Nine professional baseball aspirants staked their claim to be consistent starters for the Colt .45s. Of these nine, only Al Spangler and Bob Aspromonte carried over to the 1963 Opening Day lineup card. And only Aspromonte carried over to the 1964 Opening Day lineup card. Aspromonte’s name appeared in every Opening Day starting lineup for Houston through 1968, the year he was traded to the Atlanta Braves. Aspromonte, fondly nicknamed “Aspro” in Houston, never started on Opening Day during his two seasons in Atlanta. After his trade to the New York Mets in 1971, Mets manager Gil Hodges penciled in Aspromonte as his Opening Day third baseman. Aspro batted .296 in eight Opening Day starts, going 8-for-27 with six runs and four RBIs.

Along with the distinction as the only original Colt .45 to appear in Houston’s first seven Opening Day lineups, Aspromonte achieved a number of franchise firsts. He was the first expansion-draft selection to take the field for the team. He was their first batter, hitting leadoff in the first inning on Opening Day. Aspromonte connected for the first hit, singling to left field on the first pitch from Cubs starter Don Cardwell. Moments later, Aspromonte scored the first run when Al Spangler tripled down the right-field line. He drew the first base on balls and subsequently scored the second run; while he was on base, Roman Mejias hit the first home run. Aspro stole the first base, taking second base in the eighth inning ahead of Mejias’ second home run of the day. He was the first player to reach base four times in a game, going 3-for-4 with a walk. On April 24, 1965, Aspromonte became the first Houston player to homer in the newly opened Astrodome against Vern Law as part of a 5-0 Astros victory over Pittsburgh.

Apart from these significant firsts, Bob Aspromonte also has two historic “lasts.” In addition to being the final original Colt .45 to start on Opening Day for Houston in 1968, he was the last active player in baseball (he retired in 1971) to wear the uniform of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He had one at-bat for Brooklyn in September of 1956 as an 18-year-old fresh out of Lafayette High School.

Robert Thomas Aspromonte was born on June 19, 1938, to Angelo and Laura Aspromonte. He was the youngest of their three sons, all of whom played professional baseball. The Aspromonte boys were raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, an area that was noted for its large constituency of Italian and Jewish residents. Aspromonte felt fortunate to be raised in a family and neighborhood where he was surrounded by athletic activities. Most of the Aspromonte household were fans of the Dodgers. Young Bob became the outlier when he developed a fondness for the New York Yankees, to the consternation of the rest of his clan.

As a child and teenager, Aspromonte participated in the Brooklyn Grasshopper, Little League, Kiwanis, Shore Parkway, and Coney Island baseball leagues, helping several of his teams to win titles. He was an all-star in the Coney Island and Kiwanis Leagues and won a Kiwanis Most Valuable Player Award. He captained his high-school baseball team during his senior year. In addition to baseball, Aspro played basketball at Lafayette. He came off the bench on his high-school varsity team, most of whose players were Jewish. Pertinent to that topic, Aspromonte noted that Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax was two years ahead of him at Lafayette, and won notoriety not in baseball but basketball. He said that Koufax, who pitched very little in high school, was the team’s first baseman.

Aspro’s brother Ken, older by seven years, played for six teams in a seven-year major-league career, followed by three seasons in Japan and another three managing the Cleveland Indians. Their father, Angelo, was a respected infielder in Brooklyn sandlot baseball in his youth. He augmented his youngest son’s interest in baseball by taking him to an Interstate League game in 1950. Bob was 12 at the time. Their main objective was to see a talented 19-year-old outfielder play for Trenton. The prospect would hit .353 in 306 at-bats. His name was Willie Mays, and the following year, he was called up to the New York Giants.1

Aspromonte’s fond memory of this experience with his father was complemented by the influence of his brother Charles. Eleven years his senior, Charles mentored Bob’s early development. After playing baseball in Bensonhurst, Charles played at New York University on his way to the Kingston Colonials and Sunbury A’s, Class-B affiliates in the Philadelphia Athletics farm system. Charles played with and tutored young Bob, even acting as his guide and agent to steer him professionally. Since Bob was only 17 when he tried out with the Dodgers, Charles had to act as his legal guardian through the signing process. This was not just because Angelo was busy supporting his family — he worked for 50 years as a brick mason — but because Charles, from his years in college and professional baseball, had acquired the know-how and confidence to guide his younger brother. As Aspro remembered, Angelo’s support for his sons’ athletic pursuits was a given: “I work. I want you guys to play baseball, because you have the talent.”2

After graduating from high school, Aspromonte was invited to try out with five different teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers. As an early admirer of Marty Marion, Aspromonte was tempted to sign with the Cardinals. Ultimately, however, he was influenced to sign with the Dodgers due to their strong local connection. It helped that his friend Michael A. Napoli Jr. also played in the Brooklyn system. Brooklyn scouts Al Campanis and Steve Lembo recommended Aspromonte to general manager Buzzie Bavasi, who invited him to his office to discuss terms. Aspro’s first contract with the Dodgers was for $7,000 for two years.3 Here is how Campanis assessed Aspromonte in his scouting report:

“What first attracted my attention was his batting form. He does things naturally up there. He’s smart and always seems to know what he’s doing. He’s got an old head on a pair of young shoulders. And he not only can hit the long ball occasionally, but he seldom strikes out — usually gets a piece of the ball … that’s an important asset.”4

Initially, Aspromonte aspired to attend Long Island University to obtain a bachelor’s degree in physical education. However, the urge to turn professional led him to the Dodgers, who signed him on July 20, 1956.5 The Dodgers sent Aspromonte to Macon in the Class-A Sally League. After playing 13 games, he was recalled to Brooklyn in September. His big-league debut took place on September 19. As part of a 17-2 rout of the Cardinals, Walter Alston sent Aspro to pinch-hit for Sandy Amoros in the eighth inning. He laced a couple of line drives foul off pitcher Don Liddle before swinging for a third strike.

Although Aspromonte played only the one game for Brooklyn, he was invited to accompany the Dodgers on a goodwill trip to Japan after the World Series. Aspromonte spoke fondly of his memories of Japan.

Aspromonte was in awe of the famed Dodgers surrounding him. He remembered that Jackie Robinson was one of the first to take an interest in him. Robinson noticed that Aspromonte played infield with a large outfielder’s glove. With unmistakable reverence, Aspromonte recalled that Robinson gave him one of his own smaller gloves and invited Aspro to work out with him. Sandy Koufax had preceded Aspromonte to the Dodgers by one year, and the Dodgers put the two Lafayette alumni together as roommates that September.

Military service remained compulsory for young American males in 1957. However, it marked the first year of a new program that allowed recruits to join the Army for six months before participating in the Reserve for the next seven years. Walter O’Malley’s son Peter was one year older than Aspromonte. As Aspromonte remembered, he “really took care of me.”6 The elder O’Malley arranged for Peter and Aspro to enter the freshly launched Army Reserves program together.

Upon his discharge from the Army, Aspromonte was returned to Macon, where he hit .311 in 48 plate appearances. From there he was sent to Class-D Thomasville of the Georgia-Florida League. Aspro hit .263 in 228 plate appearances with a .344 on-base percentage, including five doubles, three triples, and his first professional home run. Impressively, he struck out only 14 times, demonstrating an early flair to make contact. In 1958, the Dodgers’ first year in Los Angeles, they assigned Aspromonte to Class-A Des Moines of the Western League. Playing alongside Ron Fairly, he hit .263 in 531 plate appearances with only 48 strikeouts.

 In 1959 the Dodgers promoted Aspromonte to their Triple-A International League affiliate in Montreal, where he was reunited with former Brooklyn teammate Sandy Amoros. As the Royals’ starting shortstop, he hit .259 in 451 plate appearances. Also on that Montreal team was a 31-year-old pitcher named Tom Lasorda, who went 12-8 with a 3.83 ERA.

After batting .412 with the Dodgers in spring training, Aspromonte finally made the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster in 1960. With Maury Wills at shortstop, Jim Gilliam at second base, and Charlie Neal and Daryl Spencer as fellow utility players, Aspro’s playing time was limited to 21 games. Aspromonte demonstrated a flash of his potential at Los Angeles Coliseum on May 5. He went 4-for-5, including his first big-league home run. In the bottom of the 10th, Aspromonte hit a bases-loaded, two-out, two-strike single to drive home Wally Moon with the winning run.

Then Aspromonte went 5-for-37, prompting the Dodgers to option him to Triple-A St. Paul, where he could see more playing time. There he blossomed. He hit .329 with a .390 on-base percentage and 27 extra-base hits in 411 plate appearances, striking out only 38 times. After Aspromonte hit .330 in the Venezuelan Occidental League, missing the batting title on the season’s last day, the Dodgers kept him in Los Angeles for the entire 1961 season. Still, he took the field for only 15 games and only five as a starter. He was not getting the playing time he needed in order to develop.

Then the National League expanded to include new teams in New York and Houston. On October 10, Houston general manager Paul Richards won the coin flip to determine who would pick first in the expansion draft. Aspro was selected as the third overall pick.7 Though initially disappointed not to have been chosen by New York, as it would have brought him home, he soon warmed to the idea of playing in Houston.

In his first season in Houston as the Colt .45s’ third baseman, he played in 149 games in 1962, including 142 at third base. His slash line was .266/.332 with 18 doubles, 4 triples, and 11 homers. Although they trailed the pennant-winning San Francisco Giants by 36½ games, these numbers do not tell the whole story of “the little expansion team that could.”

The Giants’ record at Candlestick Park was 61-21, and the Colt .45s were the only team to win a season series there in 1962 with a record of 5-4. Only a pair of solo home runs by Willie Mays and Ed Bailey in the season finale gave the Giants a 2-1 victory and prevented the Los Angeles Dodgers from advancing straight to a World Series vs. the Yankees. Aspromonte went 2-for-4 in a losing effort for Dick Farrell. Despite a 64-96 eighth-place finish, Houston’s expansion team was in position to affect the outcome of the pennant race on the last day of the season.

While finishing 1963 with a record of, 66-96, the season proved to be more difficult for both the Colt .45s and Bob Aspromonte. He played in only 136 games, with a .214/.276 slash line. Star reliever Jim Umbricht was diagnosed with cancer and began treatments at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Hospital; he died on April 8, 1964.8 Despite these lows, the season had its highlights for Aspromonte. On May 12, the Colt .45s behind Don Nottebart trailed the Cubs 1-0 entering the bottom of the ninth inning. With two outs, 19-year-old rookie Rusty Staub tripled to drive home Johnny Temple and send the game into extra innings. Meanwhile, Umbricht, pitching while fighting cancer, preserved the tie with two scoreless innings. Then in the bottom of the 10th, Aspromonte hit a walk-off homer off Bob Buhl.

Also in 1963, an unusual and extraordinary human-interest story involving Aspromonte and a 9-year-old boy named Billy Bradley reached its zenith. The story actually began on April 30, 1962. While drinking water at a fountain in El Dorado, Arkansas, Billy was struck by lightning. Although he survived, the bolt robbed him of his vision. Billy’s family took him to Houston for ophthalmology treatments with Dr. Louis Girard. While undergoing a series of surgeries to restore his eyesight, Billy listened to the Colt .45s on the radio. He soon adopted Bob Aspromonte as his favorite player.

Eventually the Colt .45s were notified of Billy’s request for Aspromonte to visit him at Houston’s Methodist Hospital. Accompanied by teammate Joe Amalfitano, Aspro visited Billy on May 7, 1962, bringing a glove, a ball, a transistor radio, and Colt .45s pajamas as gifts. Before the players left, Billy asked Aspromonte to hit a home run that night against the Dodgers. Aspro countered that while he was not a home-run hitter, he would try to honor the boy’s request.9

Houston built a 5-0 lead by the second inning, only to trail the Dodgers 6-5 in the seventh. With two runners on base in the bottom half of the inning, Aspromonte came to bat. He was 2-for-3 to that point with two singles. On a 3-and-1 pitch from lefty Pete Richert, Aspromonte lined a three-run homer to provide the margin of victory in Houston’s 9-6 win. At the same time, he consummated the improbable scenario of delivering on an offer to hit a home run for a child.

The Bradley family returned to Houston in 1963 for additional eye treatments. Aspromonte took them to lunch on June 11, and again Billy asked Aspromonte to hit a home run for him. Battling chronic back pain, Aspromonte was struggling through perhaps his worst season in uniform. Although batting a feeble .198, he nevertheless told Billy that he would try to deliver another home run for him against the Cubs.10

The Cubs and the Colt .45s went into extra innings deadlocked at 2-2. Pitcher Hal Woodeshick led off the 10th inning with a single against Lindy McDaniel and was lifted for pinch-runner Bob Lillis. Ernie Fazio bunted and a throwing error by Ernie Banks advanced the runners to scoring position. Brock Davis was walked to load the bases for the struggling Aspromonte. One-for-four on the night with a single, Aspro faced his final chance to deliver on Billy’s request. Accordingly, he hit a 2-and-2 pitch on the screws, delivering a walk-off grand slam to left field. A humbled Aspromonte averred that he could not have done this on his own, that he had help coming from somewhere.11

On July 26 Billy Bradley was in Houston again to see Dr. Girard. Once again he met with Aspromonte and once again he requested a home run. Aspro was homerless since the grand slam, and his hitting had deteriorated even further to .176 over his last 20 games. This time Aspro told Billy he was pushing his luck and suggested instead that Billy settle for a couple of base hits.

By this time Billy’s eyesight had been partially restored and he was able to watch the game at Colt Stadium. Tracy Stallard of the Mets had loaded the bases with Al Spangler, Rusty Staub, and Jimmy Wynn when Aspromonte came to bat in the bottom of the first. Astonishing even himself, Aspro once again hit a grand slam.12

Houston broadcaster Gene Elston was aware of the human-interest story involving Billy Bradley and referred to it on the air. The game was interrupted to retrieve the ball and Aspromonte and Bradley hugged. A New York sportswriter asked Aspromonte, “Are you doing it for the boy, or is the boy doing it for you?” Aspro replied, “It’s almost spooky, isn’t it? But if Bill will stick around, I’ll be tempted to buy him a season ticket. It’s a great thrill to see how happy it makes the boy.”13

After the 1963 season, Aspromonte undertook a series of eight rigorous daily 90-minute isometric exercises in his Brooklyn home to strengthen the “worn out” lumbar disc in his lower back. At times the pain was severe enough to prevent him from bending down. After the offseason of rest and exercises, the acute pain from which he suffered in 1963 had largely been eliminated.14

Indeed, Aspromonte recovered to have one of his best seasons in 1964. His slash line over 608 plate appearances in 157 games was .280/.329/.392. He set career highs with 69 RBIs and 12 home runs, including two more grand slams. He led the Colt .45s with a .280 batting average, and he had a .973 fielding percentage, still (as of 2018) a record for Houston third basemen, and a National League record at that time.15 In 1964 the Colt .45s duplicated their 1963 record of 66-96 and their ninth-place finish, but the resurgent Bob Aspromonte with a 66-point gain in batting average trailed only the 70-point gain by teammate Bob Lillis as the National League’s most improved hitters.16

The Houston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted Aspromonte as the team’s Most Valuable Player for 1964. Although both the Reds and Dodgers sought him in a trade, Vivian Smith, wife of co-owner Bob Smith, put the kibosh on any trade talk for Aspromonte.17

In 1965, the club abandoned Colt Stadium, moving into a space-age sports facility. Officially known as the Harris County Domed Stadium, the venue quickly became known as the Astrodome as the team was rechristened the Astros. Lum Harris was now the manager and by season’s end, Bob Smith would sell his share of the club to Roy Hofheinz.

On April 9, 1965, a crowd of 47,879 watched Mickey Mantle hit the first home run in the inaugural exhibition game in the Astrodome as the American League champion New York Yankees suffered a 2-1, 12-inning exhibition loss to the nascent Astros. Three days later, the Astros hosted the Philadelphia Phillies in the first official game at the Dome. Aspromonte caught the ceremonial first pitch from astronaut Alan Shepard.18 Aspro managed one infield single in four at-bats in a 2-0 loss to Philadelphia. After an eight-day road trip that ended with a win, the Astros set a team record by embarking on a 10-game winning streak including nine at home. Aspromonte expressed great satisfaction from contributing 11 game-winning hits to the Astros cause in 1965.19

After winning 12 of their first 18, the Astros soon plummeted to familiar territory, ninth place, with a record of 65-97. Though Aspromonte’s slash line was a respectable .263/.310 in 152 games, he managed only five home runs and 52 RBIs in the pitcher-friendly confines of “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Early in the year, he received an encouraging letter from Billy Bradley. Following his surgeries, Billy’s eyesight recovered. With the help of corrective lenses, Billy resumed playing baseball. The letter contained a newspaper article with a note that read, “This one’s for you, Bob. I didn’t hit you a home run, but I pitched you a no-hitter.”20

Roy Hofheinz fired both manager Lum Harris and general manager Paul Richards after the 1965 season. Under new manager Grady Hatton, the Astros improved to eighth place in 1966, with a record of 72-90. Aspromonte’s solid fielding continued, with a National League-leading .962 for third basemen. His batting tapered to .252/.297 with 52 RBIs and 8 home runs, but he added two more grand slams to his final career total of six, a Houston record that stood until July 25, 2011, when Carlos Lee hit his seventh grand slam in an Astros uniform.21

In 1967 Aspromonte enjoyed his finest year in a Houston uniform. He set career highs with 24 doubles and a .294/.354/.401 slash line in 137 games. Along with 6 home runs and 58 RBIs, he matched his 1963 high of five triples. The Astros announced that H.B. “Spec” Richardson was the new general manager on July 27 in midst of a ninth-place, 69-93 campaign.

Aspro’s playing time began to diminish in 1968 as young third baseman Doug Rader was being groomed for the position. Even so, Aspromonte participated in yet another historic event on April 15, 1968. Astros ace Don Wilson and Tom Seaver of the Mets locked horns in a tremendous duel that contributed to a record that has lasted half a century. Seaver was pitching a two-hit shutout when he was pulled from the game after 10 innings. Wilson, meanwhile, pitched a shutout of his own through nine. Then the bullpens took over, holding the stalemate for what amounted to almost another two full games. When the Astros came to bat in the bottom of the 24th inning, the score was still deadlocked at 0-0. Norm Miller singled off pitcher Les Rohr, Jim Wynn was walked intentionally, Rusty Staub grounded out, and John Bateman was intentionally walked, when Aspromonte came to the plate.

Aspro was 0-for-8 with one walk. Still adept at making contact, he laced a grounder to short that Al Weis failed to handle cleanly, allowing Miller to score the winning run. Bob Aspromonte had a walk-off E-6, and the Astros defeated the Mets 1-0 in what remains as of 2018 the longest reciprocal shutout by two major-league teams.22

By 1968, America had entered one of the most turbulent periods in its history. Civil unrest began to offset the promise of Camelot and the Great Society. On June 6, only two months after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles.

President Lyndon B. Johnson declared June 9, the day after Kennedy’s funeral, as a national day of mourning. Baseball Commissioner William Eckert ordered that no games on June 8 should start until after the burial, and that while games would continue on June 9, Eckert proclaimed that any player could “pay respects” if desired by sitting out to observe the day of mourning.23

Despite the option given the players by the commissioner, players who opted out were threatened with consequences. The Astros were scheduled to host the Pirates as Aspromonte, Staub, player representative Dave Giusti, and Pittsburgh’s Maury Wills all opted not to play. Giusti noted that the entire team voted to abstain, but rescinded amid a threat of “very definite economic pressures” from GM Richardson.24 A question of team retaliation for Aspro’s stance on the Robert Kennedy matter arose. His playing time continued to decrease, and with it came a decline in production. His 1968 slash line fell to .225/.285/.284.

Perhaps hard feelings lingered over these June events. Giusti was traded to St. Louis. Staub was soon traded to Montreal. By 1968, Bob Aspromonte was the only remaining member of the original 1962 Colt .45s still with the franchise. One of the team’s most popular players in its short history, Aspro was their second drafted player, their first-ever batter and position player, and the last player from the team’s first Opening Day lineup. On December 4 that player was gone, traded to the Atlanta Braves for Marty Martinez.

With Paul Richards as the Braves’ general manager and Lum Harris their manager, Aspromonte was not the first Houston alumnus to find his way to Atlanta. He was reunited with former teammates Sonny Jackson, Ken Johnson, and Claude Raymond in the Braves’ fourth season in Georgia. The 1969 season also marked the first in the divisional era. Both the American and National Leagues had realigned to each form two divisions, East and West, of six teams apiece. Atlanta and Houston found themselves in the National League West.

Since Clete Boyer was the Braves’ regular third baseman, Bob Aspromonte became a part-time player, filling in in left field, third base, second base, and shortstop. His slash line was .253/.304/.348 in 215 plate appearances with 3 home runs and 24 RBIs. Every National League West team except San Diego factored into the pennant race and as late as September 10, Aspro’s former team was two games out of first with a record of 75-65. But the Astros declined after that to finish at exactly .500, while Aspro’s new team won the first-ever National League West Division title with a record of 93-69.

The 1969 National League Championship Series marked Aspromonte’s first and only postseason experience. The Braves’ opponents were the unlikely New York Mets. Having lost at least 89 games and finished no higher than ninth place in their first seven seasons, little was expected from the Mets in 1969. As late as May 27, the Mets won-lost record stood at 18-23. However, they soon caught fire and by August, they passed the Chicago Cubs to finish at 100-62.

Aspromonte’s postseason experience was limited to three pinch-hit appearances and no action in the field. In Game One, in Atlanta, he grounded out for Phil Niekro in the eighth inning as Tom Seaver picked up a 9-5 decision. Aspro was again sent in as a pinch-hitter in Game Two, in Atlanta. Batting for Cecil Upshaw, he popped up in the eighth inning. With Ron Taylor taking the 11-6 victory, the Braves faced elimination as the series headed to New York. Aspromonte once again pinch-hit for Upshaw, this time facing Nolan Ryan to lead off the ninth inning. The young flamethrower retired Aspro on a pop fly. Two outs later, the Mets had swept the Braves and went on to face the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

In 62 games as a reserve player in 1970, most of Aspromonte’s time in the field was spent at third base, with a few games at shortstop, left field, and first base. In 142 plate appearances, his slash line was .213/.282/.236 with no home runs and 7 RBIs. Atlanta fell to a 76-86 record and a fifth-place finish in the National League West.

Aspro had maintained a friendly connection with Gil Hodges during the decade since they were teammates with the Dodgers. After Joe Foy‘s disappointing campaign in 1970, the Mets were in the market to upgrade at third base. Hodges turned toward his former teammate, and Aspromonte was happy to play for his old friend and mentor. Having left Foy unprotected, the Mets lost him to the Washington Senators in the Rule 5 Draft. Meanwhile, the Mets traded pitcher Ron Herbel to Atlanta for Aspromonte. Aspro had worn number 14 for his entire career to honor Hodges, and this became the basis of some good-humored teasing when Aspromonte told Hodges he wanted to wear the number for the Mets. Hodges was not surrendering 14, and he assigned Aspro number 2.25

Aspromonte was given a renewed opportunity as a starter in 1971 as Hodges penciled him into the Opening Day lineup at third base, his eighth and final Opening Day start. After a slow beginning, Aspro peaked on May 18 with a 3-for-4 outing against former Atlanta teammate Mike McQueen that included two solo home runs, bringing his batting average to .283. He was still hitting a respectable .270 in June when a calf muscle injury interrupted his momentum. Aspro was limited to 38 games in the second half of the season and was unable to sustain his prior level of performance.

On September 25, Aspromonte pinch-hit for left fielder Dave Marshall in the bottom of the 15th inning to score Tim Foli from second base with the game-winning run. The walk-off proved to be Aspro’s final hit, in his next to last major-league game. His last appearance took place on September 28 when he started at third base. Hitless in three official at-bats, Aspro drove in his final run when Cleon Jones scored on his sacrifice fly in a 5-2 loss to the Cardinals and Steve Carlton. Aspromonte’s 1971 slash line was .225/.285/.301 in 104 games, with 5 home runs and 33 RBIs.

The Mets finished a disappointing 1971 season with a record of 83-79, tied for third place with the Cubs. Needing to upgrade at third base again for 1972, the Mets traded Nolan Ryan to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi, releasing Aspromonte. Sparky Anderson still thought Aspro could play and invited him to spring training with the Reds in 1972. Although Aspromonte was featured on a 1972 Topps card with Cincinnati, he failed to make the team and hung up his spikes.26 

Aspro’s final career slash line was .252/.308/.336. He finished with 1,103 hits and 60 home runs. The disciplined hitter’s strikeout totals in his eight seasons as a regular ranged from 44 to 63, topping 60 only once. By contrast, 20 major-league players had 60 or more strikeouts in the first two months of the 2018 season.

After retiring as a player, Aspro decided to make Houston his year-round home, ultimately persuading both of his brothers to join him. They formed a partnership to obtain a Coors distributorship in 1975, which they named Aspromonte-Coors Distributing Company.27

Bob Aspromonte managed the distributorship, which by 1981 was valued in the range of eight figures. He implemented several innovative business strategies that improved both company profitability and personnel loyalty and morale. He ran Aspromonte-Coors until 2000, when he sold his majority interest. Aspromonte remained active in the Houston community, lending his name to the YMCA, the Lions Eye Bank Foundation, and Houston Eye Associates.

There is an epilogue to the Bill Bradley story. In 2003 Aspromonte was blinded in one eye after a car battery exploded in his face. When Bradley, now 51, learned of the injury, he contacted Aspro to offer support. The same ophthalmologist who restored Bradley’s sight, Dr. Louis Girard, operated on Aspromonte and eventually helped him to overcome substantial damage to his eye.28

Aspromonte remained a revered figure throughout the Houston community. He said he was particularly proud of receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a humanitarian award honoring American diversity and fostering tolerance, respect, and understanding among religious and ethnic groups.29

In 2005 Aspro was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2011, Bob and Ken were both elected to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago. For the silver anniversary of the franchise in 2012, the Astros created a Walk of Fame outside Minute Maid Park. Their first honoree was Bob Aspromonte: “Aspro the Astro.” And on April 10, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the franchise’s first game, Aspromonte threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Away from the game, he retained a powerful reverence for the bond of family, which includes his brothers along with three generations of nieces and nephews.30

“In all my years in baseball,” remarked fellow Houston baseball legend Larry Dierker, “I have never known a player with more class than Bob Aspromonte.”31

Last revised: December 1, 2018

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

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

Thanks for assistance to Bob Aspromonte, Mark Kanter, Maxwell Kates, and Liubov Wernick. 

Notes

1 Author interview with Bob Aspromonte, February 24, 2018. Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotations or unattributed memories come from this interview.

2  Interview with Bob Aspromonte, February 24, 2018.

3  Joe Reichler and Budd Theobald, “Bob Aspromonte” in Here Come the Colts (New York: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1962), 10.

4 Ibid. Cockroach, “From Brooklyn to the Bayou City: Bob Aspromonte” on Astros County: Your Neighborhood Astros Blog and Grill, January 27, 2017, astroscounty.com; accessed June 3, 2018.

5 Cockroach.

6 Interview with Bob Aspromonte, February 24, 2018.

7 Robert Reed, A Six-Gun Salute: An Illustrated History of the Houston Colt .45s, 1962-1964 (Houston: Lone Star Books, 1999), 59.

8 Bill Brown and Mike Acosta, Deep in the Heart: Blazing a Trail from Expansion to World Series (Houston: Bright Sky Press, 2013), 29.

9 Brown, 31.

10 Ibid.

11 Reed, 124.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Mickey Herskowitz, “Aspromonte Leaves Drydock — Worn-Out Back Disc Repaired,” The Sporting News, February 1, 1964: 23.

15 Cockroach.

16 Chuck Pickard, “Colts’ Lillis Boosted Bat Mark 70 Points — Majors’ Best Gain,” The Sporting News, November 7, 1964: 25.

17 Clark Nealon, “Houston Picks MVP — Aspro the Astro,” The Sporting News, January 23, 1965: 7.

18  Cockroach.

19 Interview with Bob Aspromonte, February 24, 2018.

20 Reed, 124.

21 Brown, 30.

22  Norm Miller, To All My Friends … from Norm Who? (Houston: Double Play Productions, 2009), i.

23 Cockroach.

24 Associated Press, “Houston’s Staub, Aspro Don’t Play,” Dallas Morning News, June 10, 1968: 2. 

25  “National League Rosters, Uniform Numbers, ” The Sporting News, April 17, 1971: 38.

26  1972 Topps #659, Brooklyn: Topps Chewing Gum Inc., 1972.

27 Rich Marazzi and Len Fiorito, “Bob Aspromonte” in Aaron to Zuverink, (New York: Avon Books, 1984), 16.

28 Brown, 31.

29 neco.org/medal-of-honor.

30 Interview with Bob Aspromonte, February 24, 2018.

31 Mickey Herskowitz, “Players Don’t Come Classier Than Aspromonte,” Houston Chronicle, February 14, 2001. 

Ausmus was born on April 14, 1969, in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Harry Jack Ausmus, a Protestant, retired from a long career as professor of European history at Southern Connecticut State University. His mother, Linda, is Jewish. While growing up in Connecticut, Ausmus didn’t have a strong connection with his Jewish roots. He would occasionally celebrate the high holidays with his mother’s family but it never went further than that.1

When Ausmus was 5 years old, he told his father that “when he grew up he wanted to go to Dartmouth and he wanted to play baseball.” Harry Ausmus gave his son a lecture about having to work hard and told him if he did, he could do both.2 Little did father and son know at the time that both of these dreams would eventually come true.

Ausmus attended Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut. He played several sports there but excelled in baseball. As a sophomore he played shortstop and batted .327. Ausmus became a catcher as a junior, hit .436 and was chosen for the All-State team. He hit .411 during his senior year and was named the Cheshire Area High School Player of the Year.3 His leadership skills were evident to those who coached and played with him.

“Looking back now, we all realized how confident Brad was, and how intelligent he was. And if any of us forgot, he wasn’t bashful about reminding us,” recalled Nick Carparelli Jr., a teammate on the Cheshire High baseball team.4 When Ausmus became the Tigers manager in 2013, he credited his Cheshire High coach, Nick Carparelli Sr., for helping him to learn how to coach.

“He was a huge influence,” Ausmus said of his coach. “Not so much from the baseball perspective, but more on how to treat human beings and how to work hard.” Carparelli was also complimentary of Ausmus: “He was always the type of kid in control of things — in control of the game, of a pitcher. I think he always knew he wanted to stay in the game [after he stopped playing], whether on the administrative end or as an on-field manager.”5

By the time Ausmus graduated from high school, recruiters from Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton pursued him as a catcher. Also, the New York Yankees selected him in the 48th round of the June 1987 amateur draft. Ausmus initially refused to sign with the Yankees. His parents were adamant that he pursue a college degree. They eventually agreed that he could play baseball as long as it didn’t interfere with school.6 Ausmus signed with the Yankees after they agreed that he could attend classes and play in the minors when school ended.

After his freshman year Ausmus adjusted his schedule to spend the fall and winter terms at Dartmouth, taking four courses each term to keep up with his classmates. This left him free to go to spring training and play baseball during the season. Ausmus graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in government in 1991.7

In the summer of 1988 the Yankees sent Ausmus to their rookie-league team, the Gulf Coast Yankees. He spent most of the season there before getting a promotion to the low Class-A Oneonta Yankees (New York-Pennsylvania League) for two games. In the rookie league he had 15 RBIs and a .255 batting average before returning to classes in the fall of 1988. In the summer of 1989 Ausmus played in 52 games at Oneonta; in 1990 he played in 107 games for the high Class-A Prince William Cannons (Carolina League). Ausmus started the 1991 season in Double A, with the Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Eastern League, but the Yankees sent him back to Prince William for the second half of the season, and he raised his batting average to 304.

After graduating from Dartmouth in the winter of 1991, Ausmus spent most of the 1992 season with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers (International League), with a brief stay at Albany-Colonie.

The major leagues were expanding and one of the new teams, the Colorado Rockies, drafted Ausmus from the Yankees in the expansion draft after the 1992 season. He spent the first part of the 1993 season with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Pacific Coast League), batting .270 in 76 games. On July 26, Ausmus was traded by the Rockies with Doug Bochtler and a player to be named to the San Diego Padres for Greg Harris and Bruce Hurst. ( Andy Ashby was the player to be named.)

Ausmus finally reached the majors with the Padres. He played in his first major-league game two days after the trade, on July 28, starting against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Ausmus got his first major-league hit in the fourth inning, a single off starter Greg Hibbard. He threw out speedster Willie Wilson trying to steal second in the eighth inning, a sign of his excellent defensive skills.

By the time Ausmus reached the majors, he had spent more than five years in the minors. He reflected on those years later: “I was naïve. In my mind, I was going to make it eventually and I just kept slogging away. My first year, I think I got paid $700 a month. I didn’t know any better. I just assumed the best and that eventually I would make it. I didn’t realize how stacked the odds were against me.”8

Ausmus became the Padres’ full-time catcher in 1994 when he started 94 games. He batted .251 with 7 home runs, a career best to that point. But his importance to the Padres was not his offense but his defensive skills. He led the league in putouts by a catcher when he had 683 putouts that year. The Padres were pleased with Ausmus and he remained their starting catcher in 1995. He batted .293 that year, a career best, and stole 16 bases, the most by a major-league catcher since Craig Biggio stole 19 in 1991. Defensively, Ausmus led the league in assists (63) and double plays by a catcher (14).

Ausmus married Elizabeth Ann “Liz” Selfridge in 1995. They had two daughters, Sophie, born in 1998, and Abigail, born in 1999.

Ausmus got off to a shaky start offensively in 1996. By mid-June, hitting just .181 in 149 at-bats, Ausmus was traded to the Tigers with Andujar Cedeno and minor leaguer Russ Spear for John Flaherty and Chris Gomez.

The Tigers made Ausmus their full-time catcher. He played in 75 Detroit games, improving his batting average to .248, and continued to be an asset defensively.

Yet Ausmus was traded by the Tigers in the offseason. He went to the Houston Astros along with José Lima, Trever Miller, C.J. Nitkowski, and Daryle Ward, for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller, and cash. (This was the first of three consecutive deals over a four-year span inn which Ausmus was exchanged between the two teams.)

Ausmus spent 1999 and 2000 as the Astros starting catcher, batting a cumulative .268. He had 25 doubles in 1998 and averaged 44 RBIs during the two seasons, both offensive improvements for him. He continued to an excellent defensive catcher.

By this time, Ausmus was considered a weak hitter but an excellent defensive player. On January 14, 1999, the Astros sent Ausmus back to the Tigers along with minor-leaguer C.J. Nitkowski for Paul Bako, Dean Crow, and Brian Powell and minor-league players Mark Persails and Carlos Villalobos.

Ausmus had his best offensive season in 1999. He batted .275 and set career highs in on-base percentage (.365) and slugging percentage (.415). He was chosen for his only All-Star game appearance, as the backup catcher for Ivan Rodriguez. After replacing Rodriguez in the sixth inning, Ausmus showed his defensive prowess when he threw out Brian Jordan trying to steal second in the seventh. He got one at-bat in the game and grounded out to second.

Ausmus had another solid year defensively in 2000. He was recognized for his ability to block pitches at the plate. Pitchers regarded him highly for identifying their strengths and weaknesses and using that knowledge to guide them through a game.9

The Tigers were looking for a catcher who might help them offensively so Ausmus was traded back to the Astros on December 11, 2000. With Doug Brocail and Nelson Cruz, he went to Houston in exchange for Roger Cedeno, Chris Holt, and Mitch Meluskey.

By the time Ausmus returned to Houston, he had fully established his reputation as a defensive asset and was acknowledged as one of the tops at bringing out the best in pitchers. Timothy de Block reflected on his defensive prowess in 2012: “My lasting imagery of Ausmus is his ability to block any and every ball in the dirt. Jason Castro‘s inability to do so this season reminds me how good Ausmus was at it, and listening to various announcers tell kids that’s the way to do it.”10

Upon his return to the Astros, Ausmus began the most productive period of his career. He became Houston’s starting catcher, a position he held through 2007. He never became a consistently solid hitting threat during those years although he did improve offensively. In 2004, he batted .308 against left-handers, and was .302 in situations that were “late and close,” meaning in the seventh inning or later, with the score tied or the tying run on base, at the plate, or on deck. These were significant improvements from the previous year and helped the Astros as they made the postseason run.

Ausmus had more walks than strikeouts for the only time in his career in 2005. In 2007, he batted .235 but tied for second among National League catchers with six stolen bases. He recorded his 100th career stolen base on July 27.11

Even though he never became a solid hitter, Ausmus was valuable to the Astros for his work behind the plate. He earned his first Gold Glove Award in 2001, and followed it up with a second in 2002. His fielding percentage both years was .997.  In many ways, Ausmus’s leadership gave the Astros another manager on the field.

“I’m thinking what’s the score, what inning are we in, how many outs, what’s this hitter’s weakness, what’s this pitcher’s strengths, who’s on deck, who could pinch-hit, who is up after the hitter on deck and you kind of go through all of these things in an instant. And then you make a decision and put down the next signal.”12

The Astros pitchers relied on Ausmus and respected his hard work to prepare them for the game. He prepared graphs for his pitchers before every series showing the strengths and weaknesses of every player on the opposing team.

The Astros made the playoffs in 2001, losing the National League Division Series in three games to the Atlanta Braves. Ausmus contributed a two-run home run off Greg Maddux in the first game. He finished the series with a .625 slugging percentage.

In 2004, the Astros reached the NLCS, falling to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Ausmus felt he let his teammates down in the series when he called for one too many sliders from closer Dan Miceli. That misstep led to a tie-breaking home run by Albert Pujols The Cardinals took a two-games-to-none lead in the series and the Astros never caught up afterward.13

In the 2005 NL Division Series, against Atlanta, Ausmus hit a home run that Tal Smith, a longtime Astros executive, called “one of the greatest hits in Astros history.” The homer, off Kyle Farnsworth with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Four, tied the game, 6-6, and the Astros got a walk-off victory in the 18th inning. Smith, the Astros’ president of baseball operations at the time, said the homer was “[a]bsolutely critical.”14 Ausmus caught the first 12 innings of the game, played first base from the 13th inning to the 15th, then returned to catch the 16th through 18th for Roger Clemens.

The Astros defeated the Cardinals for the National League pennant in the NCLS. Ausmus was 7-for-22 during the series, including three hits in the sixth and final game, a 5-1 Astros win.

Tal Smith said Ausmus“was invaluable” during the Astros’ playoff run, adding, “He deserves an awful lot of credit for our success. It was like having another manager on the field. He was very active with the pitching staff. He was so knowledgeable, so savvy. I thought he was instrumental with our success.”15

The Astros were swept in the World Series by the Chicago White Sox. Ausmus started all four games behind the plate and collected four hits. Even with the disappointing loss in the World Series, Ausmus said he had many fond memories of those winning years in Houston. “It was fun. Baseball was the sport in Houston and it had been historically a football town,” he said.16

During his years with Astros, Ausmus began to be recognized as a possible manager after he finished playing. Astros manager Phil Garner quipped,“I have to keep him playing, because if he starts managing, he’ll be better than me.”17

During Ausmus’s tenure with the Astros, the team granted him free agency every other year. The first two times Ausmus signed a two-year contract shortly after entering the free-agent market. He signed his last contract, a one-year pact, with the Astros on October 30, 2007. The Astros were planning for J.R. Towles to become their starting catcher in 2008. They felt that the 23-year-old rookie would need some help in adjusting to the majors so they signed Ausmus to be Towles’ mentor as well as the backup catcher.

At the time, Houston general manager Ed Wade said: “Brad is an established veteran catcher with the ability to play a lot. The [team’s] mindset is if we can get 20 more points on the batting average [from Towles] or get a guy to knock in 20 more runs, and we have [Ausmus], who has a great presence behind the plate and who handles pitchers so well, we think we’ve got a pretty complete package going at that particular position.”18

On May 12, 2008, Ausmus got his 1,500th career hit. As of 2018 he was one of only eight major-league catchers to get 1,500 hits and steal at least 100 bases. Although Ausmus mentored Towles, the young catcher struggled. By June, Towles was hitting only .145 and the Astros optioned him to the minors. Ausmus became the starting catcher until Towles returned later in the season.

Ausmus scored his 700th career run on August 12, 2008, in a 12-4 Astros win over the Giants. He became the 25th catcher to reach that mark.19

Toward the end of the 2008 season, Ausmus said it would be his final year in Houston. He said that he wanted to be closer to his family in San Diego, commenting, “Large chunks of time away from home is not in the best interest of my family.” When the season ended, Ausmus had become Houston’s all-time leader for catchers with 1,259 games, 1,119 starts, 970 hits, and 415 runs. The Astros released him on October 31, 2008.

Although he had contemplated retiring, Ausmus signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on January 21, 2009. He would be the backup to Russell Martin. Dodgers manager Joe Torre was impressed with Ausmus and his leadership, and said,“There’s no question he can manage. He’s a smart cookie, everybody knows that, and he has an engaging personality.”20

Ausmus even managed the Dodgers in the final game of the season. Torre had a tradition of letting one player manage the last game of the year if it had no bearing on the standings. Ausmus stood by Torre throughout the game and made all the decisions. When he was asked about it before the game, he said, “I’ll let you know if it was still a good idea in about five hours.” He called on acting hitting coach Jim Thome to pinch-hit in the eighth and after Thome hit a single, he replaced Thome with himself as a pinch-runner.21

The Dodgers released Ausmus after the 2009 season but he signed another one-year contract with the team on January 26, 2010. On April 10, 2010, he was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his 18-year career in the majors. He missed most of the season after having surgery in April to repair a lower-back herniated disc. Ausmus played in only 21 games, the last one on October 3, after which he announced his retirement as a player.

Ausmus finished his career ranked third in major-league history with 12,839 putouts as a catcher, trailing only Iván Rodríguez and Jason Kendall; seventh in games caught with 1,938; and 15th in fielding percentage (.994).

A month after he retired, the San Diego Padres hired Ausmus as a special assistant in baseball operations. “He brings a tremendous amount of experience from his long and successful playing career. We look forward to having him help with the development of catchers throughout our system,” Padres general manager Jed Hoyer said.22

Ausmus was also one of the several Jewish players in major-league baseball when he played. His Jewish background eventually led to his first managing job, with Team Israel in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.  Ausmus’s team won its first two games before being eliminated by Spain in a 10-inning loss.

Ausmus used many of the same skills he had developed during his years as a catcher. As he assembled the club, he compiled information about prospective players on his iPad and index cards. “He told me he felt that he was not just the manager, but the general manager. [T]hat it was a lot of fun choosing his own players. It gave him the feeling he could [manage the team],” said Peter Kurz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball.23

The job of managing the Israeli national team gave Ausmus the opportunity to put into place what he had observed during his playing days. “The best baseball managers I’ve been around have been very good communicators and they understand that in baseball, unlike maybe football or basketball, it’s not so much the “x’s” and “o’s” that you’re managing but [its] people,” he said.24

On November 3, 2013, Ausmus was named the 38th manager of the Detroit Tigers, succeeding Jim Leyland. He had gone right to the majors without any managerial experience in the minors. Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said Ausmus was chosen because “[we] received positive feedback on Brad from players, managers, and baseball executives. Brad had a long-standing career as a player and we feel that he will relate well with the current players. We were most impressed with Brad’s preparation and leadership, which are among his many quality attributes.”25

Although many were surprised by Ausmus’s selection because of his lack of managing experience, Dombrowski said: “Everybody’s different, but playing 18 years at the major-league level would prepare him much more than managing one year at the Double-A level, because the problems he encounters in the major leagues now are so different than what they are at Double A.”26

Ausmus briefly faced controversy in his first season when he responded to a question from a reporter in the middle of a losing streak. After being asked, “How are you when you go home?” Ausmus replied, “I beat my wife.” After a few moments of silence, he quickly apologized. “I shouldn’t say — listen, I didn’t want to make light of battered women. I didn’t mean to make light of that, so I apologize for that if that offended anyone.”27 Although he faced a storm of criticism, Ausmus weathered it and the Tigers soon began to win again.

In his first year as manager, Ausmus led the Tigers to a 90-72 record, winning the American League Central Division title. The Tigers were swept in the Division Series by the Baltimore Orioles. In his second year as manager, the Tigers had a disappointing 74-87 record, finishing in last place in their division.

In his third season as manager, 2016, the Tigers finished in second place in the division with an 86-75 record, 2½ games out of the second postseason wild-card spot. At one point during the season, Ausmus made news when he pulled off his jersey and covered home plate with it. The umpire had ejected him before he’d even stepped out of the dugout but Ausmus still let his frustrations out on the arbiter. He later explained: “There comes a point when you get seven or eight guys coming back from home plate complaining about the strike zone, they can’t all be wrong, I understand sometimes hitters have a skewed view of something, but when you’ve got that many guys coming back, they can’t all be wrong.”28

Ausmus returned as Tigers manager in 2017. The team finished with a 64-98 record, in last place in the division. It was their worst finish since 2003. At the end of the season, the Tigers fired Ausmus. General manager Al Avila explained the team’s decision: “[W]e needed change on the field, we needed change in the roster, and that’s when we started trading players. Let’s just take a whole brand-new road and open up to new things. We felt it’s a new beginning, a fresh start, and we’ll have fresh leadership, new leadership, as we move forward.”29

After the season, Ausmus was reported to be a candidate for several managing positions but got no offers. On November 22, 2017, he was hired as a special assistant to Los Angeles Angels general manager Billy Eppler to help with scouting and evaluations.

Ausmus was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. He has embraced his Jewish heritage and is proud to have used it to inspire others. “I have had quite a few young Jewish boys who will tell me that I am their favorite player, or they love watching me play or they feel like baseball is a good fit for them because it worked for me. It has been a sense of pride. If you can have a positive impact on a kid, I’m all for it,” he said.30

Last revised: December 1, 2018

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also used the Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

Notes

1 David Borges, “Brad Ausmus Connects with Jewish Roots as Manager of Team Israel for the WBC,” New Haven Register, July 22, 2012.

2 Matthew Mosk, “The Rookie,” Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.com, September-October 2014.

3 John Petit, “Astros Ausmus Sky High on Shot at Series,” Meriden (Connecticut) Record-Journal, October 21, 2005.

4 “Tigers Manager Brad Ausmus Learned from Carparelli at Cheshire,” New Haven Register, August 5, 2014.

5 Ibid.

6 Matthew Mosk, “The Rookie.”

7 “Brad Ausmus” Baseball Library.com, bit.ly/2DnqFis.

8 Bob McManaman, “Most Minor-League MLB Players Below Poverty Level,” AZ Central.com, August 16, 2014.

9 “Covering The Plate: A Baseball Catcher Tells All,” NPR.org, August 11, 2011.

10 Timothy De Block, “Astros History: Brad Ausmus,” Crawfishboxes.com, April 17, 2012.

11 Alyson Footer, “Astros Ink Ausmus to One-Year Contract,” MLB.com, October 30, 2007.

12 Dave Davies, “Behind the Plate, a Baseball Catcher Tells All,” WBUR.org, April 6, 2012.

13 Anthony French, “Tigers’ Brad Ausmus Recalls Run with Successful Astros,” Detroit Free Press, August 15, 2015.

14 Maxwell Kates interview with Tal Smith, November 18, 2017.

15 Ibid.

16 Anthony French, “Tigers’ Brad Ausmus Recalls Run.”

17 Pat Cooke, “Who Is Brad Ausmus?,” TheSportsCol.com, November 5, 2013.

18 Alyson Footer, “Astros Ink Ausmus.”

19 Brian McTaggart, “ASTROS NOTES: Brother of Pitcher Wolf Umps Game,” Chron.com, August 13, 2008.

20 “Ausmus Headed to Padres’ Front Office,” Jewish Baseball News.com, November 17, 2010.

21 “Dodgers Catcher Ausmus Is Manager for a Day,” Redlands Daily Facts.com, October 5, 2009.

22 “Brad Ausmus Joins Padres Front Office,” San Diego Padres MLB.com, November 26, 2010.

23 Hillel Kuttler, “On Way to Tigers Post, Ausmus Earned His Managing Stripes in Israel,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 7, 2013.

24 Sara Appel-Lemon, “Del Mar Resident Brad Ausmus Hired as Team Israel Manager,” Del Mar Times, September 3, 2012.

25 David Solano, “Detroit Tigers Introduce Brad Ausmus as Team’s New Manager,” WXYZ.com, November 3, 2013.

26 Tyler Kepner, “Fitting the New Managerial Mold,” New York Times, March 7, 2014.

27 Christy Strawser, “Brad Ausmus Misses With Joke About Beating Wife After Loss,” Detroit.CBSlocal.com, June 14, 2014.

28 Jason Beck, “Ausmus Drapes Hoodie on Plate After Ejection,” MLB.com, May 17, 2016.

29 Jason Beck, “Ausmus’ Contract Won’t Be Extended Past ’17,” MLB.com, September 22, 2017.

30 Brad Greenberg, “There’s a New Jew in Dodger Blue,” Washington Jewish Week, July 1, 2009.

Bressoud was born in Los Angeles on May 2, 1932. His father, Charles Bressoud, had been born in South America — in Lima, Peru, of French parents; he came to the United States in 1917 arriving via Colon, Panama.1 At some point he met and married New Jersey native Josephine Mibielle. The two had seven children. Edward Francis Bressoud was the fourth-born. Charles worked as a clerk in the sales department of a lumber firm and then as its purchasing agent.

Eddie attended schools in the Los Angeles area, going to Mount Carmel High at first but graduating from the city’s George Washington High School in 1950. He was named All-City in baseball. Bressoud also played American Legion ball and some semipro baseball.

He later attended El Camino Junior College and Los Angeles City College, and received a bachelor of science degree in physical education from UCLA. While playing ball, he went to San Jose State in the offseasons and earned a master’s degree in education. All along, he had his mind on being prepared to earn a living. In 1962, midway through his playing career, he said, “I’ll play baseball as long as it’s profitable, and when it isn’t, I’ll switch to teaching and coaching.”2 He had said, “I’ve seen too many players wind up their careers unprepared for the future.”3

Right after high school, however, Bressoud had been signed to a New York Giants contract. Accounts differ as to the signing scout, but it appears he was signed by Walter “Dutch” Ruether, on the advice of Evo Pusich.4 “That’s exactly right,” Bressoud said. “But Evo Pusich did all the work for it. He signed Mike McCormick, Chuck Essegian, myself, and probably two or three others who reached the big leagues. He was a spectacular man.”5 He was reportedly given $4,000.6

Bressoud’s first professional assignment was to the 1950 Springfield (Ohio) Giants in the Class-D Ohio-Indiana League. He got into 70 games, batting .240. In both 1951 and 1952 he played Class-A baseball in the Western League for the Sioux City Soos. He hit .230 in 1951 with 53 RBIs in 149 games, but led the league in fielding by shortstops with a .949 fielding percentage. In 1952, he appeared in 155 games and boosted his average to .255, with 68 RBIs, while leading the league in putouts (302), assists (487), and double plays (105). He was named to the All-Star second team.

The Korean War was underway and the United States armed forces needed men; Bressoud served in the Marine Corps from January 1953 to January 1955. Five months into his service, he married high-school sweetheart Eleanor Griesser on June 6 in Los Angeles. He played baseball in the Marines into August 1953, even playing for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot team in the all-Marine championships in Quantico, but then spent 11 months stationed on the side of Mount Fujiyama in Japan.

When Bressoud returned Stateside, it was to spring training with the Giants in 1955 and then to Triple A, playing in the American Association for the Minneapolis Millers, and it seemed he hadn’t skipped a beat, either at bat on the field. He hit .251, with 19 homers, and drove in 74 runs. The Millers won the American Association pennant by eight games over second-place Omaha, and then the Little World Series against the International League champions. Despite finishing 18½ games out of first place, the Rochester Red Wings won the I.L. playoffs. Minneapolis beat Rochester, four games to three.

It looked as if 1956 was shaping up to be a good year. Bressoud was seen by some as a possible successor to Alvin Dark at shortstop for the New York Giants.7 He himself had his sights set on taking the shortstop position away from Alvin Dark on the Giants, and didn’t hesitate to say so. Louis Effrat of the New York Times wrote, “Some kids aim high. Ed Bressoud, for example, believes that at the age of 23 and after only one season of Triple-A ball, he is ready to become a regular with the Giants.” Effrat averred that “there is nothing brash about Bressoud. He is not a pop-off guy.”8 He was confident in his own abilities, and by the end of March it was a possibility that manager Bill Rigney would have Dark moved to third base and Bressoud installed at short.9 It wasn’t to be — at least not right away. On April 8, Bressoud was assigned to Minneapolis once more. Nonetheless, sports pundits had seen him as “the most captivating rookie the Giants had presented in their camp for years.”10

On June 14, Alvin Dark was one of eight players in a 4-for-4 trade with the St. Louis Cardinals; Red Schoendienst was the Giants’ principal target. Because they knew they had Bressoud, they felt freer to make the trade. Bressoud was called up from Minneapolis — and had his major-league debut that very same day.

The Giants were in Milwaukee. Bressoud was the starting shortstop, batting second in the order. Warren Spahn of the Braves struck him out his first time up. He reached on an error in the third inning, but picked up his first big-league RBI on the play. He was 1-for-4 in the game, with a single in the eighth inning.

Bressoud collected one or more base hits in each of his first six games. He played fairly steadily through August 14, though Daryl Spencer took over more of the work at shortstop. Bressoud was hitting .227 with 9 RBIs when the Giants elected to send him on option back to Minneapolis on the 16th. He had appeared in 49 games. For the Millers, he hit .269 over a total of 86 games.

In 1957, Bressoud began the season again with Minneapolis, brought up to appear in his first Giants game on July 5, replacing Andre Rodgers.11 He hit safely in his first five games back, homering to kick off a rally on July 5 and then with four consecutive multi-hit games. All in all, Bressoud fared much better at the plate in his 49 major-league games in 1957, batting .268, but drove in only one more run (10). He hit five homers, oddly hitting all of them in 21 days in July and then not another before the end of the season. He mostly played shortstop but appeared in an even dozen games at third base, albeit less effectively. He hit .286 in 81 games for Minneapolis; it was the last year he was in the minors.

The Giants moved the franchise to San Francisco beginning in 1958 and Bressoud played there through 1961, almost exclusively at short.

Early in the 1958 season, personal tragedy struck. His wife, Eleanor, was hospitalized on April 24, the day before her 26th birthday, and died following surgery for a brain tumor on April 29. When initially hospitalized, Eddie was told the prognosis was as dire as could be. Rigney told him to go home and spend those last few days with his family. Even when he returned to the Giants, Rigney said, “he still was like a man having a bad dream.”12 Bressoud moved into his sister’s home, where she could take care of his and Eleanor’s two children, Edward and Steven.

Bressoud had a living to earn and returned to work in the second game of the May 4 doubleheader against the Pirates, winning the game for the Giants with an RBI single off Roy Face in the bottom of the 10th. He appeared in only 66 games that year, and hit .263.

In 1959 and 1960 Bressoud played in over 100 games. He hit .251 in 1959, but then .225 in 1960. It was 1959 that Bressoud considered one of his most exciting seasons in baseball. The Giants really made a run for the pennant, and were in first place from July 4 to as late as September 19, with only six games to play. The team had dipped to second place for just one day, July 29. They finished third, but it had been quite a run. Before the 1967 season began, he called it his biggest thrill in baseball, “being in the thick of the pennant fight.”13 Bressoud had 26 RBIs and he scored 36 runs, but his contribution to the team’s success was noted in early September. An Associated Press story said that the day he’d become a regular, July 3, “brought a major turning point for the pennant contenders. He solidified a shaky infield and has contributed some timely hits.”14 In Bressoud’s first 19 games as a regular, reported Bob Stevens, he hit .406 and was involved in 11 double plays.15 After the Giants season was over, Stevens still credited him as key, writing of “Bressoud, without whose excellent play the Giants would never have been in a contending position.”16

Still, Bressoud acknowledged his shortcomings at the plate, during spring training in 1960. “I’m not a good hitter, and I know it. I’m trying to improve, but I concentrate on my glove. A team like this, with a lot of hitting, can carry a guy like me.”17 There were some big hits, like the three-run inside-the-park home run on May 7 to beat the Pirates, 6-5. The 43 RBIs he had in 1960 were his high point with the Giants.

After the season, the Giants toured Japan, playing against the Tokyo All-Stars. Bressoud kicked off the October 30 game at Tokyo’s legendary Korakuen Stadium with a “towering home run into the left-field bleachers in the first inning.”18

In 1961, now playing for a Giants team that had Alvin Dark as manager, Bressoud saw much less work. He struggled with a nagging leg injury at the beginning of the season and appeared in just 59 games that year, batting .211. After the season, Bressoud said, “The manager evidently felt he had a better shortstop in Jose Pagan.”19

On October 10, 1961, the expansion draft was held to help populate two new teams for the National League — the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets. Houston won the coin toss and its first choice in the draft was Eddie Bressoud.20 

Bressoud never played for Houston. In fact, he was earmarked for the Boston Red Sox even before the Colt .45s drafted him. In discussions during the World Series, Mike Higgins of the Red Sox talked with GM Paul Richards of Houston. The Sox had tried to obtain Bressoud from the Giants, but failed, and so a deal was struck whereby Houston would draft Bressoud and then swap him to the Red Sox for Boston shortstop Don Buddin. Buddin was no fan favorite in Boston, and Higgins was looking for someone steadier in the field. Columnist Dan Daniel quoted an unnamed Boston writer: “Mike Higgins would not have dared to open the 1962 season with Buddin still on his club. The fans hooted Don all last summer.”21

The trade was done at the winter meetings, on November 26. Houston manager Harry Craft said Buddin was a good ballplayer “and he’ll be a lot better ballplayer once he gets out of Boston.”22

Bressoud was told the job was his unless he lost it. He was pleased at the opportunity. On first hearing he’s been traded, he admitted, “I know so little about the American League that I’m not even sure Tom Yawkey is still alive and owns the Red Sox. … I have never even seen Fenway Park, but I have certainly heard a lot about it. I’m strictly a right-handed pull hitter so maybe I can do some damage with that short left field wall.”23 He said playing for the Red Sox “is going to be like starting a new career.”24 Bressoud’s former manager, Bill Rigney, with the Los Angeles Angels at the time, said, “I wish we could have landed him. He knows how to play shortstop and he’ll be a threat in Fenway Park with his bat.”25 Richards later suggested that the trade he regretted most might be Bressoud-for-Buddin.26

Bressoud had remarried, in Alameda on February 7, 1959. He had met Carol Mathews, an airline stewardess, while on a flight with the Giants. They soon had a daughter, Michelle. In 1966, he talked about the need for a baseball spouse to be flexible and for children to be “socially mobile.” He said, “A girl who married a ball player, under any circumstances, has to be an extraordinary woman. There are problems unique to our business. There is always a new environment, new companions, new shopping areas, new living conditions and most of all the constant uprooting of children from place to place. The children have to learn to be socially mobile. Mine, fortunately, have enough gray matter to understand the situation. Our kids are socially gregarious.”27 Maury Allen added that Bressoud took the family to Florida each spring, then to the city in which he was playing, and moved them back to California for the winter. He wanted to be involved in raising his children, and not leave that responsibility to his wife for the whole of the baseball season.28

In many respects, Bressoud’s Red Sox years were his best years.  He was nervous, of course, playing in his first AL game, and in as unique a field as Fenway Park. “When I went out to my position, I was a bit shaky. But once I made the first play, I felt at home.”29 In 1962, Bressoud played in 153 of the team’s 160 games. He collected one or more base hits in each of his first 14 games. His .277 batting average was his best to date, as were his 14 homers, 40 doubles, 9 triples, and 79 runs scored. The 68 runs batted in proved to be the best season of his career. The downside was that the 28 errors he committed were the most among shortstops in the American League.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Red Sox had a reliable shortstop. “All I wanted was a chance to play,” he said. “The Red Sox made me feel like I was wanted. They told me that the shortstop job was mine.”30 Higgins said he wasn’t surprised that he hit better in the American League, particularly playing half his games at Fenway Park. Bressoud said he liked both the better background for batters at Fenway, and the fact that the fans were closer to the players.31 A year-end wrap-up concluded, “Bressoud was as valuable as any player on the team, as much as anyone the reason why the 1962 Sox finished eighth instead of tenth.”32

Over the winters, Bressoud coached basketball and baseball at Los Altos High School.33

In 1963, he hit a career-high 20 homers, the most by any shortstop in the league; his batting average, though, dipped to under .250 for a good part of the season, though a strong finish brought it up to .260 at the end. Even at midseason, when Bressoud was hitting around .240, Boston columnist Arthur Sampson wrote, “Acquiring him was one of the most profitable transactions the Red Sox have made in some time.”34 Bressoud himself had written a column for the Boston Globe in April, an instructional one on playing his position.35

In 1964, with his master’s degree now in hand, Bressoud was named to the American League All-Star team by manager Al Lopez, because Luis Aparicio was out with an injury. He did not see action in the game. He topped his own start-of-the-season hitting streak with one or more hits in each of his first 20 games. He didn’t go without a hit until May 10. (He set a Red Sox record in the process, besting outfielder Elmer Smith, who had hit in his first 18 games back in 1922.)36  His batting average at year’s end was .293, the best of his career and the highest on the Red Sox that year. His 86 runs scored also led the team and stand as a personal career-best.

Bressoud had one last year with the Red Sox in 1965, under new manager Billy Herman. There was talk before the season of trading him when his value was high, and the Red Sox taking their chances with rookie Rico Petrocelli at shortstop. Bressoud’s average fell off to .226 in 328 plate appearances in 1965, down from 644 the year before. He played in 107 games, just a few more than rising Red Sox star Petrocelli.

After the season, Bressoud was traded to the New York Mets on November 30 for outfielder Joe Christopher. It was not a major move for either team. Indeed, suggested United Press International, it was “a deal which produced nothing but a lot of yawns.”37

The 1966 Mets finished in ninth place (so, for that matter, did the Red Sox.) Though originally seen as a utilityman, Bressoud became a solid member of the team, third in homers, fifth in both runs scored and runs batted in, but he finished seventh in batting average (.225) and struck out 107 times, 26 more than anyone else on the team.

Bressoud started wearing eyeglasses toward the middle of the season. On June 10, he had a game in which he hit two homers, one of them a three-run homer. He’d fought wearing them initially, since they would steam up on him or otherwise be uncomfortable, but the order came down from the front office and he complied. “I see better with the glasses,” he said. “I can pick up the ball real well now. For a long time, I had been unable to see the spin on the ball, but I can see that now, too.” Once he got the order, though, “There no longer was any choice. I had to wear them. You’d be surprised how that changed things. From then on, they didn’t seem to bother me.”38 On June 15 and June 17, he hit another two three-run homers.

For the Mets, he played seven or more games at each of the four infield positions. “I like the idea of moving around,” he said. “It improves my value.”39

In the offseason, he worked substitute teaching in the Fremont and Mountain View/Los Altos high-school districts, often overseeing lunch periods and school senate meetings. He even promoted a Big Mama Thornton concert.40

Just before the 1967 season, on April 1, Bressoud was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals as part of a five-player transaction that was as much as anything a trade of Bressoud for infielder Jerry Buchek.41 The Cardinals wanted him as a backup for shortstop Dal Maxvill. Bressoud didn’t see much playing time, mostly being used as a late-inning replacement. In contrast to the 1962 and 1964 seasons, when he started off with hitting streaks, in his first 29 plate appearances in 1967, extending over 20 games and all the way through June 7, he failed to get a base hit, though he did draw six walks. Finally, on June 8, he singled to left field in the bottom of the fifth and came around to score.

Bressoud was happy with the Cardinals, though, saying, “This is the greatest spirit I’ve ever seen around a ballclub, and I’ve been around 16 years. I’ve never been happier with any other club, and that’s saying a lot when you know you’re not going to play much.”42

It was a tough year at the plate, all in all, though. Bressoud hit .134 for the season (in 76 plate appearances over 52 games) and he had only one RBI — a home run in the bottom of the third inning on August 9 against the Dodgers. He came up to the plate in the bottom of the 10th with the bases loaded and nobody out. He popped up to first baseman Wes Parker, who dropped the ball. The run scored, but it was unearned and not an RBI.

The Cardinals won the 1967 National League pennant and played the Red Sox in the World Series. Bressoud made the roster and appeared for last-inning defense in two games, Game Two and Game Five, for one inning each time. He had no fielding chances, but on October 12 celebrated becoming a world champion as St. Louis beat Boston in the Game Seven finale, 7-2. That very day, Bressoud announced his retirement. He began work as head baseball coach for De Anza Junior College of Cupertino, California.43

It was the end of Bresoud’s career as a professional ballplayer, but a wonderful way to end a career. He said, “Winning this World Series meant far, far more to me than I could ever say.”44

In late November, Roland Hemond of the California Angels signed Bressoud as scout, to work under Rosey Gilhousen.45 “The person who got me the job,” Bressoud explained, “was Bill Rigney, who I had played for.”46 He scouted for two years, during which time he also, twice, managed a minor-league team, both times taking over in midseason. In 1968, he replaced Tom Sommers managing Idaho Falls (Pioneer League) In June 1969, he was named manager of the San Jose Bees (California League), taking over for Tom Morgan.47

Bressoud’s post-baseball career was devoted to teaching. “I went to school in the offseason for 14 years. I got my master’s degree and I started coaching for DeAnza Community College after we played in the 1967 World Series. I taught there for 24 years. I retired in 1990.”48

As of the time of the July 2017 interview, Ed and Carol Bressoud were married for 58 years. “I’m looking at her right now,” he said, “and she’s spectacular.” 

One of his sons is currently “a cowboy and the other one is the CFO of a newspaper chain.” A cowboy? “He was working with PG&E in their geothermal plant up in the mountains, and he had a ranch up there.”49

Postscript

Eddie Bressoud died of cerebrellar ataxia on January 13, 2023, in Walnut Creek, California.50

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this biography, the author also accessed Bressoud’s player file and player questionnaire from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts Committee, and the SABR Minor Leagues Database, accessed online at Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Speaking of his father, Ed Bressoud said, “His father [Ed’s paternal grandfather] was a pharmacist, and the company sent him to Peru. He was there at the time of the war in 1917 and the French government wanted to bring him into the army. He decided to go to the United States instead.” Interview with Ed Bressoud on July 27, 2017.  

2 Hy Hurwitz, “Astute Eddie Works Toward Master’s Degree in Education,” The Sporting News, June 9, 1962: 3.

3 Hy Hurwitz, “Bressoud Likens Trade to Starting New Career,” Boston Globe, December 10, 1961: 91.

4 Joe King, “That Bright Flash on Giants’ Roster Is Eddie Bressoud,” The Sporting News, April 4, 1956: 15, 16. See also Margery Miller Welles, “Bressoud, the Giants’ New Infielder,” Christian Science Monitor, July 6, 1956: 19.

5 Interview with Ed Bressoud on July 27, 2017.  

6 Jack McDonald, “Giants’ Gems Bargain Counter Pickups,” The Sporting News, August 19, 1959: 1, 6. Bressoud explained that “$2,000 was the signing bonus and then I got $125 a month for six months.” Bressoud interview.

7 “Who Is Ed Bressoud? Giants Next Shortstop,” New York World Telegram & Sun, February 3, 1956. 

8 Louis Effrat, “Rookie on Giants Seeks Dark’s Job,” New York Times, February 29, 1956: 41.

9 Louis Effrat, “Rookie Looms as Giants’ Shortstop,” New York Times, March 31, 1956: 9.

10 Joe King, “That Bright Flash on Giants’ Roster is Eddie Bressoud.”

11 Joe King, “Phenom Rodgers Fades, Bressoud Back with Giants,” The Sporting News, July 17, 1957: 11.

12 Lester J. Biederman, “Bressoud Starts New Life for Himself, Giants,” Pittsburgh Press, July 20, 1958.

13 Biographical summary, 1967, in Bressoud’s player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

14 Associated Press, “Ed Bressoud Big Factor in Giants’ Race to Top,” Greensboro (North Carolina) Daily News, September 9, 1959: 15.

15 Bob Stevens, “Bressoud Bounces From Wings, Grabs Spotlight on Giants,” The Sporting News, July 22, 1959: 9.

16 Bob Stevens, “Giants Fall Made Fans Feel Like Morning After,” The Sporting News, October 7, 1959: 14, 18.

17 Jack Mann, “Bressoud Won’t Give Up, in Baseball or Anything,” Newsday, March 15, 1960.

18 Associated Press, “Homer Wins for Giants,’ Boston Record, October 31, 1960: 15. The game-winning homer that earned the headline was Willie McCovey’s in the top of the ninth.

19 Larry Claflin, “Bressoud Cheers Trade to Sox; Minoso Swapped to Cardinals,” Boston Record American, November 28, 1961: 22.

20 Milton Richman, United Press International, “45 Players Picked by Mets and Colts,” Atlanta Daily World, October 12, 1961: 7. 

21 Dan Daniel, “Over the Fence,” The Sporting News, December 13, 1961: 10. Buddin was characterized as “Bootin’ Buddin” and it was said his license plate read “E-6.” He made 23 errors in 1961 (for a .956 fielding percentage), while Bressoud — with a much better reputation as a fielder — committed 28 errors in 1962, though his fielding percentage was .965. Over the course of their careers, Buddin’s fielding percentage was .954 and Bressoud’s was .963.

22 Bob Holbrook, “Sox Trade Buddin for SS Bressoud,” Boston Globe, November 27, 1961: 25. Holbrook’s story details the talks leading up to the trade.

23 Larry Claflin.

24 Hy Hurwitz, “Bressoud Likens Trade to Starting New Career.”

25 Ibid.

26 Mickey Herskowitz, “Colts Like Kasko — He’s a Glove Whiz, Off-Field Comedian,” The Sporting News, September 12, 1974: 18.

27 Maury Allen, “Teacher With Class,” New York Post, July 22, 1966.

28 Ibid.

29 “’Shaky’ Bressoud Feels at Home After 1st Play,” Boston Globe, April 11, 1962: 47.

30 Dick O’Connor, “Small-Fry Cagers Coached, Polished by Tutor Bressoud,” The Sporting News, January 12, 1963: 33.

31 James Enright, “’11 or 12’ Pitchers Throw Spitters in A.L., Bressoud Says,” The Sporting News, April 11, 1964: 20.

32 Ray Gillespie, “Diamond Facts and Facets,” The Sporting News, December 22, 1962: 18.

33 Dick O’Connor, “Small-Fry Cagers Coached, Polished by Tutor Bressoud,” The Sporting News, January 12, 1963: 33.

34 Arthur Sampson, “Pats’ Acquisition Looks Good,” Boston Herald, July 18, 1963: 37.

35 Eddie Bressoud, “Powerful, Accurate Arm SS Most Important Asset,” Boston Globe, April 7, 1963:  79.

36 “Bressoud Tops Foxx Mark; Hits in 14 Straight Tilts,” The Sporting News, May 9, 1962: 23.

37 UPI, “Twins Eye 2d Sacker, Hit a Snag,” Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, December 1, 1965: A13.

38 Barney Kremenko, “Specs Giving Vet Bressoud New Bat Vim,” The Sporting News, June 25, 1966: 19.

39 Barney Kremenko, “Bressoud’s Bat Breathing Fire Into Hit-Hungry Mets,” The Sporting News, July 16, 1966: 40.

40 Dick O’Connor, “Action! Bressoud Is Always on Go in High School Post,” The Sporting News, December 31, 1966: 41.

41 Dick Young, “Bing, Stan Swing That Deal; Bressoud Goes for Buchek,” New York Sunday News, April 2, 1967: 132.

42 Neal Russo, “Did Card Flag Team Go Down with Gibson?” The Sporting News, July 29, 1967: 28.

43 “Bressoud to Coach JC Team,” San Francisco Examiner, October 13, 1967.

44 Ibid.

45 UPI, “Bressoud Is Now Cal Angel Baseball Scout,” San Francisco Examiner, November 27, 1967.

46 Interview with Ed Bressoud on July 27, 2017.  

47 ‘Bressoud Takes Helm,” The Sporting News, June 28, 1969: 48.

48 Interview with Ed Bressoud.  

49 Ibid.

50 For an appreciation by his son Steve Bressoud, see Thomas Gase, “‘Commanding presence’ Ed Bressoud dies at 91,” Times-Herald (Vallejo, California), July 18, 2023. https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2023/07/18/commanding-presence-ed-bressoud-dies-at-91.

Carr went through four organizations, getting brief big-league trials with the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals before emerging in Florida. “Why did it take him a while to make it?” said Clint Hurdle, one of his minor-league managers with the Mets. “No. 1, he had to refine his baseball skills. And No. 2, it probably took him a while to refine his social skills, as far as maturing and taking responsibility. He’s a free spirit, one with a high evaluation of himself.”2

Carr played just 507 games in a major-league career that ended after spring training in 1998. The switch-hitter had little power, and as it had been during much of his minor-league career, getting on base enough to use his speed was a factor. Various reports also focused on perceptions of Carr’s flamboyant antics. For example, he was named one of baseball’s “top ten jerks” ahead of the 1996 season.3

Yet as much as “Chuckie” may have annoyed teammates, managers, and opponents, he was also likable. In particular, he was always fan-friendly. “It’s out there that I have an attitude problem,” the man himself acknowledged. “Then you hear fans say, ‘He’s a nice guy, he’s down to earth.’”4 Throughout his career, Carr was active in stay-in-school and antidrug programs aimed at children.5 His desire to help others was also visible as he played ball off and on overseas and in independent leagues through 2003. He later became a minor-league coach.

Charles Lee Glenn Carr was born on August 10, 1967, in San Bernardino, California. His father, Charles Lee Carr, was an Air Force veteran who became a Baptist minister while also conducting vocational and rehabilitation work. The elder Carr was a fine athlete too, becoming a Junior Golden Gloves champion in boxing. Known as Charles Benson when younger, he had also hoped to make the Olympic track team in 1964 but tore a hamstring.6

Young Chuckie was a daredevil who enjoyed the sensation of flight. A 1994 feature on Carr described him as a 12-year-old, doing wheelies off the roof of his parents’ house in Fontana, California. He also liked to jump off the same roof onto the diving board of the family’s swimming pool. That article mentioned his mother’s name, Charlene.7 However, no other information is presently available about her or any other children in the Carr family.

Available articles about Carr also do not discuss any other sports he may have played, such as football, basketball, or track. He attended Fontana High School, where he was a year ahead of a future teammate with the Marlins, Greg Colbrunn. Fontana was known as a football school. “The football stadium holds 10,000. The baseball stadium holds a couple hundred,” said the Steelers’ baseball coach then, Steve Hernandez. “When it came to baseball, we didn’t have a fancy operation. It was a rags-to-riches story. … When I got to the school the team had won something like two or three games the year before. But I inherited these two incredible athletes.”

Hernandez added, “Carr thought he was a second baseman. As soon as I took over, I told him he was going to play center field. He told me I must be mistaken. I told him there was a new sheriff in town.” Carr started working on the diving catches that became his trademark, and Hernandez said, “Once in a while I’d get the feeling that Chuck was waiting a second before he started for the ball so he’d have to make the spectacular catch. But I’ll say this much, you haven’t seen anything on ESPN that I didn’t see in our little ball field.”8

By Carr’s senior year, 1986, Fontana was playing Esperanza High of Anaheim in Dodger Stadium for the championship of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section, division 4-A.9 Just a couple of days later, the Cincinnati Reds selected Carr in the ninth round of the amateur draft. The scout was former big-league reliever Ed Roebuck.

Carr’s pro career got off to an uncertain start. In 44 games of rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League, he hit just .171 and the Cincinnati organization released him. By one report, it depressed the 18-year-old so much that he considered taking his own life.10

In 1987, however, Carr signed with the Seattle Mariners. Reporting to Bellingham of the Northwest League (short-season Class A), he did better with the bat: .242 with a homer and 11 RBIs in 44 games. Getting on base more also enabled him to steal 20 bases. Carr’s natural confidence had rebounded. Allegedly he told his teammate Ken Griffey Jr., then a first-year pro, to find a position other than center field.11 Griffey was already a budding superstar, though; the M’s experimented with Carr at shortstop and second base that season.

Carr also met his wife, Candace Gilbert, that summer on a road trip to Oregon. “We were staying at the same hotel,” Candace (an Arizona native) remembered in 1993. “It was his first road trip, and he’d forgotten to bring underwear. I gave him a ride to the mall. I helped him buy his underwear, he bought me an ice-cream cone, and we`ve been together ever since.”12

Carr lifted his steals total to 62 in 1988. He batted .299 and stole 41 bases in 52 attempts for Wausau of the Midwest League (Class A). That won him promotion to Vermont of the Eastern League (Double A), where he swiped 21 in 30 tries. He hit .281 overall with 7 homers and 43 RBIs. That August 18, he and Candace were married.13

The Mariners traded Carr to the Mets in November 1988 for Reggie Dobie, a pitcher then at Triple A who lasted just one more season in the pros. Carr spent all of 1989 in Double-A ball, posting a line of .241-0-22 in 116 games for Jackson in the Texas League. He stole 47 bases, tied for second in the league, but got caught 20 times.

Carr started 1990 with Jackson again. After batting .306 with six steals in 14 games, he got his feet wet in the majors that April. The Mets called him up to replace injured center fielder Keith Miller.14 Carr pinch-hit in one game; he was returned to Jackson after the Mets acquired Daryl Boston and promoted Darren Reed.15

Carr made it up to Triple-A Tidewater that summer, and in August the Mets summoned him again after outfielder Mark Carreon got hurt.16 The next day, Carr played in the field for the first time as a big leaguer. It was only for the last half-inning in a blowout loss. He appeared twice more in August and went back to Tidewater after the Mets acquired veteran Pat Tabler.17

Carr hit just .195-1-11 in 64 games for Tidewater in 1991, yet he still got some limited action with the Mets. He played in two games in June during a call-up that lasted less than a week. He returned in August when Vince Coleman reinjured a hamstring and landed on the disabled list for the second time that year. Carr appeared nine times and got his first base hit in the majors, a single off Pittsburgh’s Bob Kipper, in a loss at Three Rivers Stadium.

Carr then went on the DL himself.18 He wore the Mets uniform in one more game, on September 26. That November, New York sent him outright to Tidewater. The next month, they traded him to St. Louis for Clyde Keller, a pitcher who never got beyond the low minors and was finished after 1992. The Mets then had a very similar center fielder in their chain: Pat Howell, who also had blazing speed, made many dazzling outfield plays, but had an even harder time reaching base.

To start the 1992 season, Carr went back to Double-A ball. However, minor-league hitting instructor Johnny Lewis helped shorten his swing and he averaged .308 at Louisville after being promoted from Arkansas.19 Between the two levels, he totaled 61 steals. When Ozzie Canseco injured a shoulder, St. Louis called Carr up. He hit .219 in 64 at-bats over 22 games. He also stole 10 more bases.

Reportedly, the Cardinals seriously considered protecting Carr from the expansion draft that November because of his speed.20 That November, however, the Marlins selected him as the 14th pick. It was his big break.

Right around then, Chuck and Candace welcomed their first child, a boy named Sheldon. The blessings of parenthood were hard-won; Candace had had six miscarriages and a baby born prematurely who lived only a few days. “This was a great off-season,” she said at the end of March 1993. “We had the baby, and then Chuck got his first major league chance.”21

Scott Pose, a Rule 5 pickup, was Florida’s starting center fielder and leadoff hitter to begin the 1993 season. By mid-April, however, Carr had taken both spots. In May, The Sporting News wrote, “Carr emerged as a genuine leadoff threat, stealing three bases twice in a game and 10 in April. Carr, who may be the fastest player in the league, is erratic in the outfield but gives the team its one disruptive force on the basepaths.”22

Carr used his speed another way: He put 42 bunts in play that year, getting 17 base hits.23 One notable example came on July 28 at Shea Stadium in New York. In the ninth inning of a 3-3 tie, acting on his own, he beat out a two-out drag bunt to bring in the go-ahead run.24 Anthony Young stood to lose his 28th straight decision, but the Mets rallied for two in the bottom of the ninth against closer Bryan Harvey, finally snapping Young’s record losing streak.

Carr led the National League in 1993 with 58 steals, although he got caught a league-high 22 times. In contrast to the earlier report, he was routinely making great catches. STATS Inc.’s Scouting Report for 1994 wrote, “With Andy Van Slyke out for half the season, Carr dominated the highlight shows; every other night, it seemed, he was making another spectacular diving catch.”25

In September 1993, Miami Herald writer Dan Le Batard said, “Chuck Carr catches balls no one else touches.” However, he quoted Van Slyke, who had won five straight Gold Gloves in the outfield, as predicting that Carr would not get one because the NL’s coaches and managers wouldn’t vote for a hot dog. While acknowledging Carr’s range, Van Slyke said, “Coaches like guys who don’t draw extra attention to themselves. Chuck gives them reasons not to vote for him. His whole package tends to offend.” Darren Lewis (Van Slyke’s pick) and Marquis Grissom (one of the eventual winners) were mentioned. Yet in Le Batard’s view, while both were as worthy as Carr, neither was as wonderful. Marlins manager René Lachemann said flatly that Carr was the best center fielder he had ever had. “There is nobody who covers more ground than Chuck Carr,” Lachemann said. “Nobody I’ve seen.” 26

Le Batard also observed, “Never mind that fans love Carr’s flair, love the color he brings to a game that can be as black and white as its box scores. There is no one in the league who does what Carr does, no one who can make the home crowd rise on a ball the other team hits into the gap … who plays with such reckless disregard for his health.”27 Around the same time, Carr won a “Your Favorite Marlin” contest conducted by the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.28

After a contract holdout in the spring, Carr tempered his baserunning in 1994. He stole 32 bases in the strike-shortened season and got thrown out just eight times, but he had mixed feelings about it. That June, he said, “I feel like I’m learning and becoming a better ballplayer. At the same time, I kind of liked the old me, my wild style of play. I was real aggressive, real wild on the bases. I don’t feel that wildness in me. It takes a little fun out of the game.” That report also observed that the Marlins didn’t like Carr’s arrogance and independence, and that the team was likely to deal him as soon as Carl Everett was deemed ready.29

Carr’s woofing, strutting, and taunting were the talk of the National League. Marlins first baseman Dave Magadan noted that when opposing players reached base, the “pedigree hot dog” was the primary topic of conversation. “They ask how we can stand being around that guy,” said Magadan. “I just smile and shrug. Chuck’s all right if you’re playing on the same team. To the other team he’s an irritant, because he’s always jumping around, always has a big smile on his face, having fun at your expense.’”30

Whereas in 1993 Carr hit leadoff for all but two-at-bats, in 1994 René Lachemann used him in the number-two hole frequently and even dropped him down to eighth for several games. Carr’s on-base percentage slipped from .327, already subpar, to .305. He wanted to be like Brett Butler, who also had little power yet was a consummate leadoff hitter (lifetime OBP .377). Butler was also a superior bunter, and shortly before the strike Carr noted that he’d been thinking about getting back to bunting more (though a later scouting report said he didn’t do it particularly well).31

In the winter of 1994-95, the Marlins sent Carr to play in the Dominican Republic, challenging him to prove that he could be a good leadoff hitter — or plan to bat eighth in the order in 1995. Six games into the season, however, the Licey Tigres kicked Carr off the team after discovering that he had been banned for five years from playing in Latin American winter leagues. That stemmed from his decision to leave Hermosilla, in Mexico’s Pacific League, in 1991.32

That same report noted that Carr sought permission from the players union to work with the Marlins’ new hitting coach, José Morales. The potential job challenge from Carl Everett was mentioned again. In late November, however, Florida traded Everett to the Mets. Thus, Carr remained the team’s primary center fielder in 1995. He played in 105 games, starting 77 and batting mainly in the number-two spot. Though his average slid to .227, he did draw more walks and got his on-base percentage up to a career-high .330. He stole 25 bases and was caught 11 times.

That November, the Marlins signed Devon White, a seven-time Gold Glover in center field, to a three-year contract worth $10 million. The Sporting News observed, “He not only gives them speed and defense in center, but also a legitimate bat that the enigmatic Chuck Carr could not provide in three seasons.”33 Florida also opted to keep Jesús Tavarez, a younger player who was out of options, as the backup center fielder.34

Soon thereafter, the long-awaited Carr trade finally took place. Florida dealt him to the Milwaukee Brewers for a minor-league pitcher named Juan González. Brewers general manager Sal Bando said he wasn’t worried about Carr’s clubhouse reputation. “He rubs some people the wrong way, but fans love him and he plays hard. Do you want a bunch of nice guys that lose?”35

Carr started strongly for Milwaukee. He was “giving us an identity, a spark at the top of the lineup,” said manager Phil Garner. “He got on and he made things happen and he was making great plays defensively.”36 However, Carr played just 27 games in 1996. First, he strained a hamstring in April and went on the 15-day disabled list. Then, on May 30, he tore up his right knee making a sensational catch on the warning track. He landed awkwardly and bent the knee backward. He underwent surgery to repair two major ligaments, a hamstring tendon that was ripped from the bone, and a deep bone bruise. “The only thing keeping the knee together was the skin,” said Brewers trainer John Adam.37

The injury ended Carr’s season, but his return after the gruesome blowout was remarkably swift. By October, he knew he’d be back because he could dunk a basketball.38 He beat out Gerald Williams for the starting job in center field in 1997. But after getting just one hit in his first 16 at-bats, he was benched. Sal Bando later said that Carr’s attitude became a distraction, and that the front office didn’t think he looked the same as he had in 1996. According to Phil Garner, though Carr was playing the field with his usual abandon, the knee affected his swing from the left side.39

Carr started just six games from April 7 onward. His time in Milwaukee ended after one of those starts, on May 16. The story of his release has become a minor legend. As he led off the bottom of the eighth inning, the Brewers trailed the California Angels 4-1. Carr got the take sign with the count in his favor. Instead, he swung away and popped up. Garner, who’d already had a one-hour, closed-door talk with Carr that month, confronted him about it after the game. Carr’s response (as reported in the press): “That ain’t Chuckie’s game. Chuckie hacks on 2 and 0!”40

“I swear to God, that’s what he said,” Garner remarked later that month. “The guy is always talking about himself in the third person, which often gets you one of those white jackets that ties in the back.”41

However, Carr — whose average had dropped to .130 after that last hack — denied the quote. The following year, he said, “It was just time to leave. I wanted to get out of there. I still felt like I could be a spark somewhere. I could’ve kept my mouth shut and taken the money. That wasn’t my role. I asked, can they release me.” Indeed, the Brewers let him go after he refused an assignment to Triple A, forfeiting the rest of his $325,000 salary. “I had to put everything on the line,” said Carr. “But I believed. I felt like there was a team out there that needed me.”42

There was — at the beginning of June, he signed as a free agent with the Houston Astros. He played for a few weeks with Triple-A New Orleans, and then the Astros called him up. Carr got into 63 games over the remainder of the season, starting 48 of them, and hitting .276-4-17 while also playing his usual exciting style of center field. Early that August, he returned to Florida to play against the Marlins for the first time after they traded him. The fans received him warmly, and Carr also said that he’d grown up.

“I was still living that kid life when I was here,” he remarked. “People wanted me to be an adult, but I wasn’t ready for that. That’s different now. Believe me, I’m not the same person I used to be.” Nonetheless, he added, “I look back and don’t have any regrets. None at all. I’m serious. People don’t like the fact that I’m so positive. I have a lot of confidence and expect big things. That’s just the way I am. I’ll never change.”43

Carr got his only taste of major-league postseason play in 1997. He appeared in two of three games in the National League Division Series and went 1-for-4 as Atlanta swept Houston. He started Game Three, hitting a solo homer off John Smoltz.

Although Carr had played reasonably well in Houston, he did not get a contract offer and was granted free agency on December 21. The very next day, the Astros obtained their new starting center fielder — Carl Everett. It was ironic because Everett’s odd behavior made Carr’s look mild.

Carr never played again in a regular-season big-league game. The Montreal Expos invited him to spring training in 1998 on a minor-league contract, but he did not win a job.44 He then went to Taiwan, joining the Mercuries Tigers. In 36 games, he hit .308-3-12 and stole 15 bases.

That July, the Carrs’ fourth child was born prematurely, and Chuck decided that he would rather be with his family than continue playing in Taiwan. He told the story of the baby’s fight for survival. “My oldest son, Sheldon, named him. He said, ‘Mommy, let’s call him Chance,’ because all he had was a chance. It was iffy.”45 One of the two middle children was named Aeron; research has not turned up the name of the other.

Carr still wanted to keep his baseball dream alive, though, so in 1999 he joined the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic League. Eric Davis, an old friend from Southern California, told him to keep following his passion until someone came and snatched the uniform off his back. Carr also said that his kids were getting tired of having to share video games with him!46

Carr hit .263-8-21 in 49 games for the Surf and was regarded as genial, self-effacing, and popular. The self-effacing part stood in contrast to the past, but late that season, he said, “Life is about making mistakes, correcting them and going on and learning.”47

A different Atlantic League team, the Long Island Ducks, began operations in 2000. The team’s manager and part-owner, Bud Harrelson, had been Carr’s skipper with the Mets in 1990 and 1991. Carr became the first player to sign with the Ducks. He was there to help himself, saying, I really believe teams are going to see how much I’ve matured as a ballplayer and as a man.” However, he also expressed a desire to mentor younger players, as veterans such as Garry Templeton and Hubie Brooks had helped him when he was breaking in.48 Carr hit .253-10-48 with 28 steals in 73 games for the Ducks. It does not appear that he got any feelers about returning to the majors.

Carr was out of pro ball in 2001. He then went abroad again in 2002, joining Rimini of the Italian Baseball League.49 Rimini won its fourth consecutive Serie A/1 pennant, and Carr played a key role as his team overtook Bologna, which led Rimini by two games with six to play. Rimini then swept a three-game series from Bologna, as Carr went 6-for-12 with two homers. Even though the teams finished with identical records, Rimini was awarded the pennant because its head-to-head record against Bologna was 4-2.50

Carr gave it a last shot in 2003 as a player-coach with the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings of another indie circuit, the Arizona-Mexico League. (The Carr family had made its residence in Mesa, Arizona.) “He’s looking to get back into Organized Baseball as a running coach,” said Bisbee-Douglas general manager John Guy. “He still thinks he can play.”51 Carr was the four-team league’s biggest name. In 14 games, he hit .365-1-8. The Copper Kings and the Nogales Charros both ran out of money, though, and so the league folded in mid-June, just 16 games into its schedule.

Carr rejoined the Astros organization in 2004. He was a coach with one of Houston’s farm teams, the Salem Avalanche (Carolina League, high Class A), from 2005-2007. Since then, he was out of the public eye, although he did participate in private memorabilia signings. Nonetheless, his name still popped up now and again. In 2017, the Miami New Times ran a column called, “Twenty Ways to Tell if You’re a True Miami Marlins Fan.” Number 18 was “About every five seasons, you ask someone out of the blue: ‘Hey, remember Chuck Carr?’”52

After a battle with cancer, Chuck Carr died at the age of just 55 on November 12, 2022.

Other Sources

https://twbsball.dils.tku.edu.tw/wiki/ (Taiwanese baseball website).

Notes

1 Jeff Miller, “Carr Still Drawing Crowds in Florida,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, August 5, 1997.

2 Gordon Edes, “Carr Usually Flies in Steering Marlins,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, April 3, 1994.

3 Steve Rushin, “Bad Behavior,” Sports Illustrated, March 12, 1996. The others identified by a survey of baseball writers across the country were Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Steve Howe, Kevin Brown, Lenny Dykstra, Will Clark, Eddie Murray, Danny Jackson, and Bip Roberts. See also “Belle, Bonds, Clark Make All-Jerk Team,” San Francisco Examiner, March 9, 1996.

4 Mark Herrmann, “Ex-Met Carr to Become First to Sign with Ducks,” Newsday, April 11, 2000.

5 “Brewers’ Carr Is Going Full Speed Ahead,” Amarillo Globe-News, March 11, 1997.

6 “Rehabilitation Service Opens Fontana Facilities,” San Bernardino County Sun, April 28, 1974: 79. “Brewers’ Carr Is Going Full Speed Ahead.”

7 Edes, “Carr Usually Flies in Steering Marlins.”

8 Geoff Calkins, “Carr, Colbrunn Revisit,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, April 7, 1994.

9 Scott Howard-Cooper, “Southern Section Baseball Finals: Fontana Tries to Complete Improbable Finish Tonight,” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1986.

10 Herrmann, “Ex-Met Carr to Become First to Sign with Ducks.”

11 Ibid.

12 John Hughes, “Years of Perseverance Pay Off in Big-league Debut for Parents,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, March 31, 1993.

13 Trevor Jensen, “Carr’s Wife Files for Support but Not Divorce,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, April 7, 1994.

14 “Mets call up Carr, send Jeff] Innis to minors,” White Plains (New York) Journal News, April 26, 1990: 41.

15 “Transactions,” Decatur (Illinois) Herald and Review, May 1, 1990, 14.

16 “Gooden’s 10-1 Spurt: ‘Right Now, I Stink,’” The Sporting News, September 3, 1990: 10.

17 “Mets Acquire Phillies’ Tom] Herr,” Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, September 1, 1990: 42.

18 “Transactions,” Port Huron (Michigan) Times Herald, August 30, 1991: 14.

19 Rick Hummel, “St. Louis Cardinals,” The Sporting News, September 28, 1992: 22.

20 Ibid.

21 Hughes, “Years of Perseverance Pay Off in Big-league Debut for Parents.”

22 Gordon Edes, “Carr Gets Used to Leading Role,” The Sporting News, May 10, 1993: 18.

23 “Opposite Attractions,” Palm Beach Post, April 3, 1994. John Dewan and Don Zminda, editors, The Scouting Report, 1994 (New York: HarperCollins Publishing), 450.

24 Ed Giuliotti, “Marlins Help Mets End Young’s Slide,” Orlando Sentinel, July 29, 1993: D3

25 Dewan and Zminda, The Scouting Report, 1994; Gordon Edes, “Florida Marlins: Analyzing 1993,” The Sporting News, October 11, 1993: 16.

26 Dan Le Batard, “Marlins’ Carr Is Gold Glove — with Flair,” Miami Herald, September 5, 1993. It was not until 2011 that the Gold Gloves for outfielders again specified awards for left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. From 1961 through 2010, three outfielders were selected irrespective of their specific position (see “Gold Glove History” at Rawlings.com). As it turned out, the 1993 NL Gold Glove outfielders actually did play separate positions: Grissom (CF), Barry Bonds (LF), and Larry Walker (RF).

27 Ibid.

28 Gordon Edes, “Smooth-Running Carr,” The Sporting News, September 6, 1993: 20.

29 Amy Niedzielka, “Jeff] Conine Cookin’,” The Sporting News, June 20, 1994: 21.

30 Larry Guest, “Carr’s Confidence Rises with Batting Average,” Orlando Sentinel, June 12, 1994.

31 Dave Hyde, “To Avert Nightmare, Carr Better Wake Up,” Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, July 31, 1994. Gary Gillette, Stuart Shea, and Pete Palmer, editors, The Scouting Report: 1996 (New York: HarperCollins Publishing, 1996), 417.

32 Amy Niedzielka, “Carr Suspended,” The Sporting News, November 21, 1994: 40.

33 Scott Tolley, “Devon Intervention,” The Sporting News, December 4, 1995: 47.

34 Scott Tolley, “Carr Out, Joe] Orsulak In,” The Sporting News, December 18, 1995: 44.

35 Drew Olson, “Fast, New Carr,” The Sporting News, December 18, 1995: 48.

36 “Indians 2, Brewers 0,” United Press International archives, May 30, 1996.

37 “Brewers’ Carr Is Going Full Speed Ahead.”

38 Cheryl Rosenberg, “Carr Proved Doctors Wrong,” Palm Beach Post, August 5, 1997: 29.

39 “Carr Refuses Triple-A, Gets Released,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), May 22, 1997.

40 Ibid.

41 “Carr Swerves Out of Job,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 28, 1997: 17.

42 Rosenberg, “Carr Proved Doctors Wrong.” “Carr Refuses Triple-A, Gets Released.”

43 Miller, “Carr Still Drawing Crowds in Florida.”

44 “Transactions,” New York Times, February 4 and March 31, 1998.

45 Mark Herrmann, “It’s Looking Ducky,” Newsday, April 22, 2000.

46 Mark Herrmann, “Ex-Met Carr to Become First to Sign with Ducks.”

47 Ibid.

48 Herrmann, ““It’s Looking Ducky.”

49 Harvey Sahker, “Some Familiar Names,” Baseball America, May 14, 2002.

50 Harvey Sahker, “Rimini Continues Dominance,” Baseball America, September 27, 2002.

51 Ken Brazzle, “Arizona-Mexico League,” Tucson Citizen, May 6, 2003.

52 Ryan Yousefi, “Twenty Ways to Tell if You’re a True Miami Marlins Fan,” Miami New Times, June 16, 2017.

Born on April 9, 1946, in St. Louis, Nathan Colbert Jr. grew up in a predominantly African-American community on the city’s north side. His father, Nate Sr., was a former semipro Negro League catcher and occasional pitcher who instilled in Junior, his two brothers, and his three sisters an uncompromising work ethic and passion for sports. “I just loved baseball,” said Nate, whose fondest childhood memories included playing ball with his father and regularly seeing the Cardinals play.1 Young Nate enjoyed going to Sportsman’s Park, just about 10 minutes from his home, and marveled at his favorite players, among them Jackie Robinson, who once signed his glove, and Stan Musial. Nate was in the stands when Stan the Man belted five home runs in a doubleheader on May 2, 1954, a feat the youngster would duplicate some 18 years later.

Nate played baseball whenever he could, on nearby sandlots, and in the afternoons after attending Cole School. Nate Sr., who worked in a local mill, also coached baseball in a boys’ club and taught his son the fundamentals. “I was a little bigger than a lot of the kids,” Colbert told Wayne McBrayer of Padres360, “so baseball, it became easy to me.”2 At Charles H. Sumner High School, Nate dabbled in some football, but a knee injury convinced him to stay on the diamond. Tall and lithe, Nate seemingly glided in the outfield and on the basepaths and attracted major-league scouts who followed his progress in prep, summer, and local semipro leagues. According to Bruce Markusen, the New York Yankees were in hot pursuit and promised to double offers from any team;3 however, Colbert could only think of Cardinal red. Tracked by George Hasser, an area bird-dog scout for the Cardinals, Colbert was invited by Redbirds scouting director George Silvey to Busch Stadium (the official name of Sportsman’s Park since 1953) to hit a few balls for skipper Johnny Keane, who was impressed with the skinny kid’s power.4 Upon graduation in 1964, one year before the inauguration of the amateur draft, Colbert signed with the hometown team on scout Joe Monahan’s recommendation for a reported $20,000 bonus.

Colbert’s professional baseball career commenced just months later. The Cardinals assigned him to the Sarasota Rookie League, where the right-handed hitter split his time at first and in the outfield. His stint in the Redbirds organization was short. A fractured left hand in July ended his 1965 season with Cedar Rapids in the Class-A Midwest League.5 Colbert got some additional experience in the Florida Instructional League, but just weeks after that season concluded, he was selected by the Houston Astros in the Rule 5 Draft on November 29.

To call Colbert’s tenure with the Astros a disappointment is an understatement. Under Rule 5 stipulations, the Astros were required to keep him on their roster the entire season or risk losing him if they optioned him to the minors. The 20-year-old Colbert had just 504 minor-league at-bats and was completely unprepared to hit major-league pitching. After participating in the Astros spring training at Cocoa Beach, Florida, Colbert bided his time on skipper Grady Hatton’s bench. He made just 19 appearances (12 as a pinch-runner and 7 as a pinch-hitter) and did not play in the field, not even an inning. He went hitless, though he scored three times. “It was just a year lost as far as playing is concerned,” said Colbert bluntly.6 The highlight of Colbert’s season took place on July 27 when he married Carol Ann Allensworth, whom he had met while completing three weeks’ training in the Army National Guard in Oklahoma City.

Colbert worked the rust off his atrophied skills in another stint in the Florida Instructional League, then faced major leaguers in the Venezuelan League with Caracas. More than anything, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Colbert needed at-bats, and was consequently assigned following another spring training with the Astros to the Amarillo Sonics in the Double-A Texas League. Colbert showcased his power and speed, pacing the circuit in home runs (28) and stolen bases (26). He was the league’s MVP, a unanimous All-Star, and was named to the Double-A Topps-National Association All-Star team. The young slugger was fully aware that he was still learning how to hit. “When I started, I didn’t know much, and swung hard. Now I don’t swing as hard, but hit the ball just as far,” he said in 1967. “I use my wrists and reflexes more now to give me power.”7

Assigned to the Triple-A Oklahoma City 89ers to start the 1968 season, Colbert was moved to center field to take advantage of his speed. A two-week call-up in July to the Astros proved disastrous (3-for-22). His first major-league hit was a single off fireballer Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds. He was returned to the PCL, but broke his hand and played in just 92 games. He was healed enough for another two-week look-see with the Astros in September. The results weren’t much better than his first stint (5-for-31) and he was still homerless in the majors.

“You can destroy a man’s confidence,” said Colbert, recalling his struggles with the Astros. “[Manager] Harry Walker almost destroyed mine.”8 Walker was determined to mold Colbert into his own image, a spray hitter to all fields, and constantly tinkered with his swing. A natural pull hitter, Colbert was told to wait longer for the ball, and his timing suffered, as did his power. “I got so confused, I began to doubt myself. I thought I’d never find myself again. I was terrified. Here I was 22 years old and I was being told I couldn’t hit big-league ball.”9

Colbert’s stock had dropped so dramatically that the Astros made him available in the expansion draft. The San Diego Padres selected him with their 18th pick on October 14, 1968. “I had no way of checking to see if I had been drafted,” explained Colbert about the days before access to around-the-clock sports news via Internet and social media. “So, I stayed up and I kept calling the newspaper. I was in Oklahoma City. And they said, ‘Well, we’ve got nothing yet.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, come on.’ So, the next morning, [GM] Eddie Leishman from the Padres called me to welcome me. … And I just let out a yell because I wanted to go to the San Diego Padres.”10 Leishman, who had been GM of the PCL San Diego Padres in 1968, was well acquainted with Colbert (“Nate used to hurt us.”) and was convinced that he would blossom into a star if he had a chance to play.11

After playing with Estrellas in the Dominican Winter League, Colbert reported to the Padres camp in Yuma, Arizona, relishing the opportunity to reset his career. “[T]he first spring training was really a unique experience, because I was with 30 or more players, most of whom I did not know,” recalled Colbert.12 The spring facilities at Keegan Field on 24th Street in Yuma were primitive. A former youth baseball field in shabby condition, the entire infield and outfield needed to be leveled and the mound elevated to major-league standards. It also lacked basic amenities, such as bleachers, dugouts, showers, locker rooms, a press box, a PA system, and concession stands.13 “We showered in a city gym, in a recreation center,” recalled Colbert.14 The 23-year-old slugger probably wondered what he had gotten himself into, but noted that “we survived.” Padres players dressed and showered at the Kennedy Swimming Pool, while visiting players traveled across town to do the same in Municipal Stadium, the former spring home of the Baltimore Orioles, which was in even worse shape than Keegan.

Skipper Preston Gomez took a decidedly hands-off approach to Colbert’s swing and gave the youngster the freedom to rediscover his stroke. “Colbert has a quick bat,” said Gomez, “probably the quickest on the club.”15 Nonetheless, Colbert began the season as the backup first baseman to the Jolly Green Giant, 6-foot-7 Bill Davis. About two weeks into the season, Colbert took over for the slumping Davis and held down the first-base bag for the next five seasons. His breakout game had an air of revenge. On April 24 in the Astrodome, Colbert blasted his first career home run, a game-winning three-run shot in the eighth off Jack Billingham. The next day he whacked his first home run in San Diego Stadium, a solo shot off Reds fireballer Jim Maloney, and he clouted his third home run in as many days when he connected off the Reds’ Jim Merritt for a three-run dinger which also proved to be the game winner, in the eighth. Those contests inaugurated an eight-game stretch in which Colbert went 11-for-30, hit five home runs, and drove in 12 runs, becoming the Padres’ first star and fan favorite. Colbert was having the time of his life playing for the Padres in what he called “big, but beautiful” San Diego Stadium. “I kept saying, ‘It’s the big leagues. It’s the big leagues.’ You know, I know we don’t have a lot fans or a lot of money, but this is major league baseball. This is my goal.”16

He was also reaching some home-run milestones. In the first game of a twin bill on May 25, in front of 13,115 hometown fans, almost twice the Padres’ major-league-low 6,333 average, Colbert took the Chicago Cubs Don Nottebart deep for his first of six career grand slams. Six days later, against the Expos in Montreal, he belted two home runs in a game for the first of 14 times in his career and seemed destined for a berth on the All-Star squad. On June 11 he was batting .299 with 12 home runs and slugging .588 (fourth best in the NL), then reported to Oklahoma City for three weeks of service in the National Guard. A weekend pass enabled to him join the Padres for a four-game series in Houston, but Colbert didn’t rejoin the team permanently until June 30 and subsequently struggled mightily. In his next 25 games he batted just .180 with a sole home run in 100 at-bats. “My timing was off and I started to pull everything,” said Colbert.17 He rediscovered his stroke, slugging .516 from August 1 through the rest of the season to lead the offensively challenged team with 24 home runs, 9 triples, and 66 RBIs. The Padres finished with the worst record in baseball (52-110) and ranked last in majors in runs scored (averaging just 2.89 per game), batting average (.225), and on-base percentage (.285).

After another year of winter ball, earning all-league honors with Caguas in Puerto Rico, Colbert arrived at the Padres’ brand-new training facility in Yuma with heightened expectations. His spring-training performance foreshadowed his season: He knocked in 21 runs in 60 at-bats and hit a 500-foot home run that Oakland A’s coach Bobby Hofman called the longest he had ever seen.18 On Opening Day, the 24-year-old walloped a monstrous three-run blast off Phil Niekro in the Padres’ 8-3 victory against the Atlanta Braves. “If I stay healthy, I have a chance to hit 30,” said Colbert, who doubted he could reach the 35 mark his skipper Gomez predicted.19 The round-trippers kept coming. He whacked four in 17 at-bats in a three-day, four-game stretch on the road on May 6-8, including two in one game against the Phillies in the City of Brotherly Love. “[Colbert can] hit a ball as far as anyone,” gushed Gomez, who compared his slugger to the hardest hitters in the game, such as Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell. “The ball just jumps off his bat.”20 Colbert blasted his former team on May 15, reaching two more milestones, by cranking his first extra-inning and first-walk-off home run, a two-run blast in the 10th to give the Padres a 10-8 victory.

Despite Colbert’s success (he was tied with Hank Aaron, Dick Allen, and Tony Perez for the major-league lead with 16 home runs after hitting two against the San Francisco Giants in the first game of a twin bill on May 26), Colbert’s name barely registered on the national radar. He was even left off the All-Star ballot (fans were given the right to vote in 1970 for the first time since the Cincinnati Reds ballot-box-stuffing scandal in 1957). “I could be leading the league in home runs and runs batted in and hitting .300 and people wouldn’t know who I am,” Colbert complained.21 A 21-game homerless streak to begin June dropped him well off the NL lead, and his name further receded from national attention. After spending the All-Star break at home in San Diego, Colbert equaled his home-run output from the first half by belting 19 as the Padres kept losing, finishing with the league’s worst record (63-99). In a strange statistical anomaly, the Padres ranked third in the league in home runs (172), easily led the majors with 104 on the road, yet ranked 11th of 12 NL teams in scoring. Colbert (38-86-.259 and .509 slugging) formed with his roommate Cito Gaston (29-93-.318, .543) and Ollie Brown (23-89-.292 .489) one of the most potent trios in baseball. A free swinger, Colbert finished in the NL’s top nine in strikeouts in all six of his full seasons in the majors, including third in 1970 with 150 punchouts. On August 12, he became part of strikeout history when the St. Louis Cardinals Bob Gibson fanned him for the hurler’s 200th K of the season to become the first major-league pitcher to reach the 200-strikeout mark in eight seasons.

Considered among the toughest parks for home-run hitters, San Diego Stadium had a deep 420-foot center field, with 375-foot power alleys, all of which were made even more imposing by a 17-foot outfield wall. “Whitey Wietelmann, one of our coaches, drew an imaginary line on his scorebook on what the dimensions were in most of the other ballparks,” recalled Colbert. “And then he took where I hit every ball and he said every year routinely, I would hit 15 to 20 balls that would be off the walls, on the warning track in deep center, that would have been home runs in another ballpark.”22

Colbert achieved success despite cognitive degeneration of his vertebrae which caused chronic lower back pain throughout his baseball career. “I have trouble getting loose,” he explained, adding that he acclimated himself to the discomfort. “I feel tight a lot at the start of games and I try to compensate and wind up swinging at bad pitches. I’ll have this problem all my life.”23

Colbert’s ailing back limited his participation in spring training in 1971 and raised concerns about the long-term effectiveness of the 25-year-old. Nonetheless big Nate was ready when the season commenced and he slammed two home runs against the San Francisco Giants in his second game of the season. Four days later he victimized Don Sutton of the Los Angeles Dodgers for two home runs in his first two at-bats en route to six RBIs in the Padres’ 9-7 victory on April 11, leading sportswriter Ross Newhan of the Los Angeles Times to declare him “baseball’s best young slugger.”24 Shrugging off those lofty pronouncements, Colbert developed a reputation as an emotionally charged team player who vented his frustrations after his strikeouts, but also at Padres fans, whom he once described as “impatient” and chided them for the “empty seats” in San Diego Stadium.25 The club finished last in the majors in attendance in 1971 for the second time in three years, averaging 6,883 per game. “I just want the team to be recognized,” Colbert said. “If the team gets recognition, I will, too. Recognition is tough when you play for a last-place team.”26 The club extended its cellar-dwelling streak in the NL West to three years; however, Colbert earned a berth on the All-Star team (selected by skipper Sparky Anderson of the Reds) and struck out against the Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Cuellar in his only plate appearance. Suffering through severe bouts of back pain, Colbert saw his power numbers drop, though he still led the team in home runs (27), RBIs (84), and slugging (.462), while batting .264 for the lowest-scoring team in baseball (3.02 runs per game).

Colbert enjoyed a magical 1972 season even while the Padres finished in the NL West cellar yet again with the league’s lowest-scoring offense (3.19 runs per game). He arrived at spring training at a chiseled 215 pounds, having dropped about 25 pounds by “taking shots,” reported sportswriter Phil Collier.27 Eleven games into the season, delayed by 13 days because of the first players strike in major-league history, Don Zimmer replaced Gomez as skipper. Soon thereafter Colbert commenced one of his patented tears by hitting a home run and driving in a pair of runs on May 5 against the Mets, who had tried to pry the slugger away from the lowly Padres in the offseason. Eight days later, Colbert concluded a seven-game stretch on the road with five home runs and 12 RBIs and was leading the majors with nine round-trippers. He began one of the worst slumps of his career the next day, managing just 14 hits in his next 107 at-bats as his averaged plummeted to .194. A surge in July (8 home runs and 19 RBIs in 20 games) catapulted Colbert back among the league leaders in those categories and garnered him another berth on the NL All-Star squad. In the bottom of the 10th, Colbert, pinch-hitting for pitcher Tug McGraw, drew a walk off Dave McNally. Two batters later he scored the dramatic winning run in his home-away-from home, Atlanta Stadium, on Joe Morgan’s single. After gaining some national recognition with that game-deciding tally, Colbert continued his July hot streak by homering in his first game after the All-Star Game, and then adding two more and knocking in all three Padres runs in a loss to the Astros at the Astrodome, setting up his fateful afternoon against the Braves in Atlanta on August 1.

Ever since Colbert was a minor leaguer with Amarillo, in 1967, he had a routine when he stepped into the batter’s box. “As I walk up to the plate,” he said, “I automatically touch my helmet. It gets me thinking about what I want to hit. Then I draw a Roman numeral seven in the dirt, backwards, with the end of the bat. I don’t know why I do it. It just do it. It clears my mind.”28 Leading the majors with 25 round-trippers, Colbert wielded his 35-inch, 36-ounce bat to go 4-for-5, belting two homers and driving in five runs in the Padres’ 9-0 laugher in the first game. Colbert recalled that he had felt exceptionally tired when the club arrived in Atlanta from Houston late the night before. “I didn’t sleep well,” he said. “I knew there was no way I could play both games. My back hurt, I felt down.”29 After his performance in the first game, there was no question he’d back in the field in the nightcap. He torched three different Braves hurlers to cap the best game of his life, clubbing three home runs for the first and only time and knocking in a career-high eight runs in the Padres’ 11-7 victory for the twin-bill sweep. Colbert’s five home runs tied Musial’s record for the most in a doubleheader and his 13 RBIs set a new record, breaking the mark of 11, held jointly by Earl Averill (1930), Jim Tabor (1939), and Boog Powell (1966). Colbert’s 22 total bases broke Musial’s record of 21. Given the Padres’ lack of home-run threats (Leron Lee was the only other player to have double-digit round-trippers that season with 12), it’s a wonder that opposing pitchers even threw to Colbert. He finished the season by tying his own club record with 38 home runs (finishing in second place in the majors, two behind Johnny Bench). Colbert’s 111 runs batted in set an intriguing major-league record, which still stood as of 2018, and might be among the baseball records least likely to be broken. His RBI total accounted for 22.75 percent of all the Padres’ runs, breaking the mark set by the Boston Braves’ Wally Berger (130 RBIs, 22.61 percent) in 1930.30

No one could have imagined that Colbert would go from one of the game’s most feared sluggers in 1972 to out of baseball four years later at the age of 30. The initial signs of Colbert’s alarming decline came in the first three months of the 1973 season, when he managed just seven home runs through June. A hot streak to start July (18 hits in 36 at-bats in nine games) helped salvage his season and earned him another berth on the All-Star squad. (He fouled out in his only appearance.) Once again the biggest offensive threat on the NL’s worst team and the lowest-scoring (3.38 runs per game) club in the majors, Colbert posted career bests in batting average (.270) and on-base-percentage (.343), though he slipped to 22 home runs and 80 runs batted in.

In his final three campaigns (1974-1976), Colbert batted an anemic .186 with a .346 slugging percentage and hit only 24 home runs. After three consecutive All-Star Game appearances at first base, Colbert was moved by the Padres to left field in 1974 to accommodate the acquisition of Willie McCovey. Colbert never acclimated himself to the new position, struggled at the plate, drew the ire of the fans, and was ultimately benched by skipper John McNamara. In the offseason he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. A short, disastrous stint in the Motor City was followed by a similar one with the Montreal Expos, who released him on June 2, 1976. Signed by the Oakland A’s, Colbert attempted to revive his career in the minors with the Tucson Toros of the Pacific Coast League. He was called up by the A’s in September and went hitless in two games. Granted free agency on November 1, 1976, Colbert was not selected in the inaugural free-agent re-entry draft, effectively ending his career. He participated in the Toronto Blue Jays spring training in 1977, but was jettisoned well before camp ended.

The Padres’ first star and multiple All-Star, Colbert finished his career with 173 home runs, 520 RBIs, and a .243 batting average. As of 2018, he still held the Padres’ career record for home runs (163) and ranked among the club’s top 10 in numerous offensive categories.

Like many ballplayers, Colbert’s transition into life after baseball was initially rocky. After holding down a few odd jobs and divorcing in 1979, Colbert married Kathrien (Kasey) Louis Barlow and became an ordained minister. He also gradually found his way back to the Padres, serving as an instructor during spring training and later as hitting coach for several seasons with the Riverside Red Wave in the Class-A California League. In October 1990, the day Colbert lost his job with the Padres, he was also indicted on 12 felony counts of fraudulent loan applications.31 He eventually pleaded guilty to one count and served a six-month sentence in Lompoc, a medium-security penitentiary in California.32 After his incarceration, Nate rededicated his life to his ministry and operated various baseball schools and camps in which youngsters learned about the sports and Christian values. He managed in two short-season independent leagues (Western Baseball League and Big South League) in 1995 and 1996, though he preferred to spend his time working with disadvantaged youths and combining his two passions, baseball and ministry. In 1999 Colbert, 1976 Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones, and former Padres owner Ray Kroc were the inaugural inductees into the Padres Hall of Fame, founded in 1999 on the team’s 30th anniversary. Colbert continued his ministry work into the new millennium. As of 2018, he lived in the San Diego area and occasionally made appearances with the Padres.

“I never had a bad day in baseball,” said the soft-spoken Colbert decades after retiring. “It was, I woke up, I wanted to go to the ballpark. I liked playing every day. I didn’t need an offday. I played with a bad back, broken toe, fractured wrist, and concussion. I played. I just played, because I figured I’m going to hurt anyway, so I might as well play.”33

Colbert died on January 5, 2023 at the age of 76.

Last revised: Januar6, 2023 (ghw)

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this biography, the author also accessed Colbert’s player file and player questionnaire from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, the SABR Minor Leagues Database, accessed online at Baseball-Reference.com, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 “The Padres First Star — #17 –Nate Colbert,” Padres360, August 21, 2014. https://padres360.com/2014/08/21/the-padres-first-star-17-nate-colbert/.

2 Ibid.

3 Bruce Markusen, “#Card Corner: 1969 Topps Nate Colbert,” baseballhall.org. https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/card-corner/nate-colbert.

4 Arnold Hano, “Nate Colbert Is Definitely Accident Prone,” Sport Magazine, May 1973: 50. Neal Russo, “Colbert’s Brother Says Father Inspired Nate,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 8, 1971: 29.

5 Jim Sims, “Shaking Foes Hear the High Sonic Boom — It’s in Colbert’s Bat,” The Sporting News, June 3, 1967: 39.

6 John Wilson, “Astros See Bright Future for Bench Kid, Colbert,” The Sporting News, November 26, 1966: 37.

7 Sims.

8 Hano.

9 Hano.

10 Padres360.

11 Paul Cour, ‘Big Colbert Booster: G.M. Leishman,” The Sporting News, June 27, 1970: 11.

12 Padres360.

13 Sarah Wisdom, “San Diego Padres in Yuma — Spring Training 1969,” Yuma County District Library, February 8, 2016. https://yumalibrary.org/san-diego-padres-in-yuma-spring-training-1969/.

14 Padres360.

15 Paul Cour, “Colbert New Power Man for Padres,” The Sporting News, May 17, 1969: 18.

16 Padres360.

17 Paul Cour, “Army Chilled Nate’s Bat,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1969: 35.

18 Paul Cour, “Corkins Winning Battle With Batters and Ulcers,” The Sporting News, April 18, 1970: 28.

19 Paul Cour, “New Padres ‘Snake’ Brings Foes to Knees,” The Sporting News, April 25, 1970: 20.

20 Paul Cour, “Colbert’s Cannon Shots Jolt Padre Foes,” The Sporting News, May 9, 1970: 10.

21 Paul Cour, “Herby Proves Answer to Padre Prayers,” The Sporting News, June 20, 1970: 21.

22 Padres360.

23 Allen Lewis, “Colbert Slams 2 Homers as Padres Best Phils, 8-2,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 1970: 25.

24 Ross Newhan, “Nate Colbert: Name to Remember,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1971: 1.

25 Paul Cour, “Barton Relaxes, Starts Belting the Ball,” The Sporting News, May 22, 1971: 16.

26 Newhan.

27 Phil Collier, “Fewer Pounds Lift Colbert’s Stock as Pounder,” The Sporting News, May 27, 1972: 23.

28 Hano.

29 Ibid.

30 Bob Carroll, “Nate Colbert’s Unknown RBI Record,” The National Pastime (2014 reissue), 1982. SABR.

31 Michael Granberry, “Ex-Padre Slugger Nate Colbert Indicted,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1990: B2.

32 Alan Abrahamson, “Colbert Pleads Guilty,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1991: C9.

33 Padres360.

Clarence Coleman was born on August 25, 1935, the seventh of eight children of John Henry and Elnora (Pittman) Coleman, in Orlando, Florida. He was the grandson of William and Lottie Coleman, who were born a decade after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In the late 1800s, William and Lottie married and eventually raised eight children on a farm south of Macon, Georgia. Around 1919, their second eldest child, Clarence’s father John, married Elnora. The union produced two children born in Georgia before the family moved to Florida around 1923. They settled into a small house west of downtown Orlando, 10 miles or so northeast of present-day Disney World.

The house bordered a community park that included a baseball field and tennis courts, access to which helped Coleman hone his athletic skills both before and during his enrollment at Orlando’s Jones High School in the 1950s. It was also around this time that Coleman earned the nickname “Choo-Choo” for a fleet-footedness likened to that of a speeding train. The name would stick with him the rest of his life. Another trait that followed him into adulthood was Coleman’s shy, quiet nature, a characteristic borne from embarrassment over a childhood stutter. Though the stutter improved with age, it never disappeared. A superb athlete, Coleman turned to sports as his primary means of communicating. “In high school, Choo-Choo was a baseball catcher, played basketball and tennis, and was probably a better tennis player,” recalled Coleman’s niece, Linda Milhouse Hibbler, years later. “But he loved baseball.”2

In 1955, shortly after graduating from high school, Coleman signed with the Florida State League’s Orlando C.B.s, a Class-D affiliate of the Washington Senators. The signing was facilitated by one of Coleman’s childhood friends who was playing for the team. The excitement Coleman experienced after joining the team quickly turned to disappointment when he saw very little usage: 20 at-bats in 17 games. When the same pattern surfaced midway through the following season, Coleman bolted the team and signed with the Indianapolis Clowns. One year removed from the Negro American League, the club, owned by Syd Pollock, barnstormed with Coleman throughout the nation.3    

By 1958, Coleman had returned to Orlando and once again signed with the local club. Though he played 38 games in the outfield, Coleman received the bulk of the catching duties for the unaffiliated Orlando Flyers and continued doing so the next season when the club became the Class-D affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In June 1959, at the season’s midpoint, the left-handed hitter led the league with 55 RBIs. Though he slowed in the second half, he still finished among the circuit leaders. He also placed among the leaders with 15 stolen bases. Defensively, Coleman presented a mixed bag. His strong arm contributed a league leading 74 assists by a catcher while his 18 errors trailed only one other backstop. Despite these miscues, Coleman was selected to the league’s All-Star squad in a poll of managers and sportswriters. It was around this time that Coleman, now 23, started representing himself as two years younger to attract major-league interest.

The ploy worked when Coleman opened the 1960 season in Class A, with the Macon Dodgers of the South Atlantic League. His ascension within the organization continued when, despite a pedestrian .195/.271/.312 line in 26 games, he was advanced to the Triple-A Montreal Royals in the International League just weeks later. Except for a near-league-leading 12 errors, a yield that trailed only his future Mets teammates Chris Cannizzaro and Jesse Gonder, he drew rave reviews for his defense. “[Coleman is] the best lowball catcher I’ve ever seen,” Royals manager Clay Bryant claimed.4 Moreover, Coleman responded well to the promotion with a .258 average in 291 at-bats while placing among the league leaders with 10 stolen bases. When the season ended, he joined a group of African-American stars that included Hank Aaron and Curt Flood on a 33-game barnstorming tour throughout the South. On November 28, the Philadelphia Phillies selected Coleman with the first pick in the annual Rule 5 Draft. Cleveland Indians GM Frank Lane, who had made no secret of his desire to select the backstop, grudgingly acknowledged that Coleman was “a fine draft choice. [He will] make them a pretty good catcher in a year or so.”5

Lane’s prediction appeared prescient when Coleman got four hits including a ninth-inning game-winning RBI single in a March 14, 1961, Grapefruit League game against the St. Louis Cardinals. A month later, in a sportswriters’ nationwide poll, he was tabbed as the Phillies’ “Hottest Young Prospect.”6 Though he was unable to unseat sophomore catcher Clay Dalrymple from the starting catcher job, Coleman prevailed in competition with four others for one of the two backup roles.

On April 16, 1961, Coleman made his major-league debut at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park pinch-hitting for pitcher Chris Short. Representing the tying run in a 5-2 deficit, he was struck by the pitch from veteran right-hander Sam Jones.7 The rally was quickly extinguished when pinch-hitter Bobby Del Greco grounded into a double play. Coleman’s first official at-bat came four days later when he was again called upon to pinch-hit, this time for shortstop Ruben Amaro with two strikes on the batter. He grounded out to Milwaukee Braves first baseman Joe Adcock after fouling off four pitches. “I always remembered that,” Coleman recalled more than 60 years later. “That’s tough, man!”8  

On April 28, following two additional pinch-hit appearances, Coleman collected several major-league firsts: his first base hit, an eighth-inning single to right field against Cardinals reliever Lindy McDaniel, his first RBI and run scored, and his first appearance at catcher. Coleman got his first start 10 days later, while his first extra-base hit — an RBI double against future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale — came on May 9. On May 27, he was robbed of his first career home run on a brilliant catch by Cincinnati Reds center fielder Vada Pinson.

But opportunities for additional play proved fleeting when, through mid-June, only five of Coleman’s 26 appearances came as a starter, while 19 came either solely or initially as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. After the Phillies signed free-agent outfielder Elmer Valo on June 17, Coleman was no longer the sole left-handed hitter on the bench. Following a June 20 appearance as a defensive replacement he was assigned to the Spokane Indians, a Dodgers Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. Coleman did not take the demotion well and it initially affected his play. Breaking out of his slump with grand slams on successive nights against the Salt Lake City Bees on July 26-27, he finished among the team leaders in several categories including his 13 home runs and a .518 slugging percentage. Though recalled by the Phillies in September, Coleman was left unprotected in the first National League expansion draft. On October 10, he was selected by the Mets with the 28th pick.

Before their inaugural 1962 season, the Mets drafted or acquired primarily older players in the belief that a veteran presence would result in immediate success. Despite hitting the first home run in Mets history during a March 11, 1962, exhibition against the Cardinals, Coleman did not make the final cut prior to the start of the regular season — a demotion he again did not take well. Assigned to the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, Coleman suffered through a series of injuries that contributed to a dismal .195/.275/.279 line in just 226 at-bats as he split his time between catcher and the outfield.

But as bad as things were in Syracuse, events were much worse in New York. In July, while en route to a modern-record 120-loss season, the Mets lost veteran catcher Sammy Taylor due to a fractured finger. On July 16, Coleman was recalled. Eleven days later, in his first start, he got a bunt single and came around to score the only run of the game in a 1-0 win over Cardinals flamethrower Bob Gibson. A week later Coleman connected for his first major-league home run, a two-run pinch-hit homer against Reds reliever Jim Brosnan. Citing Coleman’s “high potential,” Mets manager Casey Stengel turned increasingly toward the 26-year-old for the club’s catching needs.9 He finished the season with a .250 average in 152 at-bats with career highs in runs (24), doubles (7), homers (6), and RBIs (17). Moreover, of the seven catchers the Mets used in 1962, Coleman had the highest fielding percentage of anyone with 92 or more innings behind the plate. His only error came when he attempted to pick off a runner at first and sent the ball sailing past a seemingly oblivious Marv Throneberry. “The official scorer must have reasoned that anybody who tried a pickoff with Marvelous Marv deserved an error, just for bad judgment,” sportswriter George Vecsey cracked years later.10 During the winter Coleman was assigned to the Florida Instructional League, where coach Solly Hemus worked with him at catcher and at second base and outfield as well.

But the gains made by Coleman in 1962 inexplicably evaporated. He opened the 1963 season as the Mets starting catcher, but after a 1-for-20 start was quickly moved into a platoon role. He especially struggled on the road with a miserable season-long .107 average in 121 at-bats. Moreover, except for his strong-armed capabilities that placed him among the league leaders in erasing baserunners, Coleman’s defensive strides of the preceding season collapsed to near league-leading yields in passed balls (11) and errors by a catcher (15). As if to add salt to the wound, his horrid 5-for-49 slump beginning on August 28 contributed to a final .178/.264/.215 line. Seeking to reclaim his abilities, Coleman traveled to Central America to play winter ball in the Nicaraguan League — the first of four consecutive winters in which he did so.   

The confidence Stengel had previously shown in Coleman appeared to have completely dissipated when the catcher reported to 1964 spring training and found himself competing with five other backstops for the starting job. Moreover, Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey was brought in to work almost exclusively with catcher Jesse Gonder, a powerful slugger acquired the season before, on his defense. Coleman’s chances of recapturing the starting job were further reduced when he suffered a fractured thumb on March 8 that sidelined him for a month. Days before the start of the regular season, he was optioned to the Buffalo Bisons in the Triple-A International League. Injuries followed Coleman to Buffalo and he was unable to get regular play until midway through the season. He finished with a .285/.357/.488 line with 10 home runs in 172 at-bats — good enough to warrant a recall in September but not enough to garner additional play.

In 1965, the Mets used no fewer than seven catchers, not one of whom was named Coleman. Seemingly an afterthought in the minds of management, the 29-year-old was one of the first players assigned to Buffalo during spring training. Once again, injuries marred his season as Coleman got a mere 150 at-bats. The following year, having been removed from the 40-man roster, he attended Mets spring training as a nonroster invitee.

As inexplicable as Coleman’s descent had been three years earlier, his ascent in 1966 was just as hard to explain. One of many observers who noticed the marked improvement was Stengel, by now the former manager, who visited the Mets camp during spring training. “[Coleman]’s looked real good,” Casey remarked. “[M]aybe he’s ready to make it this time.”11 These words appeared prophetic when Coleman earned the third-string catcher role behind youngsters Jerry Grote and John Stephenson. After sitting on the bench on Opening Day, Coleman started in five of the club’s first six games. The last start came on April 23 against the Braves in Atlanta Stadium in what proved to be Coleman’s last appearance in the major leagues. Three weeks later he was shipped to the Triple-A Jacksonville (Florida) Suns for veteran backstop Hawk Taylor. Coleman finished the season there as backup to once-prized catching prospect Greg Goossen before proceeding to Nicaragua for another winter season. In a preview of his much longer hibernation, he then seemingly dropped off the face of the earth for the next two years.

In July 1967, the Mets extended an invitation to Coleman to attend the fifth anniversary of their inaugural team but he did not show. Though he would later shrug off this two-year absence as a fishing hiatus, a darker side eventually emerged. Former teammate Larry Bearnarth later claimed that Coleman had confided in him that “he’d been in Philadelphia … and was starving.”12 Coleman’s next sighting came in the spring of 1969 when he was spied in uniform at the Mets minor-league training camp at St. Petersburg, Florida. In a short letter of apology to Mets farm director Joe McDonald, specifics of which were never fully divulged, Coleman asked for and received a tryout. He was eventually assigned to the Triple-A Tidewater Tides in the International League.13

The Tides’ inaugural season coincided with the circuit’s experiment with the designated hitter, making Coleman one of the first DH’s in the league’s history. His presence also brought a thrill to Jeff Terpko, Buffalo’s 18-year-old right-hander, who described Coleman as his “boyhood idol” after the two faced off against each other in a June 5 contest. “I watched him every night that first year (1962) when the Mets started,” Terpko said.14 In a five-player platoon Coleman received the bulk of play behind the plate and carried a .300 average through the first half of the season. His veteran presence helped stabilize a young staff that included 19-year-old Jon Matlack as the club proceeded to the International League crown.

By 1970, Coleman had parted ways with the Tides and launched a two-year (possibly three-year) stint with the Mexico City Reds in the Triple-A Mexican League. In his first year, Coleman was among the league leaders in hitting throughout the season’s first half, and his team-leading 15 homers helped the Reds to a runaway first-place finish in the Northern Division. But at no point during this or subsequent years was he able to attract major-league attention. He hung up his spikes after the 1972 season.

Throughout his career Coleman had spent most of his offseasons following in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter, though he also worked as a butcher and house painter at various times. In 1961, he met Suzie Mae Starks on the public tennis courts across from his parents’ house. They married in October. The union produced a son, Clarence Jr., and a daughter, Elnora Vanessa, before dissolving in divorce years later. A subsequent marriage in Chesapeake, Virginia, to Odessa Dejetta, whose son-in-law owned a Chinese restaurant, resulted in Coleman launching a lengthy second career as the restaurant’s primary chef before he opened his own establishment. In 1994, after Odessa’s death, Coleman moved to Bamberg, South Carolina, 80 miles northwest of Charleston, where he married Lucille Middleton, a South Carolina native who was the sister of his brother-in-law.

Around 2010 Lucille fell victim to Alzheimer’s disease. Coleman, who was struggling with his own health concerns after contracting diabetes, was compelled to place her in a nursing home and moved into the home of his niece Linda Milhouse Hibbler in Bamberg. Sometime before this last move, Coleman, through the tenacity of Lou Cafiero, a diligent New York sports collector, was rediscovered. In 2012, in his first flight in 35 years, he traveled to New York, where he was an instant hit among the attendees at a large autograph show.

Coleman returned home from his trip to New York and resumed his twin passions of gardening and watching sports on television. But in early 2016 doctors discovered that he had colon cancer. The disease was so far along that there was little to be done. On August 15, 2016, 10 days shy of his 81st birthday, Coleman died in nearby Orangeburg, South Carolina. He was buried at Holy Temple COGIC Church Cemetery in Bamberg. The year proved to be heartbreaking for fans of the original 1962 Mets as outfielder Jim Hickman had died in June and catcher Chris Cannizzaro died in December.

One would be excused for thinking that someone with a career .197/.266/.281 line in 462 at-bats would have been long forgotten in the dustbin of history of marginal players who reached the major leagues. This is hardly the case with Coleman. Though the recollections may not be among the most flattering, they possess an inviting allure that rarely fails to bring a smile to those who cherish the memory of the hapless 1962 Mets. Author Roger Angell is among the many writers who have carried Coleman’s memory forward. In his 1972 release of The Summer Game, Angell wrote:

“Coleman, who is eager and combative, handles outside curve balls like a man fighting bees. He is quick on the basepaths, but this is an attribute that is about as essential for catchers as neat handwriting.”15

A decade later, 1962 Met Richie Ashburn, in a recollection for The Sporting News, cited a time when Coleman launched a game-winning pinch-hit homer after Stengel had called time, walked onto the field and whispered something in his ear. “After the game, the writers asked Coleman what Casey whispered .. . and Coleman said, ‘He told me to hit a home run.’”16

There are stories about Coleman’s inability to remember the names of his teammates — everyone was “Bub” — or the fact that, because of his shyness, he was never the easiest person to interview. Yet another, as related by pitcher Bob Miller, describes an incident in which the right-hander called Coleman to the mound to change the signs with a runner on second base. Returning to his position behind the plate, Coleman promptly forgot what they’d just agreed to and repeatedly put down one finger for a fastball. Miller “laughed so hard he fell off the mound” and was called for a balk.17 But the most amusing tale of all was the one uncovered by sportswriter Jay Dunn in 2016:

Coleman’s signature play happened one day when he missed the tag on a runner trying to score. Since the runner also missed the plate the umpire made no call. Under 1962 rules, the run would count unless the Mets tagged the runner before the next pitch was thrown. By the time a teammate pointed this out to Coleman, the runner had retreated to the visitors’ dugout. Dutifully, the catcher took the ball trundled to the dugout intent on making the necessary tag.

It was a long way to the dugout in the Polo Grounds [the Mets’ home field]. By the time Coleman got there he could no longer remember who he was supposed to tag. No problem. He started down the bench tagging everyone wearing a uniform. The base runner figured out what was happening and, with nothing to lose, burst out of the dugout and made a mad dash for the plate. Coleman had to throw the ball to a teammate to complete the out.

That was probably the only time in baseball history that a rundown play occurred between home and the dugout.18

These many rich, possibly apocryphal tales of Coleman will remain forever in the memories of baseball historians. Among these, perhaps no one captured him more than his former batterymate Larry Bearnarth, who claimed that Coleman “love[d] baseball more than anything in the world.”19 That same love has been reciprocated by fans many times over.

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com. The author wishes to thank Linda Milhouse Hibbler, Coleman’s niece, and SABR members Joseph Wancho, chair of the Minor Leagues Research Committee, and Bill Mortell for their invaluable assistance.

Notes

1 “Voice of the Fan,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1972: 6.

2 Phone interview with Linda Milhouse Hibbler, August 14, 2017.

3 “Choo Choo Coleman: Farewell to a Good ‘Bub,’” Baseball Happenings, August 15, 2016. Accessed August 29, 2017 (bit.ly/2wQn50R).

4 Allen Lewis, “Phils Placing Top Price on Twirling Trio,” The Sporting News, December 14, 1960: 33.

5 Ibid.

6 “Names to Watch? Scriveners Spill Lowdown,” The Sporting News, April 19, 1961: 2.

7 Through 2017, Coleman is one of only 29 known players to be hit by a pitch in his first major-league plate appearance.

8 “Choo Choo Coleman: Farewell to a Good ‘Bub,’” Baseball Happenings.

9 Dan Daniel, “Rivals Pepper Mets With Trade Offers — Jackson No. 1 Target,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1962: 19.

10 George Vecsey, “Deconstructing the Legend of Choo Choo,” New York Times, January 23, 2012. Accessed September 1, 2017 (nyti.ms/2iNizu6).

11 Barney Kremenko, “Ol’ Case’s Verdict: ‘Mets Much Better Than Ever Before,” The Sporting News, April 16, 1966: 36.

12 Kevin Duffy, “The Passing of a Legend: Original Met Clarence ‘Choo-Choo’ Coleman Has Died,” SBNation, August 16, 2016. Accessed August 29, 2017 (bit.ly/2gofAas).

13 Ibid.

14 “International League,” The Sporting News, June 21, 1969: 46.

15 Joe Pollack, “A Top Writer Captures Heart, Pace of Baseball,” The Sporting News, July 8, 1972: 38.

16 Richie Ashburn, “Richie Remembers Mets,” The Sporting News, September 29, 1986: 16.

17 Michael Carlson, “Remembering Choo Choo Coleman,” Irresistible Targets, August 18, 2016. Accessed October 16, 2017 (bit.ly/2gmhlpg).

18 Jay Dunn, “A Comedy of Errors from Baseball’s Vault,” The Trentonian, August 31, 2016. Accessed September 4, 2017 (bit.ly/2eUMdJd).

19 Kevin Duffy, “The Passing of a Legend: Original Met Clarence ‘Choo-Choo’ Coleman Has Died.”

On October 4, 2003, Jeff Conine lived that singular baseball dream. The 2003 season looked like another lost season for the Florida Marlins. On May 10, with a record of 16-22, they fired manager Jeff Torborg and hired 72-year-old baseball lifer Jack McKeon to be the manager.1 After a six-game losing streak ended on May 23, the Marlins went an incredible 72-42 to finish 20 games over .500 at 91-71. Two moves the Marlins made helped them toward this magical season. The first was the acquisition on July 11 of Texas closer Ugueth Urbina to solidify the bullpen;2 the second acquisition was Jeff Conine. His was something of an under-the-radar acquisition necessitated by an injury to starting third baseman Mike Lowell. It brought back one of the original Marlins and the starting first baseman of the 1997 World Series champion team. 

On October 4, 2003, in Game Four of the National League Division Series, Marlins manager McKeon put his faith in his closer Urbina to close out the game against the 100-win San Francisco Giants, after the Marlins had put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the eighth to take a 7-5 lead. A win would give them the series and they would advance to the National League Championship Series.

The Giants’ Jeffrey Hammonds stepped to the plate with base runners on first and second and two outs. At this point the Pro Player Stadium crowd of 65,464 had cheered for over three hours and had their hearts in their throat as they had seen their team already blow a 5-1 lead and faced the prospect of having their team lose the game and then be forced to go back to San Francisco for a deciding Game Five.

On the first pitch of the at-bat, Hammond hit a blooper into left field, where Jeff Conine fielded the ball cleanly and in one motion threw home to try to cut down J.T. Snow at the plate. Conine’s throw was up the left-field line but two factors were working in his favor. One was that Snow was not known as a particularly fast runner. And his catcher on the play was Ivan Rodriguez, who had won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves, arguably the premier defensive catcher in baseball. Rodriguez caught the ball and braced for impact as Snow, the son of Notre Dame All-American and longtime Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Jack Snow, was barreling down on him. In one motion Rodriguez tagged Snow with his glove and in the subsequent collision was able to hold onto the ball. The Marlins won the game (which was later voted as number 19 on a list of the 20 greatest games in major-league baseball playoff history3), then beat the Cubs in a memorable series in its own right, and then moved on to win the World Series over the New York Yankees in six games.

Jeffery Guy Conine was born on June 27, 1966, in Tacoma, Washington, to Pam and Gerald Guy Conine. Gerald was a trade-show installer, who had been a two-way football lineman for three years and a wrestler at Washington State.4 After graduating from college, Jerry Conine qualified for the US team in the men’s light heavyweight division in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he placed sixth.5 After finishing his wrestling career, Jerry Conine took up handball and by 1976 had placed second for the US handball championship, and competed in handball championships well into his 60s.6

Jeff Conine’s brother Jerry was also a two-sport standout at Washington State in both wresting and football.7 Jeff first showed a talent not in baseball but racquetball, and if not for racquetball he might have never gained the body and reflexes to play professional baseball.

When Jeff was 13 years old he was 5-feet-2 and weighed 190 pounds; as he would later say, “I wasn’t chubby I was fat.”8 To get in shape, Jeff took up racquetball, and by July of 1980, he had lost 25 pounds and grown 6 inches. However, during this transformation, Conine had a severe health scare when he was diagnosed with a condition known as chondramalatia, also called runner’s knee, which occurs when the undersurface of the patella deteriorates and softens.9 Rehabilitating from this injury by playing racquetball, Conine became an expert at the angles, to the point where two years later, he was playing in open tournaments and beating players who had been playing racquetball for years.10

Conine was also a standout baseball player at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California. His baseball prowess saw him recruited as a pitcher at the University of California Los Angeles. While at UCLA, Conine played baseball and racquetball. In 1985 as a sophomore, he won the US Junior National Championships, and received a spot on the US National Racquetball Team.11

Conine had a difficult time adjusting to college baseball; in his first three seasons (1985-1987) he had an earned-run average of 6.06, and as his first pitching coach at UCLA, Guy Hansen, said, “he had limited potential & in fact probably had the straightest fastball that I had ever seen.”12 In the only at-bat Conine had at UCLA, he was hit by a pitch. However, Hansen recognized Conine’s athleticism. He not only played racquetball, but also played beach volleyball and during batting practice Conine would hit long home runs out of Jackie Robinson Stadium. Hansen left UCLA for a scouting position with the Kansas City Royals and persuaded the Royals to draft Conine. The Royals selected Conine in the 58th round of the June 1987 draft — as a first baseman.

Another life-altering event happened in December that year. While playing in a professional racquetball tournament, he met a fellow competitor, Cindy Doyle. In October of 1993 they were married.13

During his first five years in professional baseball Conine not only played first base, but also third base and the outfield, a position that would later serve him well in the majors.

In 1988 and 1989, Conine played for the Royals’ Class-A Florida State League team in Baseball City (Davenport, Florida), where in 1988 he hit .272 with 10 home runs, 59 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases, and a year later hit 14 homers and had 32 stolen bases. In 1990 he was advanced to the Double-A Memphis Chicks (Southern League), where he hit .320/15/95 with 21 stolen bases. Conine had established himself as the top prospect in the Royals organization. He earned a September call-up to the Royals and debuted on September 16, 1990, collecting his first base hit the next day. In nine games he hit .250.

In 1991, Conine spent the whole season with Triple-A Omaha, where in an injury-shortened year (he twice needed surgery on his left wrist), he played in 51 games and batted .257. Healthy again in 1992, Conine had a bounce-back season, hitting.302 with 20 home runs. He was called up to Kansas City in early August and batted .253 in 28 games.

After the 1992 season an expansion draft was held for the National League’s Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies. As Conine was effectively blocked as a first baseman by future Hall of Famer George Brett and former All-Star Wally Joyner, the Royals left him unprotected in the draft, With the 22nd pick of the first round he was chosen by the Florida Marlins.

In Florida, Conine switched from first base to left field to accommodate the arrival of slugger Orestes Destrade, a home-run slugger for the Seibu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League.14 Conine etched himself in the minds of South Florida fans when in the Marlins inaugural game he went 4-for-4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and helped lead his team to a 6-3 victory. (Before the game, ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman bestowed on Conine the nickname “Jeff Conine the Barbarian” — a play on the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Conan the Barbarian.)

During the 1993 season Conine was the only Marlin to play all 162 games, and — with Gary Sheffield — one of the team’s first stars. Conine hit .292 with 128 homers and 79 RBIs. He finished third in National League Rookie of the Year balloting behind Mike Piazza of the Dodgers and Greg McMichael of the Atlanta Braves.

After the season Jeff and Cindy were married, and as part of their honeymoon they competed in the 1993 mixed doubles of the US Racquetball Championships. During the tournament the Conines, unseeded, upset the second-seeded team en route to the semifinals, where they lost a close match.

Over the next three years, Conine was one of the constants on the Marlins, improving on his 1993 campaign by playing in all 115 games of the strike-shortened 1994 season and hitting .319 with 18 home runs and 82 runs batted in. In 1995 he hit .302 with 25 homers and 105 RBIs, and in 1996 he hit .293/26/95.

During the early years of the Marlins, Conine and Gary Sheffield were the most recognizable stars of the Marlins. In 1994 and 1995 Conine was a National League All-Star. In the 1995 All-Star Game, he created one of the first big moments in Marlins history. Pinch-hitting for Reds outfielder Ron Gant, he hit the game-winning home run off Oakland A’s pitcher Steve Ontiveros. Conine was named the game’s MVP.15

On December 21, 1995, Cindy gave birth to their daughter Sierra.16

In 1996 Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga issued an edict to team management: He wanted to the Marlins to start winning. The Marlins had tried the free-agent route in 1995 with little success as the signings of Andre Dawson, John Burkett, Terry Pendleton, and Bobby Witt did not work out. However, before the 1996 season the Marlins signed two pitchers and an outfielder who would be keys to the team’s immediate future: Devon White, Al Leiter, and Kevin Brown.

In 1996, in the middle of an 80-82 season, the Marlins fired the team’s inaugural manager, Rene Lachemann, and replaced him with interim manager John Boles. This move set the wheels in motion for what would be the first great team in Marlins history. After the season the Marlins hired former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland. They also acquired a number of high-priced players with the singular goal of winning the World Series. Those players acquired included Bobby Bonilla, John Cangelosi, Jim Eisenreich, Alex Fernandez, and Moises Alou.

Alou had been an All-Star left fielder with the Montreal Expos. He took over left field for the 1997 Marlins, with Eisenreich as his backup, and Conine was moved to first base to replace Greg Colbrunn. Conine hit only .242/17/61. The Marlins finished the season 92-70, good enough to capture the National League wild card. They beat the Giants in the Division Series and the Braves in the NLCS. Conine hit .364 and .111 respectively. During the Marlins’ World Series triumph over the Cleveland Indians, Conine played in six of the seven games and batted .231. Throughout the postseason, he was without a home run and drove in only three runs. One of them, however, was the game-winner in the 2-1 Game Five NLCS victory over the Braves.

On June 11, 1997, Cindy gave birth to a son, Griffin Riley Conine.17

After the Marlins’ thrilling 1997 World Series win, club owner Wayne Huizenga, claiming financial losses, ordered the team dismantled. General manager Dave Dombrowski was to trade all of the high-priced players. Conine was not immune to this “fire sale” and the Marlins traded “Mr. Marlin” to the team that originally drafted him, the Royals, for minor-league pitcher Blaine Mull. At the time of the trade Conine was the Marlins franchise leader in games played, hits, and runs batted in.18

In 1998, Conine suffered through an injury-plagued year for the Royals and played in only 93 games, batting .256 with 8 home runs and 43 RBIs. After the season he was on the move again, traded from the Royals to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Chris Fussell.19 In his first year with Baltimore, he enjoyed a bounce back season, batting .291 with 13 home runs and 75 RBIs, and followed up with three more fine offensive seasons.

On July 31, 2000, Cindy gave birth to a second son, Tucker.20

In 2003, the Marlins, under new owner Jeffrey Loria, were in the hunt for a wild-card spot. On August 31, the Marlins acquired Conine from the Orioles for pitchers Don Levinski and Denny Bautista.21

Over the last month of the season, Conine played in 25 games and took over in left field for Miguel Cabrera, who moved to third base for the injured Mike Lowell. Conine batted .238 with 5 home runs and had 15 runs batted in. He had key hits and RBIs in the Division Series, the Championship Series, and the World Series, in which the Marlins topped the New York Yankees in six games.22

Conine was a solid, steady offensive force for the Marlins in 2004 and 2005. But after the latter season, the Marlins began yet another market correction and traded their veteran free agents or let them sign with other teams. They traded Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, and Juan Pierre, and let A.J. Burnett and the 39-year-old Jeff Conine leave in free agency.

Over the last two years of his career Conine played for four teams. In 2006, at the age of 40, he played in 142 games, the first 114 with the Baltimore Orioles, batting .265, then after a trade, for the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he hit .280 in 28 games.23 After the season the Phillies signed Jayson Werth and traded Conine to the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds hoped he could provide veteran leadership as a backup first baseman. The Reds struggled, and after playing in 80 games, on August 20, the Reds traded Conine to the New York Mets for two minor leaguers. It was the second consecutive year and the third time in his career that Conine was traded after the nonwaiver trade deadline.24 Conine played sporadically for the Mets, who lost the NL East crown to the Phillies on the last day of the season.

After the season, Conine was a free agent but remained unsigned. On March 28, 2008, he signed a one-day contract with the Marlins. With that he ended his playing career. Conine became a special assistant to Marlins President Dave son. In that capacity he traveled to Cuba, Japan, and elsewhere on behalf of the Marlins. Conine spent time on Fox Sports Florida, filling in for Tommy Hutton along with Rich Waltz on the Marlins’ television broadcasts in 2008. In 2016 he was a TV color commentator along with Eduardo Perez, Al Leiter, and Preston Wilson, alongside Rich Waltz.25 From 2015 to 2017 he also helped host the Marlins pregame show with Carl Pavano, Preston Wilson, and Craig Minervini.

During the 2015 amateur draft, the Marlins drafted Conine’s son Griffin in the 31st round out of the Pine Crest School in Weston, Florida. Griffin chose not to sign and accepted a baseball scholarship to Duke University, where he was tabbed as one of baseball’s hottest prospects.26 Daughter Sierra excelled in lacrosse at Pine Crest and Tucker in track and field at St. Thomas Aquinas.27

Outside of baseball, Conine began training to enter triathlons and in 2008 became the first major league player to compete in the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.28 In training for this Ironman competition, Conine competed in the St. Anthony Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Ford Ironman at Walt Disney World.29 In 2014, Conine, his 18-year-old daughter, Sierra, and his friend Sean Swarner climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.30

In 2017 Jeffrey Loria sold the Marlins to a group led by Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter, and it appeared that Conine’s long association with the Marlins might be over. The new ownership initially fired Conine and the other Marlins special assistants. In a sudden reversal the owners offered Conine a different job within the organization, with a pay cut and a lesser role. Conine rejected the offer.31

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Notes

1 United Press International, “Marlins Replace Torberg (sic) with McKeon,” May 11, 2003. upi.com/Marlins-replace-Torberg-with-McKeon/26451052696791/.

2 assets.espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0711/1579625.html, Associated Press, July 11, 2003; updated July 12, 2003.

3 https://mlb.com/video/20-greatest-games-19/c-13084227.

4 Joe Strauss, “Conine’s Father Quite a Hitter, Too,” Baltimore Sun, June 26, 1999. https://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-06-26/sports/9906260064_1_jeff-conine-handball-racquetball.

5 https://sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/co/gerald-conine-1.html.

6 Strauss.

7 https://sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/co/jerry-conine-1.html.

8 Strauss.

9 “Runners’ Knee — Chondromalatia Patellae” physiobook.com/disease/orthopedic-and-sports-injuries/runners-knee-chondromalatia-patellae.html.

10  Strauss.

11  Tom Verducci, “Jeff and Cindy Conine,” Sports Illustrated, November 1, 1993. https://si.com/vault/1993/11/01/129726/jeff-and-cindy-conine.

12 I bid.

13  Ibid.

14  Gordon Edes and Ed Giulotti, “Translating Success/Baseball Players Such as Orestes Destrade Rekindle Careers in Japan . But Not All Can Keep the Fire Going in the U.S.” Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), March 17, 1993. https://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-03-17/sports/9301310189_1_orestes-destrade-japanese-teams-marlins.

15  https://baseball-reference.com/allstar/1995-allstar-game.shtml.

16  https://imdb.com/name/nm1246331/bio.

17  https://goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210614961&DB_OEM_ID=4200.

18  “Marlins Unload Conine on Royals for Mull,” Buffalo News, November 20, 1997. https://buffalonews.com/1997/11/20/marlins-unload-conine-on-royals-for-mull/.

19  Associated Press, “Baseball: Spring Training — Baltimore; Hoiles Dumped for Conine,” New York Times, April 3, 1999. https://nytimes.com/1999/04/03/sports/baseball-spring-training-baltimore-hoiles-dumped-for-conine.html.

20  Joe Strauss, “O’s Conine Acquires Proper Prospective,” Baltimore Sun, March 19, 2001. https://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-03-19/sports/0103190098_1_jeff-conine-cindy-fort-lauderdale.

21 CBC Sports, “Conine Traded Back to Marlins,” September 1, 2003. https://cbc.ca/sports/baseball/conine-traded-back-to-marlins-1.389157.

22  https://baseball-reference.com/players/c/coninje01.shtml#all_batting_postseason.

23  “Phillies Get Conine from Orioles,” Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal, August 28, 2006; https://sunjournal.com/phillies-get-conine-orioles/.

24  Associated Press, “Conine Traded to Mets,” August 21, 2007. https://tbo.com/sports/conine-traded-to-mets-168600.

25  Barry Jackson, “Fox Drops Marlins TV Play-by-Play Man Rich Waltz, Two Former Marlins,” Miami Herald, November 22, 2017. miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article186032833.html.

26  “Griffin Conine #9 Outfielder”; https://goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210614961.

27  Walter Villa, “Mr. Marlin’s Son Was Not Recruited Locally. But Now He Projects as a First Round Pick,” Miami Herald. March 15, 2018.

28  Pete Williams, “Starting his Retirement with a Splash,” New York Times, April 23, 2008. https://nytimes.com/2008/04/23/sports/othersports/23conine.html.

29  Brentley Romine, “Jeff Conine Goes from Major League Baseball to Triathlon Circuit,” Orlando Sentinel, May 22, 2008. https://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-05-22/sports/advlead22_1_conine-ironman-world-championship-triathlon.  

30  Juan C. Rodriguez, “Miami Marlins: Ironman Jeff Conine Now a Mountain Man as Well,” South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, July 19, 2014. https://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-07-19/sports/sfl-marlins-jeff-conine-mountain-blog-20140719_1_mountain-man-mount-kilimanjaro-cancer-patients.

31 Barry Jackson and Clark Spencer, “Derek Jeter Offered Mr. Marlin Less Pay and a Diminished Role. He Said No Thanks,” Miami Herald, October 26, 2017. https://miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article181131891.html.

Julio Cruz never reached superstar status, but he enjoyed a notable career. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound second baseman spent 10 seasons in the major leagues, earning the nicknames “Cruzer” and “Juice.” Although Cruz exhibited weak hitting during his career, his rangy, acrobatic fielding and basestealing prowess helped him rise from undrafted free agent to steady major-league starter. He joined the Mariners midway through their inaugural season in 1977 and eventually emerged as a fan favorite because of his play and affable manner. He later helped spark the Chicago White Sox to a division title. Although a toe injury derailed his career, he had earned a place in baseball history. He joined a small group of players who achieved a career stolen-base percentage of at least 80 percent and at least 300 bases.

Julio Luis Cruz, of Puerto Rican descent, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2, 1954, to Julio Luis Cruz and Lydia (Vargas) Cruz. He told the Chicago Tribune his father had left his mother during the eighth month she was pregnant with him. Cruz lived with his maternal grandparents, Raphael and Soledad Vargas, because his mother had to work.4 She found employment slipping bubble gum into Topps baseball-card packs. His mother eventually remarried, but Cruz’s grandparents insisted on keeping him.5

Cruz has several half-siblings. One, Ivan Cruz, played in the major leagues. An outfielder and first baseman, Ivan played 41 games for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals between 1997 and 2002.

Julio Cruz’s love for sports started while he grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. An uncle, Ralph Vargas, taught a 10-year-old Cruz the fundamentals of softball and took him to his softball games at a park near Cruz’s home. Vargas played in the outfield. Cruz played third base and struggled to lift a heavy bat.6 Away from the park, he listened to radio broadcasts of Yankees and Mets games, collected baseball cards and played ballgames with friends.7 His favorite baseball players included Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente. Cruz especially liked Clemente because of his Puerto Rican heritage and generous nature. Clemente died on New Year’s Eve 1972 when his plane crashed en route to Managua, Nicaragua, carrying supplies for the victims of an earthquake. Cruz carried Clemente’s card in his wallet while he played in the minor leagues.8

Williamsburg, with plentiful factory jobs, attracted many Puerto Rican migrants. During the 1960s, however, job losses led to an increase in poverty, crime, and drug usage. The quality of life in the neighborhood sharply declined.

“I had two things to choose between in my life, hanging around on the streets or getting into trouble,” Cruz recalled. “A lot of kids thought I was chicken for playing baseball, but they changed their minds when they heard I was good at stealing bases. I wasn’t the best player in the neighborhood. I wasn’t even the best player on my block. But some of the better players hung out with the wrong group, and I never heard about them again. … We played a lot of stickball, that’s where you try to hit a rubber ball with a broomstick, and stoopball, where you throw the ball against the point of a stoop, and running bases, where you run between two bases.”9

His family, including extended relatives, fled the adverse conditions in Williamsburg. They flew to California in 1968 and settled in unincorporated Loma Linda, 60 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Valley. Loma Linda is known for its high percentage of residents who are Seventh-day Adventists. Cruz’s maternal grandparents practiced the faith. Loma Linda was incorporated as a city in 1970. At the time, it had approximately 10,000 residents.10

Cruz attended Cope Junior High School (now Cope Middle School) in nearby Redlands, California, during the 1968-1969 school year. He played on a Senior Little League team called the Orioles, earning all-star honors in 1969. Between 1969 and 1972, he attended Redlands High School. He earned all-Citrus Belt League honors in both basketball and baseball.

Cruz played guard on the basketball court for the Terriers. Despite his short stature, he developed good passing skills and scored with drives to the basket and shots from long distance.

Another future sports star, Brian Billick, played forward on the e basketball team. Billick later played tight end at Brigham Young University and coached the Baltimore Ravens to victory in Super Bowl XXXV.

Cruz played shortstop and second base for the baseball team. Redlands baseball coach Joe DeMaggio (no relation to the New York Yankees legend) recalled that Cruz displayed special qualities during his high-school career. “We played him at short in his sophomore year,” DeMaggio said. “But I found out when I put him on second base that he had great natural talent, quickness, coordination, and leaping ability, all of which he developed through basketball. He was one of the best base stealers I’ve had.”11

No major-league team drafted Cruz after he graduated in 1972. Instead, he played for the Redlands American Legion Post 106 baseball team for two consecutive summers. He displayed his speed during a home game at Community Field against Apple Valley in June 1972. The score was tied, 6-6, in the bottom of the 10th inning. Cruz batted with two outs. He hit a slow groundball to second and sped to first base. A teammate scored the winning run on the play.12

That fall, Cruz attended San Bernardino Valley College. He played on the basketball team during his freshman year. He eventually graduated with an associate’s degree in liberal arts.

In January 1974, the California Angels drafted Redlands alumnus Juan Delgado. Delgado, an outfielder, had played with Cruz on the Little League, high-school, and American Legion baseball teams. He took Cruz to pickup games conducted by the California Angels on Sundays at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Sawtelle Field.13 After games, Angels scout Lou Cohenour treated him to hamburgers. Cohenour eventually offered to sign Cruz as an undrafted free agent.

Cruz hesitated to sign. He lived with his grandparents, who spoke only Spanish. He served as their translator. He worried about leaving them alone, but they gave him their blessing. He signed with the Angels.14

Afterward, Cohenour took Cruz to a sporting-goods store and bought him a glove and a pair of spikes as a bonus. Cruz later learned that draftees had received financial bonuses. The revelation foreshadowed his future salary battles with the Mariners and White Sox.

Cruz’s undrafted status motivated him to succeed. He started his professional career in Idaho Falls (Idaho), a rookie-level team in the Pioneer League managed by Larry Himes. Himes played a key role in Cruz’s career years later. The team paid Cruz $500 per month and provided $5 per day for meals. Cruz phoned his grandparents every day, racking up huge long-distance bills. Cruz batted .241 in 72 games and stole 34 bases.

Cruz liked to earn money while he played baseball, but he disliked other aspects of life in the Pioneer League. “I thought I’d get lost in the shuffle for a while,” he said. “You got paid $500 a month at the start and you spent most of your time on buses. The cities you were at weren’t too good and the fields you played on weren’t too good either. “Thank God I had the ability to get ahead.”15

The natural right-hander began to switch-hit after coaches told him it would help him advance to the major leagues. Cruz, however, struggled during the learning process. During his first attempt to bat left-handed, Cruz didn’t know how to handle the bat when coaches took him to a cage and tossed balls to him. Cruz also had trouble during games. He was hit by pitches seven times. “The toughest part was the ball being thrown at you,” he said. “I had nowhere to go. I got hit in the numbers, busted ribs. I took it personally after a while.”16

The next year, Cruz advanced to Quad Cities in the Class-A Midwest League. He improved to .261 and stole 60 bases. Only three pitches struck Cruz that season.

Playing for three minor-league teams in 1976, Cruz showed significant progress. He started the summer with Salinas (California) of the Class-A California League, and batted .307 with 68 stolen bases in 96 games. His 41 consecutive errorless games set a league record. Afterward, the Angels bumped Cruz up to El Paso (Texas) of the Double-A Texas League, for whom he batted .327 in 13 games with three stolen bases. Toward the end of the season, Cruz played 20 games with Triple-A Salt Lake City (Pacific Coast League). He batted .246 and stole 12 bases. Altogether, Cruz stole 83 bases.

Cruz displayed feisty behavior on the field during his time with Salt Lake City. The club hosted a best-of-five championship series against Honolulu, a San Diego Padres affiliate. In the fifth and deciding game, Honolulu’s Dave Hilton charged the pitcher’s mound after he struck out in the third inning. Both benches cleared and a brawl ensued. The Honolulu Advertiser said Cruz gave Hilton a cheap shot and was ejected from the game. Before he left the field, Cruz argued with opposing pitcher Mike DuPree. DuPree invited him to settle the dispute. Cruz accepted the invite. Both benches cleared again. Umpires restored order. Honolulu won the game, 3-2, and took the series.17

Though Cruz had emerged as one of the top prospects in the Angels farm system, the club left him unprotected in the November 1976 expansion draft. That decision helped Cruz because Jerry Remy had established himself as a solid starting second baseman for the parent club. The newly formed Mariners chose Cruz in the fifth round. They signed him to a one-year contract a month later.

Instead of competing with Remy, Cruz got a chance to shine for a brand-new team. He played well during spring training in 1977. The club, however, thought he needed more seasoning at Triple A, choosing Jose Baez to start at second base and trading for Larry Milbourne, a utility player. Because the organization did not have a Triple-A affiliate yet, it sent Cruz to Honolulu.

Cruz worried that the fans in Hawaii would boo him because of the rhubarb the previous season. His fear proved correct. The fans booed him on Opening Day.18 Cruz eventually won them over with a .366 batting average and 47 stolen bases in 75 games.

He found another benefit to playing in Hawaii. He met Rebecca Nickerson there. They married several years later. Three sons were born to the union: Austin, Alexander, and Jourdan. Rebecca died in 2007.19

Cruz’s statistics proved irresistible for the Mariners. While Hawaii was playing in Phoenix, the Mariners called up Cruz on July 4, 1977. The next night the Mariners hosted the Chicago White Sox in the Kingdome. The Mariners put Cruz in the leadoff spot for his debut. He hit two singles and scored a run as the Mariners lost, 6-2.

On July 14 Cruz’s mother and 35 other relatives and friends traveled from Loma Linda to Anaheim Stadium to see the Mariners play the Angels. Cruz asked teammates for extra passes in order to accommodate the group. He rewarded the travelers when he hit a single and triple and scored twice to help the Mariners win, 4-1.20

Cruz finished the 1977 season with a .256 batting average and 15 stolen bases in 60 games. Early in the next season, he beat out Baez for the starting job. Cruz slumped to .235, but stole a career-high 59 bases, second in the American League behind Ron LeFlore’s 68 for the Detroit Tigers. Cruz also led major-league second basemen with a .987 fielding percentage.

During the early years of the Mariners, Cruz and center fielder Rupert Jones helped each other on offense. Cruz most often batted leadoff and Jones batted fourth or fifth. When Cruz reached base, he signaled to Jones to indicate when he would run. “I would put a finger in my ear hole, and that meant I would go on that pitch,” Cruz said. “He would take the pitch or fake a bunt, just to give me that little edge. But it gave him a little edge, too, because the other teams all knew I was going to run and they would throw him fastballs.”21

In 1979, Cruz achieved two additional career highs: a .271 batting average and a .363 on-base percentage, but missed 54 games after tearing ligaments in his left thumb when he tripped while running to first base in a game against the visiting Tigers on June 4. He tore ligaments in his left thumb after he tripped while he ran toward first base. Playing in only 107 54 games, Cruz still stole 49 bases.

In an assessment of Cruz printed in The Sporting News at the beginning of the 1979 season, Seattle sportswriter Hy Zimmerman acknowledged that Cruz occasionally got picked off first and thrown out on steal attempts, but praised him anyway. “In trade talks, his name crops up quickly,” Zimmerman wrote. “But were the M’s to trade him, there’s a chance they might have to close the Kingdome’s doors. For Julio not only swipes bases, he steals hits from the enemy. His specialty is the diving stop on a sure hit and an almost simultaneous leap to his feet for the throw. Whereas Rupe Jones was the instant hero of the fans in 1977, that mantle now belongs to Julio, a bubbling, dynamic young man.”22

After the 1979 season Cruz filed for an arbitration hearing. He requested $130,000. The Mariners offered $95,000. The arbitrator sided with the Mariners. Cruz also filed for arbitration after the next three seasons, winning only once. The hearings, which occasionally became contentious, helped poison his relationship with the team’s management.

In 1980 Cruz batted an anemic .209. He still stole 45 bases. During the season, Steve Wulf described Cruz in an article for Sports Illustrated: “He is a great lover of basketball — he says he can dunk even though he’s 5’9″ — so he likes to take a jumping pivot at second base even when it’s not necessary. That’s given him a hot-dog reputation he doesn’t mind. … When he first came up, Julio had a tendency to take out his frustrations by swinging his bat at defenseless sinks and batting helmets. He has since calmed down. He is also one of the more popular Mariners, especially with children. ‘No child within reach of Julio escapes being swept into his arms,’ says Jack Carvalho, Seattle’s promotion director.”23

Cruz had established himself as a solid big-league player. Although he never won a Gold Glove, he ranked among the best-fielding second basemen in the majors. His inconsistent hitting, however, hampered his career. He explained the batting issues. “I was a good hitter in the minor leagues; twice I hit .300. I didn’t have any theories about hitting or anything, I just got up to bat and hit the ball. But when I got to the big leagues with the Mariners, they had instructors for everything. They had an infield instructor, a base-running instructor, a hitting instructor, and they all wanted me to do things differently than I had been doing. What I had been doing had gotten me to the big leagues, but I figured since they were already in the big leagues, they must know what they’re doing. I tried doing things their way.

“If I had been smarter, I would have told them to let me hit my way instead of changing, but I was really intimidated. I tried to do everything everybody told me to. I got very confused. I had no consistent way of hit­ting. I would change stances for different pitchers. I even wanted to change bats for different pitchers. I figured, if the pitcher can change baseballs because one didn’t feel good, I should change bats.”24

Meanwhile, the Mariners generated woeful records during their first several years. They finished the 1977 season under manager Darrell Johnson with a 64-98 record. From 1978 to 1980, they finished 56-104, 67-95, and 59-103.

Johnson was fired in August 1980, and was replaced by Maury Wills, the majors’ third African-American manager. The club hoped Wills, formerly an outstanding basestealer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, would provide a spark for the team. The opposite took place. Wills alienated nearly everyone on the team with his erratic behavior and incompetent leadership. In one awkward episode during a game against the Oakland A’s, Wills ordered Cruz to hold Rickey Henderson on second like a first baseman. Henderson stole third anyway.25 The Mariners fired Wills in May 1981 and replaced him with Rene Lachemann.

Despite Wills’ conduct, Cruz liked him. Wills had taken an interest in Cruz, teaching him how to steal against left-handed pitchers. Wills told him: “When they look at you and turn away, their next move is to go to first base. When they are looking straight at you, they are going to pitch.”26

In 1981 Cruz rebounded by batting .256 and stealing 43 bases in a season shortened by a players’ strike. On June 11 he tied the American League record for consecutive steals without being thrown out, getting number 32 in an 8-2 Mariners victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles.27 The players strike began the next day.

The strike ended on August 9. The next day Cruz tried for number 33 in a row, but Angels catcher Ed Ott gunned him down to end the streak.

Cruz batted .242, notched a .316 on-base percentage, and stole 46 bases in 1982. He tied for second among American League second basemen with a .987 fielding average, just .001 under Detroit’s Lou Whitaker. On May 6 he helped Mariners pitcher Gaylord Perry defeat the visiting New York Yankees, 7-3, and earn his 300th career win. Cruz scooped up a grounder by Willie Randolph and fired to first for the final out. “The biggest thrill I had when I was playing with the Mariners was being on the field when Gaylord Perry, the greatest spitball pitcher of all time, won his three-hundredth game. Man, when there were two outs, I was really nervous. I kept reminding myself, Cruiser, if the batter hits it to you, make sure you grab the ball on the dry side.”28

Cruz and shortstop Todd Cruz (no relation) earned plaudits in the New York Times for a spectacular game-ending double play on July 21, 1982, against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The Mariners led 6-5 in the bottom of the 12th inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Dave Winfield hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Cruz was playing toward the right side, but scurried to his left. He dived, backhanded the ball, and tossed it to the shortstop, who got the force out and threw out Winfield on a very close play to end the game.29

That season Cruz also displayed kindness off the field. A woman told Cruz that she had cancer during their chat at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Cruz came to the hospital for her next chemotherapy session, brought her a Julio Cruz baseball shirt and tickets for her family to attend a Mariners game. Years later, the woman’s son, Skip Kulle, wrote about Cruz’s kindness for the Seattle Times. “Julio became a regular visitor to my mother’s bedside until she succumbed to cancer in December of that year. Sitting amidst our family at her memorial service was Julio Cruz.”30

On May 24, 1983, Cruz swiped a team-record four bases against the visiting Indians.31 The Mariners, however, figured the team would lose Cruz in free agency without compensation after the season. They traded Cruz to the White Sox for second baseman Tony Bernazard on June 15. Cruz had finalized the purchase of a home in Bellevue, Washington, on the e day. He left with a then club-record 290 steals. (That record has since broken by Ichiro Suzuki, who stole 438 during his first stint with the Mariners, from 2001 to 2012.)

The White Sox announced the trade on the Comiskey Park scoreboard during their game against the California Angels. Bernazard was a fan favorite, and White Sox fans in the crowd of 24,561 booed at the news. The White Sox had a 28-32 record at the time of the trade. Cruz helped spark the team to a 71-31 record after the trade. The White Sox won the American League West championship by 20 games over Kansas City. Cruz played in 99 games, batting.251 with 40 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. He scored the winning run in the clinching game against the visiting Mariners at Comiskey Park on September 17, on a sacrifice fly by Harold Baines.

“As I scored, everyone broke out of the dugout and ran onto the field to celebrate,” Cruz recalled. “Before I joined that cele­bration, I looked into the Mariner dugout. Everybody was sitting on the top step watching the Chicago players jumping up and down. At that moment, when I was so happy, I was also sad for them. I had played with those guys for six years, and I wished very much that they could all experience the e feelings I had running through my body.”32

The White Sox lost the American League Championship Series, three games to one, to the eventual World Series winner Baltimore Orioles. Todd Cruz, who had moved on from Seattle to Baltimore in June, started at third base for the Orioles. The Orioles pitchers stifled the Sox bats, but Julio Cruz batted .333 and reached base three times on walks for a .467 on-base percentage.

After the season, Cruz filed for free agency. Tense negotiations with the White Sox dragged on for two months. Cruz ended talks with the team and negotiated with the Angels. After White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson talked to Cruz, the latter signed a six-year contract with Chicago worth between an estimated $3.6 million and $4.8 million.

Cruz received a big payday. After he signed the contract, however, his career declined. In 1984 he slumped to .222 with 14 stolen bases. He made a career-high 18 errors. Fans booed Cruz.33 The White Sox finished the season 74-88.

In 1985 Cruz slipped even further as an injured right big toe affected his play. He could not push off his right foot. He batted only .197 and stole 8 bases in 91 games. The team shifted him to platoon status with Scott Fletcher.

Cruz gave one of his final great plays early in the season against the Yankees’ Dave Winfield at Comiskey Park. Cruz dived behind second base to grab a groundball by Winfield, and flipped the ball out of his mitt to shortstop Ozzie Guillen. Guillen caught the ball barehanded, tagged second for the force and gunned the ball to first to beat Winfield. The White Sox won, 5-4, in 11 innings.34

Cruz showed promise in 1986 when he hit .359 during spring training, but he suffered a leg injury early in the season and landed on the disabled list.35 He batted only .215 and stole seven bases in 81 games.

From 1984 through 1986 Cruz played in only 315 of a possible 486 games. In 1985 and 1986 he landed on the disabled list three times. After three toe operations, he had lost his speed.36

By October 1986, Larry Himes, who had managed Cruz at Idaho Falls was the White Sox general manager. He traded for second baseman Donnie Hill, intending him to take the starting sport. Himes also traded for two backups.37

The team had hoped Cruz would play well and attract interest from other teams during spring training in 1987. Cruz, however, hit only .200. Himes told him the White Sox would release him. Cruz said: “If there’s one thing I have a chip on my shoulder about, it’s that I couldn’t contribute like in ’83. Because of the foot, I wasn’t able to be myself. In the back of my mind, I wonder what if I had never sustained the foot injury. There are a lot of ‘what ifs.’”38

Cruz finished his major-league career with a batting average of .237 and 343 stolen bases, a success rate of 81.5 percent. Only 28 players with at least 300 stolen bases have a higher percentage.

After his release, Cruz had a brief stint with Albuquerque, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ team in the Pacific Coast League. The Kansas City Royals invited Cruz to spring training in 1988, but he rejected their request that he join their Triple-A team. Cruz retired, then changed his mind.39 He briefly played for the Fresno Suns of the Class-A California League, then retired for good.

The game took a physical toll on Cruz. He spent much of his major-league career playing on Astroturf in Seattle. He said playing on the surface had hurt his right toe. Since retirement, he has endured eight operations on his knees. He has an artificial left knee. As of 2018, his right toe still hurt.40

After retiring, Cruz coached in the Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers organizations. In 1997 he led Pulaski, a Texas Rangers farm club, to a first-place finish in the West Division of the rookie-level Appalachian League and was named Manager of the Year. Cruz left after the one season because he wanted to work closer to his family. He and Bill Caudill coached the baseball team at Eastside Catholic High School in mamish, Washington. All three of Cruz’s sons played for the squad. Cruz has conducted youth baseball clinics. He has served as a color commentator for broadcasts of Mariners home games on the team’s Spanish-language network. He has represented the Mariners at community events.41

In 2002, Cruz was inducted into the Redlands High School Hall of Fame. In 2004 Cruz was inducted into the San Francisco-based Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was honored by SEAT 21, an MLB program that recognizes people who emulate Roberto Clemente’s humanitarian spirit. Cruz supports Toys for Kids, which raises money to buy holiday gifts for homeless and hospitalized children.42 In 2017 he was recognized at Julio Cruz Day hosted by the Chelan County Public Utility District in Wenatchee, Washington.43

Cruz settled in Redmond, Washington, with his second wife, Mojgan Moini. He spends time with his granddaughter. He does Mariners Spanish-language broadcasts on Fridays and Saturdays. He occasionally gives baseball clinics at high schools.

Cruz maintains his love of basestealing. Shortly before he received the SEAT 21 honor, he visited Auburn High School in Kent, Washington. Cruz had intended to stay about 20 minutes. Instead, he talked for close to an hour. He discussed stealing with the school’s baseball team. He emphasized that successful baserunning partially results from observation. To prove his point, he stood on the pitcher’s mound and showed how a right-hander might relax his shoulders and release air before he delivers the ball. “Once you see the lean,” Cruz told the players, “you must get going.”44

Last revised: December 1, 2018

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Acknowledgments

The author wants to thank Julio Cruz for sharing his story. The author also would like to thank the following for their assistance: Jim Corcoran, co-owner/general manager Wenatchee AppleSox Baseball Club; Rebecca Hale, director of public information, Seattle Mariners; Suzanne Hartman, communications manager, Chelan Public Utility; Tim Herlich, treasurer, Northwest SABR chapter; Cassidy Lent, reference librarian, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; and William Wade Norris, San Bernardino Valley College.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-almanac.com, Baseball-reference.com, Bklynlibrary.org, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org, Paperofrecord.com, Julio Cruz’s player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, and the following:

Anderson, Claude. “Area Players Sparkle in Minors,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, November 6, 1975: E-3.

Anderson, Claude. “Page’s Latest Chapter on Bicycle Trek Proves It’s Not a Dog’s Life,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, July 12, 1977: B7, B8.

Buchan, Jim. “Baseball Hunch — Bet on the American League,” Walla Walla (Washington) Union-Bulletin, June 30, 1983: 17.

Dilbeck, Steve. “Cruz One of Best Ballpark Hot Dogs,” San Bernardino County Sun, March 14, 1979: D-1, 4.

Feinstein, John. “Happiest Mariner Is the Manager,” Washington Post, August 9, 1980. Retrieved October 26, 2017.

Holtzman, Jerome. “LaRussa May Be Next to Go,” Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1983: B3.

Hulse, Gilbert. “Julio Cruz Wants to Improve His Staying Power,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, March 14, 1978: B-7, 10.  

Lane, Jeff. “Cruz Leads Mariners to Win Over Angels,” Redlands (California) Daily Facts, July 15, 1977: 7.

Ringolsby, Tracy. “M’s Certain They Picked a Gem in Moore,” The Sporting News, June 27, 1981: 39.

Ringolsby, Tracy. “‘Secure’ Zisk Feels Obligation to Strike,” The Sporting News, July 4, 1981: 39.

Schulian, John. “Brooklyn Stickball Groomed Cruz for Sox,” Palm Beach Post, May 30, 1984: D2.

Stone, Larry. “Cruz Just the Hombre for M’s Spanish Radio Cast,” Seattle Times, February 7, 2003. Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Wigge, Larry, ed. The Sporting News Official Baseball Guide 1983 (St. Louis: The Sporting News Publishing Company, 1983).

“Ryan Ties Strikeout Mark in Win Over A’s,” Redlands Daily Facts, July 5, 1977: 9.

The Sporting News March 7, 1988: 21.

Notes

1 Kirby Arnold, Tales from the Seattle Mariners Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Mariners Stories Ever Told (New York: Sports Publishing, Inc., 2007, 2014), 18.

2 The Philadelphia Phillies’ Terry Harmon set the record in 1971.

3 “The Seattle Mariners’ Julio Cruz says you don’t have…,” United Press International, June 7, 1981.

4 Mike Kiley, “Both Love and Money Kept Cruz with the Sox,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1984: 4, 1 and 2.

5 Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 9, 2018.

6 Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 17, 2018.

7 Bill Virgin, “In Spanish Broadcasts, Cruz Has Bases Covered,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 5, 2004. Retrieved October 22, 2017; Ross Foreman, “Julio Cruz,” Sports Collector’s Digest, February 9, 1996: 130-131; Ron Luciano and David Fisher, The Fall of the Roman Umpire, (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), 299.

8 Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 17, 2018.

9 Ron Luciano and David Fisher, 297-299.

10  “Voters Approve City of Loma Linda,” San Bernardino County Sun, September 23, 1970:  B-1.

11  Joyce Hall, “Go-Go Cruz Has Finally Found a Stopping Place,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, July 5, 1977: B-8.

12  George Andrews, “Redlands Legion Wins in Extra-Inning Game,” Redlands Daily Facts, June 5, 1972: 15.

13  UCLA built Jackie Robinson Stadium on the site of Sawtelle Field. The stadium was dedicated in 1991.

14  Phil Fuhrer, “Julio Cruz Translates Baseball Talent,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, November 3, 1974: E-4.

15  Paul Oberjuerge, “Clearly, Julio Is Cruzin’ in the Majors,” San Bernardino County Sun-Telegram, July 17, 1977, E-1, E-7.

16  Larry Stone, “The Art of Baseball: Flipping the Switch,” Seattle Times, July 16, 2006. Retrieved October 26, 2017.

17  “They Won When They Had To,” Honolulu Advertiser, September 13, 1976: D-1, D-3.

18  Rod Ohira, “Islander Gem,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May 3, 1977: C-2.

19  Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 17, 2018.

20  Terry Greenberg, “Cruz’ Fan Club Lives It Up,” Redlands Daily Facts, July 15, 1977: 7.

21  Kirby Arnold, 16.

22  Hy Zimmerman, “Julio Cruz to Run for More Money from M’s,” The Sporting News  April 14, 1979: 51.

23  Steve Wulf, “Choose Which Cruz Is Whose,” Sports Illustrated May 5, 1980. Retrieved October 15, 2017.

24  Ron Luciano and David Fisher, 302-303.

25  Michael Emmerich, 100 Things Mariners Fan Should Know & Do Before They Die (Chicago: Triumph Books LLC, 2015), 252.

26  Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 17, 2018.

27  Vince Coleman of the Cardinals set the record with 50 consecutive steals in 1988. Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners set the American League record of 45 consecutive steals in 2007.

28  Ron Luciano and David Fisher, 306.

29  Joseph Durso, “Plays; Double Play Executed with Flair,” New York Times, July 23, 1982. Retrieved January 31, 2018.

30  “Thanks for the Memories,” Seattle Times, June 27, 1999. Retrieved November 26, 2017.

31  Since then, Henry Cotto, Mark McLemore, Harold Reynolds, and Ichiro Suzuki (twice) have tied the team record.

32  Ron Luciano and David Fisher, 307.

33  Mike Kiley, “Cruz’s Bubble Punctured by Fan Reaction,” Chicago Tribune, September 14, 1984: D3.

34  Mike Kiley, “Sox Just Too Tough to Lose,” Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1985: Section 4, 1 and 14.

35  Ed Sherman, “Cruz Eager to Test Leg, Bat in Detroit on Weekend,” Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1986: C6.

36  Dave van Dyck, “Cruz Primed to Fight for Job,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 10, 1987: 92.

37  Ibid.

38  Dave van Dyck, “Cruz Sent Packing by Sox,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 24, 1987: 96.

39  David T. Bristow, “New Beginning for an Old Ballplayer,” San Bernardino County Sun, May 20, 1988: C2.

40  Phone interview with Julio Cruz, April 17, 2018.

41  Larry Stone, “Cruz Just the Hombre.”

42  “Robinson Cano and Julio Cruz Honored on Roberto Clemente Day,” Seattle Mariners Baseball Information Department, September 6, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.

43  E-Mail correspondence with Suzanne Hartman, April 5, 2018.

44  Chris Chancellor, “Trojans Ride Around Diamond with Mariners’ Legend,” Auburn Reporter, April 20, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.

Girardi inherited his determination from his father. Born on October 14, 1964, the fourth of five children, he grew up in Peoria, Illinois. “His father … was … a salesman, but … [Gerald Girardi] ran a restaurant, tended bar, even laid bricks. … [Mother] Angela Girardi … work[ed] full-time as a child psychologist.”2 After long battles, his mother died of ovarian cancer, and his father of Alzheimer’s. Of his father, Girardi reminisced, “I think about all the things he taught me about hard work, and fighting through adversity, and toughness. I carry all the things that he taught me as a little boy growing up.”3

Joe Girardi started catching at 12, “because they didn’t have anybody else,” he said. “I tried to go back to being a shortstop when I was 13 but they didn’t let me.”4 Girardi had three brothers, two of whom played baseball. “[I]f you’re a ballplayer, it’s great to have older brothers,” Girardi said. “My brothers always brought me to play with the older kids. Any time you play at a level that’s higher than your level, you’re going to get better.”5

At Spalding Institute, a Catholic high school in Peoria, Girardi, Class of 1982, was an All-State selection in baseball.6 He attended Northwestern University before the Cubs drafted him in 1986 and sent him to Single-A Peoria. He got off to a hot start “hitting near .330 … despite an air splint on his ankle from a hairline fracture suffered at Northwestern …”7

Girardi’s bat cooled as he advanced through the minors. He hit .309 with Peoria, .280 with Carolina in 1987, and .272 with Double-A Pittsfield in 1988. Going into the 1989 season, Cubs manager Don Zimmer considered keeping Girardi with the team to spell Damon Berryhill. “We’re not talking about a kid here,” Zimmer said. “He came out of college … at 22 and has played a few years.”8

Girardi debuted on April 4, 1989, against the Philadelphia Phillies in the season opener for both teams. In his first plate appearance, he singled off Floyd Youmans. A single by Jerome Walton scored Girardi with the first run of the Chicago campaign. Girardi finished 2-for-3 with a walk, made an error, but also threw out the only runner (Bob Dernier) attempting to steal as the Cubs won, 5-4.

Chicago won the NL East in 1989. Girardi played 59 games in the regular season and four NLCS games. He also authored an article for his hometown paper during the playoffs, writing, “It’s great to be on a winning club, especially to be a part of the club you always dreamed about playing on as a little kid. I worshipped the Cubs as a little kid, I followed them very closely and whenever you’re winning it’s a lot of fun.”9

Bill James thought little of Girardi’s prospects after his rookie year: “Looked solid as an emergency call-up. There are worse catchers in the majors; could platoon with Berryhill. No star potential.”10

In fact, Girardi beat out Berryhill in 1990, a year in which Girardi established career highs in games (133), doubles (24), and defensive Wins Above Replacement (1.5). He led the NL in throwing out base stealers with 47, but tied for the league lead in passed balls with 16. Zimmer praised his receiver, stating, “When it comes to throwing, I rate Girardi No. 1 or No. 2 with (San Diego’s) Benito Santiago.”11

Girardi played less in his next two seasons in Chicago than he had in 1990 alone. Staggered by a bulging back disc and a broken nose, he played in only 21 games in 1991 and in 91 games in 1992 before leaving Chicago, where he developed a sense of professionalism that would lead to a lengthy career. In 1998, New York Times columnist Claire Smith opined, “Joe Girardi was reared right, by his parents, by … Zimmer, by his former teammates Andre Dawson, Rick Sutcliffe, Scott Sanderson, Vance Law and Greg Maddux.”12

The Colorado Rockies selected Girardi in the fall 1992 expansion draft. He started the first game in franchise history and batted seventh. Moving from a friendly hitters’ park to the friendliest one, Girardi set career highs in triples (5), slugging (.397), and OPS (.743) in his first campaign with the Rockies.

Bill James remained unimpressed: “A pretty awful player, even for an expansion team. He hit .290, but that’s .266 if you adjust for the park, and there was … no power, no walks, no runs, no RBI. His defense isn’t anything special, and … he’s not likely to get any better. He missed two months in mid-season following surgery on his right hand, which kept him from driving in 40 or even 45 runs.”13

Girardi’s offense worsened during his subsequent years in Denver even as the Rockies improved each season. Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla castigated Girardi as “a nonessential part … a player so expendable even the Chicago Cubs didn’t want him…. Baseball goes on strike almost as often as he gets an extra-base hit. … Girardi is a defensive specialist who allows approximately 70 percent of baserunners to steal him blind.”14

But Colorado manager Don Baylor appreciated his skills. “Baylor knew what he had in Girardi, a catcher who would guide a questionable pitching staff. ‘Guys had 5.00 ERAs and high 4.00s, and you have to try to talk them through that,’ Baylor explained. ‘Joe really worked on the mental part of the game.’”15

After the 1995 season, the Rockies, clearing payroll to pursue free agent Craig Biggio,16 sent Girardi to the Yankees for reliever Mike DeJean. Girardi had enjoyed Denver. “Those three years in Colorado were magnificent,” Girardi said. “We played at Mile High Stadium, and you’d have seventy thousand people there. It was loud, it was exciting, people loved baseball.”17

One reporter writing at the end of Girardi’s career saw another motivation for the transaction. “Girardi earned his teammates’ respect during the labor conflict that erased the 1994 season and delayed the 1995 campaign, when he served as the Rockies’ player representative. Girardi’s stance against management helped instigate his trade. … The Rockies missed Girardi more than he missed them.”18

With the transaction, New York bade farewell to free agent Mike Stanley and announced that Girardi would start in 1996. “To me, Joe Girardi is one of the best catchers in the game,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “Mike Stanley did a heck of a job offensively for this ballclub. But the defensive part we improved.”19

New Yorkers viewed the transition from Stanley to Girardi skeptically. “I know some people are very, very unhappy over what happened,” Girardi said. … “I know I’ve taken heat on the radio and in some articles. But to me, that will make the rewards at the end all the more special.”20

Girardi proved prescient. “I’m not going there to replace Mike Stanley,” he said. “We’re two different types of catchers. … I think what it really comes down to is winning ballgames.”21

In 1996, New York won the AL East and then its first World Series title since 1978. Over a year, Girardi had improbably transformed himself from the discard pile of a third-year expansion team to the backstop of a championship edition of the game’s most storied franchise.

The ’96 Yanks got unexpected boosts from a pair of declining ex-Mets in Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. Girardi particularly helped Gooden. “We’re already on the same page,” Gooden said in spring training. “The thing I like is that he communicates with us. He’s constantly talking strategy. … I talked to (Bret Saberhagen) recently and he said he loved pitching to Joe (in Colorado).”22

A little more than two months after Gooden praised Girardi, the two teamed up on a no-hitter, the first for both pitcher and catcher. “Moments after throwing the 135th pitch of his gem, Gooden … said, ‘Joe Girardi is the best catcher I’ve ever thrown to.’”23

Girardi praised his pitcher. “He was able to place it wherever he wanted to,” Girardi said. “So we were able to throw his slider and a few changeups at any time. … There’s only one more thing for me to do in my career and that’s play in a World Series.”24

Girardi got his wish during his first season in the Bronx. After losing the first two games of the Series at home, the Yankees won all three in Atlanta. New York would have to break through at home to take the title.

In the top of the third of Game Six, Girardi kept the contest scoreless. “Leadoff-hitter Terry Pendleton skimmed a grounder … that Mariano Duncan … bobbled for an error. On the next pitch, Pendleton took off for second, but Jeff Blauser failed to swing … and Pendleton was easily tagged out despite Girardi’s double pump.”25 The caught-stealing proved critical after Blauser doubled.

Batting ninth, Girardi came to the plate with a career postseason record of no RBIs and only 8 singles in 54 at-bats, including an 0-for-7 mark in the 1996 Series. Maddux, the Cy Young Award winner each season from 1992 through 1995, faced Girardi with one out in the bottom of the third inning and Paul O’Neill on third base.

Girardi smashed Maddux’s high pitch to deep center, just out of the reach of speedy center fielder Marquis Grissom, who, understandably, had played the weak-hitting Girardi shallow.26 Girardi had an RBI triple (“I felt like I was running on air. It was the biggest hit in my career in the biggest game in my career”27), his lone career playoff RBI in 127 postseason plate appearances.

Jeter singled in Girardi, and later in the frame Bernie Williams drove in Jeter with another single, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead in a game that ended 3-2. After John Wetteland induced a foul out to Charlie Hayes to end the Series, Girardi embraced his closer.

A free agent after the World Series, Girardi hoped to remain in New York28 and did so with diminishing playing time due to the emergence of Jorge Posada.29 Girardi hit less well in 1997, a season highlighted by an eighth-inning homer on April 28 to give the Yankees a 6-5 comeback win over the Seattle Mariners. “I’m surprised,” Girardi said of his first homer of the year. “It took me until August last year to get my first home run. I don’t hit homers.”30

Girardi did not hit another home run for more than 13 months (off Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox on May 31, 1998).

Girardi suffered personal tragedy in 1997 when his wife, Kim, miscarried. Girardi later revealed, “She took it a lot harder than I did. We went through a tough period until like a year later. It was much tougher for her because it was part of her. I just told her it wasn’t her fault. It was God’s will.”31 Two years later, Kim gave birth to a daughter named Serena. Son Dante (named after Girardi’s Colorado teammate Dante Bichette) and daughter Lena followed.

New York secured the AL wild card in 1997. The Indians eliminated the Yankees in five games. Girardi had 17 postseason plate appearances with more grounded-into-double-plays (3) than hits (two singles).

With Girardi playing in his fewest games since 1991, New York featured one of the best teams ever in 1998. A minor contributor to the superb squad, Girardi again caught the championship clincher.

Surprisingly, New York exercised its $3.4 million option on its 34-year-old backup backstop for 1999. In spite of a career-high seven-RBI game on August 23 when he went 4-for-6, Girardi still struggled to a career-low .271 OBP in 1999. Nevertheless, he contributed defensively,32 caught seven postseason games, and won his third World Series ring.

Girardi caught David Cone’s perfect game against Montreal. “He always knows how to say the right thing at the right time,” Cone said. “Maybe a younger catcher or a different catcher might get a little angry with me because I have a tendency to show some emotions on a mound that a catcher might interpret as showing him up. But Joe has a great personality.”33

As in 1996, New York faced Atlanta in the 1999 World Series. Girardi starred in Game Three, the closest contest. The Braves led 4-1 in the third with Bret Boone on second and one out. Girardi threw out Boone trying to steal third, a critical play that saved a run as Chipper Jones followed with a single. The Yanks trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Girardi led off with a single and scored on Chuck Knoblauch’s game-tying homer.

Boone singled off Mariano Rivera to start the ninth. Otis Nixon, with 29 steals in 36 attempts in the 1999 regular season and playoffs combined, ran for Boone, but Girardi threw out Nixon attempting to swipe second. In the bottom of the 10th with the scored tied and Girardi on deck, Chad Curtis hit a walk-off homer to give New York the win on its way to a Series sweep.

“When Girardi went home that night, the first thing he said to his wife, Kim, was, ‘Honey, I think I just played my last game for the Yankees.’ He was right.”34 Girardi wanted to play more for another team that did not have a catcher like Posada. “Obviously, it’s been a great four years here for me, winning three championships. But I want to play every day and I have to see what’s out there,” Girardi said.35

Spurning bigger offers from St. Louis and San Francisco,36 Girardi returned to the Cubs. He made the All-Star team for the only time in his career in 2000 as an injury replacement for Mike Piazza but did not play. In Girardi’s second Chicago go-round, the Cubs never made the postseason.

Girardi’s old-school ways occasionally grated on his younger teammates, a foreshadowing of his fate as Yankee manager. After a loss to Pittsburgh near the end of the dismal 2002 season, Girardi lowered my Sosa’s clubhouse music. “I just said, ‘I’m a little older and I don’t like the [loud] music,’” he told a sportswriter. “‘I have nothing against you playing it when you’re in here. … He didn’t realize that I turned it down because I thought he went outside.’”37

Chicago declined to keep Girardi, but St. Louis inked him to a one-year contract. After moving on from Girardi, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said, “It was a baseball decision, not a personal decision, and he has a great future … as a manager or a front-office guy.”38

Girardi hurt his back in spring training39 with the Cardinals and played in only 16 games in 2003, his last season as a player. In his final plate appearance, he singled off Arizona’s Edgar Gonzalez on September 28.

The Yankees invited Girardi to spring training in 2004. Saying “players don’t realize how fortunate they are to play for the Yankees,” Girardi battled to back up Posada and had a backup plan of his own to join the YES Network as a broadcaster.40

Girardi failed to make the team and chose a different post-playing career than the one he had foreseen in 1998. “When I retire, I think I’d have to go and work in a front office at some level,” Girardi said, “scouting or maybe, if you got real lucky, an assistant’s job.”41

In 2005, he served as Torre’s bench coach. Florida hired Girardi as manager for 2006 and then traded away most of its front-line talent for prospects.42 “In May, the team tied a franchise record with 11 consecutive home losses. After [a road loss in the middle of the streak], a beat writer asked Girardi if it would be hard for him to sleep that night. ‘No harder than when I was a player,’ he said. ‘I didn’t sleep too good after losses then, either.’”43

By August, Girardi faced rumors of troubles with the front office as a result of his declining to argue against the call by a home-plate umpire that resulted in a walk by a Florida pitcher in a game attended by the Florida owner.44 “There’s no rift; there never was a rift,” Girardi said. “There’s always tension when I lose.”45

Girardi kept his job after he “agreed to apologize to the owner [Jeffrey Loria] in front of the team”46 but was fired in October. Florida GM Larry Beinfest did his best to justify the decision, explaining, “This team exceeded everybody’s expectations in terms of wins, and Joe … played an integral role in the team’s success. Joe is not returning because he was not a good fit. … We felt that Joe was not able to integrate himself into the workings of our organization.”47

In November, the Baseball Writers Association of America named Girardi NL Manager of the Year. “It’s nice that people who watched the games every day understood what we accomplished,” Girardi said. “I don’t know if vindicated is a good word, just because as a manager you want to manage. Whether you are Manager of the Year or not, it’s not going to put you in that seat.”48

Girardi returned to YES for the 2007 season to broadcast games and co-host a show with former catcher John Flaherty,49 an ironic pairing given that Flaherty had held off Girardi in 2004 to back up Posada. Few thought Girardi would remain off the field for long. As Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci observed, “Girardi is the rare manager who emerged from a firing — and a first-year firing at that — without his reputation diminished. The hottest managerial candidate of last winter is the hottest managerial candidate of this season.”50

Indeed, Girardi sat out a single season before beating out Yankees legend Don Mattingly to replace Torre as New York manager. Replacing the popular Stanley as catcher in 1996 represented a serious challenge for Girardi; beating out a former Yankee MVP in Mattingly and stepping in for the beloved Torre represented monumental hurdles for Girardi to overcome. “I can’t be Joe Torre, because I’m made up different,” said Girardi … “I’m a different character.”51

By wearing a uniform with the number 27 (the Yankees at the time of Girardi’s hiring had won 26 titles), Girardi sent a signal that in the Bronx, “This team’s ultimate goal is to win the World Series,” he said. “It’s not going to change.”52

In 2008, New York won 89 games but missed the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. In contrast to what happened in Florida, Girardi survived because Yankees management realized that he helmed a flawed team. Jose Molina caught most of the games; Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson made 35 ineffective starts.

With better talent, New York made the playoffs for the next four years. During the first half of his managerial tenure with the Yankees, Girardi won few plaudits; rather, as Will Leitch concluded in a New York Magazine analysis, “He has done what a manager is supposed to do: put his players in the best mental position to succeed and then stay out of the way.”53

New York reloaded for 2009 by signing three big-name free agents in A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira. The Yankees also made a terrific trade for Nick Swisher. After hitting only three homers in an injury-plagued 2008 campaign, Posada juked 22 in 2009.

Nevertheless, New York started slowly in 2009 and did not move into first place for good until July 20. The Yankees struggled against the Red Sox, losing their first eight games against Boston before winning nine of their final 10 versus their arch-rivals. Girardi deftly handled players in a high-pressure atmosphere. In 2008, Girardi had benched Robinson Cano for not hustling. In 2009, Cano credited Girardi for his tough love. “He’s been the same as last year,” Cano said. “Always talks to everybody.”54 Future Yankees would not appreciate Girardi’s consistency.

A good regular-season club that got 130 starts from Burnett, Joba Chamberlain, Andy Pettitte, and Sabathia, New York became a great postseason squad by returning Chamberlain to the bullpen and taking advantage of off-days to use three starters.

The Yankees returned to the World Series and beat the defending champion Phillies to make Girardi’s uniform number prophetic. Making for an even bigger storybook ending, Girardi, heading home after the final game, assisted a stranded driver who had a car accident. “Obviously, there’s a lot of joy in what we do, but we can’t forget that we’re human beings where we help others out,” Girardi said. “I think that’s the most important thing that we can do in life.”55

Although he swapped his number-27 jersey for number 28, Girardi never managed the Yanks to another World Series. In 2010, the Yanks fell in six games to the Rangers in the ALCS. In 2011, New York lost to Detroit in the AL Division Series. The Yanks took the division title again in 2012 and opened the playoffs against Baltimore. Girardi had weightier matters to consider due to his father’s passing during the ALDS and attended the funeral on an off-day. With the teams tied at a game apiece, “Girardi made the toughest decision of his six years as a major league manager”56 by pinch-hitting Raul Ibanez for Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning of Game Three with New York down a run. Ibanez homered to tie the game and homered again in the 12th to win it. “Asked what his father would have thought of this decision, Girardi replied, ‘He would have been extremely proud and probably told all his buddies.’”57

The Yankees outlasted the Orioles in five games before getting swept by the Tigers in the ALCS.

New York had a trio of unsuccessful seasons in 2013, 2014, and 2016 that nevertheless showcased Girardi’s managerial skills. While the 2015 Yankees outscored opponents by 66 runs en route to an 87-75 record and a wild-card loss to the Astros, the other three clubs all yielded more runs than they scored but nevertheless had three winning records:

Teams that get outscored usually have losing marks. Teams that get outscored but still win more games do so due to strong bullpens, good luck, and capable managers.

In 2013, New York went 85-77 despite a starting lineup with a single star in Cano and one accomplished player in Brett Gardner. The other seven regulars were past their primes (34-year-old Vernon Wells, 36-year-olds Travis Hafner and Overbay, and 39-year-old Ichiro Suzuki) and career backups (Jayson Nix, Eduardo Nunez, and Chris Stewart). A Boston Globe Red Sox beat writer lauded Girardi as “one of the top managers in baseball this [2013] season. You normally can’t have that many injuries — lose that much payroll — and survive. The Yankees not only survived, they took their quest for a playoff spot into the final week of the season.”58

Likewise, the 2014 Yanks went 84-78 with a lackluster starting rotation featuring a future star in Masahiro Tanaka who pitched in just 20 games due to injury and a steady pitcher in Hiroki Kuroda. But Girardi mixed and matched 85 starts among eight fringe hurlers (Chris Capuano, Shane Greene, Brandon McCarthy, Bryan Mitchell, Vidal Nuno, David Phelps, Esmil Rogers, and Chase Whitley).

In 2016, New York had big names who failed to produce. All nine offensive regulars had OPS+ figures below 100, meaning the Yankees did not have a single league-average hitter in the batting order. GM Brian Cashman traded the present for the future by swapping veterans for prospects. The young players returned New York to the playoffs in 2017 but also paved the way for Girardi’s departure from the Bronx.

A pair of youngsters led the 2017 Yankees. Aaron Judge hit 52 homers, and Luis Severino went 14-6. As in 2015, New York won the wild card and opened the playoffs at home, this time against Minnesota. Severino faced only six batters, who homered, fouled out, walked, homered, singled, and doubled to put the Twins up 3-0. Managing aggressively, Girardi yanked Severino in favor of the fireballing Chad Green, who, along with his bullpen mates and the Yankee bats, rallied New York to an 8-4 win that advanced the Yankees to face the Indians in the ALDS.

After losing the first game of the ALDS, New York led the second one, 8-3, in the sixth inning, a disastrous frame during which Girardi arguably overmanaged and assuredly undermanaged. With one out and one on, and CC Sabathia throwing well at just 77 pitches, Girardi again went to Green, who got an out and gave up a double to put two on with two outs. Green then hit Lonnie Chisenhall to load the bases. Replays showed that the ball had in fact hit the bat rather than the batter, but Girardi failed to ask for a review, “an all-time mess-up … easily the lowest point of his managerial career.”59 Francisco Lindor followed with a grand slam to make the score 8-7. Cleveland tied the game in the eighth and won it in the 13th to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.

Surprisingly, New York won all three straight elimination games to win the ALDS and, seemingly, minimize the meaningfulness of Girardi’s miscues. The manager expressed relief after the comeback. “I’ve been carrying this burden for five or six days,” Girardi said. … “It’s hard. … So for me, what these guys did for me, I’ll never forget.”60

As in 2015, the Astros ended the playoff run of the Yanks, this time by taking the ALCS in seven games. With an expired contract, Girardi “had an almost fatalistic tone as he discussed his baseball future. ‘I’ve had 10 great years here,’ he said. ‘I feel extremely blessed. God has been good to me, and we’ll see what the future holds.’”61

As New York had gone 910-710 under Girardi, Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga urged the Nationals to hire him: “He dealt with the Yankees’ aging, expensive and inflexible roster, and then managed the transition … to this new, athletic, powerful core that looks like it will restore order in the Bronx for years to come,” wrote Svrluga.62

But New York declined to retain Girardi amid accusations that younger players disdained him. “He just wears you down,” one of his players said when Girardi’s fate was still not public. “Nobody hates him, everybody respects the work ethic, but there is no real connection. He wears his tension … and it is too long a season for that style all the time.”63

GM Cashman questioned Girardi’s “ability to fully engage, communicate and connect with the playing personnel.”64 Understandably, Girardi expressed surprise at Cashman’s judging him on style over results especially after “the year we had and the progress the team had made … I thought I’d be back.”65

The Yankees replaced Girardi, who returned to television, with Aaron Boone. Staying classy, Girardi praised Boone as “a bright man [who] understands the game and has been around it a long time.”66

Tyler Kepner, baseball columnist for the New York Times, summed up Girardi’s legacy, opining, “Girardi was an excellent manager — driven, prepared, caring — and he shepherded a young clubhouse into a new era.”67 Girardi seems likely to manage again; when Cincinnati made the first managerial firing of 2018 by canning Bryan Price, Girardi’s name surfaced as a potential successor.68

Regardless, Girardi’s legacy remains secure as the first catcher of the Rockies, and as a champion player and manager of the Yankees.

Last revised: December 1, 2018

Notes

1 Billy Witz, “The Yankees’ New Manager Takes a Number, and Decides Not to Use Girardi’s,” New York Times, February 25, 2018.

2 Nancy Armour (Associated Press), “Girardi’s Leadership Stems from His Parents’ Hard Work.” This undated article comes from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s file on Girardi. Thanks to Reference Librarian Cassidy Lent for scanning the Girardi file.

3 Bryan Hoch, “Girardi Cherishes Talks with Father,” MLB.com, June 19, 2009.

4 Vic Ziegel, “Girardi Only Thinks Deep; with Pitchers, He’s a Hit,” New York Daily News, March 17, 1998.

5 Jack Curry, “Girardi Gets Turn to Play Big Brother,” New York Times, March 27, 1997.

6 “About Joe Girardi,” joegirardi.com/about-joe/ (accessed March 12, 2018).

7 “Cubs,” The Sporting News, August 18, 1986: 25.

8 “Cubs,” The Sporting News, January 2, 1989: 52.

9 “Joe Girardi, ‘Always Ready to Go,’” Peoria Journal Star, October 7, 1989: C1. As a kid, Girardi had “two idols … Ron Santo and Jose Cardenal.” Chuck McAnulla, “Joe Girardi,” Sports Collectors Digest, February 14, 1997: 161.

10  Bill James, The Baseball Book 1990 (New York: Villard Books, 1990), 286.

11  “Girardi, Berryhill Give Cubs Catching Depth,” The Sporting News, August 13, 1990: 13.

12  Claire Smith, “Yanks’ Girardi Leaves His Ego in the Clubhouse,” New York Times, May 12, 1998.

13  Bill James, The Bill James Player Ratings Book 1994 (New York: Collier Books, 1994), 90.

14  Mark Kiszla, “Show Girardi the Door as Antidote for His Venom,” Denver Post, February 28, 1995: D1.

15  Kevin Kernan, Girardi: Passion in Pinstripes (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2012), 159-160.

16  John Harper, “Rockies High on Biggio; Yanks’ Deal for Girardi Frees Up Colorado Cash,” New York Daily News, December 5, 1995.

17  Gay Talese, “The Crisis Manager,” The New Yorker, September 24, 2012: 45.

18  Unattributed and undated article in the Hall of Fame’s file on Girardi.

19  John Harper, “Yanks Get Rockie, Throw Out Stanley,” New York Daily News, November 21, 1995.

20  John Giannone, “Girardi’s Catching Heck,” New York Daily News, February 5, 1996.

21  Don Burke, “A Case for the Defense,” Newark Star-Ledger, December 10, 1995.

22  John Giannone, “Seems Girardi Is Catching On,” New York Daily News, March 8, 1996.

23  Jim Salisbury, “One Lucky Joe,” New York Post, May 22, 1996.

24  D.L. Cummings, “Joe Catches Bit of History,” New York Daily News, May 15, 1996.

25 John Giannone, “Yanks Rule the World; Key, Girardi Spark Bombers to Title,” New York Daily News, October 27, 1996.

26  youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=YCSnK_ctjdk (accessed April 4, 2018).

27  Steve Serby, “Serby’s Sunday Q&A with Joe Girardi,” New York Post, November 4, 2007: 105.

28  John Giannone, “With Wells in Waiting, Yanks Pitch to Girardi,” New York Daily News, November 19, 1996.

29  In 1996, Girardi by his own subsequent account said of Posada, “This is a scary situation. He’s young, he’s got a tremendous arm, he’s a good receiver and hits for power on both sides.” 1998 World Series program article by Joe Girardi with Pat McEvoy, “What Ceiling?”

30  Luke Cyphers, “For Yanks, ’96 Déjà vu; Girardi HR in 8th Caps Comeback over M’s,” New York Daily News, April 29, 1997.

31  Jack Curry, “Throughout Life’s Travails, Girardi Is Keeping the Faith,” New York Times, February 28, 1999.

32  With the Yankees suffering through a five-game losing streak but leading 2-1 in the sixth inning of a May game, the White Sox had runners on the corners with none out. “Darrin Jackson topped the ball … and Girardi bolted … to field it. Magglio Ordonez broke for the plate and Girardi quickly turned back toward home, forcing Ordonez to reverse direction. Girardi ran him toward third and flipped the ball to Scott Brosius, who tagged Ordonez.” Anthony McCarron, “Girardi Catches Falling Yankees ‘D,’” New York Daily News, May 17, 1999.

33  Ralph Vacchiano, “Girardi’s Perfect for Cone,” New York Daily News, July 21, 1999.

34  Tom Verducci, “New York Yankees: They May Be Getting Long in the Tooth, but These Bombers Still Have Their Bite,” Sports Illustrated, March 27, 2000.

35  Peter Botte, “Girardi May Catch on Elsewhere,” New York Daily News, October 29, 1999.

36  “Girardi Catches On with the Cubs,” Albany Times Union, December 16, 1999.

37  Teddy Greenstein, “Looney Tunes at Wrigley,” Chicago Tribune, September 28, 2002.

38  Teddy Greenstein, “Girardi Move ‘Part Of Game,’” Chicago Tribune, December 20, 2002.

39  Dan O’Neill, “Girardi Sets Up Behind the Mike,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 29, 2003.

40  Mark Feinsand, “Girardi Invited to Spring Training,” MLB.com, February 4, 2004.

41  Buster Olney, “Girardi Sees His Future as a General Manager,” New York Times, March 19, 1998.

42  “According to reports, Girardi was blindsided by the Marlins’ massive youth movement after he was hired.” Mike Berardino, “Points of Conflict,” Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), October 4, 2006.

43  Michael Sokolove, “Happy Just to Be here,” Play, June 2006: 84.

44  Kevin Baxter, “Anger Management,” Miami Herald, August 8, 2006. “Loria was upset when Girardi asked him from the dugout not to yell at the umpires. But … Girardi’s bench lieutenant, Gary Tuck … caused all the clubhouse commotion afterward. ‘If you don’t f—— like it, get someone else,’ Tuck shouted from the dugout to Loria.” Dave Hyde, “Firing Unfair but Necessary for Everyone,” Sun Sentinel, September 22, 2006.

45  Mel Antonen, “Inside the NL,” USA Today, August 9, 2006.

46  Greg Cote, “A Loria Apology to Girardi Would Be the Right Thing to Do,” Miami Herald, August 19, 2006.

47  Clark Spencer, “Beinfest: Girardi ‘Was Not a Good Fit,’” Miami Herald, October 3, 2006.

48  Juan C. Rodriguez, “Girardi Gets His Due as Top Manager,” Sun Sentinel, November 16, 2006.

49  Jack Curry, “Girardi Says Broadcasting Is Best for Now,” New York Times, November 14, 2006.

50  Tom Verducci, “Fish Out of Water,” Sports Illustrated, February 19, 2007.

51  Bob Nightengale, “Girardi Replaces Torre, Who May Join Dodgers,” USA Today, October 31, 2007.

52  Harvey Araton, “Girardi’s Introduction Starts the Clock Ticking,” New York Times, November 2, 2007: D4.

53  Will Leitch, “Joe Cool,” New York Magazine, September 16, 2011.

54  Tyler Kepner, “The Taskmaster Loosens Up,” New York Times, September 25, 2009: B13.

55  Jon Fogg, “Girardi’s Selfless Act,” Washington Times, November 7, 2009: 2.

56  Ronald Blum (Associated Press), “Joe Girardi’s Father, Jerry, Dies at 81,” October 11, 2012.

57  Mike Bauman, “Girardi Does His Best Through Triumph, Tragedy,” MLB.com, October 12, 2012.

58  Nick Cafardo, “Girardi Couldn’t Have Managed to Time It Better,” Boston Globe, October 6, 2013.

59  Andrew Marchand, “The Simple Truth in the Bronx: It Was Time For Joe to Go,” ESPN, October 26, 2017.

60  Billy Witz, “For Girardi and Judge, Game 5 Became the Great Escape,” New York Times, October 13, 2017: B11.

61  Billy Witz, “After 10 Seasons and a Title, Girardi Is Done as Yanks Manager,” New York Times, October 27, 2017: B10.

62  Barry Svrluga, “If Nationals Are Serious About a World Series, They Should Make Joe Girardi an Offer,” Washington Post, October 25, 2017.

63  Joel Sherman, “What Made Girardi a Success Cost Him His Job,” New York Post, October 26, 2017.

64  Billy Witz, “Girardi Didn’t Connect With Players, Cashman Says,” New York Times, November 7, 2017.

65  Ken Rosenthal, “Q&A with Joe Girardi: How He Feels About Being Let Go By the Yankees And Whether He Will Manage Again,” The Athletic, October 31, 2017.

66  Billy Witz, “Girardi Joins MLB Network as an Analyst,” New York Times, February 8, 2018.

67  Tyler Kepner, “Boone on Day 1: ‘How Stable Everything Is,’” New York Times, February 14, 2018.

68  John Fay, “Cincinnati Reds 2018: Barry Larkin, John Farrell, Buddy Bell or Jim Riggleman May Be Next,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 19, 2018.

On December 6, 1960, the American League awarded Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., expansion franchises that would play in the league beginning in April 1961. With only four months to put a franchise together, Los Angeles owner Gene Autry first hired Bob Reynolds as team president and Fred Haney as general manager. When it came time to pick a field manager, their first choice was Casey Stengel, who had been fired by the New York Yankees after the 1960 season. Stengel turned down the offer but provided insight on players he thought would be of immediate help to the Angels. With just eight days to prepare for the expansion draft, the three executives took Stengel’s advice to heart, and on December 14 they chose right-handed pitcher Eli Grba of the Yankees, making him the first player ever chosen in an expansion draft and the first player in Angels history.1

A native of Chicago, Eli Grba was born on August 9, 1934. His father, Joseph Grba, left the family early on, leaving his mother, Eva, to raise her only child as a single parent. Working as a waitress during the day and a factory worker at night, she afforded Eli the opportunity to participate in sports as a child. He became a three-sport star at Bowen High School on Chicago’s South Side. “Basketball was my favorite,” Eli said, “even after I made the major leagues I played semipro in the offseason, sometimes as many as 40 games.”2

Baseball was the sport that came calling, however, as Grba’s exploits at Bowen and in summer leagues attracted the attention of Boston Red Sox scout Chuck Koney. After graduating in the spring of 1952, Grba signed with the Red Sox and was sent to play at Salisbury, North Carolina, of the Class-D North Carolina State League.

“Sheriff Robinson was my first manager,” Grba recalled. “As a matter of fact, Robinson was my manager my first three seasons in the minors.” A catcher during his 13-year minor-league playing career, Robinson was making his managerial debut with Salisbury in 1952 and, Grba said, “We just hit it off.”

Grba learned his lessons well, as he was an all-star that first season in Salisbury and again in 1953 with Corning of the Class-D Pony League, where he led the league in games started, innings pitched, and strikeouts.

After one more solid season under Robinson’s tutelage, with San Jose in 1955, the Red Sox placed Grba placed on the fast track, bypassing three levels of competition and moving him up to Triple-A San Francisco (Pacific Coast League) for 1956.

San Francisco was managed that season by Eddie Joost and then, after Joost was fired in June, future Hall of Famer Joe Gordon. Not wanting to tip the cart and upset the veteran pitchers on the staff, Joost at the start of the season dispatched Grba, the youngest full-time pitcher on the staff, to the bullpen. “I went from over 220 innings the previous two years to less than 100 (93⅓),” Grba said. “I was a starter, and I wanted to pitch.”

Grba reported to spring training in 1957 with the Red Sox but finished it with the New York Yankees. On March 14 he and outfielder Gordon Windhorn were traded to the Yankees for outfielder Bill Renna. “I hated the trade.” Grba said, “I grew up a White Sox fan and (the Yankees would) come in and beat us all the time.”

Before he could establish himself with his new team, however, another team soon came calling: the U.S. Army. With the start of the season just two weeks away, Grba tried, unsuccessfully, for a deferment. After being inducted, he was sent to Fort Jackson, in Columbia, South Carolina. He later was stationed at Fort McPherson, in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of the next two years, he played baseball and basketball for his base teams, and upon his discharge he reported to St. Petersburg, Florida, for spring training with the Yankees in 1959.

The Yankees sent Grba to Triple-A Richmond to start the season. Grba had gotten stronger during his Army hitch and was throwing harder, but the Yankees thought he needed a third pitch to complement his fastball and curve. In spring training coach Ralph Houk “asked what I thought I needed to get to the major leagues,” Grba said. “I never could learn a changeup, so I just said a slider.” After a brief session with minor-league pitching coach Eddie Lopat, Grba was throwing a modified slider, or cutter as it came to be called. Again Grba pitched out of the bullpen.

His work paid off, as Grba was recalled by the Yankees in July. He reported to the team at Boston’s Fenway Park, where he made his major-league debut in relief on July 10, pitching a hitless inning. The next day manager Casey Stengel sent him to the mound again, and this time he was reached for three runs (two of which scored on a wild throw) in 2⅔ innings. His first major-league start and win came eight days later in Yankee Stadium against his favorite team as a child, the White Sox. It was a 6-4 victory, and all four runs off Grba were unearned.

Grba spent the rest of the season with the Yankees, winning two games and losing five with a high 6.44 ERA. He reported to spring training in 1960 confident in his role with the team, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. “I made the team,” Grba said, “I even rode the team train back to New York.” But once in New York manager Stengel had a change of heart, and Grba was sent down to Richmond.

Grba pitched well in Richmond, going 7-1 in nine starts before being recalled in early July. He remained with the Yankees for the rest of the season, winning six games and losing four (3.68 ERA) in a mix of starting and relief roles. He was on the Yankees’ World Series roster against the Pittsburgh Pirates, although his only appearance came as a pinch-runner for Elston Howard in Game Six.

Shortly after the World Series, which the Yankees lost on Bill Mazeroski’s Game Seven walk-off home run, the Yankees advised Grba that he would be among the players they would leave unprotected in the coming expansion draft. The Angels selected Grba first overall, and in 1961 he reported to spring training in Palm Springs, California.

As the season opener approached, Angels manager Bill Rigney selected Grba to start the first game in the franchise’s history, so on the cool, windy afternoon of April 11, 1961, Grba took the mound in Baltimore in front of 37,352 fans. The Angels scored seven runs in the first two innings and went on to win, 7-2. Grba pitched a complete-game six-hitter. The weather on the East Coast at the time played havoc with the schedule; two rainouts in Baltimore were followed by another in Boston and then two more in New York before Grba’s next start, which came against his former teammates in Yankee Stadium on April 20. In his return to New York, Grba gave up a pair of homers and five RBI to Mickey Mantle as the Angels lost, 7-5.

On April 27 Grba was tabbed by Rigney to start the Angels’ home opener, against the Minnesota Twins at Wrigley Field.3 He went 6⅓ innings, allowing six hits and four runs, three on a home run by Twins catcher Earl Battey, as the Angels lost, 4-2.

Grba won 11 games and lost 13 in 1961, finishing second on the pitching staff in wins, innings, and starts. He spent the entire 1962 season with the Angels as well (8-9, 4-54 ERA), but, in his own words, “drinking was starting to affect my pitching.”

Manager Bill Rigney had had enough. The Angels tried to trade Grba twice4 and finally sold him to the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. Grba bounced around the minor leagues for the next few years, even making the International League all-star team with Toronto in 1964, before his drinking finally forced him out of the game as a player in 1967.

“I was drinking heavy and I didn’t care about anything,” Grba said, “My priorities were all gone. Bob Lemon saw me one day and said, “I’ve never seen a pitcher lose his stuff as fast as you did.”

Grba bounced around from job to job and rehab center to rehab center until, in his words, he “hit the limit” on August 1, 1981. Living and working at a detox center in El Monte, California, he was sneaking back into his room at 2:30 A.M. when he lost his balance and fell to the floor. Realizing then how he had disappointed those closest to him – family, friends, and teammates –he decided right then that things had to change.

As of 2018, he is still sober, 33 years and counting.  

Grba’s sobriety also afforded him a chance to get back into the game. In 1982 he was hired as the pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Triple-A team in Vancouver. After a year in Waterbury with the Angels’ Double-A team, Grba tried his hand at managing with Reno in the California League in 1989.

With the help of Philadelphia Phillies general manager Lee Thomas, a good friend, Grba joined the Phillies organization and spent two years with Rookie-level Princeton as manager and pitching coach. In 1993 he went to work as a scout under farm director Del Unser. He scouted for five seasons, retiring after the 1997 season.

Grba and his fourth wife, Regina, resided in Florence, Alabama, until his death at the age of 84 on January 14, 2019. He had two children from previous marriages, a son, Nick, and a daughter, Stacy, and two grandchildren. Nick spent 26 years with the Air Force, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and retired with the rank of staff sergeant. Stacy also served overseas in the Air Force.

In 2011, the Angels celebrated their 50th anniversary as a franchise. Among the events were ceremonies honoring people who were part of Angels’ history since the beginning. The first person the Angels honored was the first player in franchise history, Eli Grba.

“What I think about sometimes is about how I messed it up,” Grba said of how he let drinking destroy his career and three marriages. “Baseball has been a secondary thought to me ever since I got sober, I didn’t leave the Angels the way I wanted.”5

For most of the 43,853 fans in attendance on April 8, 2011, Grba’s appearance was a symbolic one, but for Eli it was sentimental. “It’s nice to be recognized as the first, nice to be remembered, and it’s an honor.”

He went out to the mound and threw a strike, just as he had done 50 years earlier.

This biography appeared in “Time for Expansion Baseball” (SABR, 2018), edited by Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin.

Sources 

In addition to the items cited in the Notes, the authors also consulted Baseball Reference.com,

Retrosheet.org, and The Sporting News via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 Roland Hemond, “A Whole New Franchise,” The National Pastime, 2011.              

2 All quotes in this article are from the author’s phone interview with Eli Grba on December 6, 2014, emails between the author and subject on December 7, 8, 14, and 23, 2014 and an email between co-author Chuck Boyer and Eli’s niece Karen Milovich on December 17, 2014.

3 The Angels played home games in 1961 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. They played home games in Dodger Stadium beginning in 1962 and remained there until Anaheim Stadium opened in 1966.

4 Chris Foster, “Managing Day by Day,” Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1989.

5 Marcia C. Smith, “Original Angel Grba Takes Mound,” Orange County Register, April 8, 2011.