returning to the Black Barons in 1942, Bankhead posted a known record of 2-1. After that, though, the young man decided to serve his nation amid World War II. On April 22, 1943, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in Macon, Georgia. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The Montford Point Marines, as they were also known, were not a combat unit. Even so, the all-Black troops became historically significant as an important step toward the integration of American military forces. Bankhead was part of the Montford Point baseball team, which remained in the States for the duration of the war and toured as a “morale raiser.” In addition to pitching, he played shortstop and the outfield.8

The Marine got occasional leave to pitch for the Black Barons, appearing at least once in 1943 and twice in 1944. On June 5, 1944, the New York Times reported that Bankhead struck out 17 New York Black Yankees as he fired a three-hit shutout in the nightcap of a doubleheader. In the opener, the Barons blanked the Philadelphia Stars 9-0. The twin bill took place at Yankee Stadium before an estimated crowd of 12,000.9

Bankhead, who had gained sergeant’s rank, was released from the service on June 7, 1946. He re-entered baseball with the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He once again made the roster for the East-West All-Star Game – in fact, a pair of them were held that year. He started the first game, on August 15, allowing two earned runs in three innings with no decision. Three days later, he got the win for the West with three scoreless innings.

According to The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues, Bankhead finished the year with a 7-3 record, far outshining his 24-36 team. His 42 strikeouts led the league, though this seemingly low number, like his won-lost records, likely reflects patchy data (Seamheads shows even lower totals).

Sometime in the mid-1940s (the exact date remains under investigation), Bankhead got married to Linda Marquette, who had gone to school in Kansas City and also attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music. According to his son William, they met while she was performing as a jazz singer. The couple had a daughter named Waillulliah, or Lulu for short. The young girl’s name was patterned after famous actress Tallulah Bankhead – a member of a prominent Alabama family. Tallulah may have been linked to the Black Bankheads, because her great-grandfather owned slaves in Lamar County, about 80 miles west of Empire.

William Bankhead came to believe that Lulu was actually a foster child, and there is reason to believe him. A 1947 article in the Richmond Afro-American noted that the young girl was nine years old and that her parents had been married for 10 years.10 But that means Dan and Linda would have been about 17 and 15, respectively, upon their wedding. This is at odds with the evidence and suggests a vague effort at propriety in the article.

With Linda and Lulu in tow11, Bankhead returned to Puerto Rico in the winter of 1946-47. Pitching for the Caguas Criollos, he went 12-8 and led the league with 179 strikeouts. He also showed his speed on the basepaths with 12 steals.

Back with Memphis in 1947, Bankhead had the pleasure of playing with his brother Fred. That year was the first time that any of the Bankhead men were teammates; Garnett also appeared briefly with the Red Sox in ’47, possibly after Dan left. On July 27, Dan again got the win in the East-West All-Star Game, allowing one run in three innings at Comiskey Park. The West won, 5-2, before a crowd of 48,112.

Dodgers scouts George Sisler and Wid Matthews were aware, and they alerted their boss, Branch Rickey. Brooklyn was short on pitching – ironically, they had unloaded starter Kirby Higbe because he refused to play with Jackie Robinson – so Rickey again turned to the Negro Leagues. On August 22, as Rickey biographer Lee Lowenfish wrote, “he and Sisler then traveled to Memphis to observe Dan Bankhead. . . . After the game [in which he struck out 11 and lifted his record to 11-512], Bankhead and his wife fed the visitors dinner, and soon thereafter Rickey announced that the pitcher had been purchased from Blue Sox [sic] owner J.B. Martin for $15,000.”13

The Richmond Afro-American carried a picture of Dr. Martin’s brother B.B. (a co-owner and also a dentist) shaking hands with Linda Bankhead after the deal was announced. The slender, graceful woman (who was not African American) was noted as a former featured singer with jazz great Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. She and Lulu – along with a dog named Tackie and a pet chicken named Fannie Chee-Chee – would join Bankhead in Brooklyn in early September. Linda said she was only a baseball fan when her husband was pitching.14

Lowenfish continued, “Rickey was happy that Dan Bankhead’s color did not attract overwhelming press attention when the pitcher arrived in Brooklyn. The executive always hoped for the day when merit, and not color of skin, determined a person’s chance for success.”15 However, author Jules Tygiel differed, writing that “[Bankhead] received a terrific workout from photographers and newshounds.”16

Rickey would have preferred to test his new pitcher in the minors first, but he needed a live arm more. The 27-year-old’s NL debut came at Ebbets Field on August 26. One news story estimated that Black fans made up roughly a third of that day’s crowd of 24,069.17. A very nervous Bankhead entered in the second inning in relief of Hal Gregg.

The new Dodger allowed eight runs (all earned) on 10 hits in his 3⅓ innings of work that day. In one of his well-honed turns of phrase, sportswriter Red Smith wrote, “(T)he Pirates launched Bankhead by breaking a Louisville Slugger over his prow.”18 However, the hurler displayed his all-around ability by homering off Pittsburgh’s Fritz Ostermueller in his first NL at-bat.

After the game, Bankhead told pioneer Black sportswriter Sam Lacy, “I think I’ll be okay as soon as this newness wears off. Today it seemed like I was wearing a new glove, new shoes, new hat, everything seemed tight.”19

Dodgers manager Burt Shotton mixed praise (“speed, a good curve, and control”) and criticism (“the boys were calling all his pitches”) in his post-game remarks. He said he “wanted another look before I form an opinion one way or another.”20 Bankhead pitched just three times more over the remainder of the season, though, with no decisions and a 7.20 ERA in 10 innings overall. Nonetheless, he remained on the Dodgers roster for the World Series. He made one appearance as a pinch-runner in Game Six. Bobby Bragan had doubled off the Yankees’ Joe Page to score Carl Furillo and put the Dodgers up 6-5. The future big-league manager recalled what happened next:

“Bankhead would have scored from second a few pitches later when Eddie Stanky singled to right but Dan fell down rounding third and just scrambled back to the bag in time. When Pee Wee Reese singled to center both Dan and Eddie scored to ice the game.”21 (Not quite – it took Al Gionfriddo’s famous catch off Joe DiMaggio to hold the lead.)

In the spring of 1948, the Dodgers trained in the Dominican Republic. It marked the first time that Black and white ballplayers stayed at the same hotel. This was a refreshing experience for Jackie Robinson and Bankhead, not only because of the good treatment at the classy Hotel Jaragua but also thanks to the fans. Robinson said, “They show it every time Dan Bankhead or I walk on the field by cheering and clapping as enthusiastically as if we were one of their native players.”22

News service stories from what was then Ciudad Trujillo stated that Bankhead “was converted into a gardener [outfielder] because of his batting power and speed afoot.”23 The experiment was abandoned, though – the Dodgers assigned Bankhead to their Class B affiliate in Nashua, New Hampshire, and he concentrated on pitching. On July 25, he fired a seven-inning no-hitter against the Springfield Cubs. He blazed his way to a 20-6, 2.35 record with a league-leading 243 strikeouts. His wins also led the New England League, and he barely missed the Triple Crown of pitching, with his ERA behind only Harry Schaeffer’s 2.33.

On August 22, newspapers reported Bankhead’s promotion to St. Paul, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in the American Association. Two days later, Lula Garrett of the Baltimore Afro-American wrote, “Satchel Paige opines that Dan Bankhead, youngest [sic] member of the Bankhead Baseball Brothers, throws a faster ball than Cleveland’s Bobby Feller.”24 He finished the season in good form, going 4-0 for the Saints with a 3.60 ERA.

Bankhead rejoined Caguas that winter, posting a 9-8 record. In 1949, he was assigned to Brooklyn’s other Triple-A team, the Montreal Royals. Again he won 20 and lost just six, while leading the league in strikeouts (176). Bankhead also led in walks with 170, though, earning the label “Wild Man of the International League.” The bases on balls were no doubt what pumped his ERA up to 3.76. In addition, he batted .323 with a homer and 26 RBIs.

The third-place Royals swept Rochester in the first round of the playoffs and then took four of five from Buffalo to become IL champs. Bankhead won the opener against the Red Wings and the clincher against the Bisons. Despite a sore arm, he added another win in the Little World Series, which the American Association champ, Indianapolis, won, four games to two.

In the winter of 1949-50, after barnstorming in the Southwest with a group of Black players led by Luke Easter, Bankhead was back in Puerto Rico again. He led the Puerto Rican Winter League in strikeouts for the second time, with 131. In addition to his 10-8 record, he hit seven homers. Caguas won the league championship and thus represented Puerto Rico in the second Caribbean Series, which was played in February at Sixto Escobar Stadium in San Juan.

In the second game of the four-team round robin, Bankhead faced ageless veteran Conrado Marrero, the ace of heavily favored Cuba’s staff. Puerto Rico gave Bankhead one run in the second inning, but that was all he needed as he threw a shutout. However, he lost two games to the eventual champion, Panama, including the tiebreaker.

Before the 1950 season opened, Bankhead was the subject of an uncomplimentary story quoting Branch Rickey. Allegedly the Mahatma turned down “a flattering offer from the Braves for the big right-hander. He confidentially told [Boston co-owner] Lou Perini that Bankhead wouldn’t help the Boston club.”25 The Bankhead-to-Boston rumor had been swirling since the prior fall; Rickey had also offered to deal the pitcher that winter to the White Sox.

Still, Bankhead won a job with Brooklyn that spring. He proceeded to get all nine of his NL wins with the Dodgers. His first came in relief of Don Newcombe at the Polo Grounds on April 28. Bankhead took his first four decisions, going all the way versus the Cubs at Ebbets Field on May 24. On June 18, he shut out the Cardinals on six hits at home.

Just when Bankhead looked to be settling in as an important member of the rotation, though, arm problems worsened. On July 8, the New York Times reported, “Dan Bankhead’s trouble is serious and may call for surgery. The Negro has considerable calcification in his shoulder.”26 The shoulder had pained him earlier that season too. He had complained of soreness in his first start on May 4. The root cause was apparently a dislocation suffered at the age of 17.27

Bankhead’s last start that year came on July 31, but he continued to work frequently out of the bullpen. He finished the year with a record of 9-4, 5.50, starting 12 times in 41 appearances. Control was a problem, as he walked 88 in 129⅓ innings.

In the winter of 1950-51, the Bankheads were in the Dominican Republic, where they welcomed son William that March. William stated that Bankhead was playing with the Escogido Leones, one of the four long-running Dominican clubs, a year before professional ball resumed in the country.

Bankhead’s arm really ailed him in 1951. He pitched a total of just 14 innings in seven games for the Dodgers (0-1, 15.43). In his last two appearances, he was shelled for 14 runs and 16 hits in seven innings. On July 24, Brooklyn announced that it had sold his contract to Montreal and brought up Clem Labine from St. Paul to replace him. Bankhead never made it back to the majors. Perhaps his most lasting big-league moment came amid a clubhouse debate, as he imparted a piece of down-home wisdom to his one-time roommate. “Not only are you wrong, Robinson,” said Bankhead, “You are loud wrong.”28

The pitcher offered another reason for his performance in Brooklyn – “financial pressure brought on by an inability to find an apartment that would accept children. He and his family stayed at an expensive hotel suite, which ate up most of his salary. ‘Nobody with an apartment would let me bring in my kids,’ he said. ‘Nobody wanted them. But I did.’”29

Things were not a whole lot better with the Royals. It took Bankhead over a month to pick up his first win in the International League, and he finished at 2-6, 3.91, mainly in relief. He saw some action out of the pen in the playoffs – Montreal again won the pennant – plus two more brief outings as the Milwaukee Brewers took the Little World Series in six games.

Bankhead resumed his Puerto Rican career in 1951-52 with a new club, the Santurce Cangrejeros (Crabbers). His record was 7-1, with a 3.71 ERA – although he had just 40 strikeouts in 70 innings, showing that he was no longer getting batters out with heat. Still, he was “unbeatable down the stretch” as the Crabbers won 16 of their last 20 games to make the playoffs before losing the finals to San Juan.30

Bankhead returned to Montreal for the 1952 season. However, the Dodgers organization released him in July, with a record of 0-1, 6.92. “Plagued with arm trouble, he worked only 13 innings in five games this season.”31 Bankhead then went back to Escogido – the Dominican baseball season was held in the summer from 1951 through 1954 – but he did not last long there.

In August, he had been named the club’s manager, replacing Félix “Fellé” Delgado, who had gone to the US to scout talent. Against the Estrellas Elefantes, Bankhead was trying for his first win against three losses when an aggressive baserunning play backfired. The third baseman had thrown a live ball to the ground arguing with the umpire, who had called Bankhead safe at third. Bankhead broke for the plate, slid in hard, but was out.

“[Catcher Zoilo] Rosario, fuming . . . immediately fired the ball at the Negro pitcher as he headed towards the Lions’ bench, but his aim was inaccurate and he missed. However, Bankhead quickly whirled around, picked up the catcher’s mask and hit Rosario over the head with it, opening a gash that required three stitches. In the free-for-all that followed, Bankhead was knocked out cold. After peace was restored, Rosario and Bankhead were fined and jailed.”32

Later that month, Bankhead was fired for “breaking training, fraternizing with players of another team and failing to show up for practice,” according to club president Paco Martínez Alba (Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s brother-in-law). Perhaps a more telling factor was that “the club had been having financial squabbles” with Bankhead.33 This man was always known as a tough negotiator, going back to his Negro League days.

In 1953, Bankhead played for Drummondville in the Canadian Provincial League. Quite a few Black ballplayers were in this league, including (though briefly) Bankhead’s younger brother Garnett. A few big-leaguers were there too, including player-manager Al Gionfriddo, Bankhead’s teammate on the ’47 Dodgers and with Montreal in ’49 and ‘’51. (Gionfriddo’s distinct memory of Bankhead was the way he used to “stamp the hell out of the rubber when he pitched.”34) With the last-place Royals, Bankhead’s batting line was .275-3-28; he pitched a handful of games at most (0-0, 0.00).

Late that July, Drummondville dumped veterans whose salaries were too high for the team’s modest budget.35 Bankhead went to Mexico, where he would spend nearly all of his remaining 13 years in the game. He served mainly in the field for the Monterrey Sultanes (.281-3-12) in 1953, though he also went 1-0, 2.90 in two games as a pitcher, including a complete game.

In the winter of 1953-54, Bankhead played in Mexico’s Liga de la Costa del Pacífico, which was entering its ninth season. His team was the Jalisco Charros, also known by the state’s capital, Guadalajara. Bankhead batted .335 as the first baseman and went 7-5 on the mound. He was named to the All-Star team for the league’s Southern division; that game took place on January 13, 1954. Joining him was Charros catcher Sam Hairston, patriarch of a three-generation big-league family.36

Bankhead stayed in Monterrey for the 1954 season (.273-7-33/2-2, 5.56 in seven pitching appearances). In 1955, the Mexican League entered Organized Baseball at the Double-A level. Bankhead split the season between the Sultanes and Veracruz Águila (combined totals: .316-9-46/0-1, 9.00). In 1956, he again played with two teams, Veracruz and the Mexico City Tigres (combined totals: .288-4-28/1-0, 3.00 in just 6 innings pitched).

In 1957, Bankhead took a step down to the Class C Central Mexican League. With the Aguascalientes Tigres, whose roster also included future Duke University athletic director Tom Butters, he batted .361 with 4 homers and 52 RBIs. He also went 2-2, 6.30 on the mound; Estadio Alberto Romo Chávez was and is a hitter’s ballpark. Butters recalled that the air was thin – Aguascalientes is 6,184 feet above sea level.

There was a gap in Bankhead’s summer career in 1958. William Bankhead remembered seeing his father arrested in Brooklyn that year after a stormy domestic dispute. To the best of William’s knowledge, though, Bankhead and Linda (who died in 2007) never got divorced. Throughout the years in Mexico, “he used to come home and make pit stops.”

Bankhead resumed play that winter with the Puebla Pericos (Parrots) in Mexico’s Veracruz League. He turned up in assorted stories in The Sporting News; little head shots showed he was still a “name.” The Parrots were the league champion, with Bankhead playing first base and pitching. In the spring of 1959, he returned to Veracruz as a player-coach, which likely explains his limited action (.244-0-6/0-0, 0.00).

A relatively stable period of four summers in Puebla then followed; the Parrots franchise was by then in the Mexican League. Bankhead was largely a reserve and pinch-hitter as he entered his 40s. During this time, he appeared in 225 games but amassed only 358 at-bats, with a grand total of one homer and 34 RBIs. His average was .293, driven largely by his .378 mark in 1960 (31-for-82). As a pitcher, his composite record was 24-15, 4.60 – mainly in relief, as he started just six times and pitched just 272 innings across 133 appearances.

In 1960 and 1961, Bankhead’s name occasionally popped up in the American papers, especially in San Antonio. During these two years, the Mexican League teams faced Texas League opponents regularly – 36 games and 24 games for each Mexican League club. The combined leagues were known as the Pan American Association. In August 1961, Bankhead won three games in two days in relief. That fall saw him with Saltillo in the little-known Northern Autumn League, which apparently lasted only one season despite drawing decent crowds thanks to pitchers like Luis Tiant.

Bankhead then wintered with another obscure Mexican circuit, the Bajío (Lowlands) League. He managed the Acámbaro Trains, a club in the state of Guanajuato. Bankhead must have inspired a following, for 100 fans traveled 500 miles to Puebla in August 1962 to cheer for him on Dan Bankhead Day in Puebla. The veteran pitched a complete game and won 13-1, as Alonzo Perry (another ex-Negro Leaguer, then 39) scored Monterrey’s only run on a wild pitch.37

To start the 1962 winter season, Bankhead was manager of Martínez de la Torre in the Veracruz League – but he was fired on November 14. The club was 6-4; there was only a cryptic report saying, “The Sugar Canes’ officials . . . took the action ‘for the good of the club.’”38 So then, after 10 seasons away, he resurfaced in Puerto Rico as a player-coach. He was 3-0 pitching for Caguas, winning both ends of a doubleheader in relief on December 2. A week later, Bankhead was named the club’s interim manager after Preston Gómez resigned on December 9.39 Within three days, though, the Criollos released him and made Jim Rivera manager. Bankhead then joined the Ponce Leones.40

William Bankhead went to the island that winter too. He had fond memories of how his father provided him with a white horse to ride. “I used to ride up into the hills there and shoot at iguanas with a Daisy BB gun,” he said. William recalled that Bankhead left the club after another domestic dispute with Linda. A Criollos teammate, pitcher Julio Navarro, said, “I can’t say whether it did or didn’t happen – I don’t remember anything like that. But he did a hell of a job pitching for an older guy. You tell me he was 42, I thought he was in his 50s.

“He was a good person, but I think he didn’t have much experience managing. Also, our team didn’t look like it had a chance to make the playoffs that year. Just before Christmas, some guys who aren’t from Puerto Rico want to go home, so teams will release them if they’re not winning. It’s also the last date to give them a chance to sign with somebody else.” However, the post-Bankhead Criollos won 24 of their last 32 games, surged from fifth place to second (out of six teams), and made it to the playoff finals.

After his last season with Puebla – he brought along a couple of Puerto Ricans he’d scouted41 – Bankhead moved to the Mexican Central League (Class A) in 1964. With the León Broncos, he put up a remarkable average of .441 with 4 homers and 41 RBIs, while still pitching capably (4-1, 4.20). He was listed as manager for part of that year, along with Cuban Santos Amaro, father of Rubén Amaro and grandfather of Ruben Amaro Jr.

In 1965, Bankhead remained as nonplaying manager of the León ballclub, which then became known as the Diablos Verdes (Green Devils). He led them to a second-place finish. At age 46 in 1966, Bankhead then enjoyed his last hurrah as a player with Reynosa. On June 2, the Broncos hired him away – as manager – from Aguascalientes in the Central League. In 11 games, he went 6-for-14, also posting his last pitching win on July 17. He was 1-0, 4.73 in 19 innings across six relief outings.

Bankhead’s time in baseball then came to an end. Like many men in this position, he really didn’t have another good career option – the game was his life. Much insight on the ensuing period came from Cornelius “Doc” Settles, whose mother, Martha Ann, and aunts Charlene and Essie grew up with Bankhead in Alabama. These good neighbors offered a helping hand.

“It would have been in the mid to late ’60s,” said Settles. “From what I understand, everything started to implode for Dan in Mexico.” William Bankhead stated, “He was pitching more than balls, you know what I mean? Too many kids, too many intimacies. There are several kids down in Mexico that I know of. And you can’t live in a foreign country without money.”

“The nearest oasis was Houston,” Settles continued. “My mom and her sisters weren’t looking for anything. This was just somebody close from home – there was a connection by marriage in there too.

“Dan was facing inner turmoil when he first came to Houston. He was trying to get back on his feet. But he stepped in right when I needed somebody in my life. He was so humble, and he had a down-home sensibility that grounded him. I was just a teenager, and he was always willing to share a few moments with me and my brothers tossing baseballs and playing games. I will never forget Dan Bankhead burning up my hand while trying to catch one of his pitches. Even in his final days Dan could still toss a mean fast ball.

“There’s a photo in Rachel Robinson’s book called An Intimate Portrait on page 92. Jackie is playing cards with Don Newcombe, Campy [Roy Campanella], and Dan. I remember firsthand that Dan also loved playing cards and checkers. He wouldn’t take any prisoners! He would beat us kids in games and laugh afterwards with that sparkle in his eyes and big smile.

“I only wish that I could have grasped who we were hanging out with. I would have done a better job of absorbing every little tidbit. Back then I was too naïve to understand. He would talk about Mexico and the league, how hot it was. He was so fluent in Spanish – he looked Hispanic. His pigmentation was light, and as he got older, he got even lighter. [Note: Garnett Bankhead was listed as a mulatto, as were his sons, in the 1920 census.

“There was a woman living in Mexico too. I just remember vaguely, I don’t remember her name or their child’s, but I met them. She was beautiful. Dan never went into detail about it, though.

“Dan spent his final years working for a small service company delivering food goods and supplies to small businesses and restaurants across Houston. I remember driving over and picking up Dan from his tiny rented apartment that was located upstairs over a garage in Kashmere Gardens, just 10 minutes from our house. He’d have a glove and ball, and he’d be smoking a Camel.”

At some point in the 1970s, Bankhead was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he was in and out of the Veterans Administration hospital in Houston. “His little smoking habit finally caught up with him,” said Doc Settles. “I always thought he’d go back to Mexico, but then he got sicker. You could see him erode. He’d have his ups and downs, but he knew. He just got more and more humble. He was resolved to make peace. Dan’s final days living in Houston were filled with reflection, days of happiness.” Eventually, he succumbed on May 2, 1976 – a day short of his 56th birthday.42

Thanks to the VA, the old Marine was buried under a modest bronze marker in Houston National Cemetery. “I don’t remember if any of his old teammates came to the funeral,” Settles said. “It was a small and quiet event. I don’t think he was in touch with them. It was in the past and he didn’t dwell on it.”

Bankhead’s name surfaced in 2006 in a dispute between his sons William and Dan Herbert Bankhead (born in 1949, later known as Dan Al-Mateen) over the pitcher’s memorabilia. William alleged that the items came into the possession of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum by improper means. A legal battle ensued.43

The less said of this episode, however, the better. It’s best to remember Dan Bankhead as a talented player, a pioneer, and for the goodness in him. William Bankhead remembered once coming to blows with his father, on the street in front of Linda’s residence in Brooklyn Heights. Yet later, before the younger man went to serve in Vietnam in 1971, Dan said “I am sorry,” giving his son a kiss. He bequeathed William the Smith & Wesson pistol he got upon enlisting in the Marines. William also remembered how his father taught him to love and respect animals, birds, and other children.

Doc Settles summed it up nicely too. “He had a personality you wanted to be around. He left you with positive things. I was able to enjoy his laughter and his jokes and his smiles. I just wish we knew more about what he went through as an African American baseball trailblazer.”

Acknowledgments

This biography was originally published in 2009. An abridged version was published in The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (University of Nebraska Press, 2012). This updated version was published in 2024.

Special thanks for their memories to Doc Settles (e-mail exchanges and phone discussions starting in June 2008) and William F. Bankhead (e-mail exchanges and phone discussions starting in September 2008).

Continued thanks also to Julio Navarro (telephone interview, 2008) and SABR member Jorge Colón Delgado (additional Puerto Rican statistics).

Image credits

Dodgers headshot: courtesy of walteromalley.com

Marines headshot: courtesy of www.mpma28.com

Watercolor: courtesy of Doc Settles, Artist

Sources

Obituary: “Dan Bankhead, 54 [sic], Ex-Dodger, Is Dead.” New York Times, May 7, 1976: 95. Note that The Sporting News sometimes presented Bankhead’s year of birth as 1921.

Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 1997).

José A. Crescioni Benítez, El Béisbol Profesional Boricua (San Juan, Puerto Rico: Aurora Comunicación Integral, Inc., 1997).

Pedro Treto Cisneros, editor, Enciclopedia del Béisbol Mexicano (Mexico City, Mexico: Revistas Deportivas, S.A. de C.V., 1998).

James A. Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1994).

John Holway, The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues (Fern Park, Florida: Hastings House Publishers, 2001).

Larry Lester, Black Baseball’s National Showcase: The East-West All-Star Game, 1933-1953, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Professional Baseball Player Database V6.0

www.paperofrecord.com (various small pieces of information from The Sporting News and El Informador)

www.ancestry.com (census information on Garnett Bankhead)

www.findagrave.com

Social Security Death Index

Notes

1 Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt, Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers 1947-1959 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994), 13.

2 Arnold Rampersad, Jackie Robinson: A Biography (New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1997), 184.

3 Joe Posnanski, The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007), 144.

4 Red Barber, 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1982), 280.

5 Moffi and Kronstadt, 11.

6 Brent Kelley, The Negro Leagues Revisited (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000), 89.

7 Kelley, 118.

8 From the online history of the Montford Point Marines, webmaster James Stewart Jr.: http://www.mpma28.com/newsletters/newsletter/2854121/44177.htm

9 “Barons Win by 9-0, 13-0; Triumph Over the Philadelphia Stars and Black Yankees,” New York Times, June 5, 1944: 12.

10 “Wife, Daughter, Dog, Chicken Root for Dan,” Richmond Afro-American, September 6, 1947: 1.

11 Leslie Heaphy, The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2002), 173. See also note 10.

12 Dave Bloom, “Beale Street’s Dancing Over Its Boy, Dan,” The Sporting News, September 3, 1947: 7. Seamheads shows a record of 2-1.

13 Lee Lowenfish, Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 433. Two notes: the won-lost record cited here and in The Sporting News conflicts with the 4-4 mark shown in The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues. Also, Bankhead’s wife is referred to as “Charlotte.”

14 “Wife, Daughter, Dog, Chicken Root for Dan.”

15 Lowenfish, Branch Rickey, 433.

16 Jules Tygiel, in Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth Century America, editors Patrick Miller and David Wiggins (New York: Routledge, 2004), 184.

17 “Bucs Win; Bankhead Homers,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 27, 1947: 24.

18 Red Smith, “Views of Sport,” New York Herald-Tribune; date uncertain. Reprinted in Baltimore Afro-American, September 6, 1947: 13.

19 Sam Lacy, “Bankhead Knocked Out in First Dodger Game,” Richmond Afro-American, August 30, 1947: 14.

20 Joe Reichler (Associated Press), “Negro Hurler to Get New Chance,” August 27, 1947.

21 Bobby Bragan, “Bragan Recalls Series Hit,” Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), July 10, 1965: 7.

22 Michael E. Lomax, in Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality On and Off the Field, ed. Charles K. Ross (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 66. Originally in New Jersey Afro American and Pittsburgh Courier, March 13, 1948.

23 Leo H. Petersen, “Youth, Speed and Fight To Mark 1948 Dodger Team,” Lima (Ohio) News, March 29, 1948: 11.

24 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Fireside, 2004), 125.

25 “Branch Rickey May Be Forced to Eat Words.” Syracuse Herald-American, March 19, 1950: D1.

26 Roscoe McGowen, “Simmons Checks Brooklyn, 7-2, Behind 4-Run Onslaught in Sixth,” New York Times, July 8, 1950.

27 Moffi and Kronstadt, 12.

28 Dave Anderson, “Nice Wrong Isn’t Really So Terrible,” New York Times, February 27, 1998.

29 Anderson, “Nice Wrong Isn’t Really So Terrible.”

30 Thomas E. Van Hyning, The Santurce Crabbers (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1999, 38.

31 Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette, July 20, 1952: 29.

32 Alejandro Martínez, “Dan Bankhead Fined, Jailed in Dominican Republic Riot,” The Sporting News, August 13, 1952: 30.

33 Alejandro Martínez, “Bankhead Fired as Manager in Dominican Loop,” The Sporting News, September 3, 1952: 32.

34 Peter Golenbock, Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, 2000 edition), 157.

35 Scott Baillie, “Happy Once Again: Al Gionfriddo Now Playing for Ventura,” Daily Review (Hayward, California), May 20, 1954: 10.

36 Manuel de Jesús Sortillón Valenzuela, www.historiadehermosillo.com/BASEBALL/Menuff.htm (online history of Mexico’s Liga de la Costa del Pacífico). One may also find pictures of and stories about Bankhead and Sam Hairston in the Guadalajara newspaper El Informador.

37 “Bankhead Stars on Big Day,” The Sporting News, August 18, 1962: 39.

38 Roberto Hernández, “Bankhead Fired as Manager; Pinkston Fractures Arm,” The Sporting News, December 1, 1962: 41.

39 Miguel Frau, “Orsino Steps High as Candidate for Triple-Title King,” The Sporting News, December 22, 1962: 29.

40 Miguel Frau, “New Skipper Rivera Spurs Caguas to Winning Splurge,” The Sporting News, December 29, 1962: 33.

41 Roberto Hernández, “Season Opens First in Mexico; Sultans Favored to Repeat,” The Sporting News, April 13, 1963: 48.

42 “Bankhead Dies,” Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, May 7, 1976: 29. Of interest in this story is a reference to a wife coming up from Mexico.

43 Charles Emerick, “Negro Leagues museum brought into family feud, lawsuit over memorabilia,” Daily Record (St. Louis, Missouri), October 3, 2006.

Unfortunately, that was the only homer that Barragan hit in his short time in the majors: 69 games across three seasons. His pro career ended after 1963.

The series of events that brought Facundo Barragan to Chicago had many twists, turns, challenges, and setbacks. It is hard to imagine a more improbable path than the one that led Barragan to wear a Cubs jersey – maybe even more improbable than the idea Cubs owner Phil Wrigley hatched earlier in 1961, the system of rotating managers called “The College of Coaches.”

Facundo Antonio Barragan was born in Sacramento, California on June 20, 1932. His parents were both immigrants born in Mexico. In Spanish, the accent falls on the last syllable of the family name – Barragán – but he uses the English pronunciation (accent on the first syllable) unless he is speaking Spanish.

Facundo was the youngest of seven children. His father, Claudio, worked at the Southern Pacific Railroad shop in Sacramento, but contracted a disease and died when Cuno was only two years old. The family was on relief, but got by with the children pitching in, earning money wherever they could, and by renting out an upstairs room. His mother, Josefa, did not speak English; everyone spoke Spanish at home. She died at the age of 56 when Cuno was only 15 years old.

For much of his youth, therefore, he was raised by his older siblings: Josephine, Vincent, Caroline, Claude, Guadalupe, and half-brother Joe Alejo. He was closest to brother Claude, who found time to play catch with Cuno and who also played a little semi-pro baseball in Sacramento as a pitcher. Josephine was an outstanding athlete too, playing basketball and softball.

They lived in a multiracial neighborhood on Q Street in downtown Sacramento. Besides school, Cuno spent his days playing sports in the neighborhood. The local kids played baseball in the street, with a broken curb acting as first base, a palm tree as third base, and whatever they could find to put in the street as second base. He also helped the family finances by delivering the Sacramento Bee newspaper, a job that was handed down from brother to brother. During the baseball season he and his buddies would go to Edmonds Field, which was only a few blocks away, and try to get hired to pick up bottles in the stadium after the Sacramento Solons games. Every little bit of income helped the family.

Barragan also has fond memories of the different strategies that he and his friends used to sneak into Solons games. Did he ever think that he would be playing professionally on that field? “No, no, no thought at all. I never had any aspiration to be a professional baseball player. It was just a game to be played at school and in the park,” claims Barragan.2

As a youngster Barragan had a pretty strong arm and envisioned himself as a pitcher. Although Little League did not exist back then, Sacramento had many divisions in the Municipal Summer League. At the age of 11 or 12, Cuno organized his own team in the 100-pound division and got a sponsor. His plan to be the star pitcher quickly evaporated when no one was willing to be catcher. Without a catcher they could not play, so he capitulated and took the spot, wearing borrowed gear. That became his position for the rest of his baseball playing days, both professionally and in the amateur ranks.

Barragan played on his junior high’s baseball team, but was so far down on the depth chart that in the team picture he was not wearing a uniform. From 1947 to 1949 he attended Sacramento High School, where he played football and baseball. Despite not being large, he was tough – enough to be a lineman on the football team. In baseball he played his typical position, catcher. During the football season he also played baseball in the Sacramento Winter Baseball League, starting in the 1949-50 season (he had graduated from high school in midyear).

After high school Barragan attended Sacramento Junior College. Academics did not have much allure for him; after a baseball season in which he was the fourth-string catcher, he quit school and went to work for the Fischer Tile & Marble Company. Figuring that this business was going to be his life’s career path, the young man quickly learned how to set tile.

That path took a major turn when St. Mary’s College in Moraga (in Contra Costa County, near Oakland) dropped its football program. As a result, two of his high school buddies, who were on scholarship to play football at St. Mary’s, left Moraga and came back to play for Sacramento Junior College in 1951. They convinced Barragan to join them. Reticent at first because he was making $75 per week setting tile and had a 1939 Chevy that required upkeep, he finally relented.

He was a first-string linebacker for the Panthers and team MVP, and when baseball season rolled around, he decided to give it another try. While he was not in school, he had continued playing baseball in the County League. Now with more confidence and baseball maturity, he was one of the top players on the team that made it all the way to the state championship, only to lose to Santa Rosa. He led the team in hitting with a .408 average.3

During that summer of 1952, with renewed interest and excitement in baseball, he took part in two semi-pro summer leagues. He played in the County League for the Rio Vista Red Sox and traveled up to Willows to catch for the Glenn County Cardinals in the Sacramento Valley League.

Based on his performance at college and in the summer leagues, the 5’11”, 180-pound catcher was starting to draw interest from baseball scouts, so he decided not to play football. During the tail end of the 1952 Pacific Coast League season he was invited to go to San Francisco for a tryout in which he caught batting practice for the Seals. They offered him a contract to play for the Yakima Bears for the following season. He was not yet 21 years old, so he was unable to sign on the spot without a guardian’s signature.

When Barragan got back to Sacramento, Charlie Graham, Jr., owner of the Solons, caught wind of the trip and contract offer, and immediately made an offer of his own. The lure of playing in his hometown led Barragan to sign with Sacramento. With both parents deceased, his brother Vince had to go down to the courthouse and pay $50 to become Cuno’s legal guardian in order to co-sign the contract. Meanwhile, Harry Fischer, owner of the tile company, tried to convince Barragan that there was no future in a baseball career and that he should come back to a solid career in his business. Although it was not a year-round salary, Barragan believed that being able to play baseball and earn $800 a month during baseball season beat $75 per week setting tile. On February 1, 1953 he married Marlene Spencer, who supported his decision.

So in the spring of 1953, after one of his most active seasons (17 games) in the Sacramento Winter League’s top division, Barragan joined the Solons for spring training in Santa Cruz. Before the regular season began he was optioned to the Idaho Falls Russets, a team in the Class C Pioneer League that had a working agreement with the Solons. They were training in Lodi, California, so off went Cuno to Lodi. He spent the entire season with the Russets. Along with four or five other Sacramento natives, he played well and survived the long bus rides to such places as Salt Lake City, Utah and Great Falls, Montana.

But a roadblock to his baseball career was just around the corner. Barragan remembers, “A lot of my friends were being drafted, so a couple of us went down and enlisted in the Naval Reserve.”4 Among other activities, this required his attendance at weekly meetings. Although he transferred from the 12th Naval District to the 13th, he found that the long bus rides and away games made it difficult to attend the meetings. “At the end of the season when I got home there was a letter from the President of the United States directing me to report to Ford Ord (in California),” Barragan remembers. “Apparently I had missed too many meetings.”5

On the day before he was to report to Ford Ord, he was transferred to the San Diego Naval Training Center to begin his two-year hitch in the service. So he left for San Diego, leaving behind Marlene and their young son, Michael.

Barragan recalls, “I went through the regular training for ten weeks, or whatever it was, and when they were assigning duty onto the aircraft carriers, somebody looked at my billet and saw that I was owned by the Sacramento Solons. The commander in charge decided to keep me there.”6 He spent 1954 in San Diego, working in the post office, but mostly playing baseball for the base team. The next year he was transferred to the Naval Station in Alameda, California, which was a little closer to home. In the service he played third base and also did some pitching.

In the spring of 1956 he was out of the service and went to spring training with the Solons. Again he was optioned out, this time to the Amarillo Gold Sox of the Western League. Playing in a ballpark that often had gusting winds, Cuno used the conditions to his advantage and hit a career-high 10 home runs. He hit .257, but again had to endure long bus rides, including a 28-hour trip from Amarillo to Sioux City, Iowa.

During the off-season Barragan went back to school at Sacramento State College. He also worked as a janitor for the Sacramento Unified School District to help support his family, now with a second son, Stephen. In addition, he appeared in 15 National Division games in the Sacramento Winter League.

In 1957 he finally stuck with the Solons for the entire season, playing in 108 games, but hitting only .193. Following the season he went down to Mexico to play in the Veracruz League for Pericos de Puebla. Although Sacramento had its own Winter League, with some very good players, Barragan figured that playing down in Mexico would improve his game, and he would get paid at the same time. He didn’t stay long, though, because a foul tip broke a finger.7

When spring training 1958 closed, the Solons wanted to ship Barragan out to the Atlanta Crackers, of the Southern Association, to work on his hitting. Feeling that he had paid his dues by catching 108 games the previous season, he did not want to leave his family and refused to go. So he was suspended and went back to work setting tile.

In early July, injuries had left the Portland Beavers with only one catcher. Portland manager Tommy Heath, who was familiar with Barragan after managing the Solons in 1957, inquired about him and was told that he was on the suspended list. So Sacramento made Barragan eligible and sold him, conditionally, to Portland. In order for a player to change teams, money had to change hands, so Portland bought Barragan’s rights for one dollar. He played six games for Portland, batting .250, and then was returned to Sacramento – for $1.

One advantage of his short stint in Portland was a slight change in his contract. Barragan’s contract with Sacramento had called for him to receive 10% of the selling price if he were to be sold to a major league club. Grateful that Barragan had helped fill in for his regulars, the Portland general manager changed it to 25%. That change would pay off in 1960.

With the Solons under new management, Barragan was back with Sacramento to start the 1959 season. In spring training, he outhit the other two catchers on the roster, Clay Dalrymple and Bob Roselli, with a .351 average. In the early part of June, however, his average was only .200. Spokane was in dire need of a catcher, so he was sold to the Indians, again for $1. He finished out the season with Spokane and ended up with a combined .205 average in 195 at-bats. When Sacramento came in fourth place, he was allotted a half-share of the team’s prize money, which amounted to only $28.71.

In 1960, after being sold by Spokane back to the Solons (again for a dollar), Barragan had a strong season – his springboard to the major leagues. Though a wrist injury limited him to 80 games, he batted .318 and had 46 assists. A feature in The Sporting News that August said, “He’s hard as nails, has an abundance of hustle. His catching has improved along with his batting. His arm is both good and accurate. He has developed into a smart handler of pitchers. And, unlike most catchers, Cuno can run.”8 Barragan also said, “My main problem as a hitter was that I tried to pull everything. In 1960, I started to hit the other way, which helped my average.”9

In November 1960, the 28-year-old Barragan was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. The selling price for his services had increased to $25,000, which the Solons pocketed, minus Cuno’s $6,250 cut, thanks to his modified contract. He and his wife also welcomed a third son, David, in November.

In February Barragan signed a contract and set his sights on the Cubs catching job. It wasn’t going to be easy – the Cubs had seven catchers in spring training camp in Mesa, Arizona. He was getting a lot of playing time in the preseason games until March 25, when he broke his ankle while sliding into third base against the Cleveland Indians. Barragan sadly remembers, “I hit a double. On the next play I was being sacrificed to third and I anticipated a play at third base. I was already into my slide when I saw the sign to stand up.”10

Barragan had already become a popular man on the club. After the injury, one of the Cubs coaches, Harry Craft, said, “Nobody likes to see anybody get hurt, but it seems even worse because it happened to Cuno. He was working so hard and was such a likable fellow. You had to admire him for the way he went about his business. I know you’re not supposed to let personal feelings enter into baseball, but I know that deep down a lot of us were hoping that he’d make the club.”11

After getting out of the hospital, Barragan went home to Sacramento to recuperate. After about two months he returned to Chicago to have the cast removed and join the team. He was still a couple of months away from being able to return to the field, so he was handed a 10-power scope and shown the way inside the scoreboard to be the “scoreboard spy.” His job was to steal the catcher’s signals and relay to the batter what type of pitch was coming via a red light switch. Barragan had a funny anecdote about Giants scout Hank Sauer, who was aware of the practice from his years as a Cub in the ’50s. “I always barricaded myself up there, so that no one could come up and catch me stealing signs. So, Sauer came up the ladder and tried that door, but he could not get in, so he started yelling. ‘I know you’re up there Barragan, you SOB! I’m gonna come up there and rip you apart!’”12

When rosters expanded on September 1, Barragan finally got into his first official major league game. Lights at Wrigley Field were still decades away, so all Cubs home games were played during the day. This was a warm and sunny afternoon, with the temperature hitting 90 degrees at the start of the contest. The National League then had just eight teams, and the Cubs were in seventh place, 22 1/2 games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. Only the Philadelphia Phillies, deep in the cellar, were worse. It is no wonder that only 5,427 fans were on hand at Wrigley that day. The opponent that day was the San Francisco Giants, who were in fourth place, seven games back.

Barragan got the start for Chicago as the batterymate for right-hander Glen Hobbie. He batted eighth in the order. On the mound for the Giants was a tall lefty, rookie Dick LeMay. After an inning and a half there was no score, but the Cubs got on the board in the bottom of the second inning as Andre Rodgers hit a two-run homer with two outs. Barragan then came to the plate for the first time in the majors. “I don’t remember the excitement of going to bat the first time ’cause there was a home run hit right before me,” says Cuno.13 He belted a LeMay pitch over the left field fence.14

Barragan finished the season playing in only nine more games, though he started eight of those. He batted .214, but did not make an error in 39 chances.

His other most memorable moment that season came in Los Angeles on September 20. It was the last game that the Dodgers played in the Los Angeles Coliseum, since Dodger Stadium (known then as Chavez Ravine) would open the next season. The Dodgers won 3-2 in 13 innings behind a complete-game performance by future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, who threw 205 pitches to notch his 18th win of the season.

Barragan started the game for the Cubs. Up to the seventh inning he had struck out twice against Koufax, who ended up with 15 Ks for the game. In the seventh, Koufax threw him two fastballs for strikes; Cuno knew he was overmatched. For some reason Koufax then tossed him a curveball and Barragan met it squarely for a single. In the ninth, he drew a two-out walk. Although he had pretty good speed for a catcher, even after his broken ankle, the Cubs decided to replace him with a pinch runner. There was no embarrassment for him in that the runner was another future Hall of Famer, premier base stealer Lou Brock.

In 1962 Barragan was one of five catchers on the Cubs roster, with at least three being active at all times. Even 35-year-old player/coach El Tappe got behind the plate for 26 games. With a .302 batting average, Dick Bertell got the most action behind the plate, 76 games. Barragan batted .201 in 58 games; Moe Thacker got into 65 games and hit .187; and Sammy Taylor caught only six games, hitting .133.

Without a consistent lineup and having three different managers during the season, it was not surprising that the Cubs ended up in ninth place (out of ten teams), losing 103 games. The only team that was worse was one of the two new expansion clubs, the New York Mets. Even the other new franchise, the Houston Colt .45s, finished ahead of Chicago.

On Opening Day, Barragan got the start against the Colts at Colt Stadium in Houston’s first ever major league game. The Cubs were crushed, 11-2, but Barragan got one hit in three tries. That was his only hit over his next ten games and his average dipped to .063. With an abundance of catchers, he was relegated to the bench for the next 11 days. In the meantime El Tappe had been replaced by Lou Klein as manager.

When Barragan got back into the lineup, the hits started to fall. Against the Phillies and Mets in a stretch of six games, he went 10 for 23 and raised his average to .282. His hitting eventually cooled off and his playing time was sporadic. He did, however, catch the last game of the season, in which the Cubs beat the Mets, 5-1, giving New York a record-setting 120 losses for the season.

On the strength of his hitting in 1962, Dick Bertell was pegged as the Cubs’ starting catcher for the 1963 campaign. The team had a new manager, Bob Kennedy (the College of Coaches had been abandoned), and a couple of new catchers, Merritt Ranew and Jimmie Schaffer. There wasn’t room for the 31-year old Barragan. He got into only one game – his last in the majors – on April 21, striking out in his only at-bat.

Chicago then optioned Barragan to Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League. He played in 85 games for the Bees and had the second highest batting average of his career at .284.

Barragan did, however, wear the Cubs uniform one more time. On October 12, 1963, in the last baseball game ever to be played at the Polo Grounds in New York, he was the National League catcher in the one and only Latin American major league players’ game. The exhibition game was a charity benefit. Barragan’s presence shows how much less common Latino players were then – during the 1963 season, not one man born in Latin America played catcher in the NL.15 He caught the whole game and although he went 0 for 3, his squad, which included such stars as Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal, defeated the American League squad, 5-2.

In December 1963, the Cubs traded Barragan to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with pitcher Jim Brewer for pitcher Dick Scott. Despite being invited to the Dodgers’ spring training camp in Vero Beach, Cuno was offered a Triple-A contract, which would have brought him back to Spokane. “They said come to spring training and be a Dodger.” Barragan related. “I said I’m not going without a major league contract.”16 The starting catcher for Los Angeles was Johnny Roseboro, so the most Barragan could have hoped for was a backup position. Without a major league contract he figured that he wouldn’t get a fair look.

Thus, he decided to retire. The Dodgers put him on the suspended list. “They didn’t give me my outright release until I had been in the insurance business for three or four years.”17 There were some good breaks and some bad breaks along Facundo Barragan’s path in baseball. Yet he was grateful for the opportunity to play pro ball for nine years, with and against some of the all-time greats of the game.

Going to school during the off-seasons, Barragan had graduated from Sacramento State College with a degree in Physical Education in 1960. His plan was to go into teaching and coaching once his baseball career was over. A friend in the insurance business, however, convinced him that he could make more money selling insurance than teaching and even more than he could playing baseball. So Barragan left baseball and teaching behind and went to work for Cal Western Life Insurance. He later became an independent agent and remained in the insurance business until his retirement in 2011.

For a few years in the mid-1960s Barragan continued to play semi-pro ball as a player/manager in the Sacramento County League for the team sponsored by Rainbo Bread. As late as 1969, he appeared in a Sacramento Winter League National Division game. He also spent 13 seasons in the Sierras on the ski patrol.

In Sacramento, Barragan is a member of three Halls of Fame. In 1973, he was selected by the Mexican-American Sports Association Hall of Fame; in 2002, he became a member of the LaSalle Club Baseball Hall of Fame and the Sacramento City College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Cuno Barragan lived in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael with his wife, Karla (née Goff), whom he married on April 14, 2003.18 During the Cubs’ road to the World Series championship in 2016, he became a media star in his hometown area. As a member of the franchise’s “fraternity of futility,” the local networks and newspapers wanted to get his perspective on the team’s run for the crown. He watched the final game in his home, surrounded by a houseful of media personnel. After the Cubbies won, his doorbell rang and it was a neighbor with a round cake, decorated as a baseball with a big blue “W” in the middle.

He died at the age of 91 on May 12, 2024.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Rory Costello for reviewing this biography and contributing some material, including insights on the Latin American players’ game of 1963.

Sources

Interviews

Notes from Ed Carroll’s February 2007 interview with Cuno Barragan

The author’s many conversations with Cuno Barragan from 2013 to 2017, particularly ones on February 28, 2017 and March 14, 2017.

Newspapers

Sacramento Bee and Sacramento Union (Tom Crisp’s research into the archives of these newspapers provided the information on Barragan’s records in the Sacramento Winter League)

Chicago Tribune

Websites

Ancestry.com

Thisgreatgame.com

Books

Alan O’Connor, Gold on the Diamond, Sacramento, California: Big Tomato Press, 2008

Joe Taxeira, A Unique Look at Big League Baseball – Unique History, Photos, & Statistics through 2010, Roswell, Georgia:, Colorwise Commercial Printing, 2011

Notes

Bates played in the majors through 1914 and continued in minor-league ball until 1923. After that the semipro game kept him going well past his 50th birthday. A headline in 1926 summed up his style, calling him a “plugger type of ball player, never star, but always dependable.”2

Current fans are likely never to have heard of Bates. If they view his metrics, they see a slightly above-average offensive player (OPS+ of 122 for his career, 100 is average) who was hailed by a Cincinnati writer as “one of the best bunters in the National League [who] can wait the pitchers out as well as anyone, cuts in capably when the hit-and-run is required and is one of the best long-distance swatters.”3 In short, he could handle the bat equally well as a leadoff, two-hole, or clean-up hitter.

It is much more difficult for the modern fan to determine Bates’ fielding talents. His range factor suffers in comparison to teammates and contemporaries some seasons, yet he was described as a wide-ranging fielder who “pulls off many thrilling catches.”4 Modern metrics such as dWAR never give him a positive score (labeling him below average compared to all fielders). He played all three outfield spots but was used more in center field than either of the corners.

Born John William Bates on January 10, 1884, he was the sixth of 15 children born to Thomas and Margaret (Grant) Bates.5 His parents were English and had started the family there before coming to the United States in 1881. Thomas was a coal miner and the family settled in Jefferson County, Ohio, living in Bloomfield and Steubenville, where John was born.

Bates attended school in Steubenville and noted on a census that he had one year of high school. According to the 1900 census he was in the work force, having joined a couple of brothers at the local glassworks. He no doubt learned baseball from his brothers and on the open lots in Steubenville. By 1904 he was a member of the local team, playing center field and batting in the middle of the order.6

Bates began collecting a paycheck to play baseball in 1905 when he signed with Altoona in the independent Tri-State League.7 Bates played left field for the Mountaineers and batted either leadoff or second. He was released after about a month and signed on with Homestead, Pennsylvania.8 He closed out the season playing center field for Sharon (Pennsylvania) in the Ohio-Pennsylvania League.9

Boston Beaneaters catcher Tom Needham lived in Steubenville. He recommended Bates to Boston management and in February 1906, Bates was signed by the team.10 While his debut home run made his name known to the fans, it was his play in the field that garnered praise from the press, with one writer saying, “Johnny Bates is certainly breaking in well. He covers that center garden with the confidence and skill of an old-timer.”11 Boston fans needed every excuse to cheer in 1906 because the team suffered through a horrendous 19-game losing streak in May and June that included nine shutouts. During these 19 games, Boston scored 29 runs while yielding 123.The team never escaped the cellar after that. Bates supplied what little power the team could generate. He led the Beaneaters in doubles (21), home runs (6), and slugging percentage (.349).

The Boston franchise was sold to the Dovey brothers before the start of the 1907 season, which led to a new nickname for the team: “Doves.” Bates found himself in right field for the season after the winter acquisition of Ginger Beaumont. Bates started the season poorly at the plate and was batting just .167 on April 26 before a game in Brooklyn against the Superbas. Batting leadoff, he hit for the cycle and added a stolen base as the Doves won, 4-2. His average continued to climb and peaked at .297 when he had another four-hit game — featuring a triple, two doubles, and a single — against the Superbas on May 28.

Bates became a fan favorite. He was awarded a gold watch and a five-pound box of chocolates in August by his followers. He reportedly sent the candy home to Steubenville for his sisters to enjoy.12 He closed out the year batting .260 in 126 games.

Honus Wagner had been involved with a touring basketball team in the winter of 1906-07. In the fall another team was organized that included Bates playing guard. Wagner’s brother Al was to manage and play; the group was hoping to schedule a tour of New England.13 Results of the games have proven elusive.

The Doves headed to Augusta, Georgia for spring training in 1908 with Joe Kelley assuming the managerial post. A stretch of inclement weather drove the players indoors at the local YMCA where they traded the baseball for a basketball. Jeff Pfeffer’s team was matched against Irv “Young Cy” Young’s team. Bates was the star for Young’s squad but Pfeffer’s prevailed.

The weather cleared and warmed in time for the exhibition swing. The Doves slowly made their way north playing minor-league teams along the way. Bates batted leadoff and alternated among the outfield positions. When the season began, his versatility as a hitter made him useful to Kelley. Playing mostly left field, he batted from first to fifth in the lineup. His slash line of .258/.315/.324 does not appear impressive, but his OPS was 43 points higher than the team average, and all his numbers surpassed the team overall. He also led the squad with 25 stolen bases. He tied for the team lead in triples (6) with Ginger Beaumont and George Browne. The lack of offense relegated the Doves to sixth place.

Bates had a hot bat in 1909. In early July, he was leading the team in hitting (.291), extra-base hits (19), stolen bases (15), and chances in the outfield from his left field position.14 Yet the team was batting just .230 and stood in last place. On July 16 the Boston Herald ran a large ad telling fans that a free picture of Bates would be available in the paper on Sunday. Later that day word came that Bates, along with Charlie Starr, had been swapped to the Philadelphia Phillies for pitchers Buster Brown and Lew Richie and infielder Dave Shean. Dealing Bates led to the resignation of Frank Bowerman as Doves manager.15

Bates debuted with the Phillies on July 19, batting second behind Eddie Grant and playing center field. His strong hitting continued: he batted .293 with Philadelphia and added 22 stolen bases in 77 games. The deal did little to affect the standings as Philadelphia finished in fifth and Boston remained in the cellar.

Under Red Dooin the 1910 Phillies inched into fourth place. It was the first time Bates played with a team that made it to the first division. His slash line of .305/.385/.420 was the best of his career but was second to teammate Sherry Magee in each category. Playing mostly center field, he led the Phillies outfielders in chances and range factor, as might be expected. Unexpectedly, his 24 assists led the outfielders and were his career high.

In October, as an outgrowth of talks between Dooin and Clark Griffith, the Cincinnati manager, a major trade was announced. The Phillies would send Bates, third sacker Grant, and two pitchers, George McQuillan and Lew Moren, to Cincinnati for third baseman Hans Lobert, outfielder Dode Paskert, and two pitchers, Fred Beebe and Jack Rowan.16 Two days after the managers had agreed to the deal, Horace Fogel, president of the Phillies, wired Cincinnati owner, Garry Herrmann, that he, Fogel, would not sanction the deal.17

The two teams wrangled over the next two weeks until finally agreeing to the four-for-four swap. Cincinnati fans were fearful that they had gotten the short end of the deal, but former Philadelphia manager Billy Murray told a different tale. He extolled the virtue of each man the Reds were adding, noting in particular, “I consider Johnny Bates one of the greatest outfielders in the National League and in the swap of Paskert for Bates the Reds get an even stronger player in return.”18

Bates wintered in Steubenville, where he prepared for his nuptials with Elizabeth Watkins Briggs. The pair got married on March 7, 1911 — the eve of spring training. Over the years, many a player has honeymooned at training camp, but Elizabeth did not make the journey to Hot Springs, Arkansas. She may have been occupied with child care. The obituary of Johnny Bates listed a son, Robert G. Bates. A census listing for 1910 showed a Robert Briggs, aged 8, living with Elizabeth Watkins Briggs. One may assume that Robert was adopted by Bates, but no definitive proof of this has been uncovered.

The trade proved to be a flop for Cincinnati. Grant hit .223, pitcher George McQuillan went 2-6. while Moren developed shoulder problems and never pitched in the majors again. Only Bates brought a smile to faces of Queen City fans. He covered the outfield with élan and played a crucial role in Griffith’s style of offense. The Old Fox’s plan called for his men to work the count versus opposing pitchers and to disrupt a hurler’s concentration with the running game. (The team was second to the champion Giants in steals.)

Bates batted second in the lineup behind Bob Bescher, who had a career-high 102 walks and stole a league-leading 81 bases. Bates became a model for coaxing a walk and led the team with 103 (he was second in the league). He added 33 steals of his own and contributed 19 sacrifices. His OPS of .808 led the team and was 105 points higher than Paskert’s. The collapse of the two pitchers from the trade contributed heavily to the Reds’ sixth-place finish.

Bates burst from the gate in the 1912 season and was batting .355/.487/.495 when the first-place Reds hosted New York on May 18. Bates scored the winning run in the eighth inning against Christy Mathewson. Unfortunately, he badly injured his ankle on the play and was sidelined.19 He made a few pinch-hit appearances before returning to the field on June 17. The Reds had gone from a 21-9 record to 29-24 in his absence. He struggled physically over the remainder of the season and missed an additional three weeks in September. In 81 games he batted .289.

Joe Tinker took over as player/manager in 1913. Bates came out slugging and hit three home runs in April on his way to leading the team with six. He saw the bulk of his action (92 games) in right field as the Reds limped through the season to finish seventh. Bates batted .278.

The revolving managerial door in Cincinnati welcomed Buck Herzog in 1914. Bates patrolled center field, but his hitting fell off to .252 and he made nine errors in 58 games. On July 8 the Reds released him. Cubs manager Hank O’Day had been Bates’ skipper in 1912 and quickly signed Bates for Chicago. That relationship was short-lived — Bates played in only nine games, mostly as a pinch-hitter.

When the Cubs released him, Bates caught on with the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League. For the first time in his career, Bates found himself in a pennant race. He was installed as the left fielder, batting third. After about 10 games he moved to center field. Bates returned to the style he had played with Griffith and forced the pitchers to throw strikes or suffer the consequences. In 59 games he drew 38 walks and posted a .305/.429/.384 slash line. It wasn’t enough, however — the Terrapins went 30-28 after his signing and finished in third place.

Bates had signed a one-year deal with Baltimore. In January 1915, the club announced that he would not be offered another and that he was a free agent.20 He tried to catch on with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the closest team to his Steubenville home, but was told they did not need him. He signed with the Richmond Climbers of the International League.

Richmond was managed by Jack Dunn, who sent Bates to center field and batted him third in the lineup. Bates became an instant favorite, the local paper gushing, “Johnny Bates showed his old-time fire yesterday both in fielding and at bat. His homer was a beauty, while his work in the gardens was a sight worth witnessing.”21 Later in the season, when the Climbers added George Twombly, Bates moved to left field. He led the last-place squad in doubles (27) and walks (106) while batting .296 in 141 games.

Dunn sold off his ownership in the Richmond team and purchased the Jersey City franchise, moving it into Baltimore. In March he added Twombly and Bates to his roster for the Orioles.22 Bates opened the season in a slump but three hits on May 2 jump-started another successful offensive season.23 He played 118 games, mostly batting leadoff. Arguably his best game came July 27 when he had a perfect day with two doubles, a single, and two walks to go with four runs scored.24 He closed the year batting .312.

Bates became something of a baseball nomad after that season. Baltimore did not retain him for 1917, so he signed with the Louisville Colonels in the American Association. He made just a few appearances before being released in late April. He went north to play left field for Roger Bresnahan in Toledo of the AA.25 According to the Reach Baseball Guide he played 79 games and batted .285 in the league. Toledo let him go in late July and he closed out the year with Chattanooga in the Southern Association, appearing in 49 games and batting .293.

Bates began 1918 batting leadoff for the Mobile Bears of the Southern Association. Ever since his season with Griffith in Cincinnati, Bates had been very selective at the plate, gaining the reputation as a waiter. On June 20 he walked all five times he came to the plate against Chattanooga and scored four times.26 The league folded on June 28; on the Fourth of July, Bates was batting leadoff for the Buffalo Bisons in the International League. In August Bates contacted the Baltimore Dry Dock Company. about employment and their baseball team. His last game with Buffalo was August 9 before he headed to Baltimore. A local writer remarked that “he will be missed and his place will be hard to fill.”27

Bates worked for the company and played for the Dry Dock team through 1920. While he played semipro ball in Baltimore his rights were still held by Mobile, which placed him on the suspended list. In 1921 his rights were transferred to Dunn’s Baltimore team.28 When Dunn sought to send Bates to Rocky Mount of the Virginia League, there was a paperwork issue, and Bates was threatened with a five-year suspension.29 While various parties wrangled over the suspension and whether it would be lifted, Bates played ball for semipro teams on the East Coast. He was reinstated for 1922.

The Rocky Mount Tar Heels of the Class-B Virginia League opened the season in 1922 with the 38-year-old center fielder batting third in their lineup. As the season progressed, Bates was moved to left field and switched to the leadoff spot.30 The season ended on September 6 and no statistics have been found to recognize Bates’ full season of work. He played briefly with Rocky Mount in 1923 before returning to his home in Steubenville.31

Bates took a job with a dairy in Steubenville which left his weekends free for baseball. Over the next decade and a half, he played and/or managed teams within 90 miles of his home. One thriving circuit with which he was involved was the Eastern Ohio League, which played on Sundays. In 1926 he guided the New Philadelphia Tuscoras to the championship series against Zanesville, but then was forced to miss the action because of his wife’s illness.32

While Bates traveled on the weekends, he also played locally in the Steubenville industrial league and with the town team. In 1925 he was pitted against pitcher Oscar Owens and the Homestead Grays with 2,500 local fans watching. Bates scored the first run of the game as the Steubenville team took the win, 3-0.33

Johnny Bates died of a heart attack in his home on February 10, 1949. He was buried in Steubenville’s Union Cemetery.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Alan Cohen.

Sources

Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet were used for statistics and game stories unless otherwise noted. Ancestry.com was the source of family data.

Notes

1 “Superbas Make a Favorable Impression, Although Shut out in Opening Game,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 13, 1906: 14. Some contemporary newspapers spell the pitcher’s name McIntyre.

2 John H. Gruber,” Johnny Bates, One of Best Examples of Plugger Type of Ball Player, Never Star, but Always Dependable,” Pittsburg Post, April 4, 1906: 27.

3 “Bates Has Won Over Fans of Cincinnati,” Cincinnati Post,” April 11, 1911: 6.

4 “Bates Has Won Over Fans.”

5 A birth year of 1882 appears sometimes in connection with Bates. He listed the 1884 date on his Social Security application available on ancestry.com.

6  “Burgettstown Outplays Steubenville,” Pittsburg Post, September 18, 1904: 8.

7  “Altoona Signs an Outfielder,” Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), February 25, 1905: 6.

8 “Base Ball Briefs,” Altoona (Pennsylvania) Mirror, June 6, 1905: 3.

9 “Sharon Won Again,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 27, 1905: 10.

10 “Notes for the Fans,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Times, February 12, 1906: 7.

11 “Bob Dunbar’s Sports Chat,” Boston Journal, May 2, 1906: 8. Note: “Bob Dunbar” was not a real person but the collective pseudonym used by the various Journal sportswriters wrote the column.

12 “No Cincinnati Game,” Boston Herald, August 6, 1907: 8.

13 “Crack Basketball Team to Visit New England,” Boston Journal, October 15, 1907: 9.

14 “National League,” Boston Journal, July 5, 1909: 8.

15 “Bowerman is Released,” Boston Herald, July 18, 1909: 5.

16 “Fogel Blocks Deal, with Cincinnati,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 26, 1910: 10.

17 “President Fogel Blocks Dooin’s Deal with the Reds,” Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, October 26, 1910: 12. It should be noted that different newspapers had different make-ups of the deal with various pitcher’s names mentioned. Some had it as a 3-for 3, others as a 4-for-4.

18 “Former Quaker Manager Says Reds Got None the Worst of the Deal,” Cincinnati Post, November 17, 1910: 6.

19 “Bates Out for Week,” Cincinnati Post, May 20, 1912: 6.

20 “Pink Slip for Bates,” Harrisburg Telegraph, January 23, 1915: 11.

21 Tim Patch, “It Strikes Me,” Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, May 9, 1915: 23.

22 “Dunnie Going to Raleigh,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 22, 1916: 9.

23 “Orioles in Nice Stride,” Baltimore Sun, May 3, 1916: 10.

24 “Tipple Fools Indians,” Baltimore Sun, July 28, 1916: 7.

25 Gruber, “Johnny Bates, One of Best Examples of Plugger Type of Ball Player.”

26 The Sporting News, June 27, 1918: 8.

27 “Bingoes Took Final Game,” Buffalo Times, August 9, 1918: 10.

28 Sporting News Contract Card File https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/22459/rec/57 Last accessed November 17, 2020.

29  “Johnny Bates Barred,” Chattanooga News, March 24, 1921: 8.

30 “Truckers Win,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 14, 1922: 49.

31 Gruber,” Johnny Bates, One of Best Examples of Plugger Type of Ball Player.” While Gruber is the convenient resource, all these teams can be substantiated by box scores from contemporary newspapers.

32 Zanesville (Ohio) Times Recorder, September 20, 1926: 8.

33 “Steubenville Blanks Grays by 3-0 Score,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, August 3, 1925: 7.

“Mike Hargrove [Instructional League manager] came over and told me I was going to Cleveland,” said Bell. “It was the furthest thing from my mind. I packed my clothes and went to bed about 2:30 in the morning. It took me at least an hour to go to sleep.”1 Bell was inserted into the lineup as soon as he arrived at the Metrodome, batting in the ninth spot and manning second base. In the bottom of the third inning with two outs, Bell got his first chance at the plate in a scoreless game.

Bert Blyleven, the Twins pitcher, spiraled a first-pitch fastball at the rookie, whose smooth swing launched the ball 389 feet into the left-field bleachers. Not only a home run, but a first-pitch, first-major-league at-bat home run. Bell joined a rarefied fraternity of only 137 players who hit a home run the first time they stepped up to the plate in the major leagues and one of only 31 players who (through June 2024) hit a home run on their first major-league pitch.2

The home run was monumental for Jay Bell, and it was also historic for future Hall of Famer Blyleven. With Bell’s blast, he had given up 47 home runs in the season, besting the 46 that Robin Roberts had given up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1956. Blyleven would go on to allow 50 home runs in 1986, a record that still stood as of 2024.3

A year after Bell was drafted by the Minnesota Twins, the organization decided to move on from its first-round pick. Bell’s bat was developing its consistency as a .282 hitter for the Visalia Oaks (Class-A California League), but his glove was a liability at shortstop. In 166 games in the Twins minor leagues, he made 78 errors, a rate of an error every other game. When he entered rookie ball, “I thought that I was the best of the best,” Bell thought. “And I quickly realized that I was just one of them. I was in a much bigger pool than I thought. There was a humbling in a hurry.”4 The Twins packaged Bell with Curt Wardle and Jim Weaver to entice the Cleveland Indians to part with their veteran hurler Blyleven.

By an artful twist of fate, Bell would prove himself in that first at-bat against Blyleven and the organization that had so swiftly shipped him off to Cleveland.

“I enjoyed it,” said Bell. “It was definitely a thrill hitting it against Blyleven. It’s so ironic because I was traded for him.”5

Jay Stuart Bell was born to Ron and Betty Bell on December 11, 1965, on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Ron was a master sergeant in the Air Force. He coached his son in Little League while Betty worked at the concession stand. He attended Tate High School in Cantonment, Florida, and continued the storied success of the school’s baseball program. The high school also was home to Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton.6 Bell’s 1984 squad went 35-1 and won the Florida state championship, the school’s fourth title.7 The team’s performance attracted scouts to Florida to eye the shortstop and make him a consensus top-10 pick in that year’s amateur draft.

After being drafted in the first round by Cleveland, Bell spent 66 games in Rookie ball in Elizabethton, Tennessee, batting .220. He made 25 errors at shortstop. In 1985, his first full season as a player, Bell found a consistent swing and hit around .290 for the year, but he continued to struggle in the field, making 59 errors in 131 games. Still, Bell was promoted to Double-A Waterbury (Eastern League) for 1986. Before his call-up in September, Bell batted .277 and drove in 74 runs.

Despite his first-game heroics, Bell did not find a stable home on the Indians roster in 1987 or 1988, playing only 111 games over the two seasons and scuffling with a .216 and then .218 batting average.8

Bell was recognizable for wearing eyeglasses during games. There was identifiable talent in his 6-foot-1 frame, especially in his early approach at the plate and his smooth hitting mechanics. Bell even caught the attention of his childhood hero. “I remember in 1988, we went into Kansas City and George Brett, who I tried to emulate growing up, came over to me and says: ‘Jay, do you still have that pretty swing?’ I said: ‘You’re George Brett, you shouldn’t be talking to me that way.’”9

In March 1989 the Indians sent Bell to the Pittsburgh Pirates as the player to be  named later in an earlier deal. He was on to his third team and the first one on which he would claim a starting role and capture the attention of a fan base.

The 1989 Pirates finished under .500 but were on the doorstep of a becoming a winning franchise. The core of their lineup – Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Andy Van Slyke – revealed themselves as stars who could carry a roster. Bell played 78 games, batting .258

The 1990 season saw an emergence for both Bell and his black-and-gold squad. For the first of many seasons, Bell earned and held the starting shortstop role. The Pirates’ hitters, led by National League MVP Barry Bonds, drove the team to success, being the third-best lineup in the majors according to OPS+ (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, normalized across the entire league). Their starting rotation, led by 22-game-winner Doug Drabek, held opposing hitters at bay enough for the Pirates to win 95 games and capture the National League East title. Bell’s first trip to the playoffs ended in a six-game loss to the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Championship Series.

The 1991 season brought more success, with the Pirates winning 98 games and taking NL East honors. Bell continued to improve on both sides of the game, having his first season at the plate in which he earned better than league average OPS+, and playing well enough for 3.9 Wins Above Replacement (WAR, a measure of how many wins a player contributes to a team compared to the value of a replacement-level player that season). The season ended for the team with another playoff exit, as the Atlanta Braves sent the Pirates home in a seven-game series in the NL Championship Series. However, Bell was a bright spot in the series, hitting .414 in 30 plate appearances.

The 1992 season began with anticipation for Pittsburgh. The Pirates had proven themselves as a stacked roster with championship ambitions. Under future Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland, they had come within one win of a World Series invitation the season before. But as the stalwart sports fan understands, the greatest hope can yield to the greatest pain. The Pirates again won the NL East, building on stellar hitting by Bonds and company. Bell put in another consistent campaign at the difficult infield position, batting .264 and repeating his 3.9 WAR effort. Advancing to the playoffs, the Pirates again met the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series. Once more they fought all the way to Game Seven.

The Pirates entered the bottom of the ninth inning leading 2-0. They were one out away from their first trip to the World Series since 1979, and they let the game slip away. With the bases loaded and two outs, Braves pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera drove a hit into left field. David Justice scored to tie the game. Sid Bream rounded third and sprinted home, testing the sure arm of Bonds. Bream slid and the Braves stole the pennant from the shocked Pirates.10

The heartbreaking end of the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates season left an indelible mark on the city and the team. The highlight reel of Bream sliding home and a dejected Bonds sitting on his knees in left field was burned into the collective memory of Pirates fans. The ’92 season marked the end of a productive era for the Pirates, who had won the NL East Division for three straight years. They did not see postseason play again until 2013, ignominiously setting a league record of 20 consecutive losing seasons.

Coming into the 1993 season, the Pirates faithful had little reason for optimism. The crushing playoff loss was coupled with Bonds, their best hitter, and Drabek, their ace pitcher, departing as free agents. “Without question, we’ve had a few black eyes in the last months,” said manager Leyland.11

Despite the concern for the club’s competitiveness, there was little worry about Bell’s role and continued effectiveness. “Some guys you can just count on for the same effort and production day in and day out and you never have to worry about them,” Leyland said. “Jay Bell is one of those guys.”12 Bell had proved to be a durable presence in the lineup, being one of only seven players in the National League who started 150 or more games in the previous three seasons.

The Pirates fell to fifth place in 1993 with a record of 75-87. But trust in Bell proved to be well-placed as he put in the best season of his career, earning a 6.2 WAR. He hit .310 with an OPS+ of 124, signifying that he was 24 percent better at the plate than the average hitter.

Bell’s performance was rewarded with his first selection to the All-Star Game. “It’s an honor and privilege to be included with some of the game’s best,” Bell said, “but I’m not in the game to be recognized. I’m in the game to do my best to help the team win.”13

At season’s end, the accolades continued. Bell earned his only Silver Slugger Award as the best-hitting shortstop of the year. He bested Barry Larkin of the Cincinnati Reds, who had won it the previous five years. Bell, however, also led the team in strikeouts in each of the previous three years, and his 122 strikeouts in 1993 were sixth highest in the National League. But when he made contact he was a productive hitter, recording the eighth-highest number of hits in the major leagues. He also had 39 sacrifice hits in 1990 and was considered a unique specialist for sacrifice hits throughout his career. There have only been five seasons since 1960 in which a player had 30 or more sacrifice hits. Bell had two of them, in 1990 and 1991.

Then, in a shock that ricocheted throughout the baseball world, Bell won the Gold Glove in 1993 for his defense at shortstop. The award broke a 13-year winning streak by Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals. Bell led all shortstops in fielding percentage (.986) with 11 errors to Smith’s 19. “It’s something I never expected to win, but always strived for,” said Bell.14 The honor must have been a validating recognition, since Bell had struggled with his defense in his early years, prompting conversation among talent evaluators about his ability to hold down the vital position. Indeed, just two years earlier, he led all shortstops with 24 errors. “That was one thing they said 10 years ago – that I would eventually have to move to third base,” Bell said. “It seemed like nobody thought I could be a major league shortstop.”15 The 1993 season put that trepidation to rest, establishing Bell as one of the premier shortstops of the 1990s.

The next three seasons, 1994-1996, continued to produce middling results for the Pirates, each season a below-.500 affair. Bell continued his consistent performance, which earned him a 3.4 WAR in 1994. While his bat leveled off from the heights of his 1993 season, his glove maintained its charm. Bell led all shortstops in fielding percentage and all fielders in assists in 1996.

After eight seasons in the Steel City, the bell tolled for Bell’s time in a Pirates uniform. The Pirates were no longer contenders and wanted to shed payroll to build a renewed roster from younger talent. Pittsburgh packaged him with power-hitting infielder Jeff King and traded them, along with $2.2 million in cash, to the Kansas City Royals for Jeff Martin, Jeff Granger, Joe Randa, and Jeff Wallace.16

Bell fit right into the Royals lineup and made an impression. As sportswriter Joe Posnanski predicted before the season, Kansas City fell in love with Bell’s steady playing style and consistent performance. Though he was not the centerpiece of the trade from Pittsburgh, Bell outperformed Jeff King in that 1997 season.17 By WAR, it was the second-best season of Bell’s career, save for his banner 1993 campaign.

While in Kansas City, Bell struck up a relationship with three-time All-Star Chili Davis. The two would stay late after the games at Kauffman Stadium and discuss their approaches to hitting. Bell became convinced to shift the dynamics of his swing and hit more for power. His one-year stint in Kansas City was the first time he hit 20 home runs in a season.

But Bell was not in Kansas City for long. Unlike his idol, George Brett, he stayed only one season, exiting for free agency at the end of the season.

While Bell was cementing his role as a solid shortstop and presence in the lineup, major-league baseball was considering expanding. After the successes of adding the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins, the league formed another expansion committee in 1994 to consider the 29th and 30th franchises. They considered four cities as finalists, ultimately deciding against Orlando and Northern Virginia in favor of launching the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks. With the new franchises now established, the teams needed talent to fill their rosters for their inaugural season.

The league set an expansion draft in November 1997, a structured opportunity for the two new teams to pluck unprotected players from existing rosters and field a new team. The day before the expansion draft, the news hit the wires: The Diamondbacks signed their first player in franchise history, Jay Bell, to a five-year, $34 million contract, announcing a willingness to invest in a veteran, dependable roster.

Expansion teams were expected to build a team slowly, enduring a period of losing seasons before cultivating their young talent into a division contender. Tampa Bay appeared to be taking this approach, but a gradual ramp-up was too slow for Diamondbacks CEO Jerry Colangelo. He said, “I think this signing of Jay Bell is indicative of our commitment to put a winning team on the field.”18

“Jerry Colangelo first made the comment when I got here that we were a team full of character, not a team full of characters,” Bell said later. “We had a group of guys who understood how to play the game. We played the game right.”19

Now in his 30s, Bell honored the commitment from the Diamondbacks by being a steady, veteran presence. He averaged 146 games a season in his first four years in Arizona.

It seems altogether fitting that Bell made his impact on the new squad not just as its first official player, but as a surprising mascot whisperer. Bell and his son, Brantley, are credited with envisioning the mascot, D. Baxter the Bobcat, for the Diamondbacks. Bell told the story:

“Our third year of marriage, I wasn’t making any money at the time and I forgot about [my wife’s] birthday. And on the way to pick her up that night I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I forgot her birthday!’ Now we had been at the mall the night before and stopped by the pet store and she liked the cats. And I had to do something. So I stopped at the mall on the way to pick her up and bought a cat for $20 and that was the start of us having cats around the house. So Brantley was a cat lover, and at that time Chase Field was called Bank One Ballpark, the BOB, so it takes a 5-year-old to put it all together and he said, ‘Dad it’s the BOB, and if it was a cat it could be a Bobcat.’ He didn’t have any idea at that time that bobcats were prevalent in Arizona. I told the front office about his idea, and they liked it.”20

The Diamondbacks benefited from Bell’s late-career increase in power hitting. He hit 38 home runs in 1999, driving in 112 runs. Others took notice, too, and voted Bell to his second All-Star team.

Bell’s discovered power stroke also led to perhaps the most expensive home run in history. On July 11, 1999, Arizona resident Gylene Hoyle won a radio contest that awarded her $1 million if she could correctly pick which player would hit a grand slam and in which inning he would hit it. Admittedly not a keen baseball analyst, she selected Bell due to his power-hitting season. She picked the sixth inning at random. Bettors placed the odds of her winning at 1 in 2,916.21 Daunting odds, and yet in the sixth inning, Bell strode to the plate with the bases loaded. He knew about the promotion and was sweating through the at-bat. “Got in the box for a 3-and-2 count,” Bell remembered, “And all of a sudden my legs started shaking and I step out of the box and regroup.”22 After fouling off a number of pitches, he lifted a ball over the fence and won Hoyle a million dollars.

The Diamondbacks, despite their status as new kids in the standings, were almost immediately successful. In just their second year as a franchise, they won 100 games en route to capturing the National League West Division championship. After finishing third in the NL West in 2000, the Diamondbacks were back on top of the division in 2001, ushering in a memorable playoff run.

The Diamondbacks defeated the wild-card winning St. Louis Cardinals, in five games before dispatching the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series and sending the team to its first World Series.

Because of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the start of the World Series was delayed, resulting in the first World Series that was played in November. The Series was a see-saw affair, with the Diamondbacks battling the favored Yankees to a do-or-die Game Seven in Bank One Ballpark.

Bell had moved to a role coming off the bench in the second half of the 2001 season, yielding his middle-infielder spot to platooning Tony Womack and Craig Counsell. This was his first season playing fewer than 130 games since the strike-shortened season of 1994. During the World Series, Bell walked up to the plate only seven times. But his last plate appearance is emblazoned in Arizona lore, the sports equivalent of the O.K. Corral.

In the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven, the Yankees were leading 2-1. Yankees hurler and future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera was on the mound for his second inning of relief work. Bell strode up to the plate with runners on first and second and no outs. Bell was a bunting specialist and he had set modern records for sacrifice hits. His charge: Bunt both runners into scoring position, putting the winning run on second base.

Bell squared up on the first pitch and tapped a bunt into the infield. Scott Brosius, the New York third baseman, was not playing far off the bag and protected the force out. Bell could have drawn him in with a bunt down the line, clearing the basepath for the lead runner. Instead, his bunt bounced directly to Rivera, who tossed to third base for an easy out. The runners did not advance and the Diamondbacks gave up a costly out. They were two outs away from elimination.23

Bell ran “down to first base thinking that I just screwed up the World Series.”24

Womack, longtime teammate of Bell’s, came up next and ripped a double into right field, plating the lead runner and tying the game, 2-2. Bell moved to third base, only 90 feet away from a World Series ring. Counsell was hit by a pitch, loading the bases and sending the Arizona fans into a frenzy. Luis Gonzalez stepped into the batter’s box. “Gonzo” was a fan favorite and the crux of the Diamondbacks lineup, with a 174 OPS+ that season. Manager Bob Brenly could not have drawn up a more favorable matchup.

Gonzalez spun a high 0-and-1 pitch off the inside of his bat, lifting the ball to the edge of the infield. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was playing in on the dirt with the bases loaded and the force out at home plate, so he was not in position to snag the soft contact. The ball landed.

Bell ran toward home plate, arms raised in the air and his mouth open with jubilation. He clapped once, stomped home plate, and jumped into the arms of teammate Matt Williams. The two veterans had been with the Diamondbacks in the first week of the club’s existence. The Diamondbacks won their first World Series. Bell had his first and only World Series ring. The dependable infielder with the punchy bat became an instant legend in Arizona baseball history.

“Having the opportunity to score the winning run was extraordinary and totally something I will remember forever,” Bell said. “It was pretty iconic for this city. But that entire Game 7 was just incredible. … It was an incredible night. In my opinion, it was one of the all-time great baseball games.”25

Winning the Series was the zenith of Bell’s major-league playing days. His role had been reduced during that charmed 2001 season, ushering in the final chapter of a commendable career. “The second half of 2001 is when I stopped playing on a regular basis. That’s when the stats really started going downhill,” Bell remembered. “Nothing wrong with that. I don’t have any problem with where I was at in my career. As a matter of fact, it was probably just a nice little transition for me to get out of the game. Or to get out from a playing aspect.”26

Bell played two more seasons, one with the Diamondbacks and a coda with the New York Mets. He injured his hamstring during the 2002 season, putting him on the disabled list for the first time in his 17 seasons. Bell signed as a free agent with the Mets and played 72 games in his final season. He hit below .200 in his last two seasons and was shuttled around the infield, playing all the positions as a backup.

Bell took his final professional at-bat against Florida Marlins’ Braden Looper on September 28, 2003, in Miami.

“It was a 3-and-0 pitch. I wanted to hit a homer. I wanted to do the first and last at-bat,” Bell remembered. “I got a standing ‘O’ from the opposing dugout, so it was a cool moment. It really was. But I knew that was my last at-bat. I was ready. It was a nice little fly ball to left field. I was afraid that if I hit a homer I would’ve thought I could still play.”27

While his days of donning a glove and trotting out on the field were over, Bell was not done wearing a uniform. Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin hired him as bench coach for the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Taking a few years away from professional baseball, Bell returned to the Diamondbacks organization as the hitting coach for the Double-A Mobile BayBears in 2012. The next season, he returned to the Pirates organization as their bench coach, and then he moved to the Cincinnati Reds as their bench coach for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. In 2017 he got his chance at managing in the Yankees organization and spent three seasons leading farm teams Tampa Yankees, Trenton, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In 2019 Bell was announced as the inaugural manager for the Rocket City Trash Pandas, Double-A in the Los Angeles Angels organization. The 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the organization launched in 2021 with Bell at the helm. He stayed for one season before hanging up his spikes for good and returning to his Arizona home.

Reflecting on his career, Bell acknowledged the selfish nature of the game, driven by commerce and a pervasive need to prove oneself. Still, he relied on his faith to rise above the less admirable parts of the business. “One of the things God taught me was you need to be less self-consumed,” Bell said. “You need to consider others higher than yourself. That’s really what it comes down to. And being a Christ-like example. That’s what I want to be. What I learned was that if I could just look at other guys and just kind of build up other guys who were struggling, or continue to build up a guy who was really doing great, I wouldn’t think about myself and I would enjoy the game, good or bad. And it took a lot of pressure off me.”28

Bell baseball legacy was carried on by two of his sons. Brantley Bell was drafted as an infielder by the Cincinnati Reds in the 11th round of the 2015 draft. As of 2024, he was playing for the Chicago Dogs in the independent American Association. Brock Bell was drafted as a pitcher by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. As of 2024, he was playing for the Dayton Dragons, the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

“Just to be a part of the baseball community, with so few people who have actually played in the major leagues,” Jay Bell said, “it’s something that you recognize was a privilege.”29

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com for season-by-season and game-by-game details of Jay Bell’s performance.

Notes

1 Paul Hoynes. “Bell Gets Tribe Call,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 30, 1986: C-3.

2 Ed Eagle, “Players with Home Run in First At-Bat,” MLB.com, June 26, 2024. https://www.mlb.com/news/home-run-in-first-at-bat-c265623820, accessed July 7, 2024.

3 Associated Press, “Blyleven Sets Dubious Record,” Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Times, September 30, 1986: 14.

4 Tom Scocca, “How a Career Ends: Jay Bell Homered Off a Hall of Famer in His First At-Bat, Flied Out in His Last,” Deadspin, https://deadspin.com/how-a-career-ends-jay-bell-homered-off-a-hall-of-famer-5948191/, accessed May 21, 2024.

5 Paul Hoynes, “Tribe Hits 3 Homers, but Falls to Twins,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 30, 1086: C-1.

6 Craig Muder, “Jay Bell and Cooperstown Are Old Friends,” Baseball Hall of Fame Online, https://baseballhall.org/discover/jay-bell-and-cooperstown-are-old-friends, accessed May 19, 2024.

7 Dan Shugart, “Tate High School Celebrates 40-Year Reunion of 1984 National Championship Baseball Team,” WEAR News 3, https://weartv.com/sports/high-school/tate-high-school-celebrates-40-year-reunion-of-1984-national-championship-baseball-team, accessed May 20, 2024.

8 “Blyleven Sets Dubious Record.”

9 “Jay Bell and Cooperstown Are Old Friends.”

10 “92 NLCS, Gm 7 PIT@ATL: Bream Beats Bonds’ Throw,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgjIVvEQo_o, accessed May 25, 2024.

11 Associated Press, “Hope Springs Eternal for Pirates in 1993,” Titusville (Pennsylvania) Herald, February 11, 1993: 10.

12 Associated Press, “Bell Will Remain No. 2 in Bucs’ Batting Order,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, March 12, 1993: 13.

13 Rick Starr, “Bell Joins NL’s Best,” North Hills (Pennsylvania) News Record, July 9, 1993: 19.

14 Ben Walker, “NL Picks Gold Glove Winners for 1992-’93,” Gettysburg Times, November 17, 1993: B-1.

15 Kevin Roberts, “Bell Ends Ozzie’s Reign by Winning First Gold Glove,” North Hills News Record, November 17, 1993: B-4.

16 Associated Press, “Pirates Trade Bell, King to Royals,” Kokomo (Indiana) Tribune, December 14, 1996: C-5.

17 Joe Posnanski, “Royals Fans Will Fall for Steady Bell,” Salina (Kansas) Journal, April 9, 1997: D-3.

18 Associated Press, “Diamondbacks Jump Gun, Sign Jay Bell,” Kokomo Tribune, November 18, 1997: B-3.

19 Mike Puma, “Jay Bell Says Diamondbacks ‘Character’ Emulating 2001 World Series Champs,” New York Post, https://nypost.com/2023/10/29/sports/diamondbacks-character-emulating-2001-world-series-champs/, accessed May 25, 2024.

20 Steve Gilbert, “Jay Bell Talks Birthdays, Mascots, Trash Pandas,” MLB.com, April 29, 2020, accessed May 25, 2024.

21 Ryan Hockensmith, “The $1 Million Shot That Changed Sports Contests Forever,” ESPN, https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36146138/million-dollar-shot-michael-jordan-chicago-bulls-1993, accessed May 25, 2024.

22 Kyle Franko, “Thunder Manager Jay Bell Recalls His Million Dollar Swing,” Trentonian (Trenton, New Jersey), July 12, 2018, https://www.trentonian.com/2018/07/12/thunder-manager-jay-bell-recalls-his-million-dollar-swing-on-its-19th-anniversary/, accessed May 30, 2024.

23 “Game 7 of 2001 World Series,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-hbjI81M8I, accessed May 25, 2024.

24 Scocca, “How a Career Ends: Jay Bell Homered Off a Hall of Famer in His First At-Bat, Flied Out in His Last.”

25 Puma, “Jay Bell Says Diamondbacks ‘Character’ Emulating 2001 World Series Champs.”

26 Scocca.

27 Scocca.

28 Scocca.

29 Muder, “Jay Bell and Cooperstown Are Old Friends.”

Once in 1968, Mayo Smith decided to put in his pinch-hitting specialist far earlier in the game than normal. Brown, who usually didn’t come off the bench until a tight spot near the end of the game, was caught off-guard. “I was sitting at the end of the dugout, eating a couple of hot dogs,” he recalled. “It was only the fifth inning (and) I never expected Mayo to call on me to pinch-hit that early.” Since he didn’t want Smith – who often harped on Brown to lose a few pounds – to see him eating during the game, Brown quickly shoved the hot dogs down his shirt before heading to the plate. “That’s the only time I ever wished I’d strike out,” he said. But being the clutch hitter he was, he didn’t get his wish. Instead, he cracked a double and ended up having to slide head-first into second. While Tigers fans roared and cheered, Brown realized he had made quite a mess of himself. “I had mustard and squashed meat all over me,” he laughed, recalling that all his teammates were bent over laughing.1

So despite his success as one of the greatest major-league hitters off the bench, Gates Brown wasn’t a pinch-hitting robot after all. He was simply one of the guys. He played poker with teammates. He snored. He played catch with relievers during games. He was a press favorite. But most importantly, he always supported his teammates – so much so that his first big-league manager, Charlie Dressen, often referred to him as “Governor Brown.” But that was Gates Brown in a nutshell – a team player who always said and did the right things to help his team win.

William James “Gates” Brown was born in Crestline, Ohio, on May 2, 1939 (the same day that Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak came to an end). His father, John William Brown, a Georgia native, was a laborer working for the US government’s Depression-fighting WPA. Crestline was a town along the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, and by the time of the 1950 census he was listed as “laborer, railroad.” He and Phyllis Brown, a native Ohioan, had six children.

Gates grew to be 5-feet-11 and 220 pounds. He batted left-handed, but threw right-handed and played in 1,051 major-league games, all for the Detroit Tigers.

He was nicknamed Gates by his mother when he was a toddler. He claimed he didn’t know why. “I had it long before I went to school. … Maybe it had something to do with the way I walk – kind of bowlegged, I really don’t know.”2

Crestline, like much of northern Ohio in the 1940s and ’50s, wasn’t the greatest area to grow up in. It was flat, desolate, and poor. Most youngsters from the area got in trouble with the law at some point. A sociologist would say it wasn’t their fault they turned to a life of crime, but was a result of where they grew up.

Brown didn’t make it out of Crestline with a clean record. Even though he was a standout football star at Crestline High School, he got into more than his fair share of trouble growing up. When he turned 18, he was arrested for breaking and entering and was sent to the nearby Mansfield State Reformatory. (The prison was used in the film The Shawshank Redemption.)

Even though Brown had played some baseball in high school, it was in Mansfield that his talents as a ballplayer were developed. At 5-feet-11 and 200-plus pounds of pure muscle, he was encouraged by a prison guard who coached the institution’s baseball team to try out at catcher. In awe of his raw ability with the bat – and encouraged that baseball might lead Brown out of a life of crime – the coach, Chuck Yarman, wrote to several major-league teams, including the Tigers.3

In the fall of 1959, Detroit sent scouts to the prison to see Brown. Impressed, one of them called onetime Tiger Pat Mullin, later the team’s top scout. Mullin made the trek from Detroit to see for himself. After Brown belted a daunting home run in Mullin’s presence, the Tigers decided to help him get paroled a year early. He was signed to a $7,000 bonus pact almost immediately upon his release.

Brown has said that other clubs, including the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, were interested in springing him. But he stuck with Detroit because “they didn’t have any Negroes at that time and I figured they’d have to have some soon.”4 In fact, Ozzie Virgil, a Puerto Rican, had joined the Tigers in 1958 – becoming the Motor City’s first Black ballplayer. But Brown was right in that the Tigers obviously lacked the integration of most other big-league clubs in the late 1950s.

Before Brown’s first professional season, 1960, Mullin advised him to give up catching and switch to the outfield. More concerned about staying out of trouble than he was about a position change, he was fine with the new position.

Brown – on legal probation from Mansfield during his first season – joined the Tigers’ organization in Duluth that year. He shined almost immediately – especially for someone only a few months out of prison. In 121 games, he hit .293 with 10 homers. He also led the Northern League with 13 triples and was second in stolen bases (30) and runs scored (104). But his real character test wouldn’t come until later.

The following year he headed south to Durham of the Carolina League. It was here that Brown found out firsthand that being Black and an ex-con was fuel for the fire for Southern crowds. “It was tough just being a Negro down there,” he said. “I had to contend with people calling me ‘n—–” and other stuff.”5

Being an ex-con didn’t help as Southern newspapers printed stories about his criminal history, leading to more quips and threats from the crowds. “They called me all the names, ‘Con,’ ‘Jailbird,’ the whole thing. They were pretty vicious,” Brown recalled. But he had to learn to ignore the jeers and to use the negativity as motivation to improve. “Some of the guys wanted to go up into the stands after those people, but I told them to just let it lay. It made me do better. It made me try harder. I decided that they could beat me physically, but no way were they going to beat me mentally. And do you know something, I hit the ball hard that season and led the league in hitting,” topping the circuit in 1961 with a .324 mark. His outstanding play began to win over the same Durham fans who had heckled him earlier in the season. “By the end of the year, they were all on my side,” Brown said, laughing.6

After showing continued success at the minor-league level – including another .300 campaign for Denver in 1962 – it was clear that Brown was on the fast track to join the big club. And with the Tigers’ lack of early-season success in 1963, Brown was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on June 17 – one day before Dressen was named the team’s new manager. It would be Dressen who would call on Brown to take his first major-league hacks.

Brown officially debuted for the Tigers against the Boston Red Sox on June 19 at Fenway Park. With Boston up 4-1 in the fifth inning, Brown entered the game as – what else – a pinch-hitter for pitcher Don Mossi.

With Dressen getting his first look at the young outfielder, the situation was much like when Pat Mullin saw Brown play at Mansfield for the first time. As it happened, Mullin was at Fenway Park that day – having been made Dressen’s first-base coach. Again, as he had during his Mansfield tryout, Brown did not disappoint his onlookers. He hit a 400-foot home run well into the Boston sky, becoming only the third Tiger in history to homer in his first at-bat.

Brown remained with the club for the rest of the season, primarily as a pinch-hitter. Detroit rebounded with him on the team and had a winning record for the rest of the year. Overall, Brown hit .268 with two home runs in his rookie season. He stuck with the Tigers in 1964, primarily as the starting left fielder. Playing alongside Al Kaline in right field and a troika (Bill Bruton, George Thomas, and Don Demeter) in center, Brown hit .272 with 15 home runs and was second on the team with 11 stolen bases.

Despite his solid 1964 season, however, Brown lost his starting job in the outfield in 1965 to the young power hitter Willie Horton. And even though he was disappointed in returning to his role as a pinch-hitter and reserve outfielder, Brown would never let his personal frustration get in the way of the team. He slugged 10 home runs that season in barely half the at-bats he had in 1964. And despite his stocky 225-pound frame, he also stole six bases and was regarded unofficially as the fastest Tiger on the team. Brown didn’t know it then, but he was on his way to becoming the most successful pinch-hitter in American League history.

Despite Brown’s clutch contributions, his reserve status – and a budding mix of young outfielders – made it difficult for him to get raises from his bosses in Detroit. In fact, prior to the 1965 season, Brown had to pass up winter ball for the first time. With a wife and child plus a second on the way, Brown took a second job as a furniture salesman in the offseason.

Brown pressed on, however, and returned in 1966 and had similar success in the same role – batting .325 as a pinch-hitter. Overall he hit .266 with 7 home runs in 169 at-bats. Although he remained quietly disappointed with his role, it was clear that Brown was the Tigers’ best offensive option off the bench.

Tragedy befell Brown and the Tigers that season, however. Charlie Dressen died on August 10. Dressen had been suffering from heart and kidney problems for most of the season.

Brown struggled with injuries in 1967 before finally being shelved with a dislocated wrist. Even when he played, he never could find his swing under new manager Mayo Smith. As a pinch-hitter, he hit only .160 (4-for-25). However, that Tigers team nearly made the World Series before they were beat out by the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox on the final day of the season. Mayo Smith and the rest of the Tigers vowed to return to the 1968 season with a vengeance. But the greatest turn-around of all would come from Brown.

Discouraged by his poor season in 1967, Brown came to spring training on a mission in 1968. He was no longer upset about a lack of playing time, he just wanted to contribute. The Tigers, however, weary of Brown’s poor and injury-filled campaign in 1967, decided to bring back Eddie Mathews as the team’s primary left-handed pinch-hitter. General manager Jim Campbell and Smith even said that they thought about trading Brown, but couldn’t come close to pulling a trade because Brown had packed on a few pounds while waiting for his wrist to heal, a turnoff for prospective trading partners.

Brown got his chance to prove them wrong, however, on the second day of the season; when Smith, having already used Mathews earlier in the game, called on Brown to pinch-hit in the ninth inning in a tie game. Brown grabbed a bat and hit a game-winning home run off John Wyatt of the Boston Red Sox. It was how the 1968 Tigers won their first game of the season.

Brown did everything he could to tarnish the image of what would be known as the Year of the Pitcher. He hammered six hits in his first 10 pinch-hit at-bats on his way to an AL-record 18 pinch hits that season. Tigers fans soon became accustomed to watching him come off the bench and deliver over and over in key situations. But none was more key than during a Sunday doubleheader on August 11 against the defending American League champion Red Sox.

In the lidlifter that day, the Tigers were in an extra-inning struggle with the Red Sox until Mayo Smith finally found a time for Brown to get in the game in the bottom of the 14th inning. Tiger Stadium erupted when he was announced. But their cheers were nothing compared to when Brown smacked the game-winning home run a minute later.

Then in the second game, Brown strode to the plate in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth. With Mickey Stanley creeping off third, he singled to right to drive in the winning run, Giving him an unheard-of two game-ending hits in the same day. Even 16-year vet Kaline admitted he had never heard the Tiger Stadium crowd cheer the way they did for Brown that day.

In fact, Brown hit so unbelievably well in 1968 that Smith even started him in 16 games. Not bad for a guy who was trade bait when the season began. In the end, Brown hit an astounding .370 in 1968 – more than over 100 points higher than his career average, 135 better than the team average, and 140 better than the American League’s collective average. He was the only full-season Tiger to hit above .300 that season. He also averaged an extra-base hit every 6.9 at-bats – a remarkable stat when you consider that the mighty Álex Rodríguez averaged one every 7.2 at-bats in his MVP season of 2007.

Brown was not only clutch with the bat in 1968, he was also clutch as a teammate. One night during the season, he interrupted a melee between Denny McLain and Jim Northrup and made them understand the importance of what the team was trying to accomplish as a whole. During a road trip in the middle of the 1968 season, Brown was playing poker with a bunch of other players, including Northrup and McLain. Halfway through a hand, Northrup caught McLain cheating. Enraged, he flew across the bed and grabbed McLain by the throat. John Hiller, who was seated next to Brown, recalls Northrup screaming, “I’m gonna kill you, you bastard! I’m gonna kill you!” Red-faced and exasperated, Northrup continued to wring McLain’s neck in anger. But he was eventually pulled off from behind by Brown. A shocked Hiller remembered Brown looking Northrup dead in the eye and saying, “You’re not gonna touch him until after we win the pennant. Then he’s all yours.”7

Brown also remained popular with the Detroit writers that season. When asked about his remarkable success in the clutch, he developed a common response to give to reporters: “I’m square as an ice cube, and I’m twice as cool.” Detroit media couldn’t get enough of Gates.

Neither could Tigers fans. When the World Series rolled around and the Tigers lost Game One to St. Louis’s Bob Gibson – who also struck out 17 – Mayo Smith was bombarded by letters to put Brown into the starting lineup. One Tigers fan even wrote Smith asking him to start Brown at shortstop and bat leadoff during the series. “That guy must be nuts,” reacted Brown when told of the letter.8

Brown had only one appearance during the World Series: a pinch-hit fly out to left off Gibson in Game One. But for anyone who remembers how untouchable Gibson was that October day, it’s a miracle any man could come off the bench and even touch the ball.

Throughout the rest of his career, Brown enjoyed continued success as a pinch-hitter – including a .346 pinch-hitting campaign in 1971 – but nothing quite like the 1968 season, although he did enjoy more time in the baseball spotlight by becoming Detroit’s first designated hitter in 1973, a position tailor-made for the game’s Gates Browns.

Moreover, Brown became so beloved that some sportswriters who were adamantly against the DH when it was first implemented eventually said it didn’t bother them as much as they thought it would. One of the reasons: It was great for Tigers fans to see Brown at the plate every day.

The whole country got a chance to see Brown in July 1974 when Joe Garagiola, host of NBC’s pregame show Baseball World of Joe Garagiola, did an unusual two-part story on Brown. Garagiola rarely devoted his weekly show to anyone for two separate shows, but did so for Brown. The shows featured Brown and Garagiola back in Brown’s old stamping grounds at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. The program consisted of an interview in Brown’s former prison cell, as well as several rap sessions with current inmates.

Brown said he agreed to the interview inside the prison itself because “if I can help a few people who are mixed up by doing this [interview], it will be well worth it.” But he also mentioned that even if you did make the mistake of breaking the law, incarceration didn’t mean the end. “Just because a man has been in jail doesn’t mean it has to be the end of his whole life,” Gates told the inmates.9

After suffering through a 102-loss Tigers season in 1975, Brown decided to hang up his spikes at age 36. However, he loved the game too much to give it up completely. So he became a scout for the club less than three weeks after the season ended. Almost immediately Brown went from sitting in a major-league dugout to scouting teams in Florida, assisting in the free-agent draft; instructing the Tigers’ rookie-league team, and visiting various colleges nationwide to find new talent.

Brown continued his work as a scout until 1978, when he returned to the Tigers to become the new hitting coach under manager Ralph Houk. The Tigers’ team batting average rose from eighth in the American League in 1977 to second overall in Brown’s first season. That year the Tigers also enjoyed their first winning season in five years.

When Sparky Anderson arrived in Detroit in 1979, he kept Brown on. He helped bring along the hitting talents of Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, and Lou Whitaker. Brown remained with the Tigers through their World Series championship in 1984. He wanted to continue coaching the Tigers beyond 1984 but couldn’t agree with the team on a contract extension. He quit on November 14, 1984 – almost 25 years after he signed his first professional contract fresh out of Mansfield.

Things weren’t always rosy for Brown in his years since the 1984 championship. In 1991 he was part of a business group that purchased Ben G Industries, a plastics molding company that was relocated from the Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens to Detroit after its purchase. The company was doomed almost from the start. First it was alleged that the previous owners had stolen $458,000 from Ben G before it was sold to Brown’s group. Then the Internal Revenue Service got involved and found that as the company’s president, Brown had failed to oversee the payment of taxes during his first two years of ownership. A civil suit against Brown by the IRS sought more than $61,000.10 However, he never faced criminal charges.

Brown also had to settle another IRS allegation a few months before the Ben G trial began. This time it was at the personal level. Brown and his wife, Norma, were accused of shorting income on their personal taxes and ordered to pay more than $36,000 in back taxes and penalties dating from 1992 to 1997.

Brown was not forgotten by the baseball world, however. He was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Beside Brown during his acceptance speech were his former hitting pupil, Lance Parrish, and former big-league pitcher Jim Kaat.11 Many of the voters said that Brown’s amazing story was a huge reason why they chose him.

Brown always liked to revisit and reflect upon that magical season of ’68. He had reached the pinnacle of his profession. He was a World Series champion. His climb from a prison cell to shaking hands with the likes of Bob Hope and Ed Sullivan was a great comeback story. But if you asked Brown, his contribution to the 1968 season was for his parents.

“I can never make up for all the grief I gave them in my life. I can never make up for all the humiliation they suffered, all the torture, when I spent time in (Mansfield),” Brown said. “But I promised them, when I got out of there I would never go back. If I didn’t make it in life, it would not be because I didn’t try. You know, you can do bad things in a big city and nobody ever knows about them. But do something wrong in a small town [Crestline’s population was 6,000] and everybody knows. That’s why I was so happy we won it all. I could finally give them something else to talk about.”12

In 2009 Crestline honored Brown by naming its high school baseball diamond Gates Brown Field. He said, “You dream about something like this, but you don’t ever think it’s going to happen. I didn’t want no fanfare when I was with the Tigers, but this is quite an honor.”13

In his 13 years as a player with Detroit, Brown was a part of nine winning ballclubs. He was part of seven more as a coach. Most Tigers fans will tell you that, despite his reserve role, Brown was a huge part of the successful era in Motown. His ability to come through in the clutch has not been matched in the AL. His .370 average in ’68 was the eighth-best season ever for a pinch-hitter. He had 107 pinch hits in his career, the most ever in the American League. He also still holds the AL records for pinch-hit at-bats (414) and home runs (16). Talking about his records in pinch-hitting, he once told a reporter, “Well, one thing, I didn’t do a lot of playing or I wouldn’t have been pinch-hitting.”14

But it wasn’t just with his bat, but with his attitude, that Brown became so successful on the diamond. He was everyone’s favorite teammate. He was a huge crowd favorite. He was an underdog who went from prisoner to champion.

Brown suffered from diabetes and a bad heart, dying at age 74 on September 27, 2013, at a nursing home in Detroit.15 He and Norma had four children: Pamela, Rebekah, Lindsey, and William.

“It’s just a shame,” former manager Jim Leyland said. “We knew his health wasn’t good. To this day, a lot of people think maybe Gates Brown is maybe the best pinch-hitter of all time. Hopefully Gates is in a better place.”16

Acknowledgments

This biography originally appeared in a SABR publication: Mark Pattison and David Raglin, eds., Sock It to ’Em, Tigers (Hanover, Massachusetts: Maple Street Press, 2008). It has been brought up to date with additional research and writing by Bill Nowlin and David Raglin.

Sources

Brown’s quotes about being hounded by Southern fans while in the minors: Rich Koster article, St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 19, 1968.

Joe Garagiola interview information and quotes: Detroit Tigers press release, July 1, 1974.

Poker story with McLain and Northrup and quotes: Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, 99.

Reference to Mayo Smith receiving letters to start Gates at shortstop during the World Series: Rich Koster article, St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 19, 1968.

Notes

1 Detroit Tigers press release, August 18, 1978. See Gates Brown player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. See also Dave Kindred, “Baseball’s Comic Relief,” The Sporting News, April 25. 1994.

2 Associated Press, “‘On Track’ Gates Shows Youngsters Straight Path,” Bakersfield Californian, July 7, 1942: 42.

3 Brown later said, “He was in love with baseball and knew a few scouts, and he paved the way for them to come in and see me. … Other than that, I don’t know where I’d be today.” George Sipple, “Ex-Tiger Brown to Be Inducted, Twice.” Detroit Free Press, November 1, 2009, found in Brown’s Hall of Fame player file.

4 Rich Koster, “Gates Brown – Hero in Detroit,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1968: 8.

5 Associated Press, “Gates Brown Not Forgetting Past,” High Point (North Carolina) Enterprise, July 7, 1974: 42.

6 Joe Falls, “Gates Brown’s Life an Example for LeFlore,” The Sporting News, March 22, 1975: 18.

7 Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, 99.

8 Rich Koster, “Gates Brown – Hero in Detroit.”

9Jim Hawkins, “Gates Picking Up Rust as Tiger Spot Swinger,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1974: 23.

10 David Shepardson, “Trial Begins for Former Tiger,” Detroit News, undated article in Brown’s Hall of Fame player file.

11 Mike Brudenell, “Parrish, Six Others Enter Hall of Fame,” Detroit Free Press, April 18, 2002.

12 Joe Falls column, The Sporting News, March 22, 1969: 2.

13 Jon Spencer, “Crestline Goes to Bat for Brown,” Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal, March 17, 2009: 9.

14 William Yardley, “Gates Brown, Tigers’ Clutch Pinch-Hitter, Is Dead at 74,” New York Times, September 28, 2013.

15 Terry Foster, “Tigers Family Mourns Pinch-Hitting Legend Gates Brown,” Detroit News, September 27, 2013.

16 Brendan Savage, “The Complicated Story of Gates Brown, the MOST CLUTCH HITTER on the 1968 Tigers,” MLive, August 2, 2018. https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2018/08/not_all_memories_were_good_one.html. Accessed August 6, 2024.

Bert Campaneris had a distinguished 20-year major-league career that included six All-Star selections, six American League stolen-base crowns, and a major role in the Oakland Athletics’ three world championships in the 1970s.

Dagoberto Campaneris was born on March 9, 1942, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba. His father was a mechanic in a factory. Campaneris had three brothers and four sisters. He attended Jose Tomas School in Pueblo Nuevo.

Campaneris was gifted with incredible speed and quickness, but the only sport he played was baseball. He competed in a Cuban Little League at the age of 11, and later was a catcher for a semipro team. He said he loved baseball so much that he even assisted as a groundskeeper. Reflecting on his childhood, Campaneris said, “I never worked in Cuba. All I did was play baseball. I play, I play, I play, I like to play.”1 At the Pan-Am Games in Costa Rica in 1961, he drew the attention of Kansas City Athletics scout Felix Delgado, who persisted in efforts to sign him. Eventually Campaneris signed a contract that called for a $1,000 bonus, payable only if he remained with the A’s organization for at least 60 days. Campaneris was one of the last players to leave Cuba for the United States before the Castro revolution made emigration extremely rare.

Campaneris split the 1962 season between Daytona Beach (Florida State League) and Binghamton (New York) of the Class A Eastern League. Campaneris was eager to play at every position, and was ambidextrous. Once with Daytona Beach, he pitched both right-handed and left-handed in a two-inning relief appearance. He faced a switch-hitter during his stint on the mound, and changed over when he faced him.

Campaneris spent two months of the 1963 season on the disabled list with a sore arm but got into 48 games with Lewiston of the Northwest League and Binghamton where he caught, and batted .308 as the leadoff hitter. He spent the offseason playing for the A’s team in the Florida Instructional League.

Campaneris began the 1964 season with Double-A Birmingham and batted .325. On July 22, 1964, Campaneris was called up after A’s shortstop Wayne Causey injured his elbow. After an overnight plane trip, he arrived in Minneapolis the next day two hours before the start of the A’s game against the Twins, and had an unforgettable major-league debut. Playing shortstop and batting second, he sent a pitch by the Twins’ Jim Kaat over the left-field fence in his first at-bat. In the seventh inning he hit another home run. He turned in a brilliant defensive play, singled, and stole a base in the A’s 11 inning victory. Campaneris became the second major leaguer to hit two home runs in a debut game, after the St. Louis Browns’ Bob Nieman, who did it in 1951.

Campaneris finished the season batting .257 for the A’s with 10 stolen bases in 67 games, and earned a spot on the Topps Major League Rookie All-Star team. He was in the major leagues to stay, though he spent the offseason playing for the Caguas Criollos in the Puerto Rican League.

In 1965 Campaneris battled his second cousin, Angels outfielder José Cardenal, for the American League stolen-base title. (Cardenal said in an interview that they played baseball together constantly during the youth.2) Campaneris won the stolen-base title with 51, besting Cardenal’s second-place total of 37. He batted .270 with 23 doubles, a league-leading 12 triples, and 6 home runs.

Campaneris was honored with a “night” at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium on September 8, 1965. He marked the occasion by playing all nine positions in that night’s game against the Angels. He started at shortstop, went to second base for the second inning, then successively played third base, each outfield position, and first base. He pitched the eighth inning, yielding a run, and caught the ninth inning. The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Campaneris injured his shoulder in a collision with Ed Kirkpatrick at home plate in the ninth and had to leave the game. He was out of the lineup for five games. He spent the offseason playing for Caracas in the Venezuelan League.

In 1966 Campaneris teamed with second baseman Dick Green, and their great range gave the A’s a very dependable double-play combination. Green remarked, “I had never played with a shortstop who threw the ball that hard.”3 Campaneris led the league with 259 shortstop putouts. Again he led the league in stolen bases, pilfering 52 in 62 attempts.

In the A’s last season in Kansas City, 1967, Campaneris captured his third consecutive stolen-base title with 55. On August 29 against Cleveland he belted three triples. His batting average for the season slipped to .248.

In 1968, the A’s inaugural season in Oakland, Campaneris raised his batting average to .276, aided by a 15-game hitting streak between August 4 and 18 (including a five-hit game on the 9th). He captured his fourth consecutive stolen-base title with a career-high 62 thefts (he was caught stealing 22 times), and led the league with 177 hits and 642 at-bats. On August 29 he repeated his feat against Cleveland, again belting three triples. Of his success at the plate, Campaneris said, “Now, I’m trying to hit to right field. I was swinging too hard trying to hit it too hard.”4 He spent the offseason playing for Lara in the Venezuelan League, where he batted .335.

Campaneris had 62 steals in 1969, but his four- year reign as the AL stolen-base leader ended as came to an end in 1969 as Tommy Harper of the Seattle Pilots stole 73. Campaneris missed most of July after he fractured his right index finger while taking a double-play relay throw at second base in a game against Seattle on July 3. The injury kept him out of the lineup until July 25. For the season, Campaneris batted .260, and along with Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and a host of others led the A’s to a contending role in the AL West. Oakland finished with an 88-74 record, nine games behind the division champion Minnesota Twins.

During the season Campaneris married Norma Fay, a Kansas City native. Afterward, the shy player said, “I had no one in the United States. I was so lonely. Now I got somebody to take care of me.”5

In 1970 Campaneris batted .279, posting career highs in home runs (22) and RBIs (64). The A’s finished second again with an 89-73 record, nine games behind the Twins.

The A’s won the American League West title in 1971, by 16 games over the Kansas City Royals. Campaneris experienced a power outage that season, hitting only five round-trippers while batting .251. Two of his homers came in a game in Cleveland on May 12 off Sam McDowell. On September 6 Campaneris was thrown out of a game by home-plate umpire Russ Goetz after burying the plate with dirt while protesting a called third strike. Two days later, after stealing second he broke the base loose from its mooring, chased it five feet, and wrapped his arms around it so he wouldn’t be called out. In the American League Championship Series, Oakland was swept by the Baltimore Orioles.

Campaneris had a great season in 1972, leading the league in chances (795), at-bats (625), and stolen bases (52). He finished second to Boston’s Luis Aparicio in balloting for the All-Star Game. Even after Aparicio broke a finger and couldn’t play, AL manager Earl Weaver selected Texas shortstop Toby Harrah. Harrah was also unable to play because of a sore shoulder, and Weaver then selected Orioles shortstop, Bobby Grich, who played the entire 10 innings in the game, much to Campaneris’s chagrin. Three weeks later Campaneris responded to the All-Star snub in a game at Baltimore: After collecting his third stolen base of the game in the fifth inning, he went to third on a throwing error by Orioles catcher Andy Etchebarren, then coaxed Jim Palmer into a run-scoring balk. While heading home, he looked into the Orioles dugout and tipped his hat to Weaver.

On the last day of the season, Campaneris led by two in the stolen-base race, and was going to sit out the season finale. After the A’s broadcasters found out that Dave Nelson of the Texas Rangers had stolen three bases in his game, Campaneris entered the A’s game in the fourth inning as a pinch-runner. He stole second and third, denying Nelson the title, and also spoiling Nolan Ryan’s bid for his first 20-win season. Of Ryan, Campaneris said, “I know I can steal on that guy. He pitches so slow.”6 Campaneris was referring to Ryan’s deliberate motion, not his velocity.

The A’s finished the 1972 season with a 93-62 record, winning their division by 5½ games over the Chicago White Sox, earning them a berth in the ACLS against Detroit. After the A’s won Game One, 3-2, fireworks erupted during Game Two. In the bottom of the seventh, Campaneris who was already 3-for -3 with two stolen bases and two runs scored, was hit in the ankle by a pitch from Lerrin LaGrow. Campaneris threw his bat toward LaGrow, who ducked to avoid being hit.

With Detroit manager Billy Martin in the lead, the Tigers went for Campaneris. (Afterward, Martin said of his role in the fracas, “You bet I was after him! There’s no place for that kind of gutless stuff in baseball. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in all my years of baseball. I would respect him if he went out to throw a punch, but what he did was the most gutless thing of any man to put on a uniform. It was a disgrace to baseball.”7) Three umpires held Martin back, and home-plate umpire Nestor Chylak ejected LaGrow and Campaneris. Explaining his actions, Campaneris said, “My ankle hurt so bad. I knew he was going to throw at me, but people now tell me it’s better to go and fight. I don’t know. I just lost my temper.”8

Oakland’s Joe Rudi said he thought LaGrow threw at Campaneris because “Campy had run the Tigers ragged in the first two games, and when (Billy) Martin gets his ears pinned down, he’s going to do something about it.”9 Teammate Mike Hegan said he thought Martin “wanted to light a fire under his ballclub, and Campy was the guy that they were going after because he was the guy that set the table for us. There’s no question that Billy Martin instructed Lerrin LaGrow to throw at Campaneris.”10

American League President Joe Cronin suspended Campaneris for the remainder of the ALCS, fined him $500 and left the decision about a possible World Series suspension to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Kuhn ruled that Campaneris could play in the World Series, but would be suspended without pay for the first seven games of the 1973 season.

The incident did indeed spark the Tigers; without Campaneris in the A’s lineup, they tied the series. But the A’s won the fifth and deciding game, 2-1 and went to the franchise’s first World Series since 1931, when they were in Philadelphia.

The underdog A’s, playing without Reggie Jackson, who had ruptured a hamstring during the Tigers series, captured the world championship, defeating the Cincinnati Reds in an exciting seven-game Series.

The A’s led the Series three games to two, but Cincinnati stormed back in Game Six, tying the Series with an 8-1 drubbing of Oakland. When Campaneris came to bat in the eighth inning he told Reds catcher Johnny Bench, “We never lose three in a row!” Bench replied, “You’ve never faced the Big Red Machine!”11

Campaneris batted only .179 in the World Series, but it was a defensive, pitching-oriented affair in which each team batted .209. Campaneris scored the run in Game Seven that gave the A’s the lead for good, coming home on Gene Tenace’s double in the top of the sixth inning.

In 1973 Campaneris became the first A’s player to be offered a two-year contract by owner Charlie Finley, signing a deal for a reported $65,000 a season. Campaneris sat on the bench the first five games (the seven-game sentence had been reduced on appeal) and watched Dal Maxvill play shortstop. On May 25 the A’s returned to Detroit and Campaneris was welcomed back to a loud chorus of boos from the fans who had not forgotten the LaGrow incident. Tigers catcher Bill Freehan took out Campaneris in a play at the plate, and Campaneris suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to miss six games. In the 11 games Campaneris missed as a result of the suspension and injury, the A’s record was 2-9. For the season, Campaneris batted .250, had 34 stolen bases, and was selected as the American League’s starting shortstop for the All-Star Game.

The A’s won the American League West with a 94-68 record and faced the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. Before the series, Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer commented, “I think the key to beating Oakland is keeping Campaneris off base.”12 The Orioles failed miserably in Game Two, as Campaneris reached base three times in five plate appearances, hitting a home run to lead off the game, stealing a pair of bases, and scoring two runs in the A’s 6-3 victory. He hit a walkoff home run in the 11th inning of Game Three. The A’s wound up winning the series three games to two.

Against the New York Mets in the World Series, Campaneris batted .290, stole three bases, and hit a two-run home run in the third inning of Game Seven which along with Reggie Jackson’s two-run homer in the same inning, gave the A’s a lead they did not relinquish in a 5-2 victory. Reggie Jackson (.310, 6 RBIs, was named the Series Most Valuable Player. Campaneris (.290, 3 RBIs) was disappointed that he did not get the award, but said, “Reggie is my friend.”13

The A’s returned to the World Series in 1974, their third straight appearance. Campaneris again represented the American League in the All-Star Game. He batted .290 and stole 34 bases for the season. He missed 15 games between July 29 and August 11 when he suffered a severely sprained left ankle.

After defeating the Orioles three games to one in the ALCS, the Athletics faced the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, and won the Series in five games. In Game One, a 3-2 victory, Campaneris laid down an excellently executed squeeze bunt on which Ken Holtzman scored. Campaneris batted .353 in the Series, stole a base, and contributed sparkling defense. He was also named to The Sporting News AL All-Star Team for the second consecutive season.

Campaneris received a substantial raise for the 1975 season, reported by various sources at $20,000, $25,000, or $35,000. He batted .265 and stole 24 bases. Despite the loss of Catfish Hunter to free agency, the A’s won the AL West division, but were swept by the Red Sox in the ALCS.

The A’s entered a difficult period in 1976. The team was aging and many members were passing their prime. And free agency had become a factor in contract negotiations, something Charlie Finley had difficulty dealing with. Campaneris was among the players who sought big raises. Finley offered $90,000, but Campaneris asked for a five-year contract at $120,000 per year, or $135,000 for one year. (According to The Sporting News, Campaneris wound with a salary of $72,000.14) Campaneris batted .256, made 23 errors in 149 games, and stole 54 bases in 66 attempts, including a club-record five in a 12-7 victory over Minnesota on May 24. Despite the loss of Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman via trade, the A’s posted an 87-74 record and finished in second place in the AL West, just 2½ games behind Kansas City.

A free-agency re-entry draft was held after the season and Campaneris was selected by the maximum of 12 teams. After considering all the offers, he signed a contract worth a reported $750,000 for five years and became a Texas Ranger. Rangers general manager Dan O’Brien said Campaneris “adds two dimensions to our team – speed and defense.”15 The signing meant that Toby Harrah would be moved to third base. (Harrah commented, I consider it a pleasure to play next to him in the infield.”16) To comments that he was now 35 years old, Campaneris said, “I think I know what I can do and how long I can do it. … I plan on playing seven, eight more years. Who knows, maybe more than that.”17 Campaneris had a decent season, batting .254 and stealing 27 bases, and his veteran leadership was a contributing factor in the Rangers’ rise from fifth place a year earlier to a second-place finish with a 94-68 record.

Despite his confidence, Campaneris began a downward slide in 1978, batting only .186 and playing in only 98 games. After being benched in early August, he voiced his displeasure: “This is the first bad year that I’ve had and it’s because they’ve taken me out of games for pinch-hitters, and now I don’t play. I’m not going to say anything the rest of this year. I’ll do the best I can when I do play, but I’ll tell you one thing – I’m not going to go through this again next season.”18

Rookie Nelson Norman was named the Rangers starting shortstop for the 1979 season, sending an unhappy Campaneris to the bench. On May 4 the Rangers traded him to the California Angels for infielder Dave Chalk. The Rangers also made the trade to rid themselves of Campaneris’s $190,000 annual salary, which ran through the 1981 season. With the Angels, Campaneris split time at shortstop for the next two seasons with Jim Anderson and Freddie Patek, batting .234 with 12 stolen bases in 85 games in 1979. On June 20 he got a measure of revenge by stealing three bases in a 5-4 Angels victory over the Rangers.

Campaneris batted .252 with 10 steals in 1980 and had a good stretch in midseason; in September Angels manger Jim Fregosi praised him, commenting, “Over the last six weeks, Bert Campaneris has been our best player.”19 However, Campaneris realized his role when 22-year- old Dickie Thon was called up by noting, “They want a young kid, someone to stay around another two years. Maybe we can be like Baltimore with (Kiko) Garcia and (Mark) Belanger. I can help the kid.”20

Campaneris played in 55 games in 1981 for the Angels, 46 of them as a defensive replacement at third base, and batted.256. He had five stolen bases. After the season he was granted free agency.

After an unsuccessful tryout at the Orioles’ camp during 1982 spring training, Campaneris played for Veracruz and Poza Rica in the Mexican League, batting .277 in 104 games primarily as a third baseman. He still loved playing, and said, “I’ll play as long as my legs and arms allow me.”21

On February 24, 1983, the 40-year-old Campaneris signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees, who invited him to spring training in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Yankees had to pay

$5,000 to obtain his release from Poza Rica. Happy to be getting another major-league shot, Campaneris said, “All my life I’ve thought about one day playing for the Yankees. Everybody wants to play for the Yankees. That’s why I came here first.”22

Campaneris was one of the final players in camp that was cut, and he was sent to Triple-A Columbus, where he batted .333 in 13 games, with seven runs batted in and three stolen bases. When Yankees second baseman Willie Randolph was injured, Campaneris was called up to the Yankees on May 4, and in his first start on May 6, playing second base, he had four hits, stole a base, and took part in four double plays. Campaneris played in 60 games, batting a career-high .322 and was a valuable backup at second and third base for the Yankees.

Released by the Yankees after the season, Campaneris was hired by the Angels as a minor-league bunting and baserunning coach. One of his special projects was working with Angels speedster Gary Pettis. He also had stints as a coach with the Houston Astros and the San Francisco Giants. In 2014 he libed in Scottsdale, Arizona, and was a frequent participant in old-timer’s games. He conducted baseball camps and was actively involved in the charity golf tournaments held by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association.

The highest praise for Campaneris may have come from his old boss and antagonist, Charlie Finley, who said in 1980, “You can talk about Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Sal Bando, all those great players, but it was Campy who made everything go.”23

Last revised: April 17, 2023 (zp)

Notes

1 Ron, Bergman, “Quiet Campy Stealing Thunder … and Bases,” The Sporting News, June 25,1970

2 Joe McGuff, “Campaneris Thrills Kaycee Fans With Exploits as Bandit,” The Sporting News, July 31, 1965.

3 The Sporting News August 26, 1967

4 Ron Bergman, “Kennedy Turns Campy Into the Wild West Gunslinger,” The Sporting News, August 17, 1968.

5 “Ouiet Campy.”

6 Ron Bergman, “Oakland Fans Welcome Their Hero – Speedy Campy,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1972.

7 “Oakland Fans.”

8 “Oakland Fans.”

9 Bruce Markusen, A Baseball Dynasty (Haworth, New Jersey: St. Johann Press, 2002), 133

10 Markusen.

11 Markusen, 162.

12 Markusen, 234.

13 Dave Anderson, “Bert Campaneris Is Still Hurt,” New York Times, February 28, 1974

14 The Sporting News, January 8, 1977.

15 Randy Galloway, “Rangers Land Campaneris With a $750,000 Package,” The Sporting News, December 4, 1976.

16 Randy Galloway, “Campy’s Arrival Convinces Harrah to Switch to Third,” The Sporting News, March 26, 1977.

17 Randy Galloway, “Campy Looks for Fountain of Youth in Texas,” The Sporting News, April 16,1977

18 Randy Galloway, “Campy Counting His Bucks on Ranger Bench,” The Sporting News, September 9, 1978.

19 Peter Gammons, “A.L. Beat,” The Sporting News, September 13, 1980.

20 Dick, Miller, “Angels Will Test Trade Winds, but Not Free-Agent Market,”

21 Class AAA Notes, “Campy Going Strong at 40,” The Sporting News, June 14, 1980.

22 Murray Chass, “Campaneris, at 40, Tries to Be a Yankee,” New York Times, March 4, 1980.

23 Gammons, Peter, “A.L. Beat” The Sporting News, October 4, 1980.

Clark developed a persona on and off the diamond that was described as dramatic, cocky, brash, loud, flamboyant, intense, gamer, aggressive, and temperamental. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, but no one expected more of him than he did of himself. It was during his early Giants games that he got tagged with popular nicknames like “The Thrill” and “The Natural” by his teammates. He even became well-known for his facial expression that was characterized by an intense, competitive scowl and big swaths of eye-black on his cheeks.

William Nuschler Clark, Jr. was born on March 13, 1964.  He grew up in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, living near Digby Playground where he first played baseball at eight years old. Initially baseball was just something that he played for six weeks during the summer.1

Clark’s love of sports came through his father’s interests as an avid hunter and fisherman. He similarly developed a devotion to outdoor sports, an activity he would continue to enjoy later during his major-league offseasons.2 He grew up in a tight-knit family that included his father William Nuschler Sr., mother Letty Jane (Hubert), brother Scott, and sister Robin. Both of Clark’s parents were natives of New Orleanians.3 His father was a sales manager for a pest control company; his mother was a dietician for the local school board.4

When he was 15, his Babe Ruth team finished third in the national World Series in 1979.5 A sophomore in 1980, his Jesuit High School baseball team won the Louisiana state championship, and the Jesuit-based American Legion team took third place in the World Series that year. As a junior, Clark surpassed New Orleans native Rusty Staub’s season home run record for Jesuit High by smacking 10 home runs in 14 games.6

Clark was selected by Kansas City in the fourth round of the 1982 draft, but spurned a $35,000 bonus offer from the Royals because he felt he wasn’t mentally or physically mature enough. Instead, he committed to play baseball at Mississippi State University. 7

He teamed with Rafael Palmeiro in his sophomore season at Mississippi State to form one of the best one-two punches in the Southeastern Conference. Their hitting prowess earned them the nickname “Thunder and Lightning.” In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Clark was the leading hitter on the USA team that won the silver medal as a demonstration sport.8 As a junior in 1985, he led Mississippi State to the College World Series, was named the top college player of the year, and was drafted second overall by the San Francisco Giants.

Assigned to Fresno in the Class-A California League in 1985, he smacked a home run in his first pro at-bat   

Clark was invited to the Giants’ spring training camp in 1986 as a non-roster player, although he wasn’t expected to make the big-league club. However, once he got into the Giants’ lineup during exhibition games, manager Roger Craig couldn’t find a good reason to take him out. In his first game in a Giants uniform on March 7 against Oakland, he drove in four runs with a home run and a double.9 Clark wound up beating out 14-year veteran Dan Driessen for the starting job, as Craig couldn’t ignore Clark’s .297 batting average and five home runs during the spring camp.10

Craig expressed confidence in his decision, “He had done everything we’ve asked and he has major league written all over him. Sometimes it takes six or eight weeks to find out about a young man’s ability, but we think he’s ready to step in and play first base now.”11

Clark proved his manager’s instinct was correct. His major-league debut occurred on April 8, 1986, against the Houston Astros in the Astrodome. In his first plate appearance, Clark faced career strikeout leader Nolan Ryan in the first inning. On Ryan’s third pitch and Clark’s first major-league swing, Clark deposited a letter-high fastball into the center field bleachers, 420 feet away. He became the 50th player in major-league history to hit a home run in his first plate appearance. With a flock of Clark’s family and friends from New Orleans attending the game, the Giants won, 8-3.12 Clark would go on to have great success against Ryan during his career. In 39 plate appearances against Ryan, he belted six home runs, drove in 11 runs, and posted an OPS of 1.274.

Clark arrived on the pro scene with a smooth, natural swing that a Sports Illustrated article described as “the sweetest swing anyone had ever seen, an uppercut with a long, loopy follow-through that made it seem as if he was wielding a buggy whip instead of a 32-ounce bat.”13 Hence, the nickname “The Natural” became associated with him.

His classic hitting style and concentration at the plate conjured up recollections of legendary hitters Ted Williams and Stan Musial by some of the former big-league players who were around during their careers.14

Within his first four seasons, Clark established himself as a bona fide star in the big leagues. In 1987 he helped propel the Giants to their first division championship in 16 seasons. He became an All-Star selection and led the National League in RBIs in 1988. In 1989 he was runner-up for NL MVP and was instrumental in the Giants winning their first pennant since 1962. The Giants leveraged his instant popularity by making him the subject of a Bay Area marketing poster displaying the slogan “I’ve Got a Giant Attitude.”15

The fanfare that accompanied Clark’s first few months, along with his brashness and confidence, drew mixed reactions from his teammates. Veteran catcher Bob Brenly gave him the nickname “The Thrill” for his early heroics. Clark knew he had gained a measure of respect from his teammates when they painted his favorite cowboy boots orange, only to give him a replacement pair later. 16  On the other hand, some of his other teammates didn’t know how to take Clark’s demeanor. His boldness caused some animosity.17

Clark incurred the first of his many career injuries during his rookie season when he collided with Montreal Expos first baseman Andres Galarraga and suffered a hyper-extended elbow that kept him on the disabled list for almost two months.18 He still finished fifth in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year.

With the addition of Kevin Mitchell in early July 1987 to complement the hitting of Clark, Jeffrey Leonard, and Candy Maldonado, the Giants took over sole possession of first place by August 21 and never relinquished the lead, winning their first division title since 1971.

At one point in the season, Clark hit eight home runs in 11 games and had nine consecutive games with an RBI. He was named NL Player of the Week twice during the season. He finished the regular season with a slash line of .308/.371/.580 and led the Giants with 35 home runs and 91 RBIs. Clark attributed his stats increase to being able to avoid injuries and to sustain his strength late in the season, aided by the conditioning he had done with New Orleans fitness guru Mackie Shilstone over the winter.19 In only his second major-league season, Clark was fifth in the NL MVP voting won. Clark was named the Giants team MVP.

The Giants faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series and held a 3-2 lead after Game Five. However, the Cards shut out the Giants in the final two games to claim the pennant. Clark hit .360 for the series.

Despite his overall success in his first couple of years with the Giants, he would sometimes agitate his teammates by throwing temper fits after poor at-bats, throwing his helmet, or slamming the bat rack. He said his grumblings after poor performances were misunderstood by his teammates.20 Kevin Mitchell said about Clark, “Some people don’t like Will because he talks a lot.” But Mitchell was quick to add, “If you don’t hear Will, something’s wrong.”21

Manager Roger Craig observed about Clark in the spring of 1988, “He’s got a lot of growing up to do. I’ve talked to him quite a bit about that. He does a lot of things he’s sorry about later.” 22 On the other hand, Craig noted about his star player, “I regard a lot of our guys as indispensable, but if I had to pick one, it would be Will Clark. In addition to his natural ability, he has the charisma that puts people in the park.”23

The 1987 season naturally brought increased expectations for Clark in 1988. Yet no one had higher expectations than Clark himself. He began to draw comparisons with Mark McGwire, the prolific power hitter for the Oakland A’s.

Clark made his first All-Star team in 1988, beating out Keith Hernandez and Andres Galarraga. At the break, he had a .386 on-base percentage and was leading the National League with 68 RBIs.

Clark began winning the admiration of his peers and opponents for his confidence at the plate. In an interview with The Sporting News in July 1988, Chicago Cubs manager Don Zimmer commented about Clark, “The thing about it is, the guy knows he can hit. A lot of people on the other side will look at Will Clark and see that he’s got a few mannerisms, he’s got a little cockiness about him, so they don’t like him. But they would have to know Will Clark like I do to appreciate him.”24

New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez offered this assessment of Clark: “There’s no question Will and (Andres) Galarraga are the next two standouts at first base. Will seems to have a real good knowledge of the strike zone, and he doesn’t swing at many bad pitches. I don’t see cockiness in him. I see youthful exuberance. You like to see that in players.”25

Giants broadcaster, Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, said of Clark, “He carries his personality to the plate. He just knows he’s going to get a hit.”26

He led the National League in RBIs (109), walks (100), and intentional walks (27) and finished with a .282 batting average and 29 home runs. He had the highest RBI total for a Giants player since Willie McCovey (126) in 1970. For the second year in a row, Clark finished fifth in the voting for NL MVP and repeated as the Giants’ team MVP. Despite Clark’s efforts, the Giants had a significant drop-off from their division title the year before, finishing fourth in the NL West with an 83-79 record.

Clark and Mitchell got off to sizzling starts in 1989. The Giants’ power duo quickly earned the nickname “Pacific Sock Exchange” in the Bay Area.

Clark said, “I’ve never had a start like this. I’d attribute it to a lot more work this winter. I just felt there were some things I had to do to improve, so I doubled my batting practice. The weather in New Orleans was good, so that helped.” With regard to his production with Mitchell, he added, “They’re still pitching carefully to me. But now it’s more likely to hurt them. It’s the same as it was with Rafael Palmeiro and me at Mississippi State. If one guy didn’t do it, the other guy would.”27

Hitting experts marveled at Clark’s natural swing. Giants’ batting coach Dusty Baker commented, “Will’s main asset is a tension-free swing. He doesn’t muscle the ball like most power hitters. Will uses leverage extremely well. He’s a hitter, not a slugger, and what he’s doing now shouldn’t come as a surprise.”28

Clark gave credit for his hitting mechanics to Barry Butera, a New Orleans-based coach and former Boston Red Sox minor-leaguer. Clark told The Sporting News, “I was a dead pull hitter in high school, but my swing was revamped by Barry Butera, who was a Ted Williams disciple. We placed a lot of emphasis on leverage and using the hips, because I wasn’t big and strong. I’m not a hacker, so my success is based on a fluid swing, bat speed, and perfect contact.”29

Clark led the All-Star voting; at the break he was hitting .332 with 14 home runs and 64 RBIs. The Giants were leading the Houston Astros by two games in the NL West.

Clark battled San Diego’s Tony Gwynn for the batting title for most of the season. The competition came down to the last two games of the season against each other in San Diego. On September 30, Gwynn went 3-for-4 to move within a percentage point of Clark, .333 to .334. The next day Gwynn repeated his 3-for-4 performance to finish at .336 and win his third straight title.  Clark, who was booed heavily by the Padres’ home crowd, managed to get only one hit in four at-bats to end up in second place at .333.

The Giants had taken sole possession of the NL West on June 17 and never relinquished the lead for the remainder of the season. They finished with 92 wins, three games ahead of the Padres.

San Francisco faced the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series. Clark had one of the best-ever series in major-league playoff history, as the Giants had an easy time with the Cubs, winning the series, 4-1.

Clark had a perfect day at the plate in Game One, garnering four hits in four official at-bats and drawing a walk. He scored four times and drove in six runs, practically single-handedly defeating the Cubs. He homered twice off Greg Maddux, including a grand slam in the fourth inning that effectively put the game out of reach for the Cubs. After the game, Clark downplayed his performance, “Anything can happen in a seven-game series. I just got locked in a groove, but it doesn’t mean I have this park or the Cub staff in my pocket.”30

But Clark would indeed have Cubs pitchers in his hip pocket during the rest of the Series. He continued his torrid hitting, winding up with 13 hits and two walks in 22 plate appearances in the five games. He compiled a whopping 1.882 OPS for the series. His 11 total bases in Game One were a record at the time. He was the clear choice for MVP of the Championship Series.

The Giants advanced to play Bay Area rival Oakland in the World Series, the Giants’ first appearance since 1962. Oakland was coming off its second consecutive American League pennant, despite having slugger Jose Canseco for less than half the season due to injuries.

The A’s made quick work of the Giants in the first two games of the Series at their home stadium, as the Giants’ bats were dormant in 5-0 and 5-1 losses.

The Series moved to Candlestick Park, and what followed in Game Three on October 17 was one of the most bizarre events in World Series history, although not because of what occurred during the game. Just minutes before the contest was to begin, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Bay Area and lasted 17 seconds. Game Three was cancelled, and out of safety concerns, the Series was postponed indefinitely by Commissioner Fay Vincent.31

The stadium was eventually approved to resume the Series, once cracks in the upper deck structure were repaired, and Game Three was played on October 27 in San Francisco. Although they generated more offense than the previous two games, the Giants could never seem to get ahead of the A’s pitching and wound up losing, 13-7, in Game Three and 9-6 in Game Four. Clark came off his postseason high with only four hits in 16 at-bats during the four games.

Mitchell bested Clark for the National League MVP Award, as he led the league with 47 home runs and 125 RBIs. However, Clark enjoyed a well-rounded season, ranking first in runs scored (104), second in batting average (.333), second in hits (196), third in RBIs (111), third in triples (9), fourth in doubles (38), third in slugging percentage (.546), and third in on-base percentage (.407). He also hit 23 home runs.

Clark had done practically everything possible in 1989 to position himself for his next contract negotiation over the winter. His dramatic five-game performance in the NLCS put him into a new level of public awareness as a superstar. Even his mediocre World Series performance didn’t diminish his value as a player, nor his overall market value.

Clark’s standout season couldn’t have come at a better time from a financial standpoint. In January 1990, the Giants made him the highest-paid player in history with a four-year $15 million contract. The contract averaged $3.75 million per year, including a $2 million signing bonus, the largest ever given to a major-league player.32 Obviously pleased with re-signing Clark, Giants GM Al Rosen told The Sporting News, “Will Clark is the premier player in the game and he earns every cent. He plays like a Hall of Famer, and he should be paid like one.”33

Clark finished the 1990 season with a .295 batting average, 19 home runs, and 95 RBIs. For most major-league players, it would have been considered a successful season. But it was subpar for him, especially when compared to 1989. He had 52 fewer total bases, while his on-base percentage dropped 50 points. During an 84-game stretch from June 11 to September 17, he produced only three HR and 35 RBIs.

There were questions about whether his new record-setting contract had affected his performance. However, Clark insisted money had nothing to do with his drop in performance, but rather the new way opponents were pitching to him. He said, “I’m seeing sliders on the black and nasty split-fingers.”34

However, it wasn’t until the final road trip of the season that Clark revealed that a problem in his left foot, a condition called Morton’s neuroma, had hampered him all season. The ailment forced him to constantly hit to the opposite field. He said he had concealed the problem because he didn’t want to use it as an excuse for his decline. The condition had begun in spring training and continued to worsen.35

The following spring he explained, “This was something I could go out there and play with and make some adjustments to alleviate the pain. We were in a pennant race. I wasn’t going to say anything about it. The trainer knew, but he was the only one who needed to know. I didn’t need sympathy. I just wanted to go out and play.”36

Clark had surgeries during the offseason to address the foot problem and remove his bothersome tonsils. During spring training in 1991, the foot surgery appeared to have worked, as Clark was pulling the ball to right field again with no issues, thus enabling him to raise his home run output.37

By the 1991 All-Star break, he raised his average to .295 to go along with 15 home runs and 59 RBIs. He was selected to his fourth consecutive All-Star Game and got a single and a walk in the National League’s 4-2 loss.

By mid-August the Giants climbed to within six games of the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Clark and teammates Kevin Mitchell and Matt Williams were all having good years for home runs, with each considered a candidate to take the league’s home run crown.

However, more than capturing the home run title, Clark was interested in winning the Gold Glove Award for first basemen. He told The Sporting News in mid-August, “You can have all the offensive awards there are. I want the defensive award. I want the Gold Glove.” At the time, he had made only three errors.38

Clark was named the National League Player of the Month for August, when his slash line was .347/.408/.678, with 41 hits, 14 doubles, seven home runs, and 28 RBIs. His production put him in discussions for the Triple Crown and NL MVP.

However, when he fouled a ball off his kneecap in early September, it affected his productivity. During his last 27 games, Clark had only three HR and 14 RBIs and batted .253.

The Giants took a nosedive to finish the season in fourth place, 19 games out. They took some solace in the season when they won two of three games with the Dodgers during the final series of the season to allow the Atlanta Braves to capture the division title by one game. The Giants’ 75-87 record was their worst since Clark had arrived.

He didn’t win the Triple Crown or the MVP Award (he finished fourth), but he did collect first-time hardware for the Gold Glove Award. Also a Silver Slugger Award winner, Clark concluded the 1991 season with a .301 average, 29 home runs, and 116 RBIs. He led the league in total bases and slugging percentage.

Clark entered the 1992 season thinking his best year may be ahead of him; he told USA Today Baseball Weekly, “I haven’t had my career year. I’ve had some very consistent years, where I’ve hit a lot of home runs. I’ve had years where I’ve batted extremely well, and years where I’ve driven in a lot of runs, but I don’t think I’ve had a year yet where I’ve combined all that.”39

However, the career year didn’t materialize that season. Instead, the opposite happened. With Kevin Mitchell gone and third baseman Matt Williams having a poor season, Clark’s slugging numbers were down because he was frequently being pitched around.

The months of August and September were brutal for the Giants, as they won only 20 of 56 games. They ultimately dropped to fifth place, 26 games behind the division-leading Atlanta Braves. Clark finished the season with 16 HR and 73 RBIs, his lowest since his rookie season. However, he did manage to bat .300 and record 40 doubles, a career high at that point. If there was any consolation for the season, he was selected as the Giants’ sole representative on the National League All-Star team, for whom he hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning.

Giants owner Bob Lurie wanted to sell the team to a group in Tampa-St. Petersburg, after not gaining approval to build a new stadium in San Jose. However, he wound up selling the team to Safeway chairman Peter Magowan after the National League owners rejected his proposal to sell to the Florida group. Magowan kept the team in San Francisco, and his first major change was the signing of free-agent Barry Bonds to a $43.75 million contract in late December 1992.40

As soon as Bonds’s contract signing was announced by the Giants, rumors started to circulate that Clark would be upset by the money being paid to Bonds and the “savior” label Bonds was being tagged with by the media. However, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds reached out to Clark first to make a goodwill gesture to try to head off any ill feelings.41 After having several conversations with Bonds over the winter, Clark reported, “We’re going to get along fine. I have a good relationship with Barry. That shouldn’t alter as long as we go out and do the job. I have no problem with Barry. He’s an MVP. He’s done it all. It’ll be like when Kevin Mitchell was batting behind me.”42

Bonds started the 1993 season as advertised, while Clark was having the worst April of his career, hitting below .200 with only one home run. However, the Giants were winning.

At one point during the season, Clark had 181 plate appearances (April 11 to May 28) without a home run. He denied to the press that he was in a slump, but acknowledged he wasn’t helping the batters behind him in the batting order. Preliminary discussions about his contract, which was scheduled to end after the 1993 season, didn’t produce any results. By the end of May his agent halted any more negotiations for fear of distracting Clark on the field.43

Over the next three months, due to a rash of injuries Clark was in and out of the linuep, including his first time since his rookie season on the disabled list, for two weeks on August 25. Bonds, Williams, and Robby Thompson were carrying the team as they led the NL West Division for most of the season.

By the time Clark got back into the lineup in mid-September, the Giants had lost eight straight and fallen to second place behind Atlanta. The Giants wound up being tied with the Braves on the last day of the season, each having won 103 games. San Francisco lost a heart-breaker to the Los Angeles Dodgers while the Braves defeated the Colorado Rockies to claim the West Division title.

When Bonds had come on board with the Giants, he revealed two of his goals with the Giants were to win two more MVP Awards and go to a World Series. He made progress toward those aspirations in 1993 by being the overwhelming winner of the National League MVP Award and narrowly missing out on the playoffs. Having his second consecutive subpar season (.283 BA, 14 HR, and 73 RBIs) and missing 30 games mostly due to injuries, Clark was pushed to the back of the Giants’ stage.

Clark’s contract negotiation with the Giants picked up again after the season. In deciding whether to retain Clark, the Giants needed to figure out whether his last two seasons were an aberration or a trend. Second baseman Robby Thompson’s contract was also due for renewal, and there was some speculation the Giants wouldn’t be able to afford both players going forward. Making their decision even harder, Thompson had just come off the best season of his career with Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards in his trophy case, while Clark’s performance was declining.

Clark’s agent, Jeff Moorad, commented in The Sporting News immediately after the 1993 season, “We’re ready to sign today. The Giants are the only organization Will has known. He would like nothing better than to retire in a Giants uniform.”44 Clark echoed the same sentiments in mid-October, “I think people have the idea I’m gone, that I’m out of here as a free agent, and that’s just not the case. I’ve watched guys like George Brett and Mike Schmidt spend their entire career with one team, and I’m a firm believer in that.”45

Clark formally filed for free agency, even though Moorad indicated they were still hopeful of being able to work out a deal with the Giants. USA Today Baseball Weekly reported the Orioles, Mets, and White Sox were expected to pursue Clark, and the Rangers and Rockies would also likely enter the chase if they couldn’t re-sign their incumbent first basemen, Rafael Palmeiro and Andres Galarraga.46

When Rafael Palmeiro dismissed initial discussions with the Rangers about a five-year $26 million deal and decided to enter the free agent market, the Rangers initiated deliberations with Clark, who was disappointed with the Giants’ offer of a three-year deal at less than $15 million. Palmeiro was peeved at the Rangers for talking to his former Mississippi State teammate, since he felt like he was the better player.

Unable to reach a long-term deal with the Giants, Clark ultimately signed a five-year contract with the Rangers worth $30 million. Palmeiro was stunned upon learning Clark had inked the contract, since he had been essentially looking for the same deal with the Rangers. He was bitter at the Rangers for never putting an official offer on the table. Furthermore, in his frustration, he had harsh words for Clark, whom he believed had gone to the Rangers behind his back.47

Clark responded, “When free agency comes along, you can’t always stay with the same team. I had to come to grips with that in San Francisco. That’s the one thing I wanted. I’d have loved to be with the Giants all my days. But it didn’t come down to that. The Rangers have made me a part of their family. I’m honored.”48

Palmeiro, who signed with Baltimore, would harbor ill feelings for Clark that lasted until 2015. It was during the filming of a documentary by ESPN Films (SEC Storied – Thunder and Lightning) featuring the two former teammates) that they finally made up and started speaking to each other again.

Rangers manager Kevin Kennedy welcomed Clark’s leadership in the clubhouse in 1994. Clark made a good impression with the team from the get-go. He started out with a hot bat in April and was having a positive effect on the other players in the lineup. Rangers hitting coach Willie Upshaw observed, “Clark elevated the Rangers’ offense by example, showing his teammates exactly what situational hitting is all about. The other guys have seen him stay within himself game in and game out.”49

At the All-Star break, Clark was putting up his best season since 1989 (.353/.449/.571, 13 HR and 78 RBIs) and was rewarded with his sixth All-Star Game selection. He appeared to be on his way to that “career year.” Then, bothered by a sore right knee, Clark’s performance took a sharp decline after the break. He was no longer getting on base at the same rate as before, and his power was practically non-existent.

Then an even worse thing happened. On August 12, major-league baseball owners locked out the players over their disapproval of a salary cap the owners wanted to institute as part of a new revenue-sharing plan. Even though the Rangers had a losing record, they led their division at the time of the shutdown, which abruptly ended the regular season. Moreover, there would be no postseason playoffs and World Series.

The 1995 regular season didn’t start until April 26, following a federal judge’s issuance of an injunction against the owners from locking out the players. Clark fractured his left elbow in the third game of the season, but decided to play through the injury. He missed 21 games during the season and finished with a slash line of .302/.389/.480, 16 HR, and 92 RBIs.

Clark’s power numbers dropped significantly with the Rangers as he continued to struggle with injuries. He often played through his health problems, which earned him the respect of his manager and teammates. After two subpar years, he rebounded in 1998, hitting .304 with 23 HR and 102 RBIs, as the Rangers won the AL West Division for the second time in three years.

Despite that, Clark was released after the 1998 season (the Rangers signed free agent Rafael Palmeiro to replace him) and signed with the Baltimore Orioles. He missed half the 1999 season with injuries, and part of 2000 before he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in July 2000, to fill in for the disabled Mark McGwire.

During the last two months of the season for the Cardinals, the 36-year-old Clark hit like he had in his early days as a Giant, collecting 12 HR and 42 RBIs and posting a .345 batting average and .426 on-base percentage.

The Cardinals swept the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series, with Clark hitting a dramatic three-run home run off Tom Glavine in Game Two. They advanced to play the New York Mets in the League Championship Series, but were defeated in five games. Clark led the Cardinals with a .412 average while hitting another home run.

The Sporting News reported the Cardinals were interested in re-signing Clark for 2001 as an insurance policy at first base, but he would have to agree to less money and less playing time behind Mark McGwire who was expected to return as the starter at first base.50

However, in early November Clark announced that he was retiring after a 15-year career. He told reporters in St. Louis, “In every player’s career, sooner or later, you’re going to have to make a decision to move on. I can still hit, I can still play, still field my position. But also, at the same time, it’s the right time for me to exit.” He didn’t rule out the possibility of serving the St. Louis organization later in some capacity.51

Yet, it was a bit surprising when Clark retired immediately after the 2000 season. He had just come off one of the best two-month stints of his career, and at 36 it would seem he had a couple more seasons in him.

But it wasn’t about his ability to continue to play that led to his decision. He and his wife, the former Lisa Ann White, had two small children, Ella and William III (Trey), a two-year-old who had been diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder, a form of autism. Clark felt he needed to focus his attention on helping Lisa care for Trey. The time away from the family during spring training and the regular-season road trips prevented Clark from providing the kind of stability he and Lisa wanted for their son. Years later, Clark would be a volunteer coach for Trey’s baseball team at a private high school near Baton Rouge.52

Clark served as an advisor to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ coaching staff in spring training 2004-2008 and as a community ambassador for the San Francisco Giants from 2009 to 2015.

Will Clark might “lead the league” in number and variety of post-career honors he’s accumulated.  He has been inducted into the Diamond Club of New Orleans Hall of Fame (2001), Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (2003), the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame (2003), the New Orleans Professional Hall of Fame (2007), and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame (2012).

In Mississippi, where he was an All-American at Mississippi State University, he holds a place of honor in the Mississippi State University Hall of Fame (2003) and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (2008).

He was inducted into the inaugural class of the College Baseball Hall of Fame (2006) and was named to the College World Series Legends Team (2010) in a poll of college baseball writers and Division I coaches.

The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in California inducted him in 2007. The San Francisco Giants honored Clark with a bronze plaque on their Wall of Fame in the inaugural class in 2008. His jersey number 22 was retired by the Giants in 2022, one of only 13 in franchise history at the time of this writing.53

However, the ultimate honor for a major-league player is election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which has eluded Clark despite his brilliant career. In his first year of eligibility in 2006, he received only 4.4% of the votes of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Since a minimum of 5% is required in the first year, he fell off the voting ballot for future consideration.

Then he got a second chance in 2017 when he was one of ten former players (whose primary contributions occurred after 1988) nominated for Hall of Fame induction. In order to be enshrined, nominees must receive 75 percent of the votes by a panel of 16 experts, known as Today’s Game Era Committee. At the time of his nomination, Clark said, “That would be a big-time feather in the cap if that happens. But if it doesn’t, that’s OK. Because I didn’t play this sport to get into the Hall of Fame. I played this sport because of the challenge and competition.”54

Clark’s career slash line of .303/.384/.497 compares favorably with many current Hall inductees. His 28.2 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in his prime years (1987-1991) rank him first among all Major League first basemen and sixth behind Barry Bonds, Wade Boggs, Cal Ripken Jr., Rickey Henderson, and Ozzie Smith. Clark led all big-leaguers in those five years with a 153 OPS+ (On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage adjusted for ballpark factors). He was named to the MLB All-Star team in five of his first seven seasons. In four of the seasons between 1987 and 1991, he was among the top five vote-getters for National League MVP.

Clark concluded his career with 284 HR and 1,205 RBIs in 1,976 major-league games. He scored 1,186 runs and collected 2,176 hits. One wonders what Clark’s career numbers would have been had he not suffered many injuries and played a few more seasons.

But Clark didn’t receive the required number of votes for election by the Committee, probably because his years of peak performance were too short when compared to other nominees. Had he performed at a similar level for another five seasons or so, he could very well have his bronze plaque in Cooperstown.

Nevertheless, Will “The Thrill” remains an icon of the game from his era. His intensity, his menacing scowl, and his sweet swing have forever earned him a place in the hearts of baseball fans who saw him play. And specifically in his hometown of New Orleans, Clark shares the highest pedestal with the city’s other diamond legends, Mel Ott and Rusty Staub.

Last revised: August 28, 2024

Acknowledgements

This biography was reviewed by Norman Macht and fact-checked by Alan Cohen. It is a condensed version of the author’s nine-part series “Will Clark: Oh, What a Thrill!” on CrescentCitySports.com in March and April 2018.

Sources

In addition to the notes below, the author consulted the following sources.

1993 San Francisco Giants Information Guide: 69-72.

1998 Texas Rangers Media Guide: 39-44.

2000 Baltimore Orioles Information & Record Book: 65-69.

Alexander, Jim, “Reflections: U. S. may have proven best in longer series,” Baseball America, September 1, 1984: 29.

Atkinson, Paul. “N.O.’s Will Clark is trying to move into Ott’s league,” Times-Picayune, July 29, 1990: 1F1.

Baseball-Reference.com.

Firmite, Ron. “The Bay Area Bombers,” Sports Illustrated, April 4, 1988: 44-49.

Lagarde, Dave. “Clark following in Staub’s footsteps as career begins,” Times-Picayune, April 8, 1986: B2.

Peters, Nick. “Clark and Mitchell: Most Valuable Pair,” Giants Magazine (Vol 4, No. 1): 16-24.

Ratto, Ray. “The Thrill of It All,” SPORT, July 1990: 24-28.

Winkworth, Bruce. “Mississippi State’s Power Package,” Baseball America, February 12, 1985: 3.

Notes

1 Peter Finney, “All-Star Game rings home to Clark,” Times-Picayune, July 11, 1989: E1.

2 Finney.

3 “Deaths: William Nuschler Sr.,” Times Picayune, September 15, 2001: Metro Section, 1.

4 Peter Finney, “What can Clark do for an encore?” Times-Picayune, October 14, 1989: D1.

5 Frank Donze, “Baseball’s ‘Thrill’ born with will,” Times-Picayune, October 14, 1989: A1.

6 Jim Reeves, “Baby Boomers: They’re Young, Strong, and Filled With Springtime’s Promise,” The Sporting News, April 21, 1986: 10.

7 Rob Rains, “Superstar driven by a Will to win,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, May 20-26, 1992: 36.

8 Nick Cafardo, Jim Callis, Paul Hagen, John Hickey, Ken Leiker, John Perrotto, Ken Rosenthal, Mark Ruda, Bill Shaikin, John Sheu, and Bob Sherwin, “Players Discuss Olympics,” Baseball America, November 10, 1991: 3.

9 “Will Clark hits homer, double in Giants exhibition opener,” Times-Picayune, March 8, 1986: B6.

10 Reeves.

11 “Clark will start for Giants,” Times-Picayune, March 24, 1986: B5.

12 Dave Lagarde, “Clark homers in first time at bat for Giants,” Times-Picayune, April 9, 1986: C1.

13 “E.M. Swift, “Will Power,” Sports Illustrated, May 28, 1990: 74.

14 Stan Isles, “Giants’ Clark Will Not Make Comparisons,” The Sporting News, April 11, 1988: 6.

15 “E. M. Swift, “Will Power,” Sports Illustrated, May 28, 1990: 76.

16 Peter Barrouquere, “Will Clark earning Giants’ respect,” Times-Picayune, March 20, 1986: B1.

17 Nick Peters, “’Frisco’s Baby Boomers,” The Sporting News, September 27, 1987: 12.

18 “Giants win, but Clark injured,” Times-Picayune, June 4, 1986: C4.

19 Peter Barrouquere, “Clark enjoying banner season for Giants,” Times-Picayune, August 14, 1987: D1.

20 Glenn Dickey, “It’s Not Easy Being God,” SPORT, April 1988, 63.

21 Tom Weir, “For Clark, the hit was a sure thing,” USA Today, October 10, 1989.

22 Glenn Dickey, “It’s Not Easy Being God,” SPORT, April 1988: 63.

23 Nick Peters, “S. F. Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News 1988 Baseball Special: 30.

24 Tim Cowlishaw, “Respect means walks, votes for Giants’ Clark,” Times-Picayune, July 12, 1988: E1.

25 Nick Peters, “’Frisco’s Baby Boomers,” The Sporting News, September 27, 1987: 12.

26 Glenn Dickey, “It’s Not Easy Being God,” SPORT, April 1988: 63.

27 Nick Peters, “Clark Stars in an Early Hit Show,” The Sporting News, May 8, 1989: 18.

28 Nick Peters, “Will Clark: More Than a Slugger,” The Sporting News, June 5, 1989: 17.

29  “Will Clark: More Than a Slugger.”

30 Jerome Holtzman, “Giant Effort Clubs Cubs,” Chicago Tribune, October 5, 1989: Section 4, Page 1.

31 Paul Attner, “Series Diminishes In Wake of Quake,” The Sporting News, October 30, 1989: 11.

32 Peter Barrouquere, “Giants give Clark $15 million contract,” Times-Picayune, January 23, 1990: E1.

33 Nick Peters, “Bottom Line on Clark Contract: $25,000 a Hit!” The Sporting News, February 25, 1990: 32.

34 Art Spander, “Phi Betamax Kappa of Hitting Can’t Pass Test,” The Sporting News, September 17, 1990: 59.

35 “Clark: Foot Injury a Problem All Season,” The Sporting News, October 1, 1990: 18.

36 Peter Barrouquere, “Clark leaves his pain behind,” Times-Picayune, March 13, 1991: D1.

37 Mark Newman, “Baseball ’91: Will Clark,” The Sporting News, April 1, 1991, S-25.

38 Mark Newman, “San Francisco Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News, August 26, 1991: 19.

39 Rob Rains, “Superstar driven by a Will to win,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, May 20-26, 1992: 36.

40 Susan Fornoff, “New and Improved,” The Sporting News, June 28, 1993: 9.

41 Scott Ostler, “S. F. big enough for Clark, Bonds,” Times-Picayune, January 24, 1992: C3.

42 “Clark is set to play with Bonds,” Times-Picayune, February 24, 1993: C3.

43 Larry Stone, “San Francisco Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News, June 7, 1993: 26.

44 Larry Stone, “San Francisco Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1993: 26.

45 Larry Stone, “San Francisco Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News, October 25, 1993: 23.

46 Larry Stone, “San Francisco Giants Team Review,” The Sporting News, November 1, 1993: 24.

47 “Clark sidesteps Palmeiro’s verbal jab,” Clarion-Ledger, November 24, 1993: 1C.

48 Mel Antonen, “Clark sidesteps blasts from former teammate,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, November 24, 1993: 3C.

49 T. R. Sullivan, “Texas Rangers Team Review,” The Sporting News, May 23, 1994: 32.

50 Rick Hummel, “St. Louis Cardinals Team Review,” The Sporting News, November 6, 2000: 29.

51 Jimmy Smith, “Clark suddenly calls it quits after 15 years,” Times-Picayune, November 3, 2000: 1 (Sports Section).

52 Lloyd Courtney, “Where are they now: Will Clark focuses on family,” Shreveport Times, May 17, 2015. https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/2015/05/17/now-will-clark-focuses-family/27503883/. Retrieved August 22, 2018.

53 Evan Webeck, “Emotional Will Clark Has No. 22 Retired By SF Giants: ‘This Is My Hall Of Fame,’” East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, California), July 30, 2022. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/07/30/emotional-will-clark-has-no-22-retired-by-sf-giants-this-is-my-hall-of-fame/. Accessed July 2, 2024.

54 Chris Haft, “Will in-depth numbers support Clark’s cause?” MLB News, November 29, 2016. https://www.mlb.com/news/will-clark-considered-in-hall-of-fame-vote/c-209864780. Retrieved August 22, 2018.