The most improbable and quite possibly the least appreciated success story has been Anderson’s tenure as coach of the Gophers since 1982. While the winning Gopher baseball tradition was started by Siebert and to some extent McCormick (the first two Minnesota Big Ten titles in baseball were won under McCormick in 1933 and 1935), Anderson deserves accolades for continuing the excellence in Gopher baseball for another generation in the face of increased obstacles and competition.

John Robert Anderson was born on May 16, 1955, in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range, an area known more for its hockey tradition and as the boyhood home of Hall-of-Fame basketball star Kevin McHale and troubadour Bob Dylan, than it is for any baseball tradition. Anderson grew up in a typical Iron Range family in the nearby communities of Nashwauk and Keewatin with his parents, LeRoy Arthur and Mary Ann (Devich) Anderson; an older brother, Michael; and two sisters, Barbara and Cynthia. His father worked for the M. A. Hanna Mining Company for 35 years, and his mother ran the household. Like many American boys John dreamed of a career in major-league baseball.

As a youngster, Anderson may not have known how long his odds were on making it to the major leagues. Outside of several individuals born in Duluth and the surrounding area, Roger Maris, born in Hibbing, is the only major-league baseball player born in northeast Minnesota.¹ The Maras family (Roger did not change the spelling of his last name until after he was in professional baseball) moved to North Dakota when Roger was young, and that state proudly claims the 1960 and 1961 American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) as its native son. Because of the late and often cold and snowy springs and short summers, few major-league scouts venture to northeast Minnesota, and few players have a chance to develop. A player might have a better chance of a major-league career if he was born in Guam than in northeastern Minnesota.  

Nonetheless, growing up on the Iron Range in the 1950s and 1960s was much like anywhere else in the United States in that sports were a big part of a boy’s life. Sports were played for the fun of it at first and for school and community pride as one grew older. Being on the high-school varsity was a realistic and obtainable goal that most could achieve. While many did go on to college, that was years in the future, and few gave any thought of a professional career in any sport. That meant sports were played in season: football in the fall, basketball or hockey in the winter, and baseball in the spring. 

John Anderson was a typical small-town athlete who played football, basketball, and baseball in high school and played a little hockey while growing up. In the fall of 1972, during Anderson’s senior year, the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans football team won four games, lost two, and tied one in the Arrowhead Conference. The highlights of the season were a 68-19 pasting of Buhl and shutout wins over Deer River and Babbitt. The lowlight was a 42-0 thrashing by the Mountain Iron Red Raiders, the eventual Class B state champions. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Anderson was named to the All-Arrowhead Conference team as a defensive lineman.

Nashwauk-Keewatin’s 1972-1973 basketball season was fairly successful as the Spartans went 13-6 in the regular season. While not a starter, Anderson saw considerable playing time. He scored eight points in a District 28 tournament game against Hill City and five points a few days later in a win against Deer River. Anderson’s season was interrupted when he was suspended from the basketball team for a time for being spotted at the neighborhood ice rink. A rink rat at heart, Anderson loved hockey more than any other sport at the time and longed to play. Unfortunately, Nashwauk-Keewatin was too small a school to field a hockey team that could compete in the tough Iron Range Conference or against other Region Seven foes, and he had to concentrate on basketball in the winter months. Nashwauk-Keewatin’s season ended with a 15-7 won-lost record when Coach Bob McDonald’s undefeated (and eventual Class A state champions) Chisholm Bluestreaks clobbered them 58-34 in the District 28 title game. Anderson contributed three points in the loss. 

The highlight of Anderson’s high-school sports career came in the spring of his senior year when he threw a no-hitter against Greenway High School of Coleraine at Nashwauk on May 3, 1973. A home run by Dave Bevacqua was the only run in a 1-0 win for the Spartans. But the story of the day was Anderson’s pitching. Two runners reached base for Greenway on a walk and a hit batter, and Anderson struck out four batters in the seven-inning contest. Anderson recalled that the greatest satisfaction from his no-hitter was the bragging rights he gained that day. Many of his summer baseball friends and teammates wore the Greenway uniform. Nashwauk-Keewatin carried a 4-3 district record into the District 28 tournament but could not advance beyond the first round, falling to Deer River 5-2. Anderson gave up seven hits in the loss. Anderson’s senior class, numbering 91 students, had its commencement exercises soon after.

Anderson began his college career in the autumn of 1973 at nearby Hibbing State Junior College (now Hibbing Community College). He played football for the Cardinals that fall and, despite not having played any high-school hockey, made the hockey team as a defenseman. Much like a center in football, contributions from a defenseman in hockey can often be overlooked. Anderson was never mentioned in game accounts until the Cardinals had won the Minnesota State Junior College hockey tournament and advanced to the national tournament. Only then did Anderson appear in the team photograph and receive mention in an article on the team on the eve of the national tournament held in mid-March 1974 in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Hibbing advanced to the final game but lost to a junior college from Canton, New York.

In the spring Anderson had no trouble making the baseball team, the first baseball team in the 75-year history of the school. The Cardinals won only a few games in their 18-game schedule, with Anderson accounting for a couple of the wins and several of the losses in a very unspectacular season.² Nonetheless, Anderson must have been encouraged enough to give Dick Siebert a call at the University of Minnesota. While receiving only an offer of a tryout with scores of others for the Gophers varsity, Anderson decided to transfer to the University of Minnesota for his sophomore year. Anderson realized then and there he had no future in hockey and decided to follow his true love of baseball and join several high-school teammates at Minnesota. Had Anderson picked any other school in the Upper Midwest, he would have had a much better chance to make the baseball team. His future and the history of the University of Minnesota baseball program would undoubtedly have been different.

Anderson’s hopes of making the Gophers’ varsity during tryouts in the fall of 1974 ended rather quickly. He was not among those asked back to continue workouts throughout the winter. The 1974 team had finished 25-13 and 11-5 in the Big Ten (tied for first), and Siebert felt his pitching staff was in fine shape with Ken Herbst, Steve Comer, Perry Bauer, Tom Wolcyn, and Dan Morgan slated for heavy workloads. Siebert said, “We had some pretty good arms and just didn’t have room for him. But you could see he wanted to pitch very badly.” Anderson didn’t give up his dream easily and immediately went to ask Siebert if there was any hope of another chance next year. He said he would do anything to be involved with Gophers baseball. Siebert’s answer was to offer Anderson a job as student manager, the lowest rung on the team totem pole. Anderson would have to become the team’s “gofer” if he was to retain any chance of ever becoming a Golden Gopher. Siebert explained that Anderson would have a chance to work out regularly under supervision and coaching, and that was his only chance to improve enough to make the team in future years. 

Anderson quickly accepted and was the first to arrive for the 2 p.m. practices and the last to leave after 6 p.m. Anderson became a batting-practice pitcher, batting-practice catcher, fungo hitter, and traveling secretary. On road trips he checked players on and off the team bus to make sure no one was left behind, left wakeup calls, distributed meal money, handled the equipment, and coached first base. “He’s been invaluable to us,” Siebert said in appraising Anderson’s performance. “His enthusiasm is tremendous and he’s learning a lot of baseball. And I’ve got complete confidence in him when he’s coaching first base.”

Anderson’s enthusiasm may have gone a bit too far during the Gophers’ road trip to Texas in the spring of 1975. While coaching first base, with a wad of tobacco in his mouth, he clapped loudly and shouted encouragement to the Minnesota batters. On several occasions Anderson stared at the opposing pitcher and shouted various baseball clichés as “Stick it in his ear,” “Knock the pitcher’s kneecap off,” and “You’re brutal, bush, you’re brutal.” George Thomas, the Gophers’ assistant coach, had to take Anderson aside and tell him to tone it down a little. Anderson replied, “That’s the way we always did it in Keewatin. We’d try and bother the other pitcher, do anything we could to distract him.” 

As for pitching, Anderson still had hopes. Quoted in a Minnesota Daily article by Charley Walters, Anderson said, “I think the thing I need most is a better motion. I have a tendency to throw too much with my arm and not enough with my body. A better motion will improve my fastball, and if that gets a little quicker, I know I’ll be able to pitch here. I just know I will.” Lindsay Hoyer, a catcher and Gophers co-captain agreed, saying, “He’s big and strong and his ball moves well. And most important, he throws strikes. We’re going to be losing a lot of players this year through graduation, and I have to consider John a prospect. He works too hard not to be.”

Unfortunately, Anderson never progressed much further as a pitcher. Minor arm and back injuries and intense competition kept his pitching career from advancing. He got into one game during the spring trip in 1975 and pitched one mop-up inning, giving up a few hits and a run. He remained involved with the 1976 and 1977 teams as their student manager. The 1976 team recorded a 38-11 record and advanced to the Rocky Mountain Regional at Tempe, Arizona, before being knocked out by Arizona State. The 1977 team dedicated itself to working as a team, not for individual statistics, and did a bit better, recording a 39-12 record. Finishing first in the Big Ten, the Gophers hosted the Mideast Regional and beat Florida and Central Michigan to advance to the College World Series in Omaha. Led by All-American shortstop Paul Molitor and second team All-American pitcher Dan Morgan, the Gophers jumped from number 15 to number 2 in the final college baseball poll on the eve of the College World Series. The high hopes of a fourth College World Series title for Dick Siebert (the others were in 1956, 1960, and 1964) were dashed when the Gophers fell to the pesky Diablos of California State, Los Angeles, beat Baylor by a run, and lost to Arizona State to finish sixth in the eight-team field.

Prior to the College World Series the team voted for its Most Valuable Player (MVP). Anderson recalls that the vote was taken on the bus on the way back from Iowa after the last game of the Big Ten schedule. Siebert had Anderson pass out and collect the ballots, and Anderson went back to his seat, thinking nothing of it, and rejoined his card game. A few moments later a flabbergasted Dick Siebert bellowed, “You jokers just voted the student manager as your MVP. Quit joking around and vote again.” Stuart Broomer, in his biography on Paul Molitor, claims the first vote was 22 to 1 with one vote for Molitor cast by John Anderson. Someone must have convinced the modest Anderson that since no one was going to change his vote, he might as well vote for himself to make it unanimous on the second ballot. Molitor explained the vote for Anderson to Broomer. “John Anderson embodied what we had in mind that season. He did everything except play. He was a groundskeeper, equipment man, assistant coach, and even a confidante for many of the players. He was very exceptional, so we decided he should get the award.” Anderson remains to this day as the only non-athlete to win a team’s Most Valuable Player Award in any sport at the University of Minnesota and quite possibly at any National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I school.

Of course, Anderson was as amazed as anyone to receive the MVP award. Anderson recalled that Siebert went in to athletic director Paul Giel to see if the MVP vote was legitimate and had Giel say, “Of course, the team can vote for anyone they like.” Anderson remembers a few days later, in the week of practice between the end of the Big Ten season and the start of NCAA regional play, that Siebert and sportswriter Jimmy Byrne of the Minneapolis Star got into a heated exchange about the MVP vote in the dugout. Anderson, who was standing nearby, was relieved to hear his coach defending the vote but nonetheless sheepishly slinked away.

Anderson graduated in the spring of 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and had every intention of landing a high-school teaching and coaching job. That is, until Anderson received a phone call from Siebert that summer, offering him a job. It was an unpaid job as a graduate assistant coach. Anderson quickly accepted, moved back to the Twin Cities, and survived on about on about $5,000 that year teaching a few classes and working temporary jobs. “My parents thought I was crazy,” Anderson recalled in an interview with Chris Coughlan-Smith in 1999. Anderson had secured a good-paying job with a Mesabi Range mining company, and Anderson’s father, an electrical engineer for the Hanna Mining Company, couldn’t understand his son giving that job up for an uncertain future. After Siebert died in December 1978, George Thomas became the head coach, and John Anderson became one of his part-time assistant coaches. Thomas had a successful three-year run as the Gophers’ baseball coach (95-40 in the 1979/1980/1981 seasons) but decided in 1981 that he would rather go back into the business world than remain as a part-time Gopher baseball coach.

Many expected Gopher athletic director Paul Giel to conduct a high-profile national search and hire a big-name baseball coach. Giel astonished many faithful Gophers fans when he named the 26-year-old Anderson the new Minnesota baseball coach in the summer of 1981. With little college and no professional playing experience and barely older than his players, Anderson was considered an extremely risky choice by many to carry on the Minnesota baseball tradition. Anderson had the backing of George Thomas, though, who said, “I saw in John an ability to get along with players. He was good at the public relations end of it [coaching] and the practice part of it. One time, I just said to myself, ‘Hey, this fella keeps getting better every year.’”

Anderson was well prepared to become a college coach. As he relates in the 1989 Gophers Baseball Media Guide when talking about Siebert, “Aside from my father, there is no other individual who played a more significant role in helping me develop and become a contributing individual as well as learn how to coach the game of baseball. . . . His [Siebert’s] amazing attention to detail, the little things that only those deeply involved in the game recognize, gave me an early indication of what the job entails. You cannot for one moment allow yourself or your players to be distracted or for that matter not be thinking one, two, or three innings ahead.”

Anderson remembered during Siebert’s last year that he wasn’t feeling well one day and stayed home during a home game. He instructed Anderson to keep the detailed scorebook and stop by with it at the Siebert home after the game. Compiling this scorebook while the game was going on was something Siebert had learned to do by watching Connie Mack during his years with the Philadelphia Athletics and helped him immensely in setting the defense and determining offensive moves. A petrified Anderson, hoping Siebert wouldn’t find fault with his scorekeeping, delivered the book to Siebert, who scanned the scorebook for a few moments, then looked up and said, “Fine.” A relieved Anderson knew he had passed his first test. Anderson maintains a similar scorebook to this day, something few college coaches do. Anderson says that Jerry Kindall, the now-retired coach of the University of Arizona Wildcats and a Siebert player and protégé, is the only other coach he knows who maintains a scorebook himself during a game.

Siebert also was a fabulous fungo hitter, and, while never becoming as an adept a fungo hitter as Siebert, Anderson had to take over these duties as Siebert’s health declined. Anderson noticed how efficiently practice was conducted, and infield and outfield routines today are exactly the same as in the Siebert era. A number of times in Siebert’s final year he had Anderson sit next to him in the dugout and tell him what happened on the field. Diabetes by that time had affected Siebert’s vision so severely that he couldn’t follow the ball. Possibly Siebert knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer and wanted to impart as much baseball knowledge to Anderson as he could.

Despite Anderson’s preparation, his first year as coach in 1982 was a challenge. Anderson admitted in a 2008 interview with Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Michael Rand, “I was scared to death. I questioned whether I was cut out for it. I was haunted a little by the tradition and the history. I didn’t want to be responsible for screwing it up.” Herb Isakson, an assistant coach who also served under Siebert and Thomas, recalled in an interview with Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Nolan Zavoral, “I remember John’s first year. We had a veteran team, and one of them pulled a fire alarm, and there were some curfew violations, and they seemed out of control. We were on a bus trip in Texas, going into Houston. I vividly recall how John got up in the front of his bus and told them . . . not in a raised voice or anything . . . how because of his youth or his being a first-year coach, he didn’t want to give them the idea he would be pushed around.”

The 1982 team, featuring the Steinbach brothers from New Ulm, Tom, Terry, and Tim, and future major-league catcher Greg Olson, started the year with a 3-6-1 record in its spring Texas trip. The Gophers righted themselves with their usual slew of non-conference wins but struggled a bit in the Big Ten, losing six of eight games to Illinois and Iowa. Duane Banks, the Iowa Hawkeyes coach, crossed paths with Anderson after a doubleheader win by Iowa and said, “I’m going to do what Dick Siebert did for me when I was a young coach. I’m going to put my arm around you and tell you everything is going to be fine and that you’re going to be a good coach.” Banks had no idea at the time how right he was. The next weekend the Gophers won three of four at Wisconsin to finish the Big Ten season at 8-8 and barely qualify for the Big Ten postseason tournament at Champaign, Illinois. The Gophers beat Illinois twice on May 22 and Ohio State twice on May 23 to win the Big Ten title. At the Midwest Regional at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the Gophers beat Oral Roberts University but lost to Oklahoma State and Middle Tennessee State and were eliminated from further NCAA postseason play. Anderson was honored as Big Ten Coach of the Year in his first season as head baseball coach at Minnesota.

But there are frustrations being a college coach. Scholarship and recruiting limitations, constant turnover of players with some leaving early for the professional ranks, and an uneven playing field that favors southern and western schools are just some of the hurdles Anderson has had to overcome. Anderson has countered by stressing the positives of a college education, getting the baseball alumni involved with an annual alumni-varsity game at the Metrodome, reorganizing the Dugout Club for loyal supporters, and establishing a tournament at the Metrodome in early March in which some of the top college teams in the country have competed.

One advantage Anderson has—and he has not been slow to use it—is the value of a college education. In a 1987 interview with Blaise Schweitzer in Minnesota, the University of Minnesota alumni magazine, Anderson said, “There were 20 guys drafted in the Big Ten last year. If one of the guys makes it to the big leagues and plays more than three years, he’ll beat all the percentages and all the odds.” He continued, “We should all have dreams, we should all have goals—but I think you have to sit down and look at reality also.” Anderson tells his players that a college degree is something they can use to find a job if a professional baseball career doesn’t pan out and warns his juniors about the large signing bonuses. Anderson stresses “the extra money will disappear quickly, but a college degree will not.” Anderson realizes that most of his players will never play an inning of baseball after college, and his major job is to prepare his young men for the rest of their lives.

Anderson, in an 1993 interview with Brian Osberg for Minnesota, said, “When you’re recruiting, you look for people who want to come to the ‘U’ and graduate and not just be eligible to play. I’ve been head coach for 12 years and I’ve found that you win with guys who want to be here, want to be disciplined and go to class. You need the same habits on the field as you do in the classroom.” Anderson says recruiting is the most challenging aspect of being a college-baseball coach and that one had better enjoy it if he wants to remain in the game. College baseball teams are allowed only 11.7 scholarships (as opposed to 85 for football; even women’s softball is allowed 13 scholarships), and determining who gets a full scholarship and who gets a partial scholarship or none at all is frustrating. He has to assign values to his players, and filling out his 35-man roster can be a difficult juggling act. Senior scholarship athletes leave, but often juniors are drafted by the major leagues, and he can’t give their scholarships (or portions of their scholarship) to incoming or current players until after that player has signed. Anderson says recruiting is the most important aspect of his job and the one on which he spends the most time. With instructional camps and tournaments held almost year-round, recruiting is a national activity engaged in by every Division I program in the country. The days when Dick Siebert could casually call up a Paul Molitor and say “You’re coming, right?” are long gone.

Anderson discussed his coaching philosophy with Schweitzer. Anderson believes the role of the coach is to take the pressure off the players, make the game fun, and create a relaxed atmosphere in which the players can succeed. Anderson believes in the quiet, behind-the-scenes forms of motivation. Baseball is a game of failure, and how players react to failure (one hopes only temporary failure) is critical. Yelling at players for messing up makes the entire team tense and players begin to see the game more as a job than a game. Anderson adds, “We’re trying to coach both from the neck up and from the neck down. I spend probably 70 percent of my time dealing with the mental makeup of the young men. The important thing in coaching is that you have to be able to identify what motivates a young man.”

Nolan Zavoral, in a 1988 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, wrote that while Anderson’s players never question his knowledge of the game, they nonetheless are sometimes amazed. Paul Weinberg tells how Anderson once tipped him off on what an Illinois pitcher was going to pitch, helping Weinberg to deliver a game-winning hit: “I’d heard he [Anderson] knew baseball, but I was surprised by how much he knew. I wondered how he got to know that much. I guess that proves you don’t have to play the game, as long as you’re around the right people.”

Anderson has used the Metrodome to strengthen the schedule for the Golden Gophers. Since 1985, the Gophers have hosted a three-day tournament in early March that has brought in some of the better college baseball programs in the country.³ Most years featured at least one team rated as one of the top 25 college teams in the country, with the 1991, 1993, and 1999 tournaments featuring the number-one rated team, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and Florida State, respectively. The strongest field probably was the 1990 tournament with number-two Wichita State, number-four Stanford, number-six Miami (Florida), and the Gophers crossing bats. Without the Metrodome, it is unlikely any of these schools would have ventured north to play the Gophers.

Another way the Gophers have tried to pass on the tradition of Gopher baseball was the pro-alumni game held in the Metrodome in February for 16 years from 1992 through 2007. The game brought back current professional ballplayers who had previously donned the maroon and gold to play the current varsity. Hall of Famers Dave Winfield and Paul Molitor as well as All-Stars Terry Steinbach, Dan Wilson, Denny Neagle, and many others have participated in this game, the proceeds of which went to the Dick Siebert Scholarship Endowment Fund. Anderson is quoted in the 2007 Gophers Baseball Media Guide saying, “I think this is probably the best thing we do all year, in terms of trying to pass the ‘tradition torch.’” Former Gophers star Robb Quinlan, in an article by Chris Couglan-Smith, said, “Over at Siebert Field you see the retired jersey numbers of Molitor and Winfield and you see all the guys come back for the pro-alumni game. You feel like you’re not just playing for yourself, but for all of those guys who’ve played here. They’re watching and cheering for us, and that’s a good feeling.” The 2007 game was the last game in the series, however, due to new NCAA regulations stating that the college baseball season cannot start until the last Friday in February. The pro-alumni game was held in early February before the professionals headed to spring training and the new regulation made continuation of the game impossible. For those keeping score, the alumni won five of the first seven games (one tie), but the current varsity stormed back to win seven of the final nine games to take the series 8-7 with one tie.

Another way to even the playing field for the Big Ten and other northeastern college conferences would be to extend the season a month or two into the summer. The NCAA has taken a baby step in declaring that no team can start playing games until late February, but the southern and western schools still hold a tremendous advantage in completing their allowed 56 games in 13 weeks (before any conference tournaments or NCAA play). Anderson said in the Coughlan-Smith interview, “If you had Michigan and Minnesota playing outside on a June afternoon, you couldn’t find enough seats. Baseball could be a revenue sport for us under the right kind of schedule.” As it is, the Big Ten schedule ends in mid-May, as soon as the weather starts getting nice, and the northern and eastern schools have a difficult time competing in NCAA play. Ohio State was the last northern or eastern team to win the NCAA title, in 1966, and college baseball has since become a regional sport favoring the southern and western schools.

Developing quality players in Minnesota and attracting them to the University of Minnesota has become increasingly difficult for John Anderson and his staff. NCAA regulations allow only four players from a college team on any one team in the summer baseball college leagues (such as the Minnesota/Wisconsin-based Northwoods League or the Cape Cod League in New England). This has made it much more difficult to oversee the development of players during the summer, and the days of a summer-league team of Gophers players playing together under Gophers coaches is a thing of the past. Until the early 1970s, freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity competition, and college teams fielded freshmen teams, which for all practical purposes served as junior-varsity teams. Junior-varsity teams continued for another eight to 10 years, but the expense of running these teams and gender-equity issues spelled the end of junior-varsity teams in the early 1980s. This meant that selecting a 35-man varsity became even tougher in that decisions would have to be made on a player without ever seeing him play against college competition.

Anderson realized after his first few years that he may have been more than a bit lucky, so he went in to talk with athletic director Paul Giel to discuss ways to ensure continued success for the baseball program. Anderson related in an interview with Chris Coughlan-Smith, “I told Paul Giel we weren’t going to be able to compete without more resources. I wasn’t interested in being the guy responsible for ruining the tradition of Gopher baseball.” Anderson had worked for Emery Air Freight for a number of years in the early 1980s as well as being a part-time Gophers head coach, and that situation could not continue if the Minnesota baseball program was going to flourish. Anderson was offered a national sales position with Emery Air Freight and had to make a decision about his future. As a first step, Giel found money to make Anderson the full-time coach, and Anderson was able to hire Rob Fornasiere of Normandale Community College as his first full-time assistant coach in September 1985. Fornasiere, who in 2008 completed his 23^rd year with the Gophers, concentrates on recruiting and scouting, individual and team defense, and coaching third base. Todd Oakes was hired as pitching coach for the 1999 season, succeeding Mike Dee, and has served 10 full years through 2008. Lee Swenson was hired before the 2000 season and concentrates on developing the Gopher catchers, coaching first base, and running the developmental camp. A stable coaching staff has certainly been one of the keys to the success of Gopher baseball.

Other frustrations of being a college coach are personal. John Anderson has not been immune. He accepted the Gophers’ head-coaching job over the phone 15 minutes before leaving on his honeymoon in the summer of 1981. While Anderson and Becky Gilmore tried to make their marriage work, it ended in divorce in 1988, after a two-year separation. In an interview with Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Nolan Zavoral in 1988, Anderson called the divorce “the most traumatic thing in my life,” adding, “The timing of the whole thing was wrong. I think she felt betrayed. To be a coach, well, it takes a tremendous amount of time, not 40 hours a week. During recruiting, you’re working 80, 90, sometimes 100 hours a week. How do you blame her for not enjoying it?” More than once Anderson considered quitting coaching and finding a job with saner work hours in order to save his marriage. But he realized soon enough that he loved coaching and that if he found another occupation, “I would have two problems, and one would be I’d be lying to myself.”

After several years of bachelorhood, Anderson married for the second time in 1993. John and Jan (Mitchell) Anderson have a daughter, Erin Elizabeth (born November 11, 1994), and make their home in Wayzata. 

Besides coaching at the University of Minnesota, John Anderson has had the honor of coaching national teams in international play. In the fall of 1989 he was named assistant coach for the U.S. senior national team that won the silver medal at the International Baseball Association President’s Cup tournament in Taiwan. In the summer of 1990 he was assistant coach on the United States team that traveled to Japan, Korea, and Cuba and participated in the Goodwill Games in Seattle and the World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1993 Anderson was the head coach of Team USA, which went 30-16 on a summer tour. That team also won the silver medal in the Intercontinental Cup in Parma, Italy, and went 8-1 in the world championships. Anderson, in an interview with Brian Osberg on the eve of the 1993 tournament, said, “I’m really excited about it. It will be a challenge in my coaching career. I remember the first time I put that USA uniform on. It sent a chill through my spine. Representing the whole country is special. I just hope the kids [on the team] will have the same feeling.”

In his free time, much like his mentor Dick Siebert, Anderson has worked for the advancement of baseball in Minnesota. He established and has overseen the Minnesota Baseball Instructional Schools for players aged nine to 18, held at the University of Minnesota during the summer. In the fall Anderson runs the Dick Siebert Fall League, a developmental league for high-school players. In 1990 Anderson was named president of the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Federation. In 2000, along with sports psychologist Rick Aberman, Anderson co-authored a book, Why Good Coaches Quit and How You Can Stay in the Game, published by University of Minnesota Press. The book evolved from Anderson’s own questions on how to become a more effective leader and coach and the desire to not write just another baseball book that would be quickly forgotten. The book goes beyond the X’s and O’s and centers on the mental aspect of sports coaching. The book is now in its second edition, and Anderson and Aberman give numerous speeches every year on topics covered in the book.

In January of 2008 Anderson was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Those writing letters of recommendation, showing how highly regarded Anderson is among his peers, were former Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan and Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor. The long-time (now retired) coach at St. Olaf College, Jim Dimick, nominated Anderson. At age 53 (in 2008), Anderson could amass several hundred more wins but doesn’t believe he wants to be coaching when he is 65. However, Anderson does want an on-campus baseball stadium, with a much-improved grandstand and parking, to be part of his legacy. With the possibility of the Minnesota Vikings football team getting a new stadium and the Metrodome being replaced, a new on-campus baseball stadium is critical if baseball is going to continue as a major sport at the University of Minnesota.

Anderson foresees the facility being a center of amateur baseball in the state, with room for indoor batting and pitching practice under a bubble, locker rooms and meeting rooms in one complex, 3,000 seats for the fans, and a new entrance. The actual playing field would be sunk seven feet and moved slightly to the south and east of the current field. Anderson commented on what he still wants to accomplish in the January 2008 Michael Rand interview, “I think is takes 20 years to really get a sense of who you are. It’s all about relationships and developing people. I feel like the last seven or eight years, I’ve been a lot more effective as a coach and leader. I’d like to spend the next 10 or so years trying to utilize that maybe do some things here we haven’t done.” 

In reflecting on his career in a 1999 interview with Chris Couglan-Smith, Anderson said, “I never anticipated anything like this when I came here for college. I thought I’d be teaching high school. It’s interesting how life takes its twists and turns. I’ve seen presidents and athletic directors come and go. It’s been quite a ride.” Indeed, it has been quite a ride for a man from Minnesota’s baseball boondocks who, through hard work and dedication, has become one of the nation’s premier college baseball coaches. His career is proof that it is not where you are from but what you learn along the way that is truly important.

Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

Research on Minnesota born major leaguers by Glenn Gostick reveals that William Cadreau, aka Chief Chouneau (Cloquet), Steve Foucault (Duluth), Spencer Harris (Duluth), Roger Maris (Hibbing), Ernie Nevers (Willow River), Bill Phyle (Duluth), Jerry Ujdur (Duluth), Rip Wade (Duluth) are the only individuals born in the northeastern part of the state. Several individuals were born in north-central or northern Minnesota, including Wes Westrum (Clearbrook), Kerry Taylor and Bryan Hickerson (Bemidji), Joe Bush (Brainerd), and Chief Bender (Crow Wing County).

Charley Walters, in his column in the Minnesota Daily, claims Anderson had a 4-1 won-loss record for a team that went 4-10. A quick check of the newspapers revealed at least three losses for Anderson (1-13 to Vermillion, 1-3 to Brainerd, and 4-10 to Vermillion) and one win (against Fergus Falls, 2-1, in the first game of a doubleheader in which Hibbing won the second game 9-4, in a game in which Anderson did not pitch).

The tournament in early March hosted by the Gophers in the Metrodome has had various names over the years depending on the major sponsor. For the first three years it was known as the Wheaties Tournament of Champions (1985-1987); it then became the Pillsbury Baseball Classic (1988-1990). It has also been known as the Oscar Mayer Baseball Classic (1991-1994), the Hormel Foods Baseball Classic (1995-2002), and the Dairy Queen Classic (2003-2008).

Augustoviz, Roman. “U Suffers through a Season to Forget,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 12, 2008. pages C1 and C8. Recap on the 2008 season, the only losing season in 27 years at Minnesota under Anderson’s tutelage.

Broomer, Stuart. Paul Molitor: Good Timing, Toronto: ECW Press, 1994. On page 19 is the quote from Molitor on Anderson’s MVP award in 1977. Similar quote in the Zavoral article.

Coughlan-Smith, Chris. “A Winning Proposition,” Minnesota: The Magazine of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, April-March 1999. volume 98, number 4, pp. 44-45. This article is a good overview of Anderson’s career to that point and a number of quotes from Anderson and Robb Quinlan were taken from this article.

http://www.gophersports.com, the official website for University of Minnesota sports. Contains a fairly good biography of Anderson and some quotes from him and about him and the Gopher baseball program.

Hibbing Daily Tribune, various issues from 1972 through 1974 were read for information on Anderson’s sports career at Nashwauk-Keewatin High School and Hibbing Community College.

Osberg, Brian. “The Man in the Middle,” Minnesota: The Magazine of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, May-June 1993. Volume 92. Number 5. page 53. Recruiting and Team USA quote found in this article.

Telephone interview with John Anderson on June 3, 2008. Recollections of his high school no-hitter; high school and Hibbing Community College sports career; the 1977 MVP voting, Siebert scorebook story; Siebert’s last year; recruiting pressures; and biographical information were some of the topics covered in this interview.

Rand, Michael. “No Time Like Present for Gophers’ Anderson,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 4, 2008. Information on Anderson’s election to the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame and the quote from Iowa coach Duane Banks is found in this article.

Schweitzer, Blaise. “Majors and the Minors,” Minnesota: The Magazine of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, May-June 1987. Volume 86. number 5. pp. 43-44. Information on Anderson’s attitude about players staying in college and getting a degree and his coaching philosophy is found in this article.

University of Minnesota Baseball Media Guides, 1982-2008, various issues. Anderson’s statistical record was gleaned from perusing these volumes.

Walters, Charley. “Coaches, Players Laud Baseball Team’s Student Manager,” Minnesota Daily, April 9, 1975. Most of the information on Anderson’s college career as student manager was found in this article.

Zavoral, Nolan. “Gophers’ Anderson is Carrying on Siebert Tradition,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 15, 1988. Anderson talks about his first marriage, his relationship with Dick Siebert, and his first year as head coach (1982) in this article.

Charles Albert Bender with the Philadelphia Athletics. (Library of Congress)

American Indian. Innovator. Renaissance man. Charles Albert “Chief” Bender lived a unique American life, fashioned a Hall of Fame career, and was an important member of modern baseball’s first dynasty. He silently struggled against racial prejudice, became a student of the game, and was a lifetime baseball man. His legacy, however, is less nuanced than all of that. Bender is known foremost for a rare ability to pitch under pressure. “If I had all the men I’ve ever handled, and they were in their prime, and there was one game I wanted to win above all others,” said Philadelphia Athletics icon Connie Mack, who managed fellow all-time pitching greats Lefty Grove, Herb Pennock, Eddie Plank, and Rube Waddell, “Albert would be my man.”1

For nearly the entire second half of the twentieth century Bender was the lone Minnesota representative in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. That he is no longer a household name in the North Star State is in part because he spent so little time in Minnesota and because some details about that time remain unclear. Bender’s birthday, for one, is not certain. His birth certificate, registered decades after the fact, says May 3, 1883. Other sources list May 5, 1883. Based on the federal Indian census and on Bender’s school records, the correct year, almost certainly, is 1884. Many sources list his birthplace as Brainerd but that is likely inaccurate. According to research on Bender’s early years conducted by researcher Robert Tholkes, within a year of Charley’s birth the family lived in an area close to Partridge Lake, 20 miles east of Brainerd. No town existed on the site at the time. So it is most accurate to say that Bender was born in Crow Wing County.

Not long after Charles’s birth, the Bender family moved to the White Earth Reservation in the northwest section of the state. Bender’s father, Albertus Bliss Bender (often referred to as William), was an early white settler in Minnesota, a homesteader-farmer of German-American descent. Charley’s mother, Mary Razor Bender, was believed a member of the Mississippi Band of the Ojibwe. Mary, whose Indian name was “Pay shaw de o quay,” gave birth to at least 11 children, perhaps as many as 14. Charley was the fourth child born and the third son. His troubled older brother, John Charles Bender, was an outfielder who bounced from team to team in the minor leagues.

At White Earth, the family lived in a log house on a small farm. The Benders had to be self-sufficient and they were not the only ones. As scholar Melissa Meyer chronicles in The White Earth Tragedy, during the early years of Charley’s childhood White Earth was destitute.2 Things were so meager that as a young boy Charley supposedly went to work, taking a job as a farmhand for a dollar a week. At the time reservation families such as the Benders often sent their kids to boarding schools. There were four on-reservation boarding schools, and Charley attended one of them for a short time, but at age 7 he was sent to the Educational Home, which was under the auspices of the Lincoln Institution, an off-reservation boarding school for American Indian children near Philadelphia.

Bender was at the Educational Home for five years before he went back to White Earth not long after he turned 12 in June of 1896. He had been out of touch with his family for those years and he returned to a situation that had not improved and possibly regressed. During his time away, too, the Bender family had continued to grow; Charley was then one of nine children in the modest Bender home. A few months after he returned to White Earth, according to a story Bender told The Sporting News as an adult, he and his older brother Frank ran away from home. The two went to another White Earth farm and got jobs in the fields. While there, a teacher from the Carlisle Indian School, a boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, later made famous by Jim Thorpe-led powerhouse football teams, came through and recruited Frank and Charley to Carlisle.

In many respects, Charley Bender’s life was shaped during five years at Carlisle, which was run by Richard Henry Pratt, a military man who strictly drove his pupils to assimilate into the dominant white culture. At Carlisle, Bender continued to develop his sharp mind—during his career, teammates, and sportswriters often attributed Bender’s success to his mental approach—and he met his first real baseball coach, legendary football maven Pop Warner. After becoming a rare Carlisle Indian School graduate in 1902, the right-handed pitcher signed with the semipro Harrisburg Athletic Club. While playing for that team in the summer of 1902—not long after he held his own in an exhibition loss to the National League’s Chicago Cubs—Bender was discovered by one of Connie Mack’s birddogs.

Bender joined the Philadelphia Athletics in 1903 and, as chronicled in Chief Bender’s Burden, had one of the great seasons in history for someone aged 19.3 After an impressive debut in which he pitched six innings in relief for a victory over Boston’s Cy Young, Bender earned his first complete-game shutout victory on April 27, defeating New York Highlanders pitcher and future Hall of Famer Clark Griffith. By the end of the 1903 season the rookie had 17 wins and a 3.07 earned-run average (ERA), which was about league average. His control was impressive from the start as he walked just 2.17 batters per nine innings.

Compared to his peers, Bender did not have an inordinate level of pitching stamina as he was plagued by poor health during several seasons. (Bender battled a number of physical ailments and, later in his career, drank heavily.) He never pitched more than 270 innings in any season, a feat regularly attained by top-tier starters of the Deadball Era. Near the end of the 1905 season, however, Bender showed he could labor long if given the chance. The Athletics needed to win two games against Washington to all but secure the pennant. Bender won the first game 8-0 and came on as a relief pitcher in the second game to win that one as well. It was an incredible one-day performance. Bender pitched 15 innings, won two games, and struck out 14 Senators. What’s more, he was the hitting hero. A right-handed hitter who posted a lifetime .212 batting average, he made five hits in six official at-bats, including two triples and a two-run double in the fourth inning of the second game that pushed Philadelphia ahead. On the day he drove in seven runs.

Bender’s poise in big games was most evident during the World Series, and he received his first such opportunity in 1905. Starting the second game against John McGraw’s New York Giants, he delivered a masterful, four-hit, 3-0 shutout in the Athletics’ only victory of the series. Following the 1905 season, and after studying New York’s Christy Mathewson up close, Bender worked to further develop his control. He threw a well-directed fastball and a sharp-breaking curve—a man named Bender has to have one—that was a precursor to the slider, a pitch he may have invented.4 He also threw a submarine fadeaway—a pitch that moved like the contemporary screwball, away from a left-handed hitter. “I use fast curves, pitched overhand and sidearm, fastballs, high and inside, and an underhand fadeaway pitch with the hand almost down to the level of the knees,” Bender told Baseball Magazine in 1911. “They are my most successful deliveries, though a twisting slow one mixed up with them helps at times.”5

Bender was exceptionally bright. His intelligence was recognized by teammates, opponents, and umpires, such as Billy Evans, who believed Bender was one of the smartest pitchers in the game. “He takes advantage of every weakness,” Evans said in his Atlanta Constitution column, “and once a player shows him a weak spot he is marked for life by the crafty Indian.”6 Bender possessed a keen ability to focus on the task at hand, attributes that won the admiration of legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice, who once called Bender one of “the greatest competitors I ever knew.” Rice and Bender often played golf together, and Rice sometimes quoted Bender in his syndicated column. “Tension is the greatest curse in sport,” said Bender, according to Rice. “I’ve never had any tension. You give the best you have—you win or lose. What’s the difference if you give all you’ve got to give?”7

During his first eight years in the major leagues, Bender continued to hone his craft. Though his win-loss record fluctuated, his ERA dropped every year, to a career-best 1.58 in 1910. That year he also won 20 games for the first time, notching 23 victories against only five defeats, which gave him the league’s best winning percentage (.821). Among his victories that season was a no-hitter, thrown May 12 against the Cleveland Indians. Bender was nearly perfect; he faced just 27 hitters as the lone man to reach, shortstop Terry Turner, was caught stealing after a walk. Bender won the opening game of the 1910 World Series, and the Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs in five games—Philadelphia’s first world championship.

The following year, Bender helped the A’s win a second title, as his 17-5 record again led the league in winning percentage (.773). Facing the New York Giants in the World Series, Bender pitched brilliantly, winning two of three starts, posting a 1.04 ERA, and striking out 20 batters in 26 innings. Philadelphia failed to win a third straight pennant in 1912 as injuries, illness, and a team suspension for alcohol use limited Bender to a 13-8 record in just 171 innings.8 But the following year the A’s were again the premier team, as Bender won 20 games and also led the league with 13 saves (retroactively calculated). In that year’s World Series—the A’s and Giants squared off one more time—Bender won two games and the Athletics captured their third world championship in four years.

Bender’s World Series career line was blemished in 1914, as the favored Philadelphia Athletics were swept by the so-called “Miracle” Boston Braves. Bender had put up a fine regular season record, winning 14 straight games during one stretch, finishing the year with a 17-3 mark and a league-leading .850 winning percentage. But, in his only appearance in the World Series, Bender started the opening game and surrendered six earned runs in 5⅓ innings. It was his last appearance in an A’s uniform.

The next year, Bender signed with the Federal League and was assigned to Baltimore. Pitching for the last-place Terrapins, he went 4-16 and was released by the team in September. After the 1915 season, Bender was picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies, where, pitching mostly in relief, he had a 7-7 record in 1916. In 1917, he showed flashes of his previous level of performance with an 8-2 mark and a 1.67 ERA but nonetheless was released by the Phillies at the end of the season. During the 1918 season Bender went to work in the Philadelphia shipyards to contribute to the war effort.

His life in baseball did not end, however. When the war was over, Bender began a successful career as a minor-league player and manager. He was offered opportunities to return to the big leagues but enjoyed managing so much—and probably earned as much money in the minors as he would have in the majors—that he declined. Bender managed Richmond of the Virginia League in 1919 and also dominated the league as a pitcher, winning 29 games against two defeats. Subsequently, he pitched and managed at New Haven in the Eastern League (1920-21); Reading (1922) and Baltimore (1923) in the International League; and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the Mid-Atlantic League in 1927. During that period he also spent several years as a baseball coach for the U.S. Naval Academy.

Bender pitched once more in the major leagues. In 1925, while employed as a coach for his friend, Chicago White Sox manager Eddie Collins, he worked a gimmicky frame in a game against the Boston Red Sox—the club he had beaten for his first major-league victory 22 years prior. Bender, 42 at the time, allowed two runs on a walk and a home run but did manage to retire the side.

During the 1930s, Bender managed the Eastern team of the independent House of David. He also managed Erie in the Continental League in 1932, Wilmington of the Inter-State League in 1940, Newport News of the Virginia League in 1941, and Savannah of the Southern Association in 1946. Thereafter he was associated with the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Athletics as a coach or scout. At 61 he began pitching batting practice to the Athletics and years later served as the A’s de facto pitching coach.

Over a 16-year major-league career, Bender won 212 games and posted a .625 winning percentage. He pitched to avoid the bats of American League hitters, and every time he did he stared into the face of racism. Though he often exhibited a calm, levelheaded demeanor, he was seldom portrayed in newspapers, cartoons, or words on the street without references—many of them demeaning, few of them subtle—to his race. Though proud of his American Indian heritage Bender resented the bigotry and the moniker he and nearly every other Indian ballplayer of the time received. “I do not want my name to be presented to the public as an Indian, but as a pitcher,” he told Sporting Life in 1905.9 The writers didn’t listen. Though his manager called him Albert, prevailing stereotypes rarely were absent from baseball coverage and bench jockeying. Bender didn’t publicly protest, but he signed his autograph as “Charles” or some derivative. Eventually, he was called “Chief” so often (and so often with affection) that he allowed the name to be etched into his tombstone. But the tacit racism never went away. Even decades after his retirement, Bender’s obituary in The Sporting News carried the headline, “Chief Bender Answers Call to Happy Hunting Grounds.”10

As noted in Chief Bender’s Burden, as a way to keep his mind occupied, Bender engaged in an inordinate number of sports and hobbies outside of baseball, and he was exceptional at many of them. He was often referred to as one of the top trap shooters (he shot live bird and clay pigeons) in the country. He loved to hunt and fish and was an outstanding golfer. Bender’s favorite hobbies were gardening, playing billiards, and painting oil landscapes. He also occasionally served as a consultant to people in the diamonds and textiles trades. He had a long post-major-league career in retail, selling, among other things, sporting goods and men’s clothing.

Bender’s life partner was Marie (Clement) Bender, whom he married in 1904. The couple’s marriage, which lasted nearly 50 years, did not produce any children. In 1953, Bender became the first Minnesota-born player enshrined in the Hall of Fame, and he remained the only one until Dave Winfield joined him in 2001. On May 22, 1954, the year following the vote, Bender died, a few weeks shy of his 71st birthday and a few weeks before his induction ceremony. He had previously suffered a heart attack and was receiving treatments for prostate cancer. Bender is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Roslyn, Pennsylvania.

A version of this biography appeared in SABR’s “Minnesotans in Baseball,” edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

Portions of this biography are drawn from the author’s book Chief Bender’s Burden (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008).

Research conducted by Robert Tholkes, written in an excellent article called “Chief Bender: The Early Years,” published in the 1983 edition of the Baseball Research Journal of the Society for American Baseball Research, was the solid foundation upon which I conducted further exploration about the rough details of Bender’s first years, his family, and life at White Earth. Beverly Hermes provided additional genealogical research assistance. The Charles Albert Bender file at the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bemidji, Minnesota, was useful. Facts about the Bender family were also found in the federal Indian census and the U.S. census.

Paulette Fairbanks Molin’s article, “Training the Hand, the Head, and the Heart: Indian Education at Hampton Institute,” published in the fall 1988 issue of Minnesota History, revealed facts about the Bender family.

Articles in a multiple-part series about Bender’s life published in The Sporting News, December 24-31, 1942, were used for information about Bender’s childhood, including the story of how Bender and his brother ran away.

Notes

1 The Connie Mack quote that if he could pick one pitcher for a big game, “Albert would be my man,” has been included in nearly every biographical profile ever written about Bender, including David Pietrusza, Matthew Silverman, and Michael Gershman, editors, Baseball: The Biographic Encyclopedia (Total Sports, 2000), 80. Mack made the statement often in his later years.

2 Melissa L. Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Anishinaabe Reservation, 1889-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994).

3 Tom Swift, Chief Bender’s Burden (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008).

4 There is no one agreed-upon inventor of the slider. One source among several sources consulted on this topic was The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches by Rob Neyer and Bill James (Fireside, 2004). E-mail correspondences with Bill James were also useful.

5 “Big Chief Bender,” Baseball, Vol. 7, August 1911: 64.

6 Billy Evans, “Chief Bender Discusses Pitchers and Pitching; Control greatest Asset,” Atlanta Constitution, December 28, 1913: 5. There is no one agreed-upon inventor of the slider. One source among several sources consulted on this topic was The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches by Rob Neyer and Bill James (Fireside, 2004). E-mail correspondences with Bill James were also useful.

7 Grantland Rice wrote about Bender in several columns during and after Bender’s major-league career, including a column that appeared in the September 2, 1915 Boston Daily Globe.

8 Regarding Bender’s alcohol use, Connie Mack discussed problems he had with Bender and a teammate in the March 6, 1950 New York Times. Bender’s drinking habits in the 1912 season were discussed most prominently in the Philadelphia North American’s coverage that year, from September 12 on. Other useful information was found in an article under the headline “The Fallen Stars of the 1912 Season” in the September 21, 1912 Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. One of Bender’s contracts, according to his salary history card at the National Baseball Hall of Fame (thanks to Gabriel Schechter for providing a copy), stated that he must “[refrain] from intoxicating liquors.”

9 Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, August 5, 1905: 25.

10 “Chief Bender Answers Call to Happy Hunting Grounds,” The Sporting News, June 2, 1954: 32.

With the Yankees, Johnny Blanchard played baseball on a national stage.  The Yankees drew coast-to-coast television coverage and were World Series participants in all but one of John’s years in New York.  Blanchard was the catcher in the historic seventh game of the 1960 World Series, a contest considered by many to have been the greatest game ever played. 

It was a single by Blanchard in the top of the 8^th inning that drove in left-fielder Yogi Berra and gave New York what appeared to be a commanding 7-4 lead.  Pittsburgh, however, roared back with five runs, topped by Hal Smith’s three-run homer off Jim Coates.  In the ninth, the Yankees tied the score, setting up the confrontation between New York reliever Ralph Terry and leadoff-hitter Bill Mazeroski.  As his pitcher warmed up, Blanchard noticed that Terry was having trouble adjusting to the height of the mound at Forbes Field.  Terry’s warm-up throws were coming in too high. 

“I knew Mazeroski from the minors,” Blanchard said.  “He liked to hit pitches high in the zone.” 

As Mazeroski stepped in, Blanchard signaled for a fastball and crouched low behind the plate.  Terry shook him off and threw a slider shoulder-high.  Mazeroski took the pitch for a ball. 

“I should have called for [pitching coach] Eddie Lopat to come in after that first pitch and talk to Terry.  Ralph’s slider was not working.” 

Instead, Blanchard called for another fastball, and, again, Terry shook him off.  John set another low target, one less than a foot off the ground.  Terry’s slider came in high, and Mazeroski crushed it.  The ball sailed over Berra’s head for a home run, and the Pirates were world champions. 

Blanchard still has nightmares about that game.  “You can’t imagine,” he says, “how many times I have gone through every pitch in my mind, and I still can’t explain to people how we lost not only that game but the other three in that series.”  Blanchard batted .455 in that World Series (his first). 

John Edwin Blanchard was born in Minneapolis on February 26, 1933.  He recalls that, at the age of six, he and his half-brother, Don, 10 years his senior, spent hours together playing catch.  “When John was an 11-year-old grade schooler,” wrote Dick Gordon in Baseball Digest, “he broke 16 windows one summer on homers that sailed out of his municipal playground and into an apartment house.” What did John and his friends do after smashing a window?  “We would all take off running.” 

John eventually enrolled at DeLaSalle High School, a private school on Nicollet Island, surrounded by the Mississippi River and across from downtown Minneapolis.  By this time, his love of sports had expanded to football and basketball.  During his time at DeLaSalle, the football team won a share of the state Catholic high school title. 

But parochial school was not for young John.  “Too much homework,” he says.  He asked his parents if he could transfer to his home school district and Central High School (Blanchard was born and grew up in a house at East 25^th Street and Fourth Avenue in south Minneapolis, an area that is now Interstate 35W).  They consented, and Blanchard went on to fame there, excelling in basketball, football, and, of course, baseball.  As a sophomore, he and his Central team advanced all the way to the Minnesota High School Basketball Tournament as the representative from the always-tough Region Five, which then encompassed Minneapolis and communities as far west as 100 miles from the Twin Cities.

In John’s sophomore year the basketball team lost in the state semi-finals to eventual state champion St. Paul Humboldt.  They weren’t as fortunate during John’s junior and senior seasons. 

Squads featuring Blanchard won Minneapolis city championships in basketball, football, and baseball.  He was an all-conference selection in all three sports. “Blanchard may have been the best three-sport athlete to ever come out of Minneapolis,” says high-school sports historian Dana X. Marshall. 

While at Central, Blanchard caught the attention of a local birddog for the Carroll, Iowa, semipro baseball team in the Iowa State League.  He agreed to spend the summer playing for the Carroll team for $265 a month.  Since Blanchard was an amateur, he was hired to work as a groundskeeper for the team to earn the salary.  When asked how much actual groundskeeping he performed, Blanchard says with a wink, “I’ll never tell.” 

When he wasn’t toiling as a groundskeeper in Iowa, Blanchard played baseball and was successful enough to attract the attention of big-league scouts.  He played outfield, third base, and shortstop and even pitched a few games.  Led by Blanchard, Carroll won the state championship. 

According to Jim Byrne of the Minneapolis Star, most scouts saw John as a third baseman or outfielder, but he had other options.  John’s prowess on the basketball court caught the attention of head coach Ozzie Cowles, who offered John what amounted to a full ride at the University of Minnesota. 

Major-league baseball scouts had been following young Blanchard since his days in Carroll.  The pressure increased during his senior year at Central. Although 12 of the 16 major-leagues teams scouted him, the Yankees, Tigers, and White Sox showed the most interest. New York scout Joe McDermott captured Johnny’s signature.  Earlier, McDermott had signed both Bill Skowron and Bob Cerv to Yankees contracts.  Although Byrne wrote that the Yankees had signed Blanchard for a lump sum of more than $50,000, Blanchard says, “It was $30,000 with a guarantee of $5,000 per year for the following five years.”  Nevertheless, Byrne called it the “highest bonus ever paid a Twin Cities baseball player.” 

The Yankees, showing considerable confidence in him, assigned Blanchard to their top farm club, the Kansas City Blues.  John wasn’t sure he was ready for Kansas City but said he’d give it his best effort. 

On July 4, 1951, Blanchard boarded a 10:00 a.m. Mid-Continent Airlines flight out of Minneapolis, bound for Kansas City and a career in professional baseball.  He arrived in Kansas City in time to pinch-hit in the first game of a doubleheader.  He singled.  According to The Sporting News of July 18, 1951, Blanchard started the second game of the twin bill and hit safely in seven of his first eight games, producing a .375 batting average. 

The July 25 issue of The Sporting News reported that the Yankees had sent their slump-ridden rookie phenom, Mickey Mantle, to Kansas City.  Kansas City sportswriter Ernest Mehl noted that the Blues had a surplus of outfielders, and one would have to go.  Blanchard, Mehl thought, was the most vulnerable and speculated that he “could use regular work in [sic] one of the smaller clubs in the [Yankees] system.” 

Mehl proved to be a prophet as Kansas City shipped Blanchard off to the Binghamton (New York) Triplets of the Eastern League.  Johnny expected the demotion.  

Things didn’t go as well as Blanchard hoped at Binghamton. Collecting only five hits in his first 45 at-bats, he was mired in a 0-for-29 stretch before hitting a double to break the slump.  However, in trying to stretch the hit into a triple, he passed a runner on the bases and was declared out.  It was a long walk back to the first-base dugout.  The stress of his time in Binghamton gave John an ulcer. 

With Binghamton Blanchard batted only .183 with seven runs batted in (RBIs) in 30 games. His stomach problem likely improved in the offseason with the news that he had been selected to participate in the third annual Casey Stengel Preliminary Camp, held in Lake Wales, Florida.  However, Stengel soon began to see Blanchard as a man without a position.  Then Bill Dickey, Yankees coach and Hall of Fame catcher, had an idea: He would transform Blanchard into a catcher.  [Note: Blanchard also played nine games with Amsterdam (New York) in the Canadian-American League in 1951; some statistical sources indicate that he did some catching with Amsterdam, so it is possible that the conversion to catcher actually began during, not after, the season.]

“The Yankees always needed catchers,” Blanchard said, “especially in spring-training situations to work with their young pitchers.”  Of course, New York also had Yogi Berra behind the plate, and the team knew he was destined to start there for a long time.  Nevertheless, Blanchard took on the duty, figuring it was his best chance to make the majors even if it was as Berra’s backup. Dan Daniel, writing in The Sporting News, reported that Blanchard “drew high praise” from Dickey that spring.  According to John, “[Dickey] really put me through the mill” with endless drills on fundamentals. 

The Yankees’ organization proved it was serious in the conversion of Blanchard to catcher in 1952 when he was assigned to Joplin (Missouri) of the Class C Western Association.  This was to be a learning experience for the youngster.  Joplin’s manager was Vern Hoscheit, who also served as the team’s backup catcher and Blanchard’s potential tutor.   

The Joplin experience was taxing for Blanchard as he led all of Organized Baseball in passed balls with 35.  He participated in 123 games, 119 of them behind the plate.  It was at the bat, however, that he shined, leading the Western Association with 30 home runs and 112 RBIs.  He also led the league in total bases with 257, while batting .301, and was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player. 

Then the bottom dropped out.  John was drafted into the U.S. Army, a two-year commitment that he says slowed his development as a ballplayer. Blanchard knew he was in trouble at basic training in Fort Roberts, California, in 1953, when the company commander announced to the assembled trainees that he had no love for professional athletes.  And he knew Blanchard was a ballplayer. 

Blanchard eventually was shipped out to Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, Germany, where he was allowed to play ball in 1954 with the U.S. Army 47^th Regiment team, the Raiders.  The team played a split-season and lost the first half to an Army squad led by future major-leaguer John Roseboro.  In the second half, the Raiders defeated Roseboro’s team in the standings, then whipped them in the playoffs.  The team went on to defeat the VII Corps Jayhawks for the U.S. Army in Europe championship. 

“The guys and I were supposed to be shipped to Colorado for the All-Army Tournament there,” Blanchard remembers.  “But it never happened.  Our team wasn’t entered in the tournament.” 

His service obligation completed, Blanchard returned from Germany on a cruise ship, ready to report to the Yankees’ advance school.  Among the 32 other players at the 1955 camp were Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson, Johnny Kucks, Whitey Herzog, and Mickey Mantle’s brothers Roy and Ray. 

After spring training, the Yankees shipped Blanchard out to Denver, which had replaced Kansas City in the American Association following the relocation of the American League Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City. However, John’s stay with the Denver Bears was a short one in 1955 as he participated in only four games before being shipped back to Binghamton. 

Former Yankees star George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss was the manager at Binghamton, and he thought Blanchard had developed some bad habits playing service ball.  “Stirnweiss was on my back day and night,” Blanchard told Phil Pepe in a Sport magazine article.  “He’d stand behind me while I caught batting practice, and, if I didn’t move fast enough for a pitch, he’d crack me on the ankle with a fungo bat.  He told me what a wonderful opportunity any fellow has to stick in baseball if he can be a catcher.” 

It wasn’t all bad, however.  The Sporting News on May 25 reported, “Three Triplets Johnny Blanchard, Sam Suplizio, and Bob Meisner belted homers in a come-from-behind win over Wilkes-Barre before 8,271 home fans.”  The trio’s home runs that night increased their total to 31 in 33 games.   

Blanchard went on to catch 125 games for Binghamton in 1955.  At the plate, he drove in 111 runs and led the league with 34 home runs.  Behind the plate, he threw so hard he eventually suffered a torn rotator cuff.

“After our last game,” Blanchard told Brian Stensaas of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “I was at a pizza parlor with the ball club.  The phone rang, and this guy says, ‘John, this is George Weiss.  I want you in New York tomorrow morning.’  I hung up.  I thought it was a prank call.  The phone rings again, and all I hear is ‘Don’t you ever hang up on me again!’  I knew it was real then.  I drove to the Bronx.” 

General manager Weiss had decided New York could use all the help it could get in its battle with the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox for the 1955 American League pennant.  The Yankees had recalled Richardson and pitcher Jim Konstanty from the minors, and manager Stengel announced to The Sporting News that “no more additions” would be made to the team.  It was a considerable surprise, then, for the crusty old manager to learn that Weiss had brought up Blanchard.  He was reminded that a third catcher backing up Berra and Howard would be advantageous, especially since Stengel, The Sporting News pointed out, was “forced to make a catcher out of Hank Bauer in the final meeting with the White Sox.” 

Blanchard had only three at-bats in his major-league debut season of 1955 and didn’t return until the 1959 season.  However, when he first arrived at Yankee Stadium, clubhouse manager Pete Sheehy issued him uniform No. 38.  Sheehy must have figured Blanchard would be coming back because he didn’t issue the number to anyone else in 1956, 1957, or 1958. 

Blanchard played winter ball in the Dominican Republic for manager Joe Schultz.  Once again, the arm problem flared up.  Blanchard was given a shot of what turned out to be 97 percent cortisone and three percent Novocain.  “All of a sudden I had a new arm,” he says. 

In the offseason, Stengel reminded Dan Daniel of The Sporting News that Blanchard “was Bill Dickey’s choice for Berra’s successor” but noted that Elston Howard, Charley Silvera, and Lou Berberet ranked ahead of the Minneapolis native.  Casey had a special fondness for Howard.  “He can do three things well—catch, pinch-hit, and play the outfield,” Stengel said.  The Yankees kept Howard and Silvera and shipped Blanchard to Birmingham of the Southern Association. 

The 1956 season in the South was not particularly pleasant for Blanchard although he wound up with solid numbers (.270 batting average, 17 home runs, and a spot on the Southern Association All-Star team).  First, there was another medical problem (hemorrhoids) in May.  After recovering from what The Sporting News referred to as “a minor operation,” Blanchard “came off the bench to hit a pinch-homer in the 12^th inning May 18 to spark Birmingham to a 5-3 win over Memphis.”  

Later in the year, his rotator cuff problem returned.  Blanchard says he should have sat out a year, but he played winter ball in Puerto Rico under Ralph Houk. Once again, the cortisone worked wonders. 

Spring training came and went in Florida in 1957 with Blanchard one of the final Yankees cuts.  This time, he was dispatched to Denver. Fortunately for Blanchard, Ralph Houk was serving as manager. 

“Houk could give you the impression that he was a very hard-boiled guy,” Blanchard said, “but he knew how to communicate with all of his players from part-timers to front-line players.”  Under Houk at Denver, Blanchard had one of his best minor-league seasons, batting .310 with 18 home runs and 86 RBIs.  He made the All-Star team, and the Bears won the American Association playoff championship and then the Junior World Series.  Perhaps Blanchard’s biggest thrill came on June 23, 1957, when Ryne Duren pitched a no-hitter at Bears (later Mile High) Stadium, a remarkable feat because of the high altitude and low humidity of Denver.  Blanchard was Duren’s catcher that night.  The two have remained close friends. 

After his stellar year at Denver, Blanchard was certain that the Yankees would promote him to the big-league roster.  He had won the James E. Dawson Memorial Award, presented annually by the Yankees to the most outstanding rookie in camp.  “I felt I had a good chance to stick,” Blanchard told Murray Olderman in The Sporting News. He even got as far as Yankee Stadium on Opening Day—only to be handed a plane ticket to Indianapolis to catch up with his Denver team. The Yankees reportedly received trade offers from other major-league teams for Blanchard, but the organization chose to ignore them. 

With Denver in 1958, John continued his steady play.  He increased his RBI total to 96 while hitting 19 home runs and batting .291.  He also caught 141 games for the Bears.  “I’ll always be a crude catcher,” he told Olderman.  “I can only get so good.  Maybe I catch one-handed too much.” 

The Yankees in spring training in 1959 knew they either had to keep Blanchard on their active roster or release him.  “I was out of options,” he remembers. 

If there was no room for him, with Berra and Howard ahead of him, Blanchard would become “another Charlie Silvera.”  Silvera, who toiled for the Yankees from 1948 through 1956, was known as “Yogi’s caddy.”  He never played in more than 58 games and had only 429 at-bats in his entire Yankees career.  

In 1959, Stengel used Blanchard in the same sparing manner as he had Silvera.  If he was going to get any playing time, Blanchard realized, he had to find another position.  He hoped to get playing time at first base or in the outfield and offered to shag flies in the outfield during practice.  His attempts to get Stengel’s attention worked, and he was occasionally used as an outfielder in 1959. 

“In June [3] of that year,” he says, “we were playing the Tigers at night at Briggs Stadium, and the old man [Stengel] starts me in right field.  There was a big crowd, more than 40,000.  Things went okay for me in the field.  I caught three balls.  Frank Lary was pitching for Detroit.  They called him the ‘Yankee Killer.’  [Leading off] the third inning, I hit my first major-league home run.  Not many Yankees can say that they hit their first homer off Frank Lary.  And, yeah, we won the game 6-5.”  

It was a rare moment of triumph for Blanchard that year.  It also was a disappointing year for the team.  The Yankees had won the American League pennant every year except 1954 between 1949 and 1958.  New York finished third in 1959 with 79 wins and 75 losses. Yankees fans were stunned.  Many said Stengel had lost his touch.  As for Blanchard, he participated in a dozen games behind the plate, eight in the outfield, and one at first base.  Some days it appeared to him that Casey had forgotten he was on the team.  He batted only .169.  The home run he hit off Lary on June 3 was the first of only two he hit that year. 

In 1960, just when Blanchard believed he had no chance, Berra and Howard were injured, and Stengel landed in the hospital.  Temporary manager Ralph Houk was quick to use him.   

Houk had been a catcher himself, and he saw things in Blanchard that Stengel didn’t see.  “Houk told me that a catcher was like a second manager, always trying to stay one step ahead of the batter and base runner,” Blanchard told Dick Gordon. 

“[Stengel] just didn’t like me,” Blanchard told Phil Pepe.  “He didn’t give me a chance.  I think he didn’t know I was around.  He never gave me the time of day.”  After Stengel and Houk had discussed Blanchard’s status with the team, Blanchard caught both ends of a doubleheader the next day (August 2, 1960). 

The first game went 14 innings.  Blanchard batted eighth in the lineup behind Clete Boyer.  In the sixth, he homered off the Yankee Stadium right-field foul pole to tie the game 1-1.  He singled in the seventh as New York took the lead at 2-1.  The Tigers tied the game in the ninth when Al Kaline singled in Frank Bolling.  The Yankees failed to score, and the contest into extra innings.  Then, in the 14^th, Blanchard singled to left, sending in Gil McDougald with the winning run.  The second game, which the Yankees also won 3-2, went 10 innings, with Blanchard behind the plate for the duration—24 innings in one day. 

The relationship between Blanchard and Stengel was strained. Casey was now 70 and no longer as sharp as he’d been, but he had enough talent on the Yankees to win, even without direction, and (most important) had the support and adoration of the New York media, who quoted his ramblings and malapropisms as if they had come from the mouth of God.  During a ballgame, he might doze off, even snore.  “We were playing the White Sox at Comiskey Park [September 7, 1960], and the old man is nodding off in the dugout.  We’re behind in the eighth inning and the situation calls for a pinch hitter, but Casey is asleep.  Someone shook him, and he shouted, ‘Get Blanchard.’ I got up there with Moose Skowron and Yogi on base and doubled them both in.  We won 6-4.” 

After the game Blanchard and shortstop Tony Kubek were walking side-by-side, trailing Stengel by a good distance, as the team advanced up the ramp leading to the dressing room.  They overheard Stengel say, “Anyone can manage this team!”   

Without hesitation, Kubek yelled, “That’s right Casey!  Anyone can do it!”  The gnarled old manager halted and turned around to look at who spoke.  “I stopped in my tracks and glared at Kubek,” Blanchard recalls.  “I’m sure the old man thought I’d said it, not Tony.” 

Blanchard also had little use for general manager George Weiss.  “In 10 years, I never got the idea he [Weiss] knew who I was.  If they stuck a pencil in my hand, I could have been just a reporter to him.” 

Houk was named to replace Stengel after the 1960 World Series, and Blanchard felt like a man released from prison. Houk produced excellent results in 1961 by using Blanchard in 93 Yankees games as a catcher, outfielder, or pinch-hitter. 

On June 15, his pinch-single in the 11^th inning against Cleveland drove in the winning run, giving the win to Terry.  Eleven days later, Blanchard pinch-hit with a runner on in the eighth inning and homered to tie the score against the expansion Los Angeles Angels.  New York won it in the ninth inning. 

On July 21, Mickey Mantle and Minnesota-born Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning for the Yankees against Boston at Fenway Park, but it took a two-out, ninth-inning, pinch-hit grand-slam home run by Blanchard to win the game 11-8.

The next day Blanchard pinch-hit a solo shot in a three-run ninth inning to beat the Red Sox again. He sat out the third game in Fenway (July 23) and the doubleheader against the White Sox in Yankee Stadium on the 25^th.   Blanchard homered in his first two at-bats against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium July 26.  Over five days he’d homered in four consecutive at-bats and just missed a fifth when he drove Floyd Robinson back to the wall. 

On September 29, Blanchard singled and homered to drive in both runs in a 2-1 victory over Boston.  The home run was Blanchard’s 21^st and last of the season. New York finished the season with 109 wins and 53 losses.  Second-place Detroit finished eight games behind.  “That Yankee team was the best in baseball history,” Blanchard.  “I have no respect for anyone that says it wasn’t.” 

Blanchard helped set a record in 1961 for most home runs by six teammates in a single season.  Roger Maris (61), Mickey Mantle (54), Bill Skowron (28), Yogi Berra (22), Elston Howard (21), and Johnny Blanchard (21) combined for 207 home runs. 

New York’s opponent in the 1961 World Series was the Cincinnati Reds, surprise winners of the National League pennant.  The Reds won the pennant by four games over Los Angeles and featured a strong pitching staff and an outfield led by National League Most Valuable Player Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson.  The teams split the first two games at Yankee Stadium, Whitey Ford pitching a shutout in the opener and Joey Jay taking Game Two for the Reds.  

In Game Three at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Blanchard’s pinch-hit home run tied the game in the eighth inning, and Maris’s ninth-inning homer off Bob Purkey proved to be the difference in a 3-2 win for Arroyo.  Behind Ford, New York waltzed to a 7-0 win in the fourth game. 

The fifth game took place on October 9 in Cincinnati.  Mantle and Berra had been scratched from the lineup with injuries, but the news eluded Blanchard, who was going through his warm-up routine.  Told that the lineup Houk posted not only had him in it but batting cleanup as well, Blanchard had one reaction:  “Damn near a good case of diarrhea.”  He had never batted cleanup as a Yankee, but he didn’t have time to worry about his nervous stomach, smashing a two-run home run in the five-run New York first inning that all but sealed Cincinnati’s fate.  He also contributed a double and a single in the Yankees’ 13-5 victory. 

The 1961 season was Blanchard’s best.  He batted .310 with a .613 slugging average.  He hit four pinch-home runs and homered once for every 11.5 times at bat (Maris, who broke Babe Ruth’s home-run record that year, had one in every 9.7 at-bats). 

Blanchard hoped to get into 100 games in 1962, a mark he’d never reached in the majors, but it didn’t happen.  At age 29, he was beginning to slip.  He did have some good days in the 1962 season, one that resulted in another World Series championship for the Yankees.  On a snowy April 19 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Blanchard, batting fifth behind Maris and Mantle, singled in the first inning to give the Yanks the lead.  In his next at-bat, he homered, driving in Mantle and Tom Tresh in what eventually became an 11-5 win. 

On May 30, before 39,720 spectators at Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota, Mantle was injured, and Houk inserted Blanchard into the cleanup spot.  John responded by homering off the Twins’ Joe Bonikowski, driving in three runs and giving New York a 5-0 lead.  He later doubled and singled in the Yankees’ 10-1 drubbing of Minnesota. 

The rest of the season provided few highlights and saw Houk more reluctant to use Blanchard.  In fact, during the 1962 World Series, which went seven games, Blanchard had only one at-bat (he struck out).  In the November 3, 1962, issue of The Sporting News, writer Bob Burnes speculated in a front-page story that Blanchard could be packaged with other Yankees in a deal for a starting pitcher such as Art Mahaffey of the Phillies.  Blanchard was deemed expendable in part because his batting average had fallen to .232 despite his having as many game appearances as he did in 1961. 

Blanchard’s 1963 season was similar to that of the previous year, except for a reduction in the number of games played to 76.  There were some spectacular games. Against the Angels in a three-game stretch from July 22 to July 24, he belted three homers and drove in nine runs.  On August 15, he hit a pair of home runs and drove in six runs against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Overall, it was a terrible year; 16 homers and 45 RBIs look good, but his .225 batting average and .305 on-base percentage were downright ugly. 

The Yankees won the American League pennant again but were swept in the World Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Blanchard appeared in only one game in the Series, going hitless in three at-bats. 

In the offseason, Houk was named Yankees general manager and Berra was made manager.  Early on, Yogi indicated that Blanchard would spend more time catching.  “Johnny will get plenty of chances to get back in the groove as a catcher,” he told Til Ferdenzi in The Sporting News.  But there was a new contender for the catching job.  Jake Gibbs, an All-American quarterback from the University of Mississippi, had turned down a lucrative professional football career to sign with the Yankees and had seen major-league action with the team in 1962 and 1963.  Blanchard reacted to Gibbs with quiet confidence, saying he hoped to stick around awhile longer. 

In 1964, Berra made good on his promise to use Blanchard more as a catcher than an outfielder and even used him at first base.  Blanchard responded by raising his batting average to .255, but his number of at-bats slipped from 218 to 161.  Under Berra, the Yankees were a dysfunctional lot and appeared out of the pennant race.  Surprisingly the team went 22-6 in September and edged the White Sox for the flag on the next to the last day of the season.  However, New York lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games (Blanchard had one hit in four at-bats), and Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb fired Berra the day after the final game of the World Series, replacing him with Cardinals manager Johnny Keane. 

Topping and Webb’s next move was to sell the Yankees.  On November 2, 1964, CBS purchased 80 percent of the team for $11.2 million.  The sale ushered in the movement toward corporate ownership in major-league baseball.  Not apparent at the time was the fact that Topping and Webb were looking for buyers earlier than 1964.  The pair had initiated numerous cost-cutting measures in order to maximize their profits at the time of the sale.  “The farm system was virtually barren,” wrote Peter Golenbock in Dynasty, adding that the combination of “no farm players” and “disastrous management” contributed to the Yankee downfall. 

“We bought a pig in the poke,” said Mike Burke of CBS.  The Yankees finished sixth in 1965.  Gone from the 1961 champions were Skowron and Berra. Of the 1961 Yankee Opening Day lineup, all except Mantle were gone by 1967.  On Monday, May 3, 1965, came Johnny Blanchard’s turn to leave.  

Blanchard and pitcher Rollie Sheldon were traded to the Kansas City Athletics in exchange for Howard “Doc” Edwards, a journeyman catcher who had never hit more than six home runs in a single season.  Blanchard was devastated.  Upon hearing the news in the bowels of Yankee Stadium, he bolted for the trainer’s room, where Elston Howard was undergoing treatment for an elbow injury. Within five minutes, Howard emerged to talk with reporters.  Blanchard stayed behind.  “John’s crying like a baby,” Howard said.  “He’s all tore up inside.”  When Blanchard finally left the trainer’s room, the reporters were still there. “I never felt so badly [sic] in my life,” he told Steve Jacobson of Newsday.  “I’ll never feel as badly [sic] again.” 

Blanchard clung to a hope that he might return to the Yankees one day. Ralph Terry, Enos Slaughter, and Bob Cerv had returned to Yankee Stadium after exile to Kansas City.  But that had been when Arnold Johnson, a business partner with Del Webb, had owned the Athletics and let the Yankees make his team a glorified farm club.  In 1965, however, the egocentric Charles O. Finley owned the club, and he proclaimed that those days were gone forever.  Of course, Charlie had his own way of doing business, and it wasn’t the cool, buttoned-down Yankee way. 

Blanchard’s introduction to the Athletics and the ways of egocentric owner Charles O. Finley was bizarre. “The first night I get to Kansas City, I put on that ugly green-and-gold costume they called a uniform.  Haywood Sullivan was the manager, and he told me I was catching, so I put on my shin guards and chest protector, got my mitt, turned my hat around, and was ready to run out onto the field.  By this time, the pitcher was warmed up, and I was ready to take my position behind the plate.  But Sullivan stopped me [and the rest of the team] in the dugout.  ‘Wait a minute,’ he said.  Then we heard trumpets.  Out in centerfield were these guys dressed like court jesters playing long trumpets.  All of a sudden an outfield gate opens and out comes a mule.  I ask Sully what’s going on.  He tells me the mule is named Charlie O.  ‘The mule will walk to home plate.  When it gets there, we will sing happy birthday to it.  I told Sullivan there was no way I was going to join in.  I said I was going back to the clubhouse [which I did].  Sully said they were going to fine me $100.  ‘Make it a thousand, I said.’” 

Blanchard recalled another game in which Jim “Catfish” Hunter was called in to pitch with the Athletics holding a slim 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning—and had to ride Charlie O. to the mound.  According to Blanchard, Hunter at first encountered difficulty mounting the beast, and then nearly fell off.  When the animal bolted and veered off toward the outfield grandstand, “Catfish was hanging on for dear life.  We could see him pulling on the mule’s mane, and the mule’s eyes bulging out of its head.  Catfish finally gets the mule to the mound, then slips and nearly breaks his back getting off of it.”  [Note: The incident with the mule actually occurred in a game in which Hunter was the starting pitcher in Los Angeles on September 4. According to The Sporting News, “After the A’s batted in the top of the first, Charlie O. hauled starting pitcher Jim (Catfish) Hunter from the bull pen to the mound to face the Angels.”]

Blanchard’s stay in Kansas City did produce some personal highlights, such as the night of May 7 when he went 3-for-4 with RBIs against the Angels in Los Angeles.  Nevertheless, the hapless A’s lost the game by the score of 5-4. 

On September 9, Finley sold Blanchard to the Milwaukee Braves.  It would be his first (and only) stint as a National League player.  As the 1965 season wore down, Blanchard appeared in 10 games for Milwaukee, during one of which he got his only National League hit (a homer).  And, there would be another highlight.  “I’m one of the few guys who can say they pinch-hit for Hank Aaron,” Blanchard says.  Aaron had fouled the second strike off his foot and couldn’t continue, so manager Bobby Bragan sent Blanchard in.  “I’m proud to say that, despite going up to the plate with a two-strike count, I managed to draw a walk.” 

For Blanchard it was the last hurrah.  His career was basically over.  (The 1965 season also marked the last year for the Braves in Milwaukee as the team moved to Atlanta.)  As far as Blanchard was concerned, his career ended when the Yankees sent him to Kansas City; he wanted to be a Yankee or nothing. 

After sitting out the 1966 season, an old itch returned.   Blanchard had discovered it was hard to walk away.  He tried to get back in the game and even wrote to some Japanese ballclubs. 

The Braves owned Blanchard’s rights and gave him permission to attend spring training with them.  When that opportunity fizzled in 1967, (for “business and personal reasons” he told The Sporting News), he tried again in 1968, willing to do anything to play. 

He celebrated his 35^th birthday that year in spring training.  Braves manager Luman Harris told Wayne Minshew of The Sporting News that Blanchard “has been a pleasant surprise.  He walked in here the first day of camp and started swatting line drives.”  Blanchard officially was a non-roster player.  His contract was with Atlanta’s top farm club in Richmond, Virginia. 

Blanchard thought he’d be a player-coach with the Braves’ farm club in Richmond, but on the last day of spring training the bat boy gave him his pink slip and drove him to the airport. 

Blanchard was on his own, a civilian.  While still with the Yankees, he had begun operating a liquor store on Olson Memorial Highway at Winnetka Avenue in Golden Valley.  Johnny Blanchard Liquor Store had the easy-to-remember phone number of Y-A-N-K-E-E-S, although Blanchard paid tribute to the local team with a tall flag pole that carried a banner on game days to indicate whether the Twins had won or lost. 

While still an active player, Blanchard married the former Nancy Carey. The union produced three sons.  He eventually sold the liquor store and was involved in car sales, the construction equipment industry, and the printing business.  He even managed one of Minnesota’s top town-ball teams, the Hamel Hawks. 

“We [the Hawks] just try to play a fundamental game,” he told an Associated Press reporter in 1981.  “I’m happiest with baseball.  It’s fun working with these kids.”  He did reveal that he “found it difficult to go from the big leagues to the brown-bag league.”  He also told the reporter that he longed to join the Twins in some coaching capacity but had been turned down by Johnny Goryl, who had managed the Twins from August of 1980 to May of 1981. 

His role as manager of the Hamel Hawks, Blanchard says, was rewarding because “I get to be Casey Stengel for two hours.”  It was interesting that he mentioned Stengel (“the old son of a bitch”), whom he still considers to have been his nemesis.  

Blanchard tells a story he heard from a great pitcher: “Warren Spahn was with New York in the National League in 1965, I was with Kansas City in the American League, and Stengel was the Mets’ manager.  By this time, as Warren told it, Casey was 75 years old and spent a good deal of his time in the dugout snoring and farting.  Spahn was sitting in the dugout, and the game situation called for a pinch hitter.  Casey had to be shaken out of this dreams and told what’s happening.  Once he understood, the old man blurted out, ‘Get Blanchard!’” 

Jeff Brubaker also provided information for this biography.

Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

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Associated Press, “Remembering Blanchard,” July 1, 1981.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players.

Rich Marazzi, “Batting the Breeze,” Sports Collectors Digest, June 9, 1995.

http://www.retrosheet.org.

Photo Credit

The Topps Company

Brinkman graduated in 1962 from Holdingford High School, where he starred in football, basketball, and both baseball and track in the spring. He went on to spend a year at St. Cloud State University, where he played football and basketball. On October 20, 1962, Brinkman kicked the winning field goal from 24 yards out in St. Cloud’s victory against Bemidji State University as time ran out on the clock. Brinkman was inserted as a last-minute substitution for the regular kicker, who was injured. Despite the holder dropping the ball and hurriedly getting the snap down late, Brinkman was able to get enough momentum on the ball to just get it through the uprights for a 15-14 win.

After leaving St. Cloud State, Brinkman traveled west to live with his father’s brother Ted and work for the Roseburg Lumber Company in Roseburg, Oregon. After spending three years in Oregon, Brinkman enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Germany from 1965 to 1967. His assignment was playing sports—football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. In baseball, Brinkman saw action at first base, the outfield, and as a pitcher. Brinkman first dabbled in umpiring while in the Army, but, more importantly, he was introduced to Barney Deary, who was in Germany running a clinic for umpires in the military. As part of the training, Deary used Brinkman and his Army baseball teammates to help simulate plays for which the clinic umpires would practice making calls. He told Brinkman that if he was ever interested in becoming an umpire himself, he should give him a call in Florida. 

Brinkman was discharged from the Army in 1967. Thoughts of warmer weather during an extremely cold day in Holdingford the following winter prompted Brinkman to make that call. Deary told him that it was 75 degrees where he was in Daytona Beach, and that, even though the school had already begun, Brinkman should hurry down and get started. Thus, Brinkman became a student in the Al Somers Umpire School and, from there, went directly to spring training. He umpired games for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor-league camp in Daytona Beach and earned a position as an umpire in the Class A Midwest League for the 1968 season.

The next winter Brinkman attended the new Umpire Development Program in St. Petersburg, Florida, a program designed by to help train future umpires. Following the program, Brinkman worked in the Class AA Southern League for two seasons and then the Class AAA American Association for the next two. Brinkman also worked in the Dominican Republic Leagues in the winters of 1971-72 and 1972-73. In addition, he umpired in the Caribbean World Series in both years—in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1972 and in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1973. 

On September 6, 1972, Brinkman got the call to go to the majors. He worked his first game in Cleveland, where the Indians hosted Milwaukee, Brinkman’s assignment being second base. Brinkman spent the next 27 seasons working as an American League umpire, the next seven after that as a major-league umpire after the American and National league squads were combined in 2000. Brinkman’s last game was on July 2, 2006. He retired officially on December 31, 2006. Brinkman cited “a little bit of health . . . and age” as the reasons for his retirement. Age 62 at the time of his retirement, Brinkman experienced the heart condition atrial fibrillation. Brinkman had been dealing with the condition with medication for over a decade prior to retirement. He was quoted as saying upon retirement, “The doctors were changing the meds and it had me being tired a lot.   It’s a condition, not a disease, so I think we have it under control.”

Brinkman lived in St. Petersburg from 1969 to 1984. During the winters of 1970 to 1972 he dropped in from time to time to visit the Umpire Development School, which had been purchased by former umpire Bill Kinnamon and transformed into the Bill Kinnamon Umpire School in 1971. In 1973 Brinkman officially joined the staff at the school as an instructor. Brinkman bought the school from Kinnamon in 1982 and renamed it the Joe Brinkman Umpire School. In 1985 both Brinkman and his school moved to Cocoa, Florida. Brinkman continued as owner and an instructor until 1998, when he sold the school to fellow umpire Jim Evans.

Brinkman co-authored The Umpire’s Handbook in 1985 and used it as a basic text for his umpire school. Brinkman presents his philosophy of the umpiring profession in the preface of the book, which was also available to the general public. He told of calling a game-ending balk in the 11^th inning of a game between the two division-leading American League teams. He uses this example, of making a reflex call in a critical-game situation according to the baseball rulebook as it is written, to highlight his overall philosophy of the profession and the purpose of the book: “Umpiring is not like being a politician; you can’t tell everyone what they want to hear. You make a call the way you see it, and you can’t make mistakes.”

In 1983 Brinkman was assigned to be an American League crew chief. During this season, his crew umpired the game for which he is most well known, the infamous “pine-tar game” July 24 at Yankee Stadium. George Brett had hit a two-run, two-out home run off New York’s Goose Gossage in the top of the ninth to give Kansas City a 5-4 lead. Yankees manager Billy Martin suspected that the pine tar on Brett’s bat extended too far up the barrel and was waiting for a ripe situation to challenge the excessive pine tar and its subsequent implications. Now he had it and had his catcher alert plate-umpire Tim McClelland to the pine tar. After conferring with the crew (and using the 17-inch width of home plate as a measuring device), McClelland determined that the excess pine tar on Brett’s bat made his base hit an illegally batted ball and ruled him out per Rule 6.06 as it stood in 1983, nullifying the home run and ending the game.

The call prompted a rare display of emotion from Brett, who had to be restrained around the shoulders and neck by Brinkman, among others. The Royals also tried to “steal” the evidence, Brett’s bat, and Brinkman had to go up the Royals’ runway in order to retrieve it.   Kansas City lodged a protest, which was upheld four days later by American League President Lee MacPhail. Brett’s home run was allowed with the game to be resumed from the point of protest.

Brinkman says the ruling has been generally misunderstood. According to the rule, Brett’s home run was an “illegally batted ball;” a similar situation would arise if a batter placed his foot—accidentally or intentionally—outside the batter’s box. MacPhail said he overturned the umpires’ decision “in the spirit of the rules,” a rule he understood to be originally written so the balls themselves would not be dirtied up during games, not for fear of giving the batter a “distance” advantage. A review of the rules from 1983 shows that Brinkman’s crew made the correct call.   The controversy caused a major rule-book edit over the winter to address and clarify the issue of pine tar and bats.

Brinkman’s professional career spanned 35 seasons and included numerous appearances in the All-Star Game and the post-season.  This list includes:

• All-Star Games: 1977, 1991, 1996
• Division Series: 1981, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2004, and 2005
• American League Championship Series: 1976, 1987, 1997
• World Series: 1978, 1986, 1995
• Postseason crew chief: 1987 and 1997 American League Championship Series, and 2004 and 2005 National League Division Series.

As of early 2008, Brinkman ranks high on the all-time lists: ninth in seasons as an American League umpire (28), third in seasons as a major-league umpire (roughly 34 ½ given his retirement in July 2006), and fifth in total games umpired (4,505). 

Brinkman’s long and dedicated career was not without controversy. In the first chapter of The Umpire’s Handbook, Brinkman wrote, “The umpire is doing his best job when he goes unnoticed. This is, however, not always possible.” 

For a number of seasons Brinkman experimented with standing back from the catcher rather than close behind his back. This was controversial although Brinkman felt it improved his ability to see the strike zone. “It was like looking around a tree—it is just easier when standing back from the tree a bit rather than being right up next to it and trying to look around it.” Brinkman eventually moved back to the more traditional position, in large part to avoid the controversy that had developed with the experiment. Brinkman used the controversial position behind the plate for three seasons, including the 1995 World Series.

Controversy also included player and manager ejections, most notably the early ejections of Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove and pitcher Dwight Gooden in the second game of the American League Championship Series on September 30, 1998. Brinkman lays out his position on dealing with conflict on the diamond in the section on arguments in his book:

“What should you allow the arguer to say? Our approach in the big leagues is to allow them to say we made a horsebleep call but not to say we personally are horsebleep. If the arguer gets personal, tell him he risks ejection. If he continues in a personal vein after one or two warnings, throw him out of the game.”

As Brinkman said, “It all boils down to how much you have decided you will tolerate. I was not one who tolerated personal attacks.”

Brinkman was not one of the umpires who tendered their resignations during the labor dispute when the American and National league squads were being combined by Major League Baseball (MLB). After MLB had done away with both American and National league presidencies, he believed, it would inevitably combine the umpiring squads. Accordingly, he did not follow union leader Richie Phillips’s mass-resignation plan. Brinkman was instrumental, as a senior umpire, in decertifying the old union and certifying the new. He also worked to get umpires who had resigned rehired or granted severance pay and health benefits.

During his career, in November of 1979, Brinkman met Karen Ellis-Brown of Orlando, Florida. The two were married March 20, 1981. Brinkman also has a daughter, Honey Jo, who was born September 5, 1970.

Despite any health problems he may now experience, Brinkman leads an extremely active post-baseball life.

He and Karen moved to a 160-acre ranch in Chiefland, Florida, in 2004. They first owned a couple of cows and a horse. Although he swore when he left Minnesota in 1968 that he would “never return to farming,” Brinkman now finds himself with 60 head of beef cattle and four horses, leasing an additional 100 acres in addition to his own land.

At the time of the interview with Brinkman for this article in January 2008, he had just built a horse barn and stated he was working, on average, 10-hour days over the previous four months.

Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

Telephone interview with Joe Brinkman, Thursday, January 31, 2008 with follow-up telephone interview Sunday, February 10, 2008, and e-mail correspondence Thursday, February 14, 2008.

“Evans Buys Brinkman’s Umpire’s School,” The Referee, July, 1998, p.15.

“Davidson Hired Full-Time to Replace Brinkman,” The Referee, March, 2007, p. 11.

“Brinkman Ruined the Game,” by Jay Greenberg, New York Post, Thursday, October 1, 1998, p. 76.

“Brett’s Bat is Martinized; Homer Doesn’t Count,” by Mike McKenzie, The Sporting News, August 1, 1983, p. 22.

“Tar Wars: ‘Rules Must be Clarified’ MacPhail Says,” by Ralph Ray, The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 2.

“Tar Wars: Reactions, The Yankees . . .,” by Moss Klein, The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 3.

“Tar Wars: Reactions, The Royals . . .,” by Mike McKenzie, The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 3.

“Tar Wars: Reactions, The Umpires . . .,” by Mike McKenzie, The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 3.

“Our Opinion, Rulebook Under Fire,” The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 6.

“MacPhail Made the Right Decision,” by Peter Gammons, The Sporting News, August 8, 1983, p. 19.

“Brinkman: Gotta Toss Out Phillips” by Jim Wallace Matthews, New York Post, September 3, 1999, p. 105.

The Umpire’s Handbook, Second Edition by Joe Brinkman and Charlie Euchner, The Alpine Press, Inc., 1987.

“A Statistical Look at the Men in Blue,” by David Vincent, Baseball Research Journal, Number 36, 2007, p. 13-18.

Official Baseball Rules, 1983 Edition, The Sporting News, 1983, p.9, 18, 43.

Official Baseball Rules, 1984 Edition, The Sporting News, 1984, p.9.

“Writer Probably Couldn’t Sell Script of Huskies’ Victory: Brinkman Successful in Kicking 1st Field Goal of Career in Last 2 Seconds” by Joe Long, St. Cloud Times, Monday, October 22, 1962, p. 16.

Burgmeier attended Cathedral High School, a Catholic school in St. Cloud, where he earned letters in baseball, hockey, and wrestling. According to the school yearbook, The Cathedralite, he was also involved in basketball and bowling and was a member of the school’s Monogram Club. 

On the diamond, he was part of three outstanding teams during his career as a Crusader under head coach George Marsnik. The 1959 team was led by Fred Sexton, Dave Fritz, and Bob Karn, who became Cathedral’s head coach in 1971. Bob’s brother Jim also played for the Crusaders, graduating with Burgmeier in 1961. Jim returned to Cathedral in 2001 as an assistant coach and served until he died in 2005. In 1959, Burgmeier’s sophomore season, Cathedral advanced to the State Catholic Baseball Tournament but lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual state champion, DeLaSalle of Minneapolis.[2]

In 1960, the Crusaders made it back to the tournament and advanced to the championship game. Burgmeier pitched well in the final game, giving up five hits and one walk while striking out 11. But it wasn’t enough as Cathedral lost 2-1 to St. Thomas Military Academy (now St. Thomas Academy) of St. Paul.[3]

The Crusaders struck gold in 1961, Burgmeier’s senior year. Bolstered by a number of returning lettermen, including fellow pitcher Bob Meyer, catcher Jerry Pfannenstein, and shortstop Jack Staller, the team cruised through the regular season with a 16-0 record, including games that looked like football scores: 21-0, 25-0, and 32-0. Burgmeier accounted for seven of Cathedral’s wins and threw three no-hitters as, for the third season in a row, the Crusaders advanced to the state Catholic championship. This time their opponent was Cretin of St. Paul (now Cretin-Derham Hall, and the alma mater of Hall of Famer Paul Molitor and Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer). Burgmeier was on the mound for Cathedral and Mike Hayes for Cretin. It was a rematch of a regular-season game between the two hurlers, a game in which Burgmeier struck out 17.[4]   Burgmeier did not disappoint the Crusader fans as he held Cretin to four hits and struck out 14. He was helped offensively by junior Tom Hamm, who went 4-for-5 and drove in five runs as Cathedral beat Cretin 11-2. It was an outstanding way for Burgmeier to close out his high-school career. 

After graduating, Burgmeier played American Legion baseball and amateur baseball with Donovan’s of the Granite City League, a circuit in the St. Cloud area.⁴  He attracted attention from major-league teams, including the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Houston Colts (as the Colt 45’s were also known), an expansion team that would begin play in 1962. On September 24, 1961, Burgmeier accepted a $10,000 bonus to sign with the Colt 45’s. He was signed by Houston scout John Sturm, a former major-league first baseman.   

Burgmeier told St. Cloud Times sportswriter Mike Augustin a couple of weeks later that he was happy he had signed with Houston. “Houston is a club I always sort of had a preference for,” Burgmeier said. “It is a new team, and, if I have the ability, I will be able to advance quickly. I can only do my best and hope for some good breaks. There won’t be any time wasted. I’ll find out right away whether or not I can make it and it will be good to know.” 

Burgmeier’s mother endorsed her son’s decision: “It was really a tough decision for Tom to make, but he made it himself and I’m sure he’s happy with the choice.”[5] 

In 1962, Burgmeier began the road to the majors with Modesto in the Class A California League, where he finished with a 12-11 won-lost record, the first of only two professional seasons in which he reached double figures in wins. He had 210 strikeouts. Burgmeier started the 1963 season with San Antonio in the Class AA Texas League before finishing the year back in Class A, with Durham (North Carolina) in the Carolina League. His combined won-lost record was an unimpressive 4-13.

Back in Modesto in 1964, Burgmeier saw his career almost derailed when the Colts released him, along with other players they considered “surplus.”  But his road to the majors took a fortunate turn. Rocky Bridges, who managed the Los Angeles Angels’ California League affiliate in San Jose, had seen him pitch in Modesto and recommended to the Angels that he be picked up. The Angels signed Burgmeier, who finished the season in San Jose with a combined 8-7 record for the season.[6]

Burgmeier moved up to the Angels’ Class AAA team in Seattle in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 1965 and finished with the same 8-7 record. He began 1966 with Seattle, going 2-5 in 12 games for the eventual PCL champions before being reassigned to El Paso in the Texas League and recording a 4-8 record. But Burgmeier returned to Seattle in 1967, and it turned out to be his best minor-league season as he posted a record of 11-14 and led the PCL in complete games with 15. Even more impressive was his fielding as he handled 75 chances without an error, earning the Rawlings Silver Glove Award at pitcher.[7] Angels pitching coach Bob Lemon called Burgmeier “the best fielding pitcher since Bobby Shantz [who won the Gold Glove at pitcher in each of the first four years that the award was presented].”[8]

In the offseason, Burgmeier played winter ball in Puerto Rico and told writer Ross Newhan of the Los Angeles Times how valuable the experience was: “I learned more than I had in all the seasons in the minors,” he said. “I won 11 games and was consistently getting out guys like Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente.”[9]

Burgmeier’s winter-ball experience paid off in 1968, when, according to archivist Bob Lommel of the Stearns County History Museum (St. Cloud’s home county), he became the first major leaguer from central Minnesota since Rip Repulski retired in 1960. He joined an Angels pitching staff that featured six players 25 years old or younger, among them Jim McGlothlin, Andy Messersmith, and Clyde Wright.[10]  Burgmeier was the bullpen’s left-hander, and the right-hander was Minnie Rojas.

Burgmeier made his major-league debut on April 10, 1968, against the New York Yankees, pitching the eighth inning in relief of George Brunet and retiring Joe Pepitone, Frank Fernandez, and Gene Michael in order. In May, he and the Angels came to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington to face the Twins. Jim Rantz, a former minor-league pitcher and in 1968 a front-office employee in the Twins’ minor-league department, told the St. Cloud Times on May 16 how impressed he was with Burgmeier. “Burgmeier showed me a fine arm,” Rantz said. “He throws hard, has a very fine curveball, and is always ready to pitch. I predict he’ll do an excellent job for [Angels manager] Bill Rigney, but I only hope he doesn’t do well against the Twins.” 

Burgmeier did not pitch against the Twins that weekend. He got his first win three weeks later, in relief on June 6 against the Baltimore Orioles. He made two of his three career starts with the Angels, facing Oakland on April 26 and Detroit on August 28. Both starts lasted less than five innings. He finished the 1968 season with a 1-4 record. 

It was the only season Burgmeier spent with the Angels. In 1969, baseball expanded by two teams in each league, Kansas City and Seattle joining the American League and Montreal and San Diego becoming part of the National League. On October 15, 1968, an expansion draft was held to stock the new teams, and Burgmeier was selected by the Kansas City Royals. Angels teammate Paul Schaal was also chosen by the Royals. Another teammate, former Twins first-baseman Don Mincher, was the Seattle Pilots’ first pick.

Burgmeier pitched one inning in the Royals’ inaugural game, on April 6, 1969, against the Twins, relieving Wally Bunker. He picked Tony Oliva off first base and gave up a double to Rich Reese.  Burgmeier pitched all or parts of five seasons with the Royals, spending parts of 1970 and 1973 with the team’s Class AAA farm club in Omaha.  Off the field, in February 1971, Burgmeier married Betsy Smail, a former airline hostess, in Brandon, Florida.¹⁴  On the field that season, Burgmeier and submariner Ted Abernathy emerged as the American League’s top left-right bullpen duo, with Burgmeier recording 17 saves and Abernathy 23. Burgmeier had 10 more saves over the next two seasons, nine in 1972, and one in 1973.[11]

On October 24, 1973, Burgmeier was dealt to the Twins for minor-league pitcher Ken Gill.[12]  After beginning his career in 1962, Burgmeier was coming home to Minnesota a decade later. In 1974, he became part of a left-right bullpen tandem with Bill Campbell. His first appearance at Metropolitan Stadium was a short one. On April 9, he pitched one-third of an inning against the White Sox in relief of Bert Blyleven  His first Twins win came in a 13-inning affair against the Red Sox as he pitched six innings in relief of Dave Goltz. The Burgmeier-Campbell tandem stayed intact for three seasons, prompting writer Bob Fowler in the October 9, 1976, issue of The Sporting News to refer to them as the top “Bicentennial Bullpen.”

When Campbell left via free agency to go to the Boston Red Sox after the 1976 season, Burgmeier remained a set-up man, this time for the new closer, St. Paul-born Tom Johnson.  In 1977, Burgmeier’s final season in Minnesota, he went 6-4 with seven saves in 61 games.

After the season, Burgmeier became a free agent, and, on February 17, 1978, he signed with the Red Sox. He was reunited with his bullpen-mate Campbell and was joined by veterans Dick Drago and Andy Hassler along with a 23-year-old closer, Bob Stanley. 

In his four years with the Red Sox, Burgmeier started one game, the first game of a twi-night doubleheader on July 24, 1978, against the Twins. He didn’t get a decision, leaving with the score tied 3-3 in the fifth.  His best major-league season was in 1980, when he got 24 saves, breaking the club record for a left-handed reliever, set by Sparky Lyle in 1970. Burgmeier was named to the American League team in the 1980 All-Star Game but did not pitch. He pitched two more seasons in Boston before signing as a free agent with the Oakland A’s after the 1982 season, in which he had posted a 7-0 record.

The Red Sox were his favorite team to play for, Burgmeier told sportswriter Bill Krogman of The Visitor, the St. Cloud Catholic Diocese’s newspaper. “One year we won 99 games and tied with the Yankees. The competition and rivalries were always there. I also enjoyed playing in Fenway Park.”[13]

Burgmeier was the senior member of the A’s pitching staff in 1983, going 6-7 with four saves. The following season, Burgmeier, now 40, was off to a good start with a 1-0 record and a 1.67 earned-run average.[14]   However, he injured a muscle behind his left shoulder and went on the disabled list in May. He returned on August 9, pitching against his former team, the Angels.  He pitched six more games with the A’s before ending his pitching career at the age of 41. In his 17 major-league seasons, he won 79 games, lost 55, and had 102 saves.

After a few years out of baseball, in 1991, Burgmeier signed on with the Royals as the team’s video coordinator. From 1992 to 1996, he was a pitching coach in the Kansas City Royals’ farm system, with stops in Rockford, Illinois, and Eugene, Oregon.[15]  In 1997, he returned to the Royals as a video coordinator and became the team’s bullpen coach the following season. He remained with the Royals until 2000, leaving to become the pitching coach for the Orioles’ Class AA team in Bowie, Maryland. One pitcher he helped teach, Erik Bedard, went on to lead the American League in strikeouts in 2007.[16]²³ Starting in 2003, Burgmeier spent three seasons as the pitching coach in Burlington (Iowa) of the Midwest League, and as of 2008 had spent three seasons in the same capacity in Omaha. Quite a résumé for a former Cathedral Crusader from St. Cloud, Minnesota, who pitched in 745 major-league games, Tom Burgmeier.

Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Photo Credit

The Topps Company

Photo credit

William Cadreau’s Zee-Nut baseball card, courtesy of David Eskenazi.

Steven Michael Comer was born on January 13, 1954, into an athletic and competitive household in the Cottagewood neighborhood of Minnetonka, Minnesota. His parents, Ken and Joyce Comer, encouraged sports for their three boys, Joe, John, and Steve, who were all born within three years of each other.

At Minnetonka High School Comer played soccer, baseball, and basketball, excelling best at hoops, despite being 5’6” and weighing barely more than 100 pounds as a sophomore. A year later, following a seven-inch growth spurt, Comer started on the varsity basketball team and the varsity baseball team as a shortstop. His all-conference older brothers were or had been on the baseball squad, too, Joe at shortstop and John at catcher. After graduating, Joe was drafted by the Kansas City Royals but opted for the University of Minnesota to play under legendary Gophers head baseball coach Dick Siebert. John went on to Southwest Minnesota State University, where he set several hitting records.

After his high-school senior season, while playing a final summer under his father for the Minnetonka American Legion team, Comer decided to follow his brothers’ footsteps by trying out for Siebert’s summer league for college players in the Twin Cities, despite the fact he was too young. At the tryout Comer realized that he was a long shot to make the cut at shortstop because of the depth at that position, so he stepped to the mound and threw a string of strikes that got the coaches’ attention. George Thomas, an assistant who became head coach after Siebert, in particular liked what he saw: a pitcher with a good arm, who had immaculate control of his stuff. All three of the Comer brothers were chosen for the Gophers’ summer team.

Comer pitched well enough that summer to also catch the eye of Siebert, who strongly encouraged him to attend the University of Minnesota the following fall. But Comer, who had received no other invitations to play college baseball, was entertaining the idea of playing basketball as well as baseball if he was to go to college. He told Siebert that he might try St. Cloud State or Mankato State and play both sports. “It was at that time that [Siebert] really pressed me and said, ‘No, you need to come here,’” Comer recalls.

Siebert was persuasive. He also taught Comer how to throw a change-up, which became Comer’s primary weapon. In his freshman season, Comer had a 6-1 won-lost record with a 1.47 earned-run average (ERA) and was an integral member of a Gophers squad that rode to the 1973 College World Series on the back of Dave Winfield’s 6’6” frame. Comer was the winning pitcher in a 6-2 victory over Georgia Southern that sent the Gophers to the semifinals to face the University of Southern California. Winfield, then a pitcher and outfielder, started that game and went eight innings without giving up a run while holding a seven-run lead. In the ninth, however, Winfield struggled to get the first several batters out. Two relievers and eight runs later, the Gophers were knocked out of the World Series and the Trojans, with Fred Lynn, Roy Smalley, and Rich Dauer, went on to win the championship.

Crediting a set of unlikely and extremely lucky circumstances, Steve Comer humbly acknowledges his record as the winningest pitcher in University of Minnesota baseball history with a 30-8 record earned between 1973 and 1976. In 1973 he pitched in the College World Series with Dave Winfield in left field. In 1975, Comer’s junior season, Paul Molitor played behind the young pitcher. Comer won seven games but struggled against Michigan State to end the year with three losses and an ERA well above 4.00, hurting his chances in the major-league draft.

Comer also holds the Gophers record for most career complete games with 25, and he pitched the sixth most innings in Gophers history. Comer remembers with nostalgia his days at Minnesota on a team made up of all Minnesotans, most from the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which had strong unity. Some became friends for life.

“To tell you the truth, a guy that I modeled myself after is the guy that I’m playing golf with tomorrow, Kenny Herbst,” says Comer. “He was just a year older than me, but he’d pitch the first game [of a doubleheader] and I’d throw right after him. Just how he pitched, and how he set hitters up—that was a guy that was a role model for me.”

After Comer’s senior season at Minnesota, in which he won 10 games and brought down his 4.59 ERA from the previous year to 2.64, Comer hoped to be drafted out of college. But he knew that because of the inflated ERA his junior year, major-league teams might pass him over. He was disappointed when he was overlooked in the 1976 draft, but he didn’t lose hope.

Comer began working in construction after graduation and was playing on the Chanhassen town team when Dick Siebert got a call from Pete Kramer, a coach at the College of St. Thomas (now St. Thomas University) in St. Paul who was a “bird dog scout” for the Texas Rangers. “Bird dog scouts” are best described as additional sets of eyes for major-league scouts, always looking for an under-the-radar player who might find his way to the big leagues with the right opportunity.

Kramer was working to fill the Rangers’ rookie-league roster and needed more young pitchers. Siebert told Kramer about Comer. Then Kramer told Comer that he had a chance to go make the team. “My Dad said, ‘Here’s your plane ticket; you’re going.’ Didn’t want to have a ‘woulda coulda shoulda.’ If a door opens, go through it,” Comer recalls.

Comer, then 22, heeded his father’s words and stepped through every door that opened for him once he made it to Sarasota in the rookie league in 1976. In the next two years he learned how to work ahead in the count, stay away from big innings, and use his off-speed pitches effectively.

In 1977, two years out of college, 23, and playing for the Rangers’ Class AA affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Comer started 14 games and went 7-6. That July, due to some of his own good fortune and the sore arms of pitchers higher in the system, Comer was called up to the Rangers’ Class AAA team in Tucson and finished the season with a 4.18 ERA, an accomplishment in the high-scoring Pacific Coast League.

When Comer arrived at spring training in 1978, he was not expected to make the major-league roster, having had only two years in the minors. But, defying expectations once again, he showed off the skills he had been cultivating since his freshman year of college: a great changeup, mature attitude, an ability to mix speeds and locate his fastball precisely, and mental toughness.

“The story that I was told was that I came up there and I threw a pitch to Lee May and he hit it nine miles,” Comer says. “Then I came back and threw the same pitch to the next hitter and struck him out. They figured that I wasn’t afraid to be there.” That kind of mettle, exhibited during spring training, impressed new manager Billy Hunter, and Comer sneaked into the 10^th spot on the pitching staff for the 1978 season.

After riding pine for the first four weeks, Comer moved into a relief role and started picking up wins. He frustrated hitters by working the count well and changing speeds to keep batters off balance. In his first major-league start, on July 17, 1978, he threw nine shutout innings against the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium. Had Baltimore’s Mike Flanagan not thrown a gem himself, the game would have been Comer’s first win as a starter. Flanagan scattered nine hits in a seven-strikeout performance, hurling all 11 innings. Comer pitched for nine innings, giving up four hits, four walks, and registering seven strikeouts, but the game was tied going into the 11^th, when Rangers centerfielder Juan Beniquez ended the scoring drought with a two-run homer to put the game away.

Nevertheless, Comer impressed the Rangers leadership, and when injuries felled starters like Dock Ellis, Comer moved into the rotation halfway through the summer and finished his season with an 11-5 record. His success came as a pleasant surprise to the Rangers.

Comer’s most memorable game of his rookie season came on August 23, facing the Minnesota Twins at Met Stadium, coming home to play for the first time in front of friends and family. His grandmother was in the hospital ill with cancer at the time. Steve visited her before the game and turned on the radio so that she could hear the play-by-play. The proud grandma listened as her grandson threw a six-hit shutout to beat the Twins 2-0. Comer recalls, “You always think you’re playing for yourself but you just don’t know who you affect. . . . It was one of those ones where you look back and say, ‘I gave her some pride.’”

The following year, given a bona-fide starting role and the full confidence of his coaches, Comer took up where he left off in his rookie season, moving to 10-6 at the All-Star break. It was at this high point that shoulder problems began to surface. He went on to win seven more games, finishing the 1979 season with a 17-12 record and ERA of 3.68, but he was in pain—an ominous sign for the year ahead.

According to Comer, preparation, anticipation, and execution—not talent, athleticism, or a high-velocity fastball—were the keys to his big-league success. His career lacked gaudy stats, and he never struck out more than seven batters in a game. But when Comer was healthy, his command and his ability to change speeds and to think one step ahead of the hitter placed him in an elite class of Texas Rangers pitchers.

In 1979 Comer had become the fourth Rangers pitcher to reach 17 wins. At the close of the season his stock was high and he was expected to be an important member of a rotation that, when healthy, would have the power to overcome the Rangers’ lackluster offense. With better luck, Comer might have grown to become one of the game’s top pitchers. But in the same way he credits fate and good fortune for helping him reach the major leagues, he also acknowledges that luck runs both ways.

Comer’s durability waned after problems with the mechanics of pitching that began in 1979 led to tendonitis. Pitching more than he ever had before proved to be too much wear and tear on his shoulder. During a forgettable 1980 season, in which he went 2-4, Comer was demoted to Tulsa, where he struggled and then was shut down completely. Then, at this low-point in his career, Comer took note of a detail that enabled him to turn things around.

In the offseason as he walked by a big cement wall, Comer noticed the cast of his shadow made by the morning sun. He stepped through a pitch while watching his shadow and was able to see for the first time that, for as long as he had been throwing, his arm had been moving in a pushing motion. He tried altering his pitch by reaching farther out and then bringing his arm down in a follow through.

Comer credits this discovery as the main reason for his seemingly miraculous comeback in 1981, when new Rangers manager Don Zimmer spoke openly about Comer’s minimal chances to return to the roster. In spring training, however, Comer was pitching as if he had barely missed a beat and fought his way back to a relief role on the Rangers’ roster.

Comer’s first appearance that season came in relief of Jon Matlack on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, April 9, 1981, before 55,123 fans. Entering the game with the Rangers losing 5-3, Comer gave up one run on a single before Bobby Murcer came to the plate, pinch-hitting for Dennis Werth, and cleared the bases with a grand slam. That would be one of the few bad outings for Comer in the split season of 1981, and he thinks the strike that caused the shortened season gave his arm the rest that it needed. Comer finished the year with an 8-2 record, six saves, and a memorable honor: the Rangers staff and players voted him the Texas Rangers Pitcher of the Year at the 1981 post-season banquet.

That year, Comer drew rave reviews from his manager, Don Zimmer, who called him “another guy who made me look smart” in his autobiography, Zim.  Zimmer said that “Comer, as the saying goes, couldn’t break a pane of glass with his fastball, but he knew how to pitch: He threw strikes and had a great changeup. The closer I inherited was Jim Kern, but for some reason, he just couldn’t get the job done.”

In a mid-season game, Zimmer summoned Kern from the bullpen to quell a fire, but Kern walked the bases loaded instead. When Kern went to a 2-0 count on the next hitter, Zimmer had seen enough, and brought in Comer. Comer got the batter to hit a grounder to first that should have ended the inning. However, the first baseman booted it, and the Rangers lost the game. But Comer’s coolness under fire impressed Zimmer, and Zimmer gave Kern’s closing job to Comer.

Zimmer also saw Comer as “a little crazy, too, which doesn’t necessarily hurt in baseball, especially if you’re a closer.” One day, Comer was standing behind the batter’s cage when a ball ricocheted and caught him in the mouth, cracking two of his teeth. That evening, as the Rangers waited for their flight at the airport to begin a road trip, Comer ordered a flaming drink. “When he went to drink it, he spilled it on his face and set his beard on fire,” Zimmer reported. “It must have been one of the worst days of his life.”

Even so, Zimmer respected Comer’s ability. “He may have not been your prototypical closer, but he was good enough for me,” Zimmer wrote.

In 1982, Comer’s fifth year in Texas, the Rangers came within just two losses away from reaching the century mark, finishing in sixth place, 29 games behind the division-winning California Angels. The Rangers’ futility that season may have sparked the beginning of the end of Comer’s career. Halfway through the season Comer was walking from the bullpen to the clubhouse when his cleat became caught in a grate, and he broke a bone in his right foot, his push-off foot. Comer was 1-3 at the time, but with a struggling offense even his good performances were resulting in losses. After 21 days on the disabled list, Comer returned to the bullpen and struggled to pitch well, because, he says, he failed to give his foot enough time to heal completely.

Comer was released by the Rangers in 1983 and began a trip around the country that would send him to the Yankees, Mariners, and Phillies. He never threw a regular-season pitch in pinstripes, as the Yankees signed him on January 21, 1983, and released him on March 28. He hooked on with the Seattle Mariners on April 11, but he didn’t pitch for their major-league squad either and was released on June 16. On June 22, Philadelphia signed Comer and later called him up from the Pacific Coast League to help the Phillies in the September playoff drive.

Comer recalls those years as hectic and nomadic, and it was hard, he says, for him and his wife, Kathy, to find enough time together. Even though he wasn’t on the playoff roster when the Phillies won the National League pennant, he was still considered a member of the team. “That was the year I got released five times, and here I got a National League Championship ring,” he recalls ironically. But on December 21, the Phillies let him become a free agent.

Pat Corrales, Comer’s manager for one year at Texas, seemed to always have a place on his staff for Comer. Corrales hired Comer to pitch in Cleveland in 1984, and Comer went 4-8 with a 5.68 ERA in his final major-league season. He was signed by the Phillies again in 1985 but did not pitch.

Looking for a pitching coach for his Indians in 1986, Corrales offered Comer the job. Comer was the pitching coach for Cleveland’s Class A club in Kinston, North Carolina, at the time and left that position under future major-league manager Mike Hargrove to join Corrales in Cleveland. Comer realized during that 1986 season and the following year, when he coached for the Twins’ Class AA Orlando team, that coaching wasn’t for him and his wife. Meanwhile, a business that Comer had invested in while playing for the Rangers in 1981 was calling him back to the area where he grew up as a baseball player and a young man.

Comer, who now lives in Excelsior, Minnesota, with Kathy and their three daughters, had his last playing days in an over-35 league with the Shakopee Chiefs in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. But he has passed on the lessons of the game to his daughters, who he says have heard three words more than any others through their childhoods: preparation, anticipation, execution. Just as his father instilled in him an instinctive drive to seize opportunities, Steve Comer encourages a life lesson that rewarded him throughout his career.

Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

Interview with Steve Comer, August 6, 2007.

Steve Comer file from the Baseball of Hall of Fame archives.

Zim: A Baseball Life by Don Zimmer with Bill Madden, Kingston, New York: Total Sports Publishing, 2001.

“Unheralded Players Deserving Discovery” by Peter Gammons, The Sporting News, March 29, 1980, p. 40

Baseball Reference (http://www.baseball-reference.org).

Retrosheet (http://www.retrosheet.org).

Arthur Willard “Bill” Davis, Jr. was born on June 6, 1942, in Graceville, Minnesota, to Art and Elaine Davis. The Davises lived in Minneapolis where Art worked in the paint business and Elaine was a registered nurse. While expecting Bill, her first child, Elaine traveled to Graceville to be closer to her family. Four years later Bill’s only sibling, sister Dee, was born. In 1951 the Davises moved to Richfield, Minnesota, where Bill spent his adolescent years and grew to 6’6’, 215 pounds.1 Davis blossomed into one of the city’s top athletes, starring in both basketball and baseball.

During his senior prep season, in the spring of 1960, Davis led Richfield High School to the eight-team single-class Minnesota state basketball tournament. Undefeated Edgerton, from a tiny town with a population of 960 located in southwestern Minnesota, was the darling of the tournament. In the semifinal game Richfield faced Edgerton in front of 18,812 fans at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, the largest crowd ever to watch a semifinal game up to that time.2 Davis led Richfield with 26 points, but it was not enough; Edgerton triumphed 63-60 in overtime. The next day Richfield prevailed in the third-place game against Granite Falls behind Davis’s 40 points. Edgerton won the championship game against Austin in one of Minnesota’s most memorable state tournaments.

His prep career over, Davis accepted a basketball scholarship from coach John Kundla to his hometown University of Minnesota. His scholarship allowed him to also play baseball for coach Dick Siebert, and in 1963 Davis was the Gophers’ only two-sport letterman.3 His work ethic combined with his natural ability allowed Davis to excel at both sports. In basketball Davis played only sparingly as a junior, but as a senior he became one of the team’s stars. The basketball team finished third in the Big Ten in 1964, and Davis was named the Gophers’ Most Valuable Player. He finished third on the team (and 26th in the Big Ten) in scoring with 12.5 points per game and second in rebounding.

Kundla showed a surprising racial enlightenment for the era: the Gophers were not only at the forefront of enrolling African American players, but Kundla actively worked to integrate the team. During his senior season Davis roomed with sophomore African American Archie Clark, who went on to star in the National Basketball Association.4

Unlike basketball, Davis moved into the starting baseball lineup almost immediately. He started at first base as a sophomore in 1962, although he hit only .264 with one home run. In 1963 Davis showed limited improvement, hitting .246 with two home runs. Siebert chose to stick with his big first baseman for 1964, possibly because during his summers Davis excelled in the competitive Basin League in South Dakota. Siebert looked prescient in 1964 as Davis exploded, leading the team with a .350 batting average and six home runs; no one else had more than three. In Big Ten play Davis finished fourth with a batting average of .377. Davis’s monster season propelled the Gophers to the Big Ten title as they edged Michigan by one game.

Minnesota’s 1964 season earned them a trip to College World Series, where pitcher Joe Pollack led the team to the championship with three complete-game victories. Davis played a key role and joined four of his teammates on the All-Tournament team. For his final year at Minnesota, Davis was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor, a prestigious award recognizing a player in the graduating class of each school for achievement in both scholarship and athletics. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in Education.

Davis graduated in 1964, one year before the introduction of the amateur draft. Prior to the draft amateur players were free agents, and some received what were then considered huge signing bonuses. The signing of two-sport star Rick Reichardt from the University of Wisconsin by the Los Angeles Angels for $205,000 finally convinced the magnates they needed a draft to rein in bonuses.5 On the heels of his stellar College World Series, Davis was a free agent in search of his best opportunity.

During Davis’s senior season, Billy Martin, then a Minnesota Twins scout, followed him closely. Davis also recalls being scouted by the New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Los Angeles Angels, and Cleveland Indians. Yankee scout Tom Greenwade recommended Davis to that club, but he never received an offer. All other things being equal, Davis hoped to play for his hometown Twins. He eagerly accepted an invitation from assistant farm director George Brophy to meet with the Twins front-office staff regarding a possible contract.6

At the meeting in the Metropolitan Stadium offices, Davis appeared alone—this was well before player agents. The Twins sat Davis at one end of a table; Sherry Robertson, the club’s farm director and the brother of majority-owner Calvin Griffith, sat at the other. Robertson was joined by Brophy and scouts Billy Martin and Angelo Giuliani. The Twins wanted Davis but insisted that he start his professional career in a rookie league, the lowest of the minor leagues. Davis, who had just turned 22 that summer, showed a remarkable understanding of the time frame within which a prospect has to prove himself (players generally begin to lose their prospect status in their mid-20s) and insisted that he start at Class AA, just two levels below the majors. Robertson balked, told Davis “good luck,” and left the room. Davis remembers the other three simply looking at him and shaking their heads.7

Davis turned to the other teams that had scouted him seriously. The Angels backed off once they signed Reichardt. When Cleveland scout Walter Shannon called to say he was in Minneapolis, Davis met with him, accompanied by both his father and high-school coach. Shannon agreed to start Davis in Class AA and allow him to play every day. With his conditions accepted, Davis signed for a $12,000 bonus, a decent but not large bonus for the era.

The Indians kept to their word and sent Davis to Charleston in the Eastern League. Davis liked playing for manager Bob Nieman and, despite jumping straight from college to the high minors, played extremely well in his first partial professional season. In 271 at-bats he solidified his prospect status by hitting .292 with nine home runs. Had he qualified for the batting title, he would have finished sixth, and the league leader in home runs smacked only 15.

The Indians at this time were a financially struggling franchise with a brilliant general manager in Gabe Paul. Limited by budget constraints, Paul nevertheless maneuvered his talent in an attempt to return the Indians to contention. In 1964 two left-handed-hitting first basemen, Bob Chance and Fred Whitfield, split time at the position. After the season Paul swapped Chance and utility player Woodie Held to Washington for outfielder Chuck Hinton. Whitfield was still only 26 years old and, although he had not yet started for a full season, appeared the heir-apparent at first base. Over the winter, however, Cleveland manager Birdie Tebbetts touted Davis: “Don’t forget about Davis. He may be ready. Our scouting reports on him are awfully good.”8 Tebbetts may have been simply trying to keep a fire under Whitfield, but, in any case, it was clear Davis was considered a key prospect.

In 1965 the Indians invited Davis to their major-league spring training in Tucson, Arizona. Davis had a great spring, but not surprisingly, with just a half-season of professional baseball under his belt, he could not unseat Whitfield. Tebbetts extolled Davis’s abilities publicly, but the Indians’ scouting reports suggested he might not yet be ready, and that Davis “needed to quicken his swing, to pull better, and learn to handle the high and tight pitch.” 9

The Indians farmed Davis out to the Portland Beavers in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League, one step below the majors. Davis became an instant hit in Portland and after the season was named the team’s most popular player. Nicknamed the “Jolly Green Giant” (a reference to the large green mascot for the Minnesota-based Green Giant food company) because he now stood 6’-6½” and weighed upwards of 215 pounds, Davis lived up to his prospect status. His .311 batting average brought him in eighth in the batting race, and he finished fifth in home runs with 33. Davis shared the league’s Rookie of the Year honor with Lee May.

In September, when the rosters expanded, the Indians promoted Davis to the majors. He appeared in his first game on September 16, 1965. Two days later, pinch-hitting against Eddie Fisher of the Chicago White Sox, Davis banged out his first major-league hit. Davis did not start any games—in his 10 pinch-hitting appearances he rapped three hits. For additional seasoning over the winter the Indians sent Davis to the Puerto Rican League.

In 1965 Fred Whitfield turned in the finest season of his career, effectively blocking a promotion for Davis. Nevertheless, the Indians expected Davis to eventually win the position, partly because they were dissatisfied with Whitfield’s defense. Despite missing a significant portion of spring training with tonsillitis, Davis was promoted to the major-league club in 1966, and started on April 15. But over the next several weeks he played only sparingly—seven more at-bats and no hits—and in mid-May the Indians farmed him back to Portland where he could play every day.

Upon Davis’s return to Portland general manager Jerry Krause—later to gain fame and success as the general manager of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls—hosted a “Welcome Home Jolly Green Giant” extravaganza. Despite lousy weather the game drew 2,707 fans, a big crowd given the weather. To celebrate the occasion the Beavers gave away 50 cases of Green Giant Products, 500 rag dolls, and 1,000 records of the company song.10

At Portland Davis had another fine year, although not quite up to the standard he had set the previous season. In September the Indians again recalled Davis to the big club. On Friday night, September 9th in Cleveland, the Indians and Angels remained tied at 6-6 at the end of nine innings. The Angels scored a run in the top of the 10th to take a 7-6 lead. With two out and one on in the bottom of the inning, Davis was called on to pinch-hit against Jack Sanford. In front of what was left of the 5,693 fans, Davis hit a game-winning home run—his first and only homer in the major leagues. As Davis recalled, “I was just trying to get a hit, and the ball carried to right-center for a home run.”

Over the last two weeks of the season Davis started six games, testifying to Cleveland’s interest in his development. Whitfield had struggled though an injury-filled season, and the Indians now looked to Davis to win the first-base job for 1967. Davis had filled out to 230 pounds, and that winter Hank Peters, Cleveland’s director of player personnel, labeled him “a fine prospect.”11 In early January Paul called to tell him that he would be the starting first baseman.12

Unfortunately, while playing a pick-up basketball game on January 21, 1967, Davis severed his Achilles tendon. This ill-fated incident wrecked Davis’s best shot to earn a starting position in the major leagues. The season-long rehabilitation forced the Indians to reevaluate their first-base options, and furthermore, the long-term effects of the injury, compounded by missing a full season of play, stunted Davis’s development. In June the team traded hurler Gary Bell to the Boston Red Sox for 22-year-old first-baseman Tony Horton. Viewed as a long-term solution, the Horton acquisition testified to the Indians’ concern over Davis’s eventual return to his pre-injury form.

After missing the entire season, in October Davis was still struggling to regain his pre-injury skills. “I can run about half speed without a limp . . . my lateral movement is good for two or three steps either way. . . . I don’t have real good leverage off my left leg when I’m batting,” Davis reported, “but I’m coming along.”13 To test Davis’s recovery and help him regain his timing, Cleveland sent him to the Dominican Republic to play winter ball. There was even some discussion of experimenting with Davis in the outfield now that Horton appeared entrenched at first. After a hot start Davis struggled, and in January his Dominican team sent him home. Not surprisingly, given the decrease in mobility from the Achilles injury, nothing ever came of the outfield talk.

Now 25 and recovering from a serious injury, Davis had fallen from the forefront of Cleveland’s plans. It was not surprising when the club assigned Davis to Portland in the early days of 1968 spring training. Back in the minors Davis could not recapture his previous success: he hit only .265 and, more importantly, slugged just 12 home runs (although he did smack two grand slams). In late June when Horton went down with a knee injury there was some speculation that Davis might be recalled. In fact, Davis was called up for emergency back-up duty on June 29 but was never formally placed on the roster and quickly returned to Portland. Cleveland’s failure to bring Davis up in September testifies to how far he had fallen on the team’s depth chart.

The major leagues expanded for the 1969 session, adding four new teams. One of the new franchises, the San Diego Padres, targeted Davis; to secure him they sent shortstop Zoilo Versalles, whom they had acquired in the expansion draft, to Cleveland. Padres president Buzzie Bavasi discussed the team’s perspective on Davis: “We’re looking for Davis to make a comeback with us. He’s only 26 years old, and our scouts tell us that he came on strong the last of the ‘68 PCL season with Portland.”14 Manager Preston Gomez planned to platoon the left-handed-hitting Davis with Nate Colbert, a right-handed-hitting first baseman who had also spent the majority of 1968 in the minors. As the left-handed half of the platoon, Davis seemingly had another opportunity for a significant role on a major-league roster.

Davis was hot during spring training and appeared to solidify his half of the platoon. To start the season the Padres faced a disproportionate number of right-handers; accordingly, Davis started 11 games in the first two weeks, Colbert only three. Davis started slowly, however—batting .229 with no home runs and only one extra base hit—and Gomez showed little patience with his big slugger. On April 23 Gomez abandoned his platoon and inserted Colbert into the lineup against a right-hander. For a two-game series at the Astrodome on the fast turf, Gomez also claimed he wanted the quicker Colbert to play first base.15 In the second of the two games Colbert had two hits, including a home run, and three runs batted in. Gomez stayed with Colbert as his starter, and over the next week he smacked another four home runs and drove in nine.

Colbert’s hot bat relegated Davis to little more than a pinch-hitting role. Now that he was no longer in the mix at first base, on May 22 the Padres traded Davis (along with Jerry DaVanon) to the St. Louis Cardinals for young second-baseman John Sipin and catcher Sonny Ruberto. The Cardinals farmed Davis to Tulsa, their Class AAA club in the American Association, where Davis played for manager Warren Spahn, the former star pitcher, and worked with Hall of Fame outfielder Joe Medwick as his batting instructor. Davis liked Spahn personally, but Spahn was not a particularly skilled manager.

Davis remembered one doubleheader in particular. In the first game with bases loaded, fewer than two out, and a right-handed pitcher on the mound, Spahn pinch-hit for Davis. This was a curious decision given that Davis was one of his better hitters, and he had the platoon advantage. A similar situation occurred in the second game, and Spahn pinch-hit for him again. A frustrated and angry Davis confronted Spahn, and the two got into a shouting match.16

Spahn and the Cardinals unloaded Davis shortly after the confrontation. They shipped Davis (along with pitcher Mel Nelson) to Denver, the Minnesota Twins affiliate in the American Association, for hurler Bill Whitby. Davis hit well after his move to Denver, and he finished the 1969 American Association season with a batting average of .290 and 13 home runs in 300 at bats. Despite his respectable season, Davis realized that at 27 he was not in the plans of any organization. Accordingly, at the end of the season he told manager Don Heffner that he intended to retire and followed up with a more formal letter. Overall, in his major-league career Davis made 121 plate appearances—all but one against right-handed pitchers—and hit .181 with one home run.

After the season outfielder Andy Kosco was offered the opportunity to play in Japan. He proposed Davis accompany him. For a two-year obligation, Davis was offered a salary of $25,000 per year. His first son, Drew, however, was born in 1969, and with a young family Davis elected to remain stateside and begin his post-baseball career.17

Davis moved home to Richfield, where he joined Eberhardt Company, a real estate firm in Minneapolis, as a consultant. In 1971 when an assistant coaching position opened on the Minnesota Gophers baseball staff, coach Dick Siebert offered the position to Davis. Now in his late 20s, however, and earning an acceptable living at Eberhardt, Davis decided to concentrate on his real estate career and declined the offer.18 Shortly thereafter, in 1973, Davis’s second son, Ryan, was born. Davis eventually gravitated to commercial real estate finance, where he carved out a well-respected career. Davis recently retired from Associated Bank where he last worked as Vice President/District Manager for the Commercial Real Estate Division.

Postscript

Bill Davis died at age 80 on January 13, 2023.

Author’s Note

A version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

Many of the stories and background came from several conversations with Davis, the most comprehensive of which occurred on October 30, 2007. Davis also generously responded to my follow-up questions. Davis’s recollections of specific events and statistics proved quite accurate when compared to the objective record. The Sporting News, available at http://www.paperofrecord.com, was extremely useful for following Davis’s professional baseball career. For the statistics and game records I principally used two indispensable websites: http://www.retrosheet.org and http://www.baseball-reference.com. There are a number of excellent baseball encyclopedias; I relied mainly on The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia edited by Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer. Additional information was available in Davis’s file at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The University of Minnesota athletic department provided information on his years at the school. They maintain a clipping file that contains a couple of newspaper articles. Furthermore, they made available the basketball media publications for the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons and the baseball media publications for 1962, 1963, and 1964. Information on the 1960 Minnesota state basketball tournament principally came from the Minneapolis Tribune.

Last revised: June 30, 2023 (zp)

Photo Credit

The Topps Company

On October 5, 1944, after nine years in the minor leagues, 30-year-old rookie pitcher Blix Donnelly reached the pinnacle of his baseball career by winning a World Series game. Donnelly entered the second game of the 1944 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth inning with the score tied 2-2 and no one out; Mike Kreevich of the St. Louis Browns was on second base. Donnelly struck out the first two batters he faced, surrendered a walk, and then ended the inning with a strikeout of Mark Christman. He retired the Browns in the ninth and 10th innings with little trouble. In the 11th inning, with George McQuinn on second, Christman laid a bunt down the third-base line that Donnelly fielded with his bare hand and tossed to third to get the runner. The play was heralded as the defensive play of the World Series and one of the better defensive plays in World Series history. Donnelly got credit for the win when the Cardinals scored in the bottom of the inning. The Cardinals went on to win the Series in six games, and Donnelly’s Game Two performance were the highlight of his eight-year major-league career.

Born Sylvester Urban Donnelly on January 21, 1914, in Olivia, Minnesota, a farming town with a population around 1,500 in southwestern Minnesota, Blix got his nickname from his father at a later date.1 Blix’s father, Charles, was born in Wisconsin and migrated to Minnesota, where he became a barber in Olivia, a trade that Blix learned and practiced during the baseball offseason. His mother, Elizabeth, was born in Minnesota to French immigrants and married Charles in 1913. Blix was the first of three boys born to the Donnellys, the others being Gordon, born in 1916, and John, in 1924.

Donnelly attended grade school in Olivia and graduated from Olivia Public High School in May 1932. While in high school he played football, basketball, and baseball, but he made his mark pitching for the baseball team. In the summer of 1932 his pitching led the Olivia junior-league team to the state playoffs. In his team’s final game of the tournament, Donnelly had 21 strikeouts in a 12-7 loss to a South St. Paul team led by future major leaguer Mickey Rocco.2

Donnelly spent the next two years working while playing for Olivia’s town team. He picked up extra money pitching for neighboring town teams. In the summer of 1934 Donnelly made an impression on George Thompson, an umpire, that led to an invitation to a three-day baseball school at Nicollet Park in Minneapolis.3 Donnelly was one of 30 players from outside the Twin Cities area invited to the school free of charge. Another 11 Twin Cities-area players were invited free of charge while 227 other youngsters paid to attend.4 Two other future major leaguers attended the school that year, Jimmy Pofahl and Mickey Rocco. The attraction of the school was the opportunity to pitch in front of Mike Kelley and the Minneapolis Millers staff.  Donnelly’s small size at (5-feet-10, 165 pounds) did not impress the Millers, but his fastball did get him a tryout and a contract with Superior (Wisconsin) of the Northern League in 1935.

Donnelly pitched 228 innings for Superior, winning 15 games and losing 15, and leading the league with 184 strikeouts. In the offseason, Duluth, also of the Northern League, traded with Superior for Donnelly. With Duluth he had a record of 11-19 with 232 strikeouts in 214 innings. Donnelly’s durability allowed him to lead the Northern League in losses, wild pitches, walks, and strikeouts. At the end of the season he joined the St. Louis Cardinals organization when Branch Rickey of the Cardinals purchased the Duluth franchise.

In 1937 the Cardinals assigned Donnelly to Bloomington (Illinois) of the Class B Three-I League. Midway through the season the Bloomington club folded, and his contract was transferred to Decatur (Illinois) in the same league.5  His 31 games led the league in appearances. In 1938 Donnelly pitched one inning for Decatur before being sent to Daytona Beach in the Class D Florida State League for the remainder of the season. He won 18 games and In a game against Gainesville he struck out a league-record 19 batters.6 In 1939 Donnelly returned to Daytona Beach, where he went 19-4, pitched a no-hitter and was selected by fans to their midseason all-star team even though he served a suspension during the season for arguing with an umpire.7  Donnelly also did a stint as interim manager of the Daytona Beach team while the organization changed managers during the season.8

Springfield (Illinois) of the Class C Western Association was Donnelly’s destination in 1940. Illness hampered him but he pitched a no-hitter against Joplin.9 The Springfield team tried to sell Donnelly to Fort Worth of the Class A Texas League in the spring of 1941. After a brief tryout, Fort Worth decided he was too small to make it as a pitcher10 and returned him to Springfield. Returning to Springfield, Donnelly won 28 games with only 6 losses and set a Western Association record with 304 strikeouts.11 He led the league in innings pitched, complete games, and wins as well as strikeouts. Late in the season Donnelly was sent to Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League, where he pitched in three games. In 1942 he returned to Sacramento and won 21 games pitching for the PCL champions. There Donnelly first played for manager Pepper Martin. In 1943 Martin went to Rochester of the International League as manager, and Donnelly followed him there. On August 17 he threw a no-hitter against the Jersey City Giants, winning 4-0.   He ended the year with 17 wins, 8 losses, and an earned-run average of 2.40, putting him in good position for the following year with the Cardinals.

In the spring of 1944 Donnelly made the Cardinals roster out of spring training. With the pitching staff limited by World War II, Donnelly’s 4-F draft status12 gave him the opportunity to pitch in the major leagues after nine years in the minors. Donnelly was known for having a good fastball and curve but erratic control. His minor-league statistics support that reputation with a large number of strikeouts, walks, and wild pitches. A starter through most of his minor-league career, he worked out of the bullpen for the Cardinals in 1944, appearing in 27 games with only four starts. He pitched well and completed the year with two wins, one loss, and an ERA of 2.12 for the National League pennant winners. At the start of the World Series Donnelly was viewed as a limited relief pitcher but, given the opportunity, he pitched two scoreless innings in Game One and won the next one in relief. After the World Series he returned home to Olivia, where on the night of October 24 more than 1,000 people honored Donnelly at the Olivia Armory.13

A solid spring training in 1945 earned Donnelly the opportunity to be a starting pitcher for the Cardinals. The Sporting News named him to its midseason All-Star team. He completed the season with 8 wins and 10 losses in a career-high 23 starts. This included a one-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 27.

In 1946 Donnelly went to spring training with hopes of being in the starting rotation, but a strong postwar Cardinals pitching staff forced him to the bullpen for the start of the season. A sore arm limited Donnelly’s appearances, and during the All-Star break the Cardinals sold him to the Philadelphia Phillies for the $7,500 waiver price.14 The Giants also put in a waiver claim on Donnelly, but the Phillies claim was accepted due to their worse record.15  After winning one game and losing two for the Cardinals, Donnelly won three games and lost four for the Phillies.

Donnelly began the 1947 season pitching out of the bullpen. Manager Ben Chapman believed that he was not strong enough to go nine innings.16 In late July a rash of injuries to the starting pitchers gave Donnelly an opportunity to start 10 games, and he finished the year winning four games and losing six, with a career-high 38 appearances.17  In 1948, he started 19 games and relieved in seven.

In 1949 Donnelly worked mainly out of the bullpen. Injuries limited him to 10 starts and 13 relief appearances. The front office believed he would be an important part of an improving ball club that could compete for the pennant in 1950. Donnelly headed into spring training in 1950 as the Phillies’ top relief pitcher. During the year he was supplanted in this role by Jim Konstanty, who would win the National League Most Valuable Player award. Donnelly’s limited role and minor injuries led to only 14 appearances. The Phillies won the pennant but were swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series. Donnelly did not pitch in any of the World Series games and at 36 was the oldest player on the young team known as the Whiz Kids.

In 1951 Donnelly was the odd man out on the Phillies pitching staff at the end of spring training. An accident with a firecracker burned the forefinger of his pitching hand and limited his work during spring training.18 The Phillies sold him to the Boston Braves, led by his old Cardinals manager, Billy Southworth, on April 16 after he refused assignment to Baltimore of the International League.19 After pitching in only six games, he was released by the Braves on May 12. He immediately rejoined the Phillies and was sent to Baltimore. Starting 25 games for the Orioles, he went 7-6. In 1952 he returned to Baltimore as a player-coach. Pitching in relief, he won five games while losing 11.  He retired at the end of the season at the age of 38. In 1953 his contract was transferred to Richmond, but he remained retired.

Residing in Olivia, Donnelly worked in a number of businesses, including a barbershop, water-conditioner sales, and outboard-motor sales, and he owned a business selling anhydrous ammonia.20 He died in Olivia on June 20, 1976, from cancer at the age of 62. He was survived by his wife, Helen, and son, James.

A version of this biography appeared in the book “Minnesotans in Baseball,” edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin, 2009).

Sources

“Blix Donnelly Is Fan Artist With the Cats,” Brownsville (Texas) Herald, February 19, 1941.

“Blix Donnelly Makes Good in Major League: Olivia Boy Is Winning Pitcher in Second Game of World Series,” Olivia (Minnesota) Times, October 12, 1944.

“Butlers Beat Ganzels, Even School Series,” Minneapolis Morning Journal, September 1, 1934.

“Donnelly Got His Start Here,” Minneapolis Star Journal, October 5, 1944.

“Donnelly’s Pitching Best Ever: Sports Writers Join in Praise of Local Man With Cardinals,” Olivia Times, October 12, 1944.

Dunkley, Charles, “Blix Donnelly Earns Spurs,” Duluth News Tribune, October 6, 1944.

Hall, Halsey, “Kels Sweep Along,” Minneapolis Journal, August 29, 1934.

“O’Dea to Braves, Donnelly to Phils,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 9, 1946.

“Olivia Honors Blix Donnelly at Program,” Olivia Times, October 26, 1944.

“Olivia Will Fete Ball Hero,” Albert Lea (Minnesota) Evening Tribune, October 17, 1944.

Wesloh, Harry, “Eyes of Baseball World on Olivia in Fall of 1944,” Olivia Times, October 3, 1994.

Baumgartner, Stan, “Big Role for Little Blix in Drive to Lift Phillies Out of Basement,” The Sporting News, August 20, 1947.

Baumgartner, Stan, “Fuming Phillies point for Giants Club – They’d Most Like to Beat,” The Sporting News, March 7, 1951.

Baumgartner, Stan, “Little Blix Out of Pigeonhole on Blue Jays: Typed as a Relief Specialist, Donnelly Wins Starting Role for Next Year,” The Sporting News, October 1, 1947.

“Daytona Beach’s Hopes Ride on Draws from Rookie Camp,” The Sporting News, March 9, 1939.

“Feast in Pheasants and Base-Hits in Dakota Pheastival,” The Sporting News, October 27, 1948.

“Injury Jinx Strikes Phillies Early,” The Sporting News, March 7, 1951.

Lieb, Frederick G., “Cards Check Stumbles; Deal Off Pair for Checks,” The Sporting News, July 17, 1946.

“Major Flashes,” The Sporting News, July 24, 1946.

Ruhl, Oscar, “Boiling Anger Steamed Up Blix: ‘Wanted to Show Billy Southworth’: Too Little Tag Always Irked Bird Relief Ace,” The Sporting News, October 12, 1944.

Snow, John, “Blix Donnelly’s Whiffing Blitz Tops 17-Year-Old W.A. Mark,” The Sporting News, November 20, 1941.

The Sporting News, July 13, 1939.

The Sporting News, July 22, 1937.

The Sporting News, November 9, 1960.

Weber, Al C., “No-Hit Games 80 Percent Luck, Says Donnelly After His Third,” The Sporting News, August 26, 1943.

Roberts, Robin, and C. Paul Rogers III, The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996).

Notes

Eisenreich was born on April 18, 1959, in St. Cloud, the middle of five children of Cliff and Ann Eisenreich. He was introduced to baseball almost immediately and began to play when he was seven at Southside Park in St. Cloud. Right around that time, young Jim began to display some strange, unexplainable symptoms. His face would tic and jerk, or he would clear his throat uncontrollably. His peers made fun of young Jim, and teachers assumed that he could stop the behavior any time he wished.

As strange as Jim’s behavior was, he was also well known at an early age for his baseball skills. Though teased often, Jim was usually the first chosen when teams were decided for pick-up baseball games. All the Eisenreich children were involved in youth sports in St. Cloud, and both of their parents attended most of the family sporting events. Eisenreich referred to his family later as a “strict Catholic” family but very close.

Eisenreich continued to stand out as a ballplayer at St. Cloud Tech High School and later followed his father’s footsteps to St. Cloud State University. St. Cloud State head baseball coach Jim Stanek remembered recruiting Eisenreich: “He was 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds, not very big but he could hit the ball.”

Eisenreich matured quickly and was a starter for the varsity team by his sophomore season. He was the team’s leading hitter and earned all-conference honors. In his junior year in 1980, Eisenreich continued to impress. Despite his .385 batting average and second consecutive all-conference season, he wasn’t even considered the top prospect at his school. The scouts were watching infielder Bob Hegman, who was getting a look from several major-league teams. Eisenreich’s head coach at the time, Denny Lorsung, wrote to the Minnesota Twins to thank them for some tickets and suggested that they take a look at Eisenreich.  

Whether or not Lorsung’s letter made a difference, Jim Eisenreich was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 16th round of the 1980 amateur draft and signed with the team shortly after. It wasn’t too long before Eisenreich was opening some eyes in the Twins’ organization. Just weeks after he signed, he hit his first professional home run, a grand slam for the Elizabethton Twins that came just weeks after he signed. Though his team only managed to finish fourth, Eisenreich was named Co-Player of the Year in the Appalachian League. At the end of the 1980 season, Eisenreich played five games with Class A Wisconsin Rapids of the Midwest League.

He returned to Wisconsin Rapids for the 1981 season and improved on his 1980 success, batting .311 with 23 home runs and 99 runs batted in (RBIs) for a fourth-place team. His performance, combined with an organizational youth movement, earned him a non-roster invitation to spring training with the Twins before the 1982 season. Eisenreich eventually made the major-league team as the starting center fielder and was one of 10 players with less than a year of major league experience to make the Twins’ Opening Day roster that year. Among the other young players on that team were Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and Ron Washington.

Eisenreich’s speedy promotion through the minor leagues seemed to be paying off for the Twins early in the 1982 season. Through April 25, Eisenreich was batting .324 with a couple of home runs. It was about that time that his childhood problems resurfaced. At first, Eisenreich and the baseball media dismissed it as a simple case of rookie nerves. On April 30, Eisenreich began a string of five consecutive games in which he pulled himself out of the lineup early due to “twitches and facial grimaces.”

“I just get nervous,” Eisenreich said to Patrick Reusse in a May 1982 issue of The Sporting News. “When I think about it and try to correct it, I make it worse. The more I do it, the madder I get at myself. When I forget about it and have fun, I am okay.”

Eisenreich continued to have success at the plate during this time, but the final straw came at Fenway Park on May 4. Prior to the game, a Boston newspaper ran a story on Eisenreich’s condition, which was still being treated as a simple case of nerves. Even Eisenreich’s teammates found the initial symptoms somewhat comical at the time, so it was probably not surprising that the Red Sox fans began to taunt Eisenreich early in the game. Fans in the bleachers chanted insults at Eisenreich, and the symptoms progressively became worse. By the third inning, Eisenreich was still shaking violently and began to have trouble breathing, a result of hyperventilation, causing him to remove himself from the game.

Twins manager Billy Gardner tried to write Eisenreich’s name into the lineup during the ensuing series in Milwaukee, but Eisenreich was unable to play in any of the games. On one occasion, Eisenreich ran from the outfield, into the dugout, tearing his clothes off while saying that he couldn’t breathe. He was taken to the emergency room that night, where teammate Mickey Hatcher looked on as doctors tried unsuccessfully to calm Eisenreich down using tranquilizers. Eisenreich was placed on the disabled list shortly after and was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis on May 9. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to return in late May, Eisenreich and the Twins pulled the plug on the 1982 season in early June. Eisenreich sought multiple medical opinions on his condition, which only added to his frustration. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. No one else does. If I go to four doctors, I get four different opinions.” The initial diagnosis was agoraphobia, and Eisenreich was put on medication to help reduce hyperventilation. He also tried self-hypnosis and different kinds of medication to control seizures. There was talk in the Twins’ organization that Eisenreich might have been well enough to return in September, but the medication he was on made him unable to perform at the level to which he had become accustomed.     

The spring of 1983 brought with it new hope for Eisenreich and the Twins. Jim reported to camp believing that his problems might be behind him. A .400 batting average in spring training seemed to confirm that. As the Twins broke camp, all reports were that Eisenreich was set to start in center field and lead off in the batting order.

But after the second game of the 1983 season, seemingly out of nowhere, Eisenreich told Billy Gardner and Twins vice president Howard Fox that he wanted to retire, saying that baseball was not “worth it” anymore and that he was no longer enjoying the game. With that, Eisenreich headed home for St. Cloud. The Twins convinced him to go on the disabled list rather than retire, hoping that Eisenreich might return. His mind was made up, however, and despite several overtures by the Twins, Eisenreich remained in St. Cloud for the rest of the 1983 season, where he passed the summer by playing softball four nights a week.

The same pattern repeated in the spring of 1984, when Eisenreich attempted another comeback. He managed to appear in 12 games for the Twins before he once again announced his retirement. As they did the year before, the Twins organization tried to convince Eisenreich to give it another try. The Twins were always high on his talent. In the spring of 1984, Calvin Griffith said of Eisenreich, “a natural ballplayer like this might only come once in a lifetime.” Manager Billy Gardner, around the same time, suggested that Eisenreich’s presence in center field “added 10 additional victories.”

The relationship between the Twins and Eisenreich finally came to an end on June 4, 1984, when Jim refused a minor-league rehabilitation assignment. The Twins negotiated to pay Eisenreich for the rest of the season if he requested retirement, which he did. The parting seemed mostly amicable, with only a hint of frustration coming from Calvin Griffith, who seemed upset that Eisenreich had not tried new medication. The Twins brought up a young Kirby Puckett from the minors and he soon replaced Eisenreich in center field. 

Eisenreich spent the next three years in St. Cloud working as a part-time painter, working in an archery shop, and playing semipro baseball with the St. Cloud Saints, where he remained retired from the majors until October of 1986. Eisenreich’s former teammate at St. Cloud State, Bob Hegman, had become the Kansas City Royals’ administrative assistant for scouting and player development. Through his correspondence with some of the other coaches in the semipro league, Hegman found that Eisenreich was excelling on the field and stood out among the other players like a “man playing on a girls’ softball team.” Hegman recommended Eisenreich to Royals general manager John Schuerholz, and ultimately Eisenreich was invited to Royals’ camp as a non-roster player for the spring of 1987, his rights purchased from the Twins for the waiver price of $1.

At the time the Royals signed Eisenreich, Dick Howser was Kansas City’s manager. Howser resigned in February of 1987, however, and the Royals hired Billy Gardner to be their new manager. (Howser was attempting to comeback as manager after resigning the previous season because of a brain tumor; however, he was too sick to manage and died in June of 1987). Gardner had been the manager with the Twins during Eisenreich’s stint with Minnesota. Gardner remembered the frustration of Eisenreich’s first attempt to play major-league baseball, but he wanted to keep an open mind and was openly rooting for Eisenreich to succeed with the Royals.   

Within the media coverage of Eisenreich’s return, the first mention was made of Tourette syndrome. Jim told reporters that he believed Tourette syndrome was what had been causing the problem, not agoraphobia, as had been originally diagnosed and widely publicized. There was some skepticism from the media, and Eisenreich’s original doctor stood by his first diagnosis. Still, to Eisenreich, the new understanding of his affliction gave him the confidence to try major-league baseball again.

Tourette syndrome is described by the Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) as a neurological disorder that becomes evident in early childhood or adolescence before the age of 18 years. Tourette syndrome is defined by multiple motor and vocal tics lasting for more than one year. The first symptoms usually are involuntary movements (tics) of the face, arms, limbs or trunk. These tics are frequent, repetitive, and rapid. The most common first symptom is a facial tic (eye blink, nose twitch, grimace) and is replaced or added to by other tics of the neck, trunk, and limbs.

These involuntary (outside the patient’s control) tics may also be complicated, involving the entire body, such as kicking and stamping. Many persons report what are described as premonitory urges—the urge to perform a motor activity. Other symptoms such as touching, repetitive thoughts and movements, and compulsions can occur.

There are also verbal tics. These include grunting, throat clearing, shouting, and barking. Occasionally, the verbal tics may also be expressed as the involuntary use of obscene words or socially inappropriate words and phrases and gestures. Despite widespread publicity, such behavior is uncommon with tic disorders.

Most people with Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders lead productive lives. There are no barriers to achievement in their personal and professional lives. Persons with Tourette syndrome can be found in all professions. A goal of the Tourette Syndrome Association is to educate both patients and the public of the many facets of tic disorders. Increased public understanding and tolerance of Tourette syndrome symptoms are of paramount importance to people with Tourette syndrome. Medication and counseling can help patients and their families cope with the illness.

Eisenreich just wanted a chance, and the Kansas City Royals were ready to offer that to him. He started the 1987 season with Memphis in the Southern League. In 70 games with Memphis, Eisenreich batted .382 with 11 home runs and a league-leading 10 triples. Those numbers quickly led to a spot on the major league roster, and Eisenreich made his return to the big leagues on June 22, 1987, in a game at Oakland.

The Royals team that Eisenreich joined was in the heat of a race for the American League West lead with the Twins. Eisenreich’s first major-league hit since 1984 came in a game against the Twins, and he was a major contributor in a series that saw Kansas City win three out of four from Minnesota in late June and early July. On July 1, it was Eisenreich’s run-scoring double in the bottom of the ninth inning that defeated his former team. The next day, Eisenreich had a home run and four RBIs in the Royals’ 10-3 victory in the series finale

Eisenreich didn’t get caught up in his success in 1987. He told The Sporting News, “I know people are making a big thing about this, but I don’t consider this a comeback, not yet . . . if I can play the whole season and be successful, then I’ll know I’m back.” Eisenreich did finish the season, and, though his team did not win the division, he stuck it out and returned to the Royals the following season.

The 1988 season was a tough one for Eisenreich on the field. In the middle of the summer he experienced Class AAA for the first time in his career when he was sent down to Omaha. Eisenreich finished the season hitting just .218 with Kansas City

Both Eisenreich and the Royals got off to a great start in 1989. During the team’s 17-9 start, Eisenreich batted .333 with 10 RBIs. Thanks to the hot stretch early on, Eisenreich played his first full season as a major-league regular. The season was such a success that Eisenreich beat out Bo Jackson to earn the Royals’ Player of the Year award, as voted by the Kansas City media in the winter of 1989.          

Eisenreich stayed with the Royals and remained an everyday player until Hal McRae became manager at the end of 1991. McRae used Eisenreich as a fourth outfielder out of spring training in 1992 despite the fact that Eisenreich had had an excellent spring. After the Royals got off to a 2-16 start, McRae made some changes that included using Eisenreich more, though he still was primarily a platoon player for the rest of the 1992 season.

That offseason brought changes for Eisenreich, who tested the free-agent market and ultimately signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in January 1993. For Eisenreich, the move meant that he would play in the National League, where he would spend the balance of his career. The Phillies brought him in as part of an aggressive offseason in which they acquired veterans Milt Thompson and Pete Incaviglia in addition to Eisenreich.

Though he was originally signed by the Phillies to be the fourth outfielder, Eisenreich quickly became the platoon partner of Wes Chamberlain in right field. The 1993 season may have been the best of Eisenreich’s career to that point. Not only did he have great individual success, his team went to the World Series. Eisenreich’s three-run home run in Game Two of the Series was a key factor in one of Philadelphia’s two victories over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Phillies lost the 1993 World Series in heartbreaking fashion, but Eisenreich’s contributions earned him a contract extension with the Phillies. He continued to put up good numbers even though he was kind of the odd man out in the Philadelphia outfield for most of his time there. During the 1996 season, it was reported that the Phillies were shopping Eisenreich aggressively, despite the fact that he was having one of his best seasons at the plate. In December of 1996, at the age of 37, Eisenreich signed as a free agent with the Florida Marlins.

Once again Eisenreich came to a team that was making noise in the offseason. The Marlins, a franchise in only its fifth year, added veterans Bobby Bonilla and Moises Alou in addition to Eisenreich, who served primarily as a back-up left fielder. Once again team success followed, and the Marlins won the National League Wild Card in 1997 and advanced to the World Series, where Eisenreich once again was a contributor, this time in a seven-game World Series victory for his club. Eisenreich hit his second World Series home run in Game Three and was on second base when Edgar Renteria hit the series-winning single in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game Seven.

In May of 1998, Eisenreich was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a blockbuster deal that, among other things, briefly moved Mike Piazza to Florida. Eisenreich finished his major-league career in Los Angeles and retired after the 1998 season.  

Throughout his later years in baseball, Eisenreich became an inspiration for others dealing with Tourette syndrome. He would regularly receive calls from people asking him how he overcame Tourette to have success in the major leagues. In 1996, Eisenreich and his wife, Leann, founded the Jim Eisenreich Foundation for Children with Tourette syndrome. Eisenreich now lives in Kansas City with his wife and four kids. He continues to travel the country, telling his story to children and families in order to get the message out about Tourette syndrome, often doing so at major-league baseball stadiums, where the foundation hosts presentations and outings for Tourette-affected families. The foundation also provides resource guides for teachers, principals, counselors, and school support staff on Tourette syndrome and gives an annual Children’s Most Valuable Player Award to major-league players and alumni who have made a significant positive impact on the lives of children. Past winners have included Sean Casey, Kirby Puckett, Barry Larkin, and Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. 

Last revised: July 26, 2021 (zp)

Author’s Note

An earlier version of this biography appeared in the book Minnesotans in Baseball, edited by Stew Thornley (Nodin Press, 2009).

Sources

 “Twins Rookie Battles a Nervous Disorder” by Patrick Reusse, The Sporting News, May 17, 1982.

“Eisenreich Move No Shock to Ex-coach” by Dave Anderson, St. Cloud Times, March 7, 1983.

“Eisenreich Hopes to Shake Affliction” by Patrick Reusse, The Sporting News, March 14, 1983.

“Eisenreich Says He Won’t Be Back” by Patrick Reusse, The Sporting News, April 18, 1983.

“Eisenreich Says He is Retiring” by Patrick Reusse, The Sporting News, June 18, 1984.

“One Last Chance” by Tom Elliot, St. Cloud Times, February 26, 1987.

“Eisenreich: Illness or Anxiety” by Bob Nightengale, The Sporting News, March 23, 1987.

“The Story of a Comeback” by Tom Elliot, St. Cloud Daily Times, July 2, 1987.

“Eisenreich Is Doing It Every Day” by Randy Covitz, The Sporting News, September 11, 1989.

“Cliff Eisenreich Devoted Life to Family, Teaching” by Rick Preiss, St. Cloud Times, April 27, 1990.

“MVP: Jim Eisenreich’s Dream is Reality” by Anne Abicht, SCSU Outlook, Summer 1990, pp 106.

Touching Bases with our Memories: The Players Who Made the Minnesota Twins 1961-2001 by Dean Urdahl, St. Cloud, Minnesota: North Star Press, 2001.

“Phillie Spirit Invades Holy Spirit as Students Cheer Famous Alumnus” by Joseph Young, St. Cloud Visitor, October 21, 1993.

Jim Eisenreich Foundation: http://tourettes.org.

Tourette Syndrome Association: http://www.tsa-usa.org.