Ed Sanicki

As a teenager in the late 1930s, Ed Sanicki and his brother Emil would travel by train from New Jersey to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. At the ticket office they would buy bleacher seat tickets, which was all they could afford. Occasionally Dodgers players would walk past the ticket office, and sometimes sign autographs. Babe Ruth, a Brooklyn coach in 1938, would hand out small cards he had autographed in advance. Ed Sanicki dreamed of becoming a Dodger.

In 1946 the Philadelphia Phillies offered Sanicki a contract with a $2,000 signing bonus. Sanicki asked Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey if the Dodgers had any interest in signing him. Sanicki asked Rickey for $2,500, to which Rickey responded, “We can’t do that, but we’ll give you $2,500 if you go to Vero Beach and make the team.” Sanicki said he couldn’t afford to do that, being married and just out of the Navy. “He wished me luck, gave me a little cigarette lighter … and I signed with the Phillies instead.”1

 “ … I would’ve given my right arm to play for the Dodgers,” Sanicki said. “I just loved them so much.”2

Edward Robert “Butch” Sanicki was born in Wallington, New Jersey, on July 7, 1923, to Michael Paul and Anna (Baciak) Sanicki. Michael was a delivery driver for a furniture company.3 Edward was the youngest of four children. Joseph (1916), Helen (1917), and Emil (1919) came before him.4

In the mid-1930s Sanicki spent his spare time playing a baseball board game, dreaming of the day he might play in a real World Series.5 His brother Emil was an amateur boxer and would pay Edward a nickel to help with his road training, by running together to a country store and back. Ed credited Emil with instilling in him good work habits and discipline.6

Ed grew up to be 5-feet-9 and 175 pounds. He perhaps developed his strong wrists and forearms from working on the heavy bag and speed bag with Emil as a teenager.7

Batting and throwing right-handed, Sanicki played baseball at Clifton (New Jersey) High School for four years, earning All-Passaic Valley honors his final three years, along with All-State accolades his junior and senior seasons.

Sanicki also was a standout on the football squad, playing three seasons and being named to the All-Passaic Valley team his final year. He played basketball his final two years and made all-conference teams both seasons.

He enrolled at Seton Hall University in the fall of 1941, choosing baseball over a football scholarship at Georgetown on the advice of a Brooklyn Dodgers scout. The Dodgers had lined up a baseball scholarship at Seton Hall, which no doubt helped make the choice easier.8

Sanicki had a great freshman year, batting .372 (16-for-43) as Seton Hall won 10 straight games. The team went on to win 25 consecutive contests over two seasons.9

The summer after his freshman year, Sanicki played baseball with the Curtiss-Wright team in the semipro Passaic-Bergen Baseball League, participating in a summer league as he had done all through high school. A teammate on the Curtiss-Wright team was Larry Doby.10 The two had played against each other in high school in both baseball and football, with Doby playing for Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey.

In the spring of 1943, Sanicki joined the US Navy and served as a signalman on a Liberty ship until the end of World War II in 1945. On July 18, 1945, he and Anna Krehel were married at Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary Church in Clifton, New Jersey.11

In December 1945, Sanicki signed with the Phillies. New Jersey area scout Chuck Ward, who signed him, said, “Eddie has a fine disposition for a player and is gifted in all departments of the game.”12

Sanicki was originally slated to start the 1946 campaign at Utica in the Class-A Eastern League. But there was a need for outfielders at Class B, and he was instead sent to the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Interstate League.13 In his first exhibition game with the Blue Rocks, Sanicki walked in the first inning and then connected with a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Vic Raschi.14

In Wilmington’s opening game, Sanicki walked in his first plate appearance and then homered his next time up, one of the 16 hits pounded out by the Blue Rocks in a 17-1 thrashing of Lancaster.15 In an exhibition game against reigning World Series champion Detroit Tigers in early June, Sanicki’s ninth-inning double was the only extra-base hit in the contest. The Tigers won, 1-0, as Sanicki’s double off Johnny Gorsica was one of four Wilmington hits in the game.16

A week later, with Sanicki having hit 11 home runs so far, Phillies President Bob Carpenter in a newspaper interview took notice of Sanicki, saying, “Maybe he won’t make good, though I say he will.”17

The Blue Rocks made it to the Interstate League championship series but lost in five games to the Harrisburg Senators. Sanicki led the league with 30 home runs and 144 RBIs. His home-run total tied the league record. Sanicki also finished in the top five in stolen bases and total bases, and in the top 10 in runs, hits, walks, and slugging percentage. He was the only player unanimously named to the Interstate League all-star team,18 but earned only the runner-up spot in the most valuable player voting, losing out to Harrisburg catcher Ed Mutryn.19

Sanicki returned to Wilmington the following year. He kept up his prodigious home-run pace and in early August, he homered in six straight games.20 After failing to homer on August 6, he hit round-trippers in each of his next two games to give him a mark of eight homers in nine games. Sanicki ended the 1947 season with 37 home runs, setting a new league record. He also paced the circuit in runs, slugging percentage, and total bases. His name was listed among the top five in walks and on-base percentage, while his 109 RBIs tied for sixth. This time he was named league MVP.21 The Blue Rocks avenged the previous year’s title loss by taking the championship in seven games over Allentown.

Sanicki enrolled for his junior year at Seton Hall that fall. He was invited to the Phillies’ spring-training camp at Clearwater, Florida, in March, along with several others, including Curt Simmons, Stan Lopata, and Richie Ashburn.22 But by the end of March, Sanicki was sent down to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Triple-A International League.

During the 1947 campaign in Class B, the average age was 24 years old. Sanicki was 23. The next year, in Triple A, the average age for the league was 27, and Sanicki was three years younger. That might have had something to do with his struggles in 1948 in Toronto. After a month of play, Sanicki had a “batting mark … around the .200 figure.”23 Included in that were three home runs, far below the pace of his last two seasons.

Sanicki eventually got back into home-run form, knocking 16 balls out of the park from mid-May to mid-July, when he hit his 19th home run against Jersey City.24 He struggled the last three weeks of the season, though, only managing two round-trippers and four RBIs. Even though all his numbers were down from the previous two years, he still finished 10th in International League Most Valuable Player voting.25 Sanicki finished the season with a league-leading 107 RBIs. On defense, he set an International League record with 29 outfield assists.

The New Jersey product returned to Triple-A Toronto in 1949. He started out with a bang, hitting .364 (12-for-33), with 6 home runs.26 His power numbers continued all season, but his batting average dropped off and he finished the season with a line of .268/.358/.482. His 33 homers ranked third, while his runs, hits, RBIs, and total bases were all in the top 10. Sanicki finished sixth in the MVP voting.27

After the International League season ended, Sanicki was called up to the Phillies on September 11.28 He made his big-league debut on September 14 against the Pirates at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, inserted into the lineup in right field in the bottom of the seventh.

Sanicki batted for the first time in the top of the ninth with the Phillies leading 9-4, with two on and nobody out, and drove a pitch from right-hander Rip Sewell into the Pirates’ bullpen. “The count was 2-and-2 when I hit Sewell’s slider, which didn’t slide, into Hank Greenberg’s Gardens. It was an inside pitch.”29

Five days later, Sanicki hit another home run, this one off Cardinals pitcher Howie Pollet, and added a run-scoring fly for three more RBIs in a 4-3 win over St. Louis at Sportsman’s Park. “Pollet served me a fastball when I connected for the circuit,” said Sanicki, who was nicknamed “All or Nothing” by his Phillies’ teammates.30

Just over a week later, Sanicki hit his third and final major-league homer, off the Giants’ Sheldon Jones in a 2-0 win at Shibe Park. For the season, Sanicki batted a lowly .231 (3-for-13), but all three of his hits were home runs.

As 1950 rolled around, the Phillies staff expected much of Sanicki. “What probably isn’t generally realized is that (Sanicki is) even better with the glove than he is with the bat,” said Babe Alexander, the Phillies’ public-relations director. “He can really go and get ’em in center field, probably as good as Richie Ashburn.”31

Added Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer: “I really am exceptionally high on Ed Sanicki. Richie Ashburn is going to have to hustle with all he has to keep this kid from taking his job.”32

Despite the high hopes, Sanicki’s chance of breaking camp with the Phillies was scuttled by three crucial details: his less-than-stellar spring performance (8-for-35, .229 batting average); the hot hitting of Dick Sisler, who batted .380 with 5 home runs; and the resurgence of Ashburn, who won the center-field job with his sparkling batting mark of .417 (30-for-72).33

Sisler was battling with Eddie Waitkus for the first-base job, but after Waitkus earned the starting nod, Sawyer moved Sisler to the outfield. “You have one chance to play regularly,” Sawyer told Sisler. “That’s if you can give us another big stick in the outfield.”34 He did, and that was enough for the Phils to send Sanicki back to Toronto.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia manager Sawyer was calling Sanicki perhaps the best center fielder in all of baseball. “Sanicki, in other words, is now where Joe DiMaggio was when he came up,” Sawyer said. “He’s going to be truly great.”35

Being sent down did not demoralize the young slugger. “As long as I’m playing ball,” he said with a grin. “But maybe my chance will come again.”36 As far as his switch from center field to right, “I think it’s great,” he said. “I don’t have as much territory to cover, so I think it will be easier than playing [center field]. But frankly, it doesn’t matter to me which field I play.”37 

One thing did irritate Sanicki: the Phillies wanted him to change his batting style to that of a spray hitter. “How can you, in four years, not say a word and I had all these great years? All of a sudden, I’m up in the major leagues and now you tell me I gotta change my style?” grumbled Sanicki.38

“First thing, you know, you’re all messed up. You try to get back to your old stance, the newspapers are riding you because you hit 33 home runs the year before and now you got about seven and the season’s half-finished. So, I had a terrible year.”39

The new right fielder was batting only .188 in late May and was even benched for a game or two in a couple of series. But Sanicki responded by raising his mark to .232 by the end of June. In a 10-game span at the end of the month, he batted .440 (11-for-25) and was being looked at as a call-up to aid the Phillies’ pennant chances.40

In mid-July Sanicki was summoned to manager Jack Sanford’s compartment on the train ride to Rochester. “Eddie, the Phillies are fighting for the pennant,” said Sanford. “After we get through with this Rochester series, you’ll be joining the Phillies as a defensive outfielder relieving [Dick] Sisler in late innings.”41 The next day, Sanicki attempted to make a running, diving catch and twisted his right knee. He was carried off the field by his teammates and later found out he had torn ligaments in his knee. The date was July 18, his fifth wedding anniversary.

Sanicki missed five weeks and returned as a pinch-hitter to Toronto on August 23. He joined the starting lineup a week later, just as his most disappointing season was coming to an end. His batting mark of .211 was his lowest ever, as was his .676 OPS. His 10 home runs and 42 RBIs were also career lows. “Last year, I was confident when I went to bat with men on base,” said Sanicki after the season. “This year, I wasn’t confident, and I couldn’t drive them in.”42

The Phillies, coined the Whiz Kids, appeared in the World Series that year for the first time since 1915 but were swept in four games by the New York Yankees.

Before the 1951 campaign, Sanicki was assigned to Philadelphia’s new Triple-A team, the Baltimore Orioles. At the end of March, Sanicki was called up to the Phillies and started the regular season as an extra outfielder. He played sparingly, appearing as a pinch-runner five times, a pinch-hitter once, and a defensive replacement seven times. In 13 games, he batted .500 (2-for-4) and had one double and one RBI. His last major-league at-bat came on May 12, when he struck out against Giants pitcher Monty Kennedy.

After the series, on the train ride to St. Louis, Sanicki was given the news that he was going to be sent down. Not to Triple-A Baltimore, but to Single-A Schenectady in the Eastern League. “They brought me all the way into St. Louis to tell me the next day that I was leaving,” said Sanicki later. “And I was going to ‘A’ ball, which is sort of a slap in the face, too.”43

The highlight of Sanicki’s 1951 season came on July 22, in the first game of a doubleheader at Albany. With his team trailing 11-2, Sanicki led off the top of the ninth with a home run against Hugh Mulcahy. The Blue Jays batted around and Sanicki came up with two runners on and smashed another homer over the left-field wall off reliever Bill Emmerich. The rally fell just short as Albany squeaked out an 11-10 victory. The game came three days after the birth of Sanicki’s daughter Patricia. When asked how it felt to hit the home runs, Sanicki said, “Great.” He added, “Don’t forget, those homers were for my new daughter and her mom. I’m going to get a couple more for her, too.”44

He hit five more round-trippers over the last few weeks of the season and despite missing two dozen games, he finished third in the league with 20 homers.

In December Cincinnati Reds affiliate Tulsa selected Sanicki in the annual minor-league draft.45 Club President Grayle Howlett was high on Sanicki, making the former Phil his number-one draft choice in the draft.46

Sanicki began the 1952 season on a .344 (21-for-61) clip for the month of April. Things went downhill after that, however, and when he was sold to the league rival Houston Buffaloes in mid-June, he was batting .232 with 2 home runs and 20 RBIs in 56 games. He didn’t fare much better in Houston, batting .241 in 286 at-bats over 90 games, with 7 homers and 28 RBIs. Those at-bats were the last of his Organized Baseball career. Sanicki hit 160 home runs during his seven-year stint in the minors, plus three in the major leagues.

In the summer of 1952, Sanicki sent his family back home to New Jersey because of the polio epidemic sweeping through Texas and other parts of the United States. That winter, Sanicki and his wife talked about the future, one in which a return to Texas was likely. Sanicki recalled his wife, Ann, saying, “Well, if you go down there again, our marriage is gonna be … kinda risky.” She suggested he return to Seton Hall and earn his education degree, which Sanicki did, graduating in 1953.47

Sanicki taught special-education classes in his hometown of Clifton and was named Educator of the Year in his school system in 1974. He also coached the Clifton baseball team for five years in the 1960s. Sanicki retired from teaching in 1985.

In 1995 the city of Clifton dedicated the baseball field at Albion Memorial Park to Sanicki. At the ceremony, he received letters of congratulation from the Phillies, the National League, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and President Bill Clinton.48

Sanicki died three years later from prostate cancer, on July 6, 1998, just one day short of his 75th birthday. After services at St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Old Bridge, New Jersey, he was buried in Holy Cross Burial Park, South Brunswick, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife, Ann, two sons (Edward and Robert), two daughters (Patricia and Sandra), six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Sources

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons.

Notes

1 Dennis Snelling, A Glimpse of Fame: Brilliant but Fleeting Major League Careers (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993), 23.

2 Snelling, 23.

3 US Census Bureau, 1920 US Census.

4 Ancestry.com.

5 Snelling, 21.

6 Snelling, 21.

7 Snelling, 21.

8 Snelling, 22.

9 Art McMahon, “The Sportsman’s Corner,” Passaic (New Jersey) Herald-News, May 27, 1942: 22.

10 Joe Gootter, “Sportograms,” Paterson (New Jersey) News, June 17, 1942: 19.

11 Krehel-Sanicki wedding announcement, Paterson News, July 17, 1945: 13.

12 “Eddie Sanicki, Local Outfielder to Sign Contract With Phillies,” Paterson News, December 26, 1945: 20.

13 Marty Levin, “Saltzgaver Selects Rock Team to Oppose Binghamton,” Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News, April 26, 1946: 30.

14 Marty Levin, “Blue Rocks Register 6-3 Victory Over Binghamton,” Wilmington Morning News, April 29, 1946: 14.

15 “Rocks Crush Roses, 17-1, in Opener Before 4,106,” York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, May 2, 1946: 1.

16 “Tigers Nip Wilmington, 1-0, on Mullin’s Single,” Detroit Free Press, June 7, 1946: 22.

17 “Phils’ Farm Club Stars to Mean Pennant Team in Year or Two, Owner Says,” Wilmington News Journal, June 18, 1946: 18.

18 “Wilmington Team Places Six Men In All-Star Crew,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Intelligencer Journal, September 6, 1946: 29.

19 “Ed Mutryn Is Voted Honor,” Hagerstown (Maryland) Morning Herald, September 11, 1946: 7.

20 “Sanicki Stopped,” Paterson Morning Call, August 7, 1947: 24.

21 “Ed Sanicki Named,” York Dispatch, August 19, 1947: 12.

22 “Sanicki to Be Given Chance at Phils’ Spring Training Camp,” Passaic Herald-News, December 4, 1947: 36.

23 Walter Taylor, “Wittig Hurls Five-Hit Game,” Baltimore Sun, May 15, 1948: 12.

24 “Leafs Win Two; Sanicki Hits 19th,” Paterson Morning Call, August 13, 1948: 23.

25 “Bloodworth Voted Most Valuable,” Passaic Herald-News, September 3, 1948: 14.

26 “Toronto Star on Rampage,” Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, April 30, 1949: 13.

27 “Royals’ Morgan Voted MVP in International; Sanicki Sixth,” Passaic Herald-News, September 2, 1949: 13.

28 “Phils Call Up Hurler, Infielders From Farm,” Arizona Republic (Phoenix), September 12, 1949: 9.

29 Joe Lovas, “The Sportsman’s Corner,” Passaic Herald-News, September 28, 1949: 27.

30 Lovas, 27.

31 Gayle Talbot (Associated Press), “Phillies Loaded for Flag Chase,” Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review, January 8, 1950: 36.

32 “Flock, Cards and Braves Threat to Phils: Sawyer,” New York Daily News, January 30, 1950: 42.

33 Statistics compiled from box scores in Philadelphia Inquirer, March-April 1950.

34 “Dick Sisler’s Clouting Edging Out Ed Sanicki,” Passaic Herald-News, March 29, 1950: 30.

35 “Sawyer Thinks Ed Sanicki Is Game’s Best,” Rapid City (South Dakota) Journal, April 26, 1950: 12.

36 Milt Dunnell, “Leafs Show Sign of Being Clutch Club,” Toronto Daily Star, April 21, 1950: 18.

37 Neil MacCarl, “Ed Sanicki Likes Switch From Centre to Right, Sanford Explains It,” Toronto Daily Star, April 22, 1950: 16.

38 Snelling, 27.

39 Snelling, 27.

40 “Phils May Call Up Sanicki Soon as Long-Ball Hitting Threat,” Paterson News, June 24, 1950: 20.

41 Snelling, 27.

42 Milt Dunnell, “Lost Confidence, Sanicki Accepts Blame,” Toronto Daily Star, September 12, 1950: 10.

43 Snelling, 30-31.

44 Marvin R. Pike, “Two Homers in One Inning, Ed Sanicki’s Dynamic Greeting to Newborn Daughter,” Paterson Morning Call, July 26, 1951: 27.

45 Jack Hand (Associated Press), “66 Players Drafted at Convention of Minor Leagues,” Paterson Morning News, December 4, 1951: 26.

46 John H. Turner, “Hot Stove Baseball,” Tulsa Daily World, February 3, 1952: Sports 3.

47 Snelling, 31.

48 Robin Gadsden, Edward Sanicki obituary, Hackensack (New Jersey) Record, July 9, 1998: L-6.