Reising: Skeeter Kell a big-leaguer on and off the field
From SABR member Bob Reising at 501 Life on February 20, 2017:
On June 29, 1905, Archibald Wright Graham made his lone appearance in Major League Baseball, playing two innings in right field for the New York Giants in a game in Brooklyn. Never again was the man nicknamed “Moonlight” to take the field for a big-league team.
Almost to the man, those one-game performers are also united by a desire to have played more at baseball’s highest level. Virtually every one of them would have spent the rest of life in pure ecstasy if they could have played a full season in “The Bigs,” from April through September, from Opening Day to World Series time.
That ecstasy visited Everett Lee Kell. In 1952, the second baseman, who later called Conway his home for 20 years, performed for the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics) for an entire season. The nimble infielder, better known as “Skeeter,” enjoyed an event-filled campaign, too. The Athletics completed 1952 with a winning record, registering 79 victories and 75 losses, landing in the top half of the American League’s eight-team league. He did not spend the bulk of the season on the bench, either. Baseball records show him — although a rookie — as the Athletics’ starting second baseman, playing more games than either of the veterans listed at the same position.
Read the full article here: http://www.501lifemag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7121
Originally published: March 29, 2017. Last Updated: March 29, 2017.