Ace Adams (1912-2006)
New York Giants 1941-46 [41 W, 33 L; 3.47 ERA, 302 games, 171 SO]
Ed "Rube" Albosta (1918-2003)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1941, Pittsburgh Pirates 1946 [0 W, 8 L; 6.15 ERA, 52.2 innings pitched, 24 SO, 43 walks, 52 hits, 19 games, 8 games started]
John Antonelli (1930-2020)
Boston Braves 1948-50, Milwaukee Braves 1953,1961, New York Giants 1954-57, San Francisco Giants 1958-60, Cleveland Indians 1961 [126 W, 110 L; 3.34 ERA, 26 shutouts]
Eldon "Big Six" Auker (1910-2006)
Detroit Tigers 1933-38, Boston Red Sox 1939, St. Louis Browns 1940-42 [130 W, 101 L; 4.42 ERA]
The first time I faced Babe Ruth was 1933. I’m a rookie with the Tigers, and he was near the end of the line, but he was still dangerous. I was in the bullpen and Bucky Harris called me in to relieve Carl Fischer. Who walks up to the plate but Ruth. First time in Yankee Stadium and I’m facing the Babe! Struck him out on four pitches. Then I got Gehrig out to end the inning. That’s two Hall of Famers, two of the greatest hitters who ever lived, and I got them both.
Eldon Auker
Eldon Auker
John Babich (1913-2001)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1934-35, Boston Bees 1936, Philadelphia Athletics 1940-41 [30 W, 45 L; 4.93 ERA, 112 games, 231 SO]
I was a right-handed pitcher, and I had a flexible delivery, three-quarters, and I could throw side-armed. Some right-handed hitters didn’t like side-armed pitching—they’d give ground—and I found out quickly who they were. When I was with the Athletics my rookie year [1941], there was an old pitcher on the A’s by the name of Johnny Babich. Babich had been in the Yankee organization. He kind of adopted me, helped me out. The Yankees came into Philadelphia for a series and Babich said to me, “Make sure you sidearm DiMaggio. He don’t like it, he’s not as effective.” So the first time I pitched against him, I sidearmed him twice. He took one pitch and he swung at the second one and missed it. And then, finally, I got one inside and he hit it off the wall. That was the last time I did that. You learn a lesson.
Tom Ferrick
Tom Ferrick
Ray "Silent Cal" Benge (1902-1997)
Cleveland Indians 1925-26, Philadelphia Phillies 1928-32,1936, Brooklyn Dodgers 1933-35, Boston Bees 1936, Cincinnati Reds 1938 [101 W, 130 L; 4.52 ERA, 655 SO]
Joe Black (1924-2002)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1952-55, Cincinnati Reds 1955-56, Washington Senators 1957 [30 W, 12 L; 3.91 ERA, 222 SO]
What I remember about Joe Black was that he would never warm up in the bullpen at the rubber. He would warm up ten feet past the rubber, and I would ask him why. He said, “Because it made your arm stronger. You’re throwing harder then when you go in.” I always tried to figure that one out. But I would say to him, “What about your control? The most important thing about your control is to get it from sixty feet, not seventy feet.” He said, “Nope, this is the way I do it.” Yet when he went in, he warmed up from the mound. It didn’t make any sense to me, but he insisted on doing it.
Clem Labine
Clem Labine
Hank Borowy (1916-2004)
New York Yankees 1942-45, Chicago Cubs 1945-48, Philadelphia Phillies 1949-50, Pittsburgh Pirates 1950, Detroit Tigers 1950-51 [108 W, 82 L; 3.50 ERA, 690 SO]
I've always wanted to manage 30 guys like Borowy. He's one guy who doesn't need managing. You never know he's around but when you want him there he is—and he's always giving his best.
Charley Grimm
Charley Grimm
Cloyd "Junior" Boyer (1927-2021)
St. Louis Cardinals 1949-52, Kansas City Athletics 1955 [20 W, 23 L; 4.73 ERA, 198 SO, 4 shutouts]
Ralph "Hawk" Branca (1926-2016)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1944-53,1956, Detroit Tigers 1953-54, New York Yankees 1954 [career: 88 W, 68 L; 3.79 ERA, 829 SO, 12 shutouts]
The Dodgers were on top of things. They were on the ball, and they got me to sign in June of 1943, right out of high school. I got a new glove and a supporter with a cup in it, and I didn’t know what the hell to do with it, and that’s the truth. I got $90 a month to go to Olean in the Pony League. I played there June and July, and when I came home, NYU offered me a basketball scholarship. I told my friend, “I can’t play for them. I played pro ball.” He said, “They don’t know. Just go.” And I went and played a year at NYU. And that year I started to mature. I weighed 178 for basketball and weighed 205 by the time baseball season was over. And I could throw ninety-five miles an hour. NYU played thirteen games, and I started twelve of them, and I lost a couple. I lost to Army 2-1 when the center fielder made an error on the ball, and it went through his legs for the winning run. And in 1944, right out of NYU, age eighteen, I was pitching for the Dodgers.
Ralph Branca
Ralph Branca
Marvin "Baby Face" Breuer (1914-1991)
New York Yankees 1939-43 [25 W, 26 L; 4.03 ERA]
He was a good second-line pitcher.
Robert W. Creamer
Robert W. Creamer
Mace Brown (1909-2002)
Pittsburgh Pirates 1935-41, Brooklyn Dodgers 1941, Boston Red Sox 1942-43,1946 [76 W, 57 L; 3.47 ERA, 435 SO]
He was their [Pirate's] ace relief pitcher, and a real good one.
Billy Herman
Billy Herman
Milo Candini (1917-1998)
Washington Senators 1943-44,1946-49, Philadelphia Phillies 1950-51 [26 W, 21 L; 3.92 ERA, 183 SO, 5 shutouts, .243 avg]
Clyde "Slick" Castleman (1913-1998)
New York Giants 1934-39 [36 W, 26 L; 4.25 ERA]
Pete Center (1912-2004)
Cleveland Indians 1942-43,1945-46 [7 W, 7 L; 4.10 ERA, 160.1 innings pitched, 77 games]
Bubba Church (1924-2001)
Philadelphia Phillies 1950-52, Cincinnati Reds 1952-53, Chicago Cubs 1953-55 [36 W, 37 L; 4.10 ERA, 274 SO]
In spring training of 1950 I was just another one of the boys. I got to pitch the last three innings of the last game of the exhibition season in Clearwater and we were playing the Red Sox. There was a short porch in Clearwater—it was like 220 feet from home plate—and I had the tying run on base and the winning run at home with two men out and Mr. Ted Williams came up to bat. He spread out and he squeezed that bat so hard that I could see the sawdust leaking out of the end of it. I went to work and I got a strike on him, then I deliberately missed with a pitch that he looked at. Then I threw him what Satchel called the annihilator, which was my down curve ball, and he swung through it. I had two strikes and one ball and I came in on his hands, belt high, and he took it. I gave him the best that I had to offer and he swung through it for strike three. He threw his bat straight up in the air fifty feet and stood and glared at me. And I did what I do best of all—I just looked at him and spat right at him. I turned and walked off of that rubber into the dugout and I said, "Bubba, you done made the Phillies." . . . . I found out that if I got a little bit of wax shoe polish on my fingers and then got out to the mound and took the rosin bag, I had a sticky finger. It just helped the rotation on the ball. Now, there was an umpire named Lon Warneke who had pitched for the Cardinals; he knew what it was like out there. Lon carried me into a higher dimension. He said to me, “Ever heard of olive oil? Just picture a glove in your hand and fold your hand around it. Put about four drops of olive oil in the crease, down there on the heel of your hand, and then go out there and sprinkle some rosin on it.” And you ain’t seen nothing like it in your life. I’ve got pictures in my den right now where my fingers are so black from the rosin and the olive oil. You can do anything you want to do with the ball.
Bubba Church
Bubba Church
Dave DeBusschere (1940-2003)
Chicago White Sox 1962-63 [3 W, 4 L; 2.90 ERA, 61 SO; Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame 1983, College Basketball Hall of Fame 2006]
Joe "Burrhead" Dobson (1917-1994)
Cleveland Indians 1939-40, Boston Red Sox 1941-43,1946-50,1954, Chicago White Sox 1951-53 [137 W, 103 L; 3.62 ERA, 992 SO]
Dobson had a hell of a curve and a good overhand fastball, and he always bore down.
Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Red Embree (1917-1996)
Cleveland Indians 1941-42,1944-47, New York Yankees 1948, St. Louis Browns 1949 [31 W, 48 L; 3.72 ERA, 286 SO]
When Lou Boudreau was guiding the Cleveland Indians, he called for reliever Red Embree to pitch to Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox. Embree asked whether he should pitch Williams low. “Yeah, you can pitch him low, but as soon as you throw the ball run and hide behind second base," Boudreau suggested.
Paul “Li’l Abner” Erickson (1915-2002)
Chicago Cubs 1941-48, Philadelphia Phillies 1948, New York Giants 1948 [37 W, 48 L; 3.86 ERA, 432 SO]
Ed Erraut (1924-2013)
Cincinnati Reds 1947-51,1953, St. Louis Cardinals 1953 [15 W, 23 L; 4.87 ERA, 157 SO]
Dick “Lief” Errickson (1914-1999)
Boston Bees 1938-40, Boston Braves 1941-42, Chicago Cubs 1942 [36 W, 47 L; 3.85 ERA, 176 SO]
ElRoy Face (1928- )
Pittsburgh Pirates 1953,1955-68, Detroit Tigers 1968, Montreal Expos 1969 [104 W, 95 L; 3.48 ERA, 877 SO]
My first year in pro ball, all I had was a fast ball and curve ball — no change of speed. My first year I was up, I was sent back to New Orleans to develop an off-speed pitch. I worked on it during the first part of the 1954 season and started using it the last half of the season. When I was called up again, Mr. [Branch] Rickey said, ‘‘I hear you have a good forkball now. We’’ll see what happens.’’ And that’’s what happened. It made my other pitches better. It got them looking. Then, I developed a slider, too, and I had four pitches. They didn’’t know what to expect. I would throw it any time. It didn’t make any difference what the count was on the batter. I would throw it any time.
ElRoy Face
ElRoy Face
Tom Ferrick (1915-1996)
Philadelphia Athletics 1941, Cleveland Indians 1942,1946, St. Louis Browns 1946,1949-50, Washington Senators 1947-48,1951-52, New York Yankees 1950-51 [40 W, 40 L; 3.47 ERA, 245 SO]
Was it easier to pitch for the Yankees than for some other teams? Well, I’ll put it this way: you didn’t need any urging, because with the Yankees, when you walked into the ballpark in a Yankee uniform, you knew you were gonna win, in any way, shape, or form. The attitude that they had was great. Nobody dragged a wagon over there.
Tom Ferrick
Tom Ferrick
Dave “Boo” Ferris (1921-2016)
Boston Red Sox 1945-50 [65 W, 30 L; 3.64 ERA, 296 SO]
I wasn’t a power pitcher, and I didn’t throw in the nineties like most of them today. My breaking ball was a curve, and my best pitch was the sinker that bore in on right-handed hitters, and away from lefties. For me to be successful, my control had to be very good. I wasn’t going to strike out a lot of hitters. If I got four or five strikeouts a game that was a good game.
Boo Ferris
Boo Ferris
“Rube” Fischer (1916-1997)
New York Giants 1941,1943-46 [16 W, 34 L; 5.09 ERA, 136 SO]
Paul Foytack (1930-2021)
Detroit Tigers 1953,1955-63, Los Angeles Angels 1963-64, Chunichi Dragons (Nippon Professional Baseball) 1965 [86 W, 87 L; 4.14 ERA, 827 SO]
Tony Freitas (1908-1994)
Philadelphia Athletics 1932-33, Cincinnati Reds 1934-36 [25 W, 33 L; 4.48 ERA, 135 SO]
Bob “Warrior” Friend (1930-2019)
Pittsburgh Pirates 1951-65, New York Yankees 1966, New York Giants 1966 [197 W, 230 L; 3.58 ERA, 1734 SO]
Branch Rickey was general manager at Pittsburgh. I was playing for the minimum salary, five thousand dollars, in 1951 and ‘52. I wanted a thousand-dollar raise and he orchestrated this thing where I flew in from Indiana and went out to his house. Branch Jr. was there. Branch mentioned to Junior, “Have the boys signed their contracts yet?” and the Twig said, “No, they haven’t. We’ve just got one under contract.” Then senior said, “That’s good, we don’t need them. We finished in last place, we can finish last without them.” And then he said, “Bob, I assume you’re one of the guys that signed your contract.” I said, “Well, I think I just put it in the mail yesterday.”
Bob Friend
Bob Friend
Denny Galehouse (1911-1998)
Cleveland Indians 1934-38, Boston Red Sox 1939-40,1947-49, St. Louis Browns 1941-44,1946-47 [109 W, 118 L; 3.98 ERA, 851 SO]
Denny was a good pitcher.
Billy Goodman
Billy Goodman
Ned Garver (1925-2017)
St. Louis Browns 1948-52, Detroit Tigers 1952-56, Kansas City Athletics 1957-60, Los Angeles Angels 1961 [129 W, 157 L; 3.73 ERA, 881 SO]
I played with Ned Garver both in St. Louis and Detroit. I have known about half a dozen pitchers in my life who just absolutely knew that pitching was easy. Spahn knew that pitching was easy. Whitey Ford knew that pitching was easy. All he had to do was throw the ball where he wanted to, and he had the advantage. Well, the average pitcher thinks it’s the hardest job in the world. And the harder they work at it, the harder it gets. But if you can go out to the pitcher’s mound knowing that the best hitter the other team’s got is going to make an out seven times out of 10—if you can just keep that in your brain and walk out there and move the ball up and down and in and out a little bit—you’re going to win more games than you’ll lose. Garver knew that, and Garver did that as good as anybody. Garver just knew: keep the ball down, make the guy move off the plate occasionally. Spin it up there sometimes. Oh, he was one of one of my favorites.
J. W. Porter
J. W. Porter
Milt Gaston (1896-1996)
New York Yankees 1924, St. Louis Browns 1925-27, Washington Senators 1928, Boston Red Sox 1929-31, Chicago Cubs 1932-34 [97 W, 164 L; 4.55 ERA, 615 SO]
Floyd Giebell (1909-2004)
Detroit Tigers 1939-41 [3 W, 1 L; 4.03 ERA, 30 SO]
Paul Giel (1932-2002)
New York Giants 1954-55, San Francisco Giants 1958, Pittsburgh Pirates 1959-60, Minnesota Twins 1961, Kansas City Athletics 1961 [11 W, 9 L; 5.39 ERA, College Football Hall of Fame 1975]
I don't only want to sit around, just hoping. I want to play. I want to belong. This is wonderful. Every game's a Rose Bowl game. I still can't believe that Willie Mays is real. He just has to be a figment of someone's imagination.
Paul Giel, on his rookie season
Paul Giel, on his rookie season
Don “Buckeye” Grate (1923-2014)
Philadelphia Phillies 1945-46 [1 W, 1 L; 9.56 ERA, 8 SO; played in N.B.L. 1947-48, N.B.A. 1949-50]
Hal Gregg (1921-1991)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1943-47, Pittsburgh Pirates 1948-50, New York Giants 1952 [40 W, 48 L; 4.54 ERA, 451 SO]
Bob Grim (1930-1996)
New York Yankees 1954-58, Kansas City Athletics 1958-59,1962, Cleveland Indians 1960, Cincinnati Reds 1960, St. Louis Cardinals 1960 [61 W, 41 L; 3.62 ERA, 443 SO]
John Grodzicki (1917-1998)
St. Louis Cardinals 1941,1946-47 [2 W, 2 L; 4.50 ERA, 20 SO]
When I had Grodzicki at Columbus in 1941, I thought he was the best minor league pitcher I ever saw.
Eddie Dyer
Eddie Dyer
Orval Grove (1919-1992)
Chicago White Sox 1940-49 [63 W, 73 L; 3.78 ERA, 374 SO]
Harry “Gunboat” Gumbert (1909-1995)
New York Giants 1935-41, St. Louis Cardinals 1941-44, Cincinnati Reds 1944,1946-49, Pittsburgh Pirates 1949-50 [143 W, 114 L; 3.68 ERA, 709 SO]
Mel “Chief” Harder (1909-2002)
Cleveland Indians 1928-47; Manager—Cleveland Indians 1961 [223 W, 186 L; 3.80 ERA, 1160 SO]
Because I went straight from Newark to Cleveland there were many people who resented my being on the club, some because I was black, some because they thought I would take their job. But there was the Cleveland pitcher, Mel Harder. He was the guy that was always nice to me.
Larry Doby
Larry Doby
Clint “Floppy” Hartung (1922-2010)
New York Giants 1947-50 [29 W, 29 L; 5.02 ERA, 167 SO]
They put in Clint Hartung, the Hondo Hurricane, who was supposed to be the greatest thing that ever lived when he came up. Only as it turned out, he wasn’t much of a hurricane. He wasn’t even a gale. He was just a little whistle storm.
Bill Reddy
Bill Reddy
Jim Hearn (1921-1998)
St. Louis Cardinals 1947-50, New York Giants 1950-56, Philadelphia Phillies 1957-59 [109 W, 89 L; 3.81 ERA, 689 SO]
Through the first half of the [1951] season, the Giants had been inconsistent because they could count on but two pitchers, Maglie and Larry Jansen. Jim Hearn had been wild high all the time, and Leo couldn’t pitch him. But in July Hearn changed from pitching overhand to below three-quarters, and he started throwing strikes. And when he started throwing strikes, he began winning. Now they had three good pitchers.
Don Honig
Don Honig
Willis “Ace” Hudlin (1906-2002)
Cleveland Indians 1926-40, Washington Senators 1940, St. Louis Browns 1940,1944, New York Giants 1940 [158 W, 156 L; 4.41 ERA, 677 SO]
Babe only hit a total of five home runs off me, so I guess that wasn't too bad considering that he hit 714 before he quit.
Willis Hudlin
Willis Hudlin
Sid Hudson (1915-2008)
Washington Senators 1940-42,1946-52, Boston Red Sox 1952-54 [104 W, 152 L; 4.28 ERA, 734 SO]
Cal Hubbard was a great bug guy, and a good umpire. I’m pitching a game in St. Louis one night and I’m having my problems, can’t get them out, and about the fourth inning they bring in somebody else. I’d been arguing with Cal all during the game, and as I leave the field, I walk by home plate and tell him, “Cal, you were terrible tonight. I never saw you miss as many pitches as you did tonight. That’s the worst I ever saw you umpire.” He says, “Sid, my night must have been better than yours, because you’re leaving and I’m staying.”
Sid Hudson
Sid Hudson
Dick Hughes (1938- )
St. Louis Cardinals 1966-68 [20 W, 9 L; 2.79 ERA, 230 SO]
Tommy Hughes (1919-1990)
Philadelphia Phillies 1941-42,1946-47, Cincinnati Reds 1948 [31 W, 56 L; 3.92 ERA, 221 SO]
Cecil “Tex” Hughson (1916-1993)
Boston Red Sox 1941-44,1946-49 [96 W, 54 L; 2.95 ERA, 693 SO]
Hughson was some pitcher when he was right. He had a good fastball, and he could throw just about any pitch you can name.
Billy Goodman
Billy Goodman
Larry Jansen (1920-2009)
New York Giants 1947-54, Cincinnati Reds 1956 [122 W, 89 L; 3.58 ERA, 842 SO]
I was originally signed by the Boston Red Sox but they didn't honor my contract, so Judge Landis made me a free agent. I signed with the Salt Lake City Bees after that and then wound up with the San Francisco Seals.
Larry Jansen
Larry Jansen
Ernie Johnson (1924-2011)
Boston Braves 1950,1952, Milwaukee Braves 1953-58, Baltimore Orioles 1959 [40 W, 23 L; 3.78 ERA, 319 SO]
I’ll always remember my major league debut, in 1950 vs. the Phillies. I came in from the bullpen thinking, “You made it—you made the ML.” So few do. The batter was Dick Whitman. I was told to pitch him low. I did and he hit the ball right between my legs into center field for a base hit. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
Ernie Johnson
Ernie Johnson
Si Johnson (1906-1994)
Cincinnati Reds 1928-36, St. Louis Cardinals 1936-38, Philadelphia Phillies 1940-43,1946, Boston Red Sox 1946-47 [101 W, 165 L; 4.09 ERA, 840 SO]
This 1943 cartoon is one of two autographed by Si Johnson in my collection. The other is a 1932 Jack Sords cartoon. On this cartoon, Si wrote: "This picture is Sylvester Johnson. We were on the same club in Phillies. I will send you some pictures of me. Syl has passed away several years ago. we were real fast friends. I will sign it if it is OK with you." He was a more than generous signer.
Bob “Smiley” Keegan (1920-2001)
Chicago White Sox 1953-58 [40 W, 36 L; 3.65 ERA, 198 SO]
Vern Kennedy (1907-1993)
Chicago White Sox 1934-37, Detroit Tigers 1938-39, St. Louis Browns 1939-41, Washington Senators 1941, Cleveland Indians 1942-44, Philadelphia Phillies 1944-45, Cincinnati Reds 1945 [104 W, 132 L; 4.68 ERA, 691 SO]
Clyde King (1925-2010)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1944-45,1947-48,1951-52, Cincinnati Reds 1953; Manager—San Francisco Giants 1969-70, Atlanta Braves 1974-75, New York Yankees 1982 [32 W, 25 L; 4.14 ERA, 150 SO]
I started with the Dodgers in 1944. I was nineteen. I was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I was a starting guard on the basketball team and a starting pitcher in baseball. Howie Haak was a lieutenant commander at the pre-flight school at Chapel Hill, and he used to umpire our games when I pitched. I guess Howie Haak saw something he liked, because he was continually asking me to consider a tryout with the Dodgers. He said, “If you don’t like it, you can always come back.” I left Raleigh on the train and went to Penn Station. I took a cab over to 215 Montague Street, and Mr. Rickey was waiting for me. We talked for about an hour, and he said, “What kind of bonus do you want?” I picked what I thought was a ridiculous figure out of the hat. I said, “Five thousand.” Without flinching, he said, “That’s fine.” And he yelled at Jane Ann Jones, his secretary, to bring a contract. And for many years, I was known as Rickey’s boy. Many years later I asked him, “If I had asked for more, would I have gotten it?” In a kidding sort of way, he said, “You’ll never know, will you?” I remember the first game I pitched in. It was 1944. Mickey Owen was the catcher. We must have been seven runs behind, and it was late in the game. The bases were loaded, and no one was out, and Owen came out to the mound. He had never seen me pitch before. He said, “Don’t pay any attention to the fingers I’m putting down. Just throw fastballs.” I was primarily a curveball pitcher, but I guess he figured, “Here’s a young college kid, nineteen, he’s probably wild, and the game’s out of reach.” And so I got the first two hitters out, and the next guy hit a double and knocked in all three runs. The next morning I got a note from Mr. Rickey asking me to be in his office at ten o’clock. He said, “What kind of pitches do you have?” I said, “I have a fastball, a curveball, and a change-up.” He said, “How many curves did you throw last night?” I said, “I didn’t throw any.” He said, “How many fastballs?” I said, “I threw twelve.” He asked why I didn’t throw any curves or change-ups. I said, “Because Mickey Owen told me not to.” He said, “That’s your first lesson. You’re the boss out there. The catcher only suggests, and you have to approve it. If you don’t like it, change it.” And that was my first lesson from Mr. Rickey.
Clyde King
Clyde King
Jack Kramer (1918-1995)
St. Louis Browns 1939-41,1943-47, Boston Red Sox 1948-49, New York Giants 1950-51, New York Yankees 1951 [95 W, 103 L; 4.24 ERA, 613 SO]
Bert Kuczynski (1920-1997)
Philadelphia Athletics 1943 [0 W, 0 L; 4.01 ERA; he also played in the NFL, 1943,1948]
Clem Labine (1926-2007)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1950-57, Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-60, Detroit Tigers 1960, Pittsburgh Pirates 1960-61, New York Giants 1962 [77 W, 56 L; 3.63 ERA]
The Dodgers signed me because Charley Dressen, who was the pitching coach at the time, fell in love with me for a reason I’ll never know. He said I had a great slider. I never threw a slider in my life, but if he said I had one, that was okay with me. What he saw was that my ball sunk a little bit, even in those early days, and he was the one who pushed Rickey to sign me.
Clem Labine
Clem Labine
Vern "Deacon" Law (1930- )
Pittsburgh Pirates 1950-51,1954-67 [162 W, 147 L; 3.77 ERA, 119 complete games; National League Cy Young Award 1960]
We were playing the Phillies and I was on the bench alongside Nellie King, a comic. It was one of those games where every call by the umpire was hairline and could have gone either way. Both benches began to ride the umpires and the language got pretty strong. Every time the plate umpire called a strike, it looked as though he was pointing at Nellie. And Nellie would stab himself in the chest with a finger and give it the "Who, me?" routine. We were warned to stop. I noticed the cluster of runs go up on the scoreboard and I pointed just as the umpire turned my way. He threw me out. I've been told that this was the report he filed: "I knew that Law was an elder of the Mormon Church. There was so much bad language that I didn't think it proper for him to hear it. So I ejected him."
Vern Law
Vern Law
Wes Livengood (1910-1996)
Cincinnati Reds 1939 [0 W, 0 L; 9.53 ERA, 5 games, 5.2 innings pitched, 4 SO]
Pat McLaughlin (1910-1999)
Detroit Tigers 1937, Philadelphia Athletics 1940, Detroit Tigers 1945 [0 W, 2 L; 6.88 ERA, 35.1 innings pitched, 12 games, 3 games started, 8 SO]
Tim McNamara (1898-1994)
Boston Braves 1922-25, New York Giants 1926 [14 W, 29 L; 4.78 ERA, 89 SO]
Hey McNamara, I'm sending you to the local hospital tonight. I'm having that bat surgically removed from your shoulder!
Casey Stengel. after McNamara struck out looking at 3 straight pitches
Casey Stengel. after McNamara struck out looking at 3 straight pitches
I used to have a record book listing all my autograph acquisitions containing mail request information (date sent/received) or items purchased or traded. I may still have it, but if so, it is buried deep because I can't find it now. Without it I'd be hard pressed to recall if I got this Tim McNamara autograph by mail, purchase, or trade. I think it was the latter.
Hal Manders (1917-2010)
Detroit Tigers 1941-42,1946, Chicago Cubs 1946 [3 W, 1 L; 4.77 ERA, 60.1 innings pitched, 28 SO, 28 BB, 71 hits]
Phil Marchildon (1913-1997)
Philadelphia Athletics 1940-42,1945-49, Boston Red Sox 1950 [68 W, 75 L; 3.93 ERA, 481 SO, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame 1983]
Walt Masters (1907-1992)
Washington Senators 1931, Philadelphia Phillies 1937,1939 [0 W, 0 L; 6.0 ERA, 30 SO, 8 games; pro football player 1936,1943-44]
Russ "The Mad Monk" Meyer (1923-1998)
Chicago White Sox 1946-48,1956, Philadelphia Phillies 1949-52, Brooklyn Dodgers 1953-55, Cincinnati Reds 1956, Boston Red Sox 1957, Kansas City Athletics 1959 [94 W, 73 L; 3.99 ERA, 672 SO, 13 shutouts]
My nickname from high school was Monk, and then one day when I was with the Phillies, I got into a deal with Dascoli, the umpire, right here in Brooklyn. Jackie [Robinson] stole home, and Dascoli called him safe, and Andy Seminick and I both thought he was out, and if you go by the pictures, Jackie slid on the first-base side of the plate and never did touch the plate. Dascoli called him safe, and I proceeded to get all over Dascoli. In fact I grabbed him, and he pulled away from me, and I pooped a couple of buttons off his coat, which cost me a three-day suspension. I got fined a couple hundred bucks. And after that game, Bob Carpenter hung “the Mad Monk” tag on me. He had another name for me, “Russell the Redneck Reindeer.” I was a real competitive guy, and I don’t like to lose, no, and when I walk out there to the circle, I think I’m the best son of a gun there is, and I just don’t like to lose.
Russ Meyer
Russ Meyer
Al "Happy" Milnar (1913-2005)
Cleveland Indians 1936,1938-43, St. Louis Browns 1943,1946, Philadelphia Phillies 1946 [57 W, 58 L; 4.22 ERA, 10 shutouts]
Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy (1913-2001)
Philadelphia Phillies 1935-40,1945-46, Pittsburgh Pirates 1947 [45 W, 89 L; 4.49 ERA, 314 SO, 5 shutouts]
Mulcahy pitched a great many games for the terrible Phils and lost a great many: eighteen in 1937, twenty in 1938, sixteen in 1939, twenty-two in 1940. From the frequency with which the notation "Losing pitcher—Mulcahy" appeared in the box scores, he came to be called Hugh (Losing Pitcher) Mulcahy.
Robert W. Creamer
Robert W. Creamer
Bob Muncrief (1916-1996)
St. Louis Browns 1937,1939,1941-47, Cleveland Indians 1948, Pittsburgh Pirates 1949, Chicago Cubs 1949, New York Yankees 1951 [80 W, 82 L; 3.80 ERA]
Nothin' wrong with Muncrief.
Dizzy Dean
Dizzy Dean
"Subway" Sam Nahem (1915-2004)
Brooklyn Dodgers 1938, St. Louis Cardinals 1941, Philadelphia Phillies 1942,1948 [10 W, 8 L; 4.69 ERA, 90 games, 224.1 innings pitched, 101 SO]
Michael "Big Mike" Naymick (1917-2005)
Cleveland Indians 1939-40,1943-44, St. Louis Cardinals 1944 [5 W, 7 L; 3.93 ERA, 52 games, 112.1 innings pitched, 64 SO]
Ernie Nevers (1902-1976)
St. Louis Browns 1926-28 [6 W, 12 L; 39 SO, 27 shutouts, .200 avg.; College Football Hall of Fame 1951, Pro Football Hall of Fame 1963]
Claude Passeau (1909-2003)
Pittsburgh Pirates 1935, Philadelphia Phillies 1936-39, Chicago Cubs 1939-47 [162 W, 150 L; 1104 SO, 27 shutouts, .192 avg.]
Passeau was always tough. He had a fast tailing ball he'd jam a lefthanded hitter with, right into your fists, and if you weren't quick he'd get it past you. He worked the count to two balls and one strike, then he came in with that sliding fast ball around my belt, and I swung.
Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Steve Peek (1914-1991)
New York Yankees 1941 [4 W, 2 L; 5.06 ERA, 18 SO]
Cletus "Boots" Poffenberger (1915-1999)
Detroit Tigers 1937-38, Brooklyn Dodgers 1939 [16 W, 12 L; 4.75 ERA, 267.1 innings pitched, 65 SO]
Boots can win anywhere if he behaves himself.
Larry Gilbert
Larry Gilbert
Nelson Potter (1911-1990)
St. Louis Cardinals 1936, Philadelphia Athletics 1938-41,1948, Boston Red Sox 1941, St. Louis Browns 1943-48, Boston Braves 1948-49 [92 W, 97 L; 3.99 ERA, 747 SO, .228 avg, only major league pitcher ever suspended for throwing spitball]
On July 20, 1944, umpire Cal Hubbard threw St. Louis Browns pitcher Nelson Potter out of a game against the New York Yankees for allegedly throwing a spitball. According to this article, Hubbard said "he warned Potter half a dozen times to desist from rubbing his fingers over his mouth before letting go his pitch." Hubbard said "that Potter's failure to comply left him with no alternative other than to banish him." Hubbard said that Browns' manager Luke Sewell had fomented the controversy. Sewell had complained about Yankee pitcher Hank Borowy moistening his fingers, yet said nothing to his own pitcher about following Hubbard's orders. Potter and Sewell argued that he merely blew on his fingertips. During the flare-up, Potter offered Hubbard the ball repeatedly to prove he had no saliva on the ball. His ejection caused a "near riot" at Sportsman's Park. American League President Will Harridge suspended Potter for ten games. In his note to me, Potter told the same story almost fifty years later on this copy of a 27 July 1944 Sporting News article : "I was moistening my fingers but not throwing a spitball, mainly to get a better grip on the ball." Is this a great autograph?
Allie "Superchief" Reynolds (1915-1994)
Cleveland Indians 1942-46, New York Yankees 1947-54 [182 W, 107 L; 3.30 ERA, 1423 SO, 36 shutouts; Hickock Belt 1951]
Allie Reynolds, I swear, he pitched me a whole season and never used more than the black part of the plate on the outside. I liked to pull the ball and I’d try to pull off him and he would force me to go the other way. He just would never make a mistake. Allie was the kind of guy, you would go up maybe your first time at bat on a given day, and you’d think, boy, he ain’t throwing all that hard. That curveball wasn’t all that much. Then you’d come up in the eighth or ninth in the clutch and it was like a different pitcher. He coasted, and he saved his stuff for when he needed it. Boy, then he’d just explode a fastball on you, when you hadn’t seen one anywhere near that speed all day. His curveball would get sharper all of a sudden. He’d just reach back and get it when he needed it. He was really tough.
Jim Dyck
Jim Dyck
Johnny Sain (1917-2006)
Boston Braves 1942,1946-51, New York Yankees 1951-55, Kansas City Athletics 1955 [139 W, 116 L; 3.49 ERA, 245 games started, 140 complete games, 51 saves, .245 batting avg; four-time 20-game winner]
Johnny Sain is a great pitcher. One of the finest I ever saw in World Series competition . . . . I don't say that Sain is a great pitcher because he throws a blazing fast ball or a startling curve or is a "freak" pitcher. I say he's great because he knows how to adapt his pitching to a situation.
Tris Speaker
Tris Speaker
Johnny Sain was a wonderful, generous signer. He even sent me signed copies of two cartoons from his scrapbooks, drawn by Ken Haag and Ron Lewis. This 1948 Alan Maver cartoon is one of three Maver cartoons. The others are duplicate 1949 cartoons. I also have a signed 1950 Tom Paprocki cartoon. He also sent me autographed copies of four news clippings. What a great signer! I suspect there are a lot of Sain autographs in baseball autograph collections given his generosity to me.
Manny "Gyp" Salvo (1913-1997)
New York Giants 1939, Boston Bees 1940, Boston Braves 1941-43, Philadelphia Phillies 1943 [33 W, 50 L; 3.69 ERA, 9 shutouts]
Fred Sanford (1919-2011)
St. Louis Browns 1943,1946-48,1951, New York Yankees 1949-51, Washington Senators 1951 [37 W, 55 L; 4.45 ERA, 285 SO]
"Prince" Hal Schumacher (1910-1993)
New York Giants 1931-42,1946 [158 W, 120 L; 3.36 ERA, 138 complete games, 906 SO, 29 shutouts]
I couldn't hit him at all. He had a sinker . . . .[he was a] headhunter.
Billy Herman
Billy Herman
Clay Smith (1914-2002)
Cleveland Indians 1938, Detroit Tigers 1940 [1 W, 1 L; 5.54 ERA, 17 SO]
Gerry Staley (1920-2008)
St. Louis Cardinals 1947-54, Cincinnati Reds 1955, Chicago White Sox 1956-61, Kansas City Athletics 1961, Detroit Tigers 1961 [134 W, 111 L; 3.70 ERA, 727 SO, 9 shutouts]
The night we [White Sox] clinched the pennant [was my greatest day]. I came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning and threw one pitch. Vic Power of the Indians bounced the ball to shortstop Luis Aparicio, who started the game-ending double play.
Gerry Staley
Gerry Staley
Walter Tauscher (1901-1992)
Pittsburgh Pirates 1928, Washington Senators 1931 [1 W, 0 L; 5.66 ERA]
Fay "Scow" Thomas (1904-1990)
New York Giants 1927, Cleveland Indians 1931, Brooklyn Dodgers 1932, St. Louis Browns 1935 [9 W, 20 L, 4.95 ERA]
Gene "Junior" Thompson (1917-2006)
Cincinnati Reds 1939-42, New York Giants 1946-47 [47 W, 35 L; 3.26 ERA, 315 SO, 185 games, .225 avg.]
Andy Tomasic (1917-2008)
New York Giants 1949 [0 W, 1 L; 18.0 ERA, 2 SO, 2 games; he played in the NFL in 1942 and 1946]
Bill "Ninety-Six" Voiselle (1919-2005)
New York Giants 1942-47, Boston Braves 1947-49, Chicago Cubs 1950 [74 W, 84 L; 3.83 ERA, 637 SO, 13 shutouts]
He had three pitches: Hard, harder and harder.
Johnny Sain
Johnny Sain
Monte "Prof" Weaver (1906-1994)
Washington Senators 1931-38, Boston Red Sox 1939 [71 W, 50 L; 4.36 ERA]
Jack "Black Jack" Wilson (1912-1995)
Philadelphia Athletics 1934, Boston Red Sox 1935-41, Washington Senators 1942, Detroit Tigers 1942 [68 W, 72 L; 4.59 ERA, 590 SO]
We [Boston] had poor pitching, but [Joe] Cronin didn't help the pitching staff any calling the pitches. He was the kind of manager who liked to do that . . . .we had one pitcher by the name of Jack Wilson. He was a good fastball pitcher. And no curve. He couldn't get the curve over. Whenever he pitched, Cronin would just give me fastball, fastball, fastball.
Gene Desautels
Gene Desautels
Whitlow Wyatt (1907-1999)
Detroit Tigers 1929-33, Chicago White Sox 1933-36, Cleveland Indians 1937, Brooklyn Dodgers 1939-44, Philadelphia Phillies 1945 [106 W, 95 L; 3.78 ERA, 17 shut outs, .219 avg]
Whitlow Wyatt was the best competitor. He went out there with blood in his eye and a frown on his face, and he never cracked a smile during that ball game—he was there to beat you.
Lee Ballanfant
Lee Ballanfant
Hank "Hooks" Wyse (1918-2000)
Chicago Cubs 1942-47, Philadelphia Athletics 1950-51, Washington Senators 1951 [79 W, 70 L; 3.52 ERA, 362 SO]