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    Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates: SABR Digital Library, #10
    Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates: SABR Digital Library, #10
    Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates: SABR Digital Library, #10
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    Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates: SABR Digital Library, #10

    By Society for American Baseball Research

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    Sweet '60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is the joint product of 44 authors and editors from the Society for American Baseball Research who have pooled their efforts to create a portrait of the 1960 team which pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the last 60 years.

    Game Seven of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees swung back and forth. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning at Forbes Field, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 53-21, and held a 7–4 lead in the deciding game. The Pirates hadn't won a World Championship since 1925, while the Yanks had won 17 of them in the same stretch of time, seven of the preceding 11 years. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead, only to cough it up in the top of the ninth. The game was tied 9–9 in the bottom of the ninth.

    At 3:36, Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry's slider. As Curt Smith writes in these pages: 

    "There goes a long drive hit deep to left field!" said Gunner. "Going back is Yogi Berra! Going back! You can kiss it good-bye!" No smooch was ever lovelier. 

    "How did we do it, Possum? How did we do it?" Prince said finally, din all around. 

    Woods didn't know—only that, "I'm looking at the wildest thing since I was on Hollywood Boulevard the night World War II ended." 

    David had toppled Goliath. It was a blow that awakened a generation, one that millions of people saw on television, one of TV's first iconic World Series moments.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSociety for American Baseball Research
    Release dateApr 1, 2013
    ISBN9781933599496
    Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates: SABR Digital Library, #10
    Author

    Society for American Baseball Research

    The Society for American Baseball Research is a thirty-five-year-old nonprofit organization whose 7,200 members include university professors; television commentators; baseball journalists; Major League executives; great writers and historians such as Bill James, Andrew Zimbalist, John Thorn, and Alan Schwarz; and former players such as Stan Musial, Larry Dierker, and Jim Bouton. SABR publishes several annuals, including The National Pastime and the Baseball Research Journal, which Sports Illustrated called "a sort of Antioch Review for the diamond set."

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      Book preview

      Sweet ’60 - Society for American Baseball Research

      Sweet '60:

      The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates

      Edited by Clifton Blue Parker and Bill Nowlin

      Associate editors: Ron Antonucci, Clem Comly, and Len Levin

      Sweet '60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates

      Editors: Clifton Blue Parker and Bill Nowlin

      Copyright © 2013 Society for American Baseball Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.

      ISBN 978-1-933599-48-9 (Ebook ISBN 978-1-933599-49-6)

      Design and Production: Gilly Rosenthol, Rosenthol Design

      All photographs are courtesy of the Pittsburgh Pirates except as noted. Cover images depict Bill Mazeroski kissing hit bat after Game Seven. and Vernon Law and Elroy Face (R) celebrating (courtesy National Baseball Hall of Fame and Library). World Series ticket image courtesy of Curt Boster.

      The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc. 4455 E. Camelback Road, Ste. D-140 Phoenix, AZ 85018

      Phone: (800) 969-7227 or (602) 343-6455 Web: www.sabr.org Facebook: Society for American Baseball Research Twitter: @SABR

      Table of Contents

      Sweet Sixty by Jan Finkel

      Introduction by Clifton Blue Parker and Bill Nowlin

      Gene Baker by Charles Faber

      Dick Barone by Joe Schuster

      Harry Bright by Charles Faber

      Smoky Burgess by Andy Sturgill

      Tom Cheney by Tim Herlich

      Joe Christopher by Rory Costello

      Gino Cimoli by Alan Cohen

      Roberto Clemente by Stew Thornley

      Bennie Daniels by Greg Erion and Donald Frank

      Roy Face by Gary Gillette

      Earl Francis by Gregory Wolf

      Bob Friend by Clifton Blue Parker

      Joe Gibbon by Thomas Van Hyning

      Paul Giel by Cary Smith

      Fred Green by Bob Hurte

      Dick Groat by Joe Wancho

      Don Gross by Joel Gross

      Harvey Haddix by Mark Miller

      Don Hoak by Jack V. Morris

      Danny Kravitz by James Forr

      Clem Labine by Alfonso Tusa

      Vern Law by C. Paul Rogers

      Bill Mazeroski by Bob Hurte

      Roman Mejias by Ron Briley, Rory Costello, and Bill Nowlin

      Vinegar Bend Mizell by Mike Jaffe

      Rocky Nelson by David Fleitz

      Bob Oldis by Dan Even

      Diomedes Olivo by Rory Costello

      Dick Schofield by Rodney Johnson.

      Bob Skinner by Joe Wancho

      Hal Smith by Dick Rosen

      R. C. Stevens by Alan Cohen

      Dick Stuart by Jan Finkel

      Jim Umbricht by Thomas Ayers

      Bill Virdon by Gregory Wolf

      George Red Witt by Peter Bauck

      John W. Galbreath, team owner by Warren Corbett

      Joe L. Brown, general manager by Rob Edelman

      Danny Murtaugh, manager by Andy Sturgill

      Bill Burwell, pitching coach by Gregory Wolf

      Len Levy, first base coach by Jack V. Morris

      Sam Narron, bullpen coach by Skip Nipper

      Frank Oceak, third base coach by Gregory Wolf

      Mickey Vernon, hitting coach by Rich Westcott

      Howie Haak, scout by Jim Sandoval and Rory Costello

      Bob Prince, broadcaster by James Forr

      Jim Woods, broadcaster by Curt Smith

      Forbes Field by Curt Smith

      1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Timeline by Clifton Blue Parker

      1960 World Series by George Skornickel

      The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, Local Sportswriters, and Coming to Believe in a Team of Destiny by Jorge Iber

      What Upset? by Jan Finkel

      1960 Pirates Platoon Starting Lineups with Platoon OPS by Clem Comly

      Game Seven Broadcast Yields Nostalgic Insights by Stew Thornley

      By the Numbers: Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960 by Dan Fields

      Contributors

      Acknowledgements

      Sweet Sixty: How It Felt

      By Jan Finkel

      Beat 'em, Bucs!

      — It's not Yeats. It's Anonymous.

      The Bucs are goin' all the way,

      All the way, all the way!

      Oh, the Bucs are goin' all the way,

      All the way this year! (For about 14 choruses)

      — No, it's not the Gershwins. It's Benny Benack.

      We had 'em all the way!

      — It's not Lincoln at Gettysburg. It's Bob Prince after a Pirate win.

      But in western Pennsylvania in 1960 it was all poetry and music. The Pirates win the pennant! The Pirates upset the Yankees!

      An upset occurs when a presumably inferior individual or team surprisingly defeats a presumably superior individual or team, upsets them as it were. However, to paraphrase legendary football coach Lou Holtz after one of his Arkansas teams had shredded a top-ranked Texas squad, it's not an upset if the team that always considered itself better wins.

      From a vantage point of a half-century or more, what happened in 1960? Was the Pirates' win an upset? Or were the Bucs the better team?

      One thing is certain: The Pirates took everyone by surprise, and for good reason. They'd been the National League doormats for the 1950s, usually finishing last by a wide margin. They finished last with Ralph Kiner; they finished last without Ralph Kiner. General manager Branch Rickey, trying to repeat the magic he'd conjured up in St. Louis and Brooklyn, embarked on a youth movement. To call it a youth movement is to be kind. Some of the Pirates of the early '50s didn't look old enough to be youths. The world called them the Rickey Dinks and the Kiddie Korps, and worse. But the Bucs of those early years (including a horror show in 1952 that resulted in a 42-112 mark) had four tough hombres who fought through the losses and humiliation to forge the nucleus of the 1960 squad: Vernon Law, Bob Friend, Dick Groat, and Elroy Face. Friend and Groat endured the carnage in 1952 while Law was away on his obligatory Mormon mission in 1952 and 1953 and Face didn't join the team until 1953, but they all had tasted the bile of losing. They led the team to a stunning second-place finish behind the Milwaukee Braves in 1958 but fell back a bit in 1959, leaving Pittsburghers to mumble, Same old Pirates.

      When the new decade emerged, no one expected much of the Pirates--no one, that is, except the Bucs. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they began to suspect early on that they were about to do something special.

      Lost in all the talk about the Pirates' upset are two significant points. First, the Bucs on a one-to-one basis matched up pretty evenly with the Yankees. Second, and even more important, the Pirates had dealt with tougher competition because the National League overall was better than the American League.

      You could look it up, Casey Stengel used to say, so I did. What I found surprised me, having heard all the talk for five decades. Overall won-lost records were remarkably similar, the Pirates at 95-59 (1 tie) and seven games ahead of the Braves; the Yankees 97-57 (1 tie) and eight games up on the surprising Orioles. The Yankees' mark is a touch deceiving in that they finished the season with a 15-game winning streak to get their eight-game margin. There still isn't much to choose between the teams.

      Taken as a whole, the pitching staffs were basically even. The Yankees and Orioles led the American League with a 3.52 ERA; the Pirates were a hair better at 3.49, a figure good for just third behind the Dodgers and Giants.

      Hitting numbers show much the same thing.The Yankees led the AL in power figures (193 home runs and .426 slugging average). The Pirates took a somewhat opposite tack: They topped the NL with 236 doubles, a .276 batting average, and a .335 on-base average--and were a surprising second in slugging at .407 to the Braves' .417.

      The cumulative figures tell an interesting story. If a team has to do only two things--score runs and prevent runs, with how they do either their own business--the Pirates get a fair-sized edge. That is, the Yankees scored 746 runs to the Bucs' 734, but they gave up 627 while Pittsburgh surrendered 593. Based on the team pitching and hitting numbers, any assertion that the Yankees would run over the Pirates (maybe even sweep them) was just plain flawed.

      The Pirates had an advantage that the Yankees and the American League lacked. Simply put, from top to bottom the National League was better. Mantle, even in a poor season, was arguably the best hitter in the league. Year after year it was Mantle and somebody else. In earlier seasons there was Ted Williams, perhaps the greatest hitter of all time, but he'd played something like two-thirds of the Red Sox' games over the last few years. Al Kaline, Roger Maris, Rocky Colavito, Harvey Kuenn, Minnie Minoso, Pete Runnels, Nellie Fox, Jim Lemon, Harmon Killebrew, Roy Sievers, and Brooks Robinson were fine players, but they weren't in Mantle's class. In contrast, the National League was loaded with talent, almost obscenely so. In 1960 alone, in their primes were Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson. Roberto Clemente was a year away from joining them. Following closely behind were Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Billy Williams, Lou Brock, Tony Perez, and Willie Stargell. And they're just the Hall of Famers. Vada Pinson, Richie (Call Me Dick) Allen, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, and many others were on the horizon.

      It wasn't just quantity, either. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to win the Most Valuable Player Award, in 1949. Over the next 14 years, the National League MVP trophy went to an African-American 10 times and every year from 1953 to 1959. Elston Howard was the first African-American to take home the American League award--in 1963.

      Think about the pitchers coming along, not quite as rapidly as the hitters but on their way. Does anyone believe that the American League had a trio to match Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, and Juan Marichal?

      Integration was the key. The Pirates and the National League had been playing in a brave new world. Victims of tunnel vision and slow to adapt, the Yankees and the American League hadn't.

      Both teams were experienced.You don't get into the World Series with a bunch of rookies. Nevertheless, the Pirates had one kind of experience about which the Yankees were ignorant. That is, the Yankees were so in the habit of winning, assuming it as their birthright, that they had little idea how to cope with losing. From 1949 to 1964 they had been out of the American League throne room twice. They'd finished second to the Indians in 1954, but they'd won 103 games, their highest total under Stengel's reign; unfortunately for them, the Tribe won 111. It's hard to work up much sympathy for the Bronx Bombers. The 1959 season was something else entirely, as they were never in contention, coming in third, 15 games behind the White Sox. Their 79-75 record, which would have been Nirvana for the Pirates just a few years before, was cause for real concern. In short, the Yankees were much like the playground bully, accustomed to winning every fight.

      Generally speaking, we learn more from losing than from winning. The Pirates, through years of bitter experience and crushed hope, had a collective Ph.D. in losing. The stage was set for one of the strangest World Series ever.

      Everybody knows what happened in October 1960. The Yankees broke all the records and lost the Series. They doubled the Pirates in runs, 55-27. They hit .338 as a team. Whitey Ford, on his way to breaking Babe Ruth's record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play, threw two shutouts. The Yankees won three games by a combined score of 38-3 (16-3, 10-0, 12-0). The Pirates won four games 6-4, 3-2, 5-2, and 10-9.

      The argument for Yankee superiority goes, what about that batting average, those outlandish football-like scores? What about them? Each represents one-fourth of what they had to do to win the Series, and they never got that fourth one. Blowouts are easy to absorb, laugh about, and forget. Close losses keep you awake at night because you can't stop wondering what you could, would, or should have done differently. The Pirates had a resilience that the Yankees lacked because they'd rarely had to have it. The 3-2 and 5-2 games came after the 16-3 and 10-0 wipeouts. The Yankees had to win Game Six to stay alive. They won it big, but they and not the Pirates were the ones under pressure.

      Enough has been said about Game Seven, and little needs to be added here. The greatness of the game is that it showed both teams doing what they did best--the Yankees flexing their muscles, the Pirates clawing their way back. Nobody flinched. In jackhammer style it went like this: Pirates smack Yankees in the mouth and jump out to a 4-0 lead, Yankees power their way to take a 7-4 lead, Pirates drop a bomb of their own on Smith's three-run homer and grab a 9-7 lead, Yankees strike back to tie game at 9-9, Mazeroski sends Mantle home in tears (so the story goes) with home run to win Series 10-9.

      Were the Pirates lucky? Of course they were. The double-play ball that took a weird hop and hit Tony Kubek in the Adam's apple is a case in point. Just about every team that's won a championship in any sport has had an element of luck. It takes nothing away from the Pirates' achievement. It wasn't an upset. By any measure they were equal to and maybe--just maybe--a little better than the Yankees. Their resilience made a huge difference. They wouldn't quit, and the Yankees couldn't put them away.

      The Bucs went all the way in 1960. They didn't become a dynasty, but they remained tough competitors throughout the '60s and enjoyed one of their finest overall decades in the '70s with two World Series titles, several division crowns, and some heartbreaking near-misses. For one moment, though, it all came together. As Jackie Gleason and Bob Prince liked to say, How sweet it is!

      Introduction

      The idea for this book has its roots in the faraway time of childhood. My grandfather, George F. Reynolds, often regaled me with tales about the Pittsburgh Pirates when I was young boy in the Steel City suburb of Bethel Park in the late 1960s and 1970s. Spellbinding and brilliant--he was a top executive and inventor for ALCOA--he could tell a story like few people I ever met. Then, with wide eyes and mouth agape, I listened to his rollicking accounts of ancient Pirate greats and the teams they played on--he was a walking encyclopedia of Pittsburgh baseball history. My grandfather especially loved the 1960 Pirates and how they staged one of the most unforgettable and dramatic World Series victories ever against the mighty New York Yankees with the help of Bill Mazeroski's Game Seven clout. It is the classic David-vs.-Goliath tale of the underdog team overcoming all the odds.

      Maybe there will be another upstart team that ends a World Series so magically in the final inning. But I truly believe the 1960 Pirates are the rarest of teams in the annals of the national pastime--a team of the ages--and we will not see another one quite like it. It is my humble hope for all readers that this book unveils the historic record of the stunning and surprising world of the 1960 Bucs and all the men who played for this iconic team.

      --Clifton Blue Parker

      When Clifton Parker launched this project, I was particularly pleased because I can still remember how excited I was at age 15 to be watching the final game of the 1960 World Series and the unexpected triumph of the underdog over the Yankees, the team that seemed to win every year. I was a Red Sox fan, so rooting for anyone other than the Yankees came naturally. Unfortunately, I was too young to fully appreciate who the Pirates were. I've come to know them better through this book.

      In the middle of 2011, Clifton had to relinquish his position as chief editor of this book due to job responsibilities and family obligations. But he'd gotten it underway, and I was glad to come on in long relief and close out the book.

      --Bill Nowlin

      Gene Baker

      By Charles Faber

      graphics1

      Near the end of the 1953 baseball season two young men joined the Chicago Cubs and broke the club's color line. Two shortstops, they became roommates and the first African American keystone combination in major-league history when one of them was converted into a second baseman. The shortstop, Ernie Banks, was purchased from the Kansas City Monarchs, spent his entire Organized Baseball career with the Cubs, earned the nickname Mr. Cub, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. The second baseman was called up from the Des Moines Bruins and spent parts of only five years with the Cubs before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Gene Baker was never a serious candidate for the Hall of Fame, but continued making important breakthroughs after his playing days were over.

      Eugene Walker Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa, on June 15, 1925, the eldest son of Mildred and Eugene O. Baker. He spent his childhood in the Quad Cities area, in Davenport and across the Mississippi River in Moline, Illinois, where his father at one time labored in the iron works.

      Gene attended Davenport High School, where he starred in track and basketball. As there happened to be no blacks on the high-school baseball team, Gene played sandlot ball. Davenport was a perennial powerhouse in Iowa high-school basketball, which was the most popular sport in the state. Baker was a star on the basketball court. In 1943 the 17-year-old, 6-foot, 142-pound guard was named to the All-State first team by the Iowa Daily Press Association, with the following accolades: Most improved player on this year's Davenport cage team. Clean type of player, fouling infrequently. So alert that he caused opposing guards to foul. Best passer in the Mississippi Valley loop. Will be 18 in June and it looks like the army after that.

      After the state tournament, in which for the second consecutive year Davenport made the final four, a Waterloo coach wrote in the Waterloo Sunday Courier: In Gene Baker, Davenport's dusky guard, the river city boys had one of the outstanding individuals in the tournament. He was easily the best passer in the meet and his rebounding and scoring set him out as one of the better basketball players seen in this meet recently.

      As it turned out, Baker went not into the Army, but the Navy, where he played both baseball and basketball, first for the Ottumwa Naval Air Station and then for the Seahawks of the Iowa Pre-Flight School in Iowa City. In newspaper accounts of the games, Baker's race was frequently mentioned, in keeping with the journalistic practices of the era. The Waterloo paper wrote: Baker, the shortstop, is one of the greatest and most versatile Negro athletes developed in Iowa. Speedy, a good base runner, he also hits the agate hard.

      An Associated Press report on the Seahawks basketball team referred to Gene Baker, brilliant Davenport Negro.

      His service obligations fulfilled, Baker returned to Davenport, where he played semipro baseball. His exploits on the diamond caught the attention of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. By this time Baker had grown one inch in height and added 28 pounds to his still slender frame. He was the Monarchs' regular shortstop in 1948 and 1949. Early in the 1949 season the Davenport Democrat and Leader wrote: Among the [Kansas City] stars is Gene Baker, Davenport high school graduate who sparkled as a rookie shortstop last season. In his second year Baker is set to make his bid for notice from the major league scouts. He was told last year that he would get attention after one year's service in the Negro American League, and there are those who classed him as the second Jackie Robinson. That may sound like hyperbole from his hometown newspaper, but the scouts were indeed paying attention. After the season Gene returned to Davenport and played recreation-league basketball, but the spring of 1950 found him in Organized Baseball in the Chicago Cubs organization. After a few games with the Springfield Cubs in the International League, he was acquired by the Des Moines Bruins of the Western League, as the team's first black player. At the end of June he moved up to the Los Angeles Angels of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. California newspapers reported that the 25-year-old shortstop was regarded as one of the most promising players in the Cubs' farm system. Bobby Bragan, manager of the Angels' chief rivals, the Hollywood Stars, said Baker was as good a shortstop as I've ever seen--and that includes Pee Wee Reese.

      Baker lived up to his promise. On September 1, 1953, the Cubs purchased his contract from the Angels. It was reported that Baker was the first Negro player to ever appear on the Cubs' official roster. A week later the Cubs purchased Ernie Banks from the Kansas City Monarchs. Both shortstops reported in Chicago on September 14; Banks became the regular shortstop, and suddenly Baker was a second baseman. He made his major-league debut on September 20, striking out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning of a Cubs 11-8 loss in St. Louis.

      Although Baker had been hailed as the best shortstop in the Pacific Coast League, he was shunted over to second base because it was believed that as he was older and more experienced than Banks, he might be better able to adjust to a new position. Baker proceeded to give his young teammate tips on playing the shortstop position. He certainly helped me when I came to this club, Banks told an interviewer with United Press International. He showed me how to study the batters and how to swing (my position) when the infield shifted. He worked with me on coming across the bag for the double play and showed how to make a short toss for it.

      Baker hit .275 in 135 games during his rookie season. Both he and Banks made The Sporting News all-rookie team. Soon newspapers ceased mentioning Baber's race whenever his name appeared in print. Gene's best season came in 1955, when he hit .268, led the league with 18 sacrifices, and was named to the National League All-Star team. He pinch-hit for Don Newcombe in the seventh inning and flied out. Baker was a good but sometimes erratic defensive second baseman. Three times he led NL keystone sackers in errors. In 1955 he led his cohorts in putouts, assists, errors, and total chances. On May 27 of that year his 11 putouts tied the National League record for putouts in one game by a second baseman.

      On May 1, 1957, Baker was traded along with first baseman Dee Fondy to Pittsburgh for infielder Dale Long and infielder-outfielder Lee Walls. There was no way he could match the play of future Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski at second base, so Baker played mainly third base for the Pirates. On July 13, 1958, the third sacker fell on his left knee while charging a ground ball and ruptured a ligament that attaches the kneecap to the leg. Baker later said, We were playing at St. Louis and Curt Flood hit a swinging bunt. I came in fast and must have slipped. Then there was a crack that sounded like a 30-30 rifle. The infielder was carried off the field. The knee required surgery, and Baker was out of action for the remainder of the season. He spent rest of the year back in Davenport on crutches.

      The Pirates hoped to have Baker back in 1959, but when spring came he was unable to play. Pittsburgh placed him on the 30-day disabled list in April. In May they restored him to the active list and immediately placed him on waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release. But they did not cast Baker aside. They signed him as an instructional assistant for their minor-league clubs. Baker worked predominantly with minor-league players, but also helped with the analysis of minor-league clubs and scouting programs. Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh said that Baker knows more about baseball than fellows twice his age. He's one of the smartest I've ever met. During the offseason Baker returned to Davenport, spent time with his wife and two children, sold insurance, played an occasional round of golf, and rooted for his favorite basketball team.

      In January 1960 Baker began a series of exercises and tests on his injured left knee at Southern Illinois University's Physical Education Research Laboratory in Carbondale. Impressed by the work at Carbondale, the Pirates' general manager, Joe L. Brown, hired kinesiologists from the lab to work with Baker and to develop a training program aimed at preventing injuries to other players. We've had encouraging reports on Baker, Brown told the Associated Press in February. We hope he can make a comeback. He's a fine utility infielder. If he can play for us he'll be a plus factor. But it is still too early to tell whether Gene can play. Regardless, he will remain in the Pirates organization. He's got loads of talent in the field of scouting and instruction.Throughout his ordeal the Pirates were compassionate, generous, and supportive of Baker--qualities not always evident in major-league clubs.

      During 1960 spring training Baker went with the club to Fort Myers, Florida, as a nonroster invitee. By late March he was playing well. He was the talk of the training camp and earned a big-league contract. Manager Danny Murtaugh said he expected Baker to be the club's number one utility infielder during the season. As it turned out there was not much need for Baker's services and he became almost a forgotten man during the Pirates' drive to the 1960 pennant. Second baseman Mazeroski and third baseman Don Hoak each played more than 150 games. When Dick Groat was injured, Dick Schofield capably handled the shortstop position. Rocky Nelson filled in for Dick Stuart at first base. Baker played only one game at second and seven games at third base. Otherwise, he was used mainly as a pinch-hitter and occasionally as a pinch-runner. All told, he appeared in 33 games during the season. In the World Series Baker did not play in the field, but he came up three times as a pinch-hitter and failed to make a hit.

      During spring training in 1961 the club decided to keep Baker as a utility infielder and send Dick Gray to the minors. In response to a complaint that the Pirates should have kept the younger man rather than the 36-year-old Baker, general manager Brown said, I don't care if Gene Baker is 136 years old. We are making our plans entirely on a one-year basis. Although Gray had looked good in spring training, Brown said, the club could not base all of its opinions on a short trial. A sportswriter accused Brown of favoritism and wrote that it proved that spring training was a waste of time and money. Actually neither Gray nor Baker played very well in 1961 or thereafter. Gray was the regular third baseman for Columbus in 1961 and accepted a utility role in 1962 before retiring from Organized Baseball without ever making it back to the majors. Baker sat on the Pirates' bench almost all spring, getting into three games at third base and occasionally pinch-hitting. He played his last major-league game on June 10, 1961. On June 20 he was released as a player to make room for outfielder Walt Moryn, purchased from the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates kept their promise that there would always be room in the organization for Baker. On the same day he was released, he was named player-manager of the Batavia Pirates of the Class D New York-Pennsylvania League. He took over a club that was floundering and led it to a third-place finish. He was the first black manager in Organized Baseball in the United States. (One source stated that Nate Moreland had managed Calexico in the Arizona-Mexico League a few years earlier, but this has not been confirmed.) Baker found Class D pitching to his liking, hitting .387 in 55 games, by far the highest average in his career. Ebony magazine, in an article about Baker's experience in Batavia, wrote, Since occupying his new post, Baker has learned that having to be a coach, ball player, bookkeeper, field manager, and big brother to 18 men is not a bed of roses.

      In 1962 Baker was promoted to the Columbus Jets of the Triple-A International League as a player-coach, and became the first black coach in Organized Baseball. The promotion put him once again in competition with Dick Gray for playing time at third base. Neither won the position, which was taken by Bob Bailey, the Pirates' $175,000 bonus baby. Baker found Triple-A pitching difficult to hit and wound up with a woeful .115 batting average in 22 games.

      In 1963 Baker was again back in the big leagues as a coach for Pittsburgh--the second African-American to coach in the majors behind Buck O'Neil. Sportswriter Red Smith wrote that Baker snores like a locomotive coming over Crazy Woman Ridge. Baker was assigned Roberto Clemente as his roommate, much to the outfielder's chagrin.With this coach I could not sleep at all. I keep asking them to let me sleep alone, but they say no, can't do it. All I could do is warm up and play, warm up and play, always sleepy, no pep. One game in Milwaukee they brushed me back at the plate. To brush back a player… you can wake him up. They brushed me back and I felt good, loose. I hit .320 for the year. And now I sleep alone.

      In a game at Los Angeles on September 21, 1963, Baker made baseball history. A rhubarb ensued when a Pirates batter was retired on a close play. Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh and coach Frank Oceak were ejected by an umpire after their long and loud protests of the call. Baker assumed command and became the first African-American to manage in the major leagues. Of course, he acted only briefly as manager, so his accomplishment is not listed in most record books. Another managerial stint soon came his way when he was appointed manager of the Aguilas Cibaenas club, which represented Santiago in the Dominican Republic Winter League. Several Pirates and Columbus Jets players were on the Santiago team. Meanwhile, back in Pittsburgh, Murtaugh decided to reduce his coaching staff from six to four. Baker was dropped as a coach, and it was announced that he would manage Batavia again in 1964. After one more season in upstate New York, he became a scout for the Pirates and stayed in that role for many years. For 23 years he was the Pirates' chief scout in the Midwest.

      In 1974 Baker gave a long interview to Loren Tate of the Mount Vernon (Illinois) Register-News. Arms and legs… that's what I'm looking for, the scout said. I see as many as six teams in a day when I'm in an area where night ball is played. I watch perhaps 75 percent high schools and 25 percent colleges. Sure, I see a lot of guys who can never make it, but you have to see them all to find the great one. Guys in my business don't worry about positions. We can't look down the road and visualize what the big club will need three years from now.… For the most part I'm just looking for the best players, regardless of position. Watching a game between the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota, Baker analyzed for the scribe the strengths and weaknesses of various players he was scouting.

      Throughout his life Baker maintained his home in Davenport. His son, also named Gene, was an outstanding sprinter for Davenport Central High School from 1964 through 1966, He was one of the state's top performers in the 100-yard dash, the quarter-mile, and the 220-yard dash. He anchored the school's 440- and 880-yard relay teams, which were among the best in the nation. Not confining his achievements to one sport, he made the all-state football fourth team as a running back.

      Eugene Walter Baker died of a heart attack on December 1, 1999, at the age of 74. He had been hospitalized at Genesis East Medical Center in Davenport for three days. He was survived by his mother, Mildred, and his wife, Janice, both of Davenport, his son, a daughter, a stepdaughter, and 12 grandchildren. He was buried in the Rock Island National Cemetery, just across the Mississippi River from his beloved hometown.

      Sources

      The Baseball Encyclopedia, Ninth edition. New York: Macmillan, 1993.

      Clark, Dick, and Larry Lester. The Negro Leagues Book. Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 1994.

      New York Times

      Palmer, Pete, and Gary Gillette. The Baseball Encyclopedia. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004.

      Spatz, Lyle (editor). The SABR Baseball List & Record Book. New York: Scribner, 2007.

      www.baseball-refereence.com

      www.newspaperarchive.com

      Dick Barone

      By Joe Schuster

      graphics2

      But for a bit of luck--if he'd been with a different organization, in which he wasn't caught behind an all-star like Dick Groat or if he hadn't suffered two broken bones in the seventh of what would turn out to be 10 minor-league seasons--shortstop Dick Barone might have had a longer stint in the major leagues than he had: three games, six at-bats, with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of September 1960.

      Richard Anthony (Dick) Barone was born on October 13, 1932, in San Jose, California. He was the youngest of six children of Gus and Anna Barone, who operated a small grocery, Sunnyside Market.¹ Barone's parents were born in Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1901.² Barone's father died at 45 when Dick Barone was 8 years old; his mother lived to the age of 94.

      As a boy, Barone was obsessed with baseball: One of my brothers pitched and was catcher and first baseman for a semipro team [that the family market sponsored] and I was the batboy and mascot, he said. That was where I got my love for the game. Because of the weather, we could pretty much play it year-round. And we did. If there was no one around to play with, I would spend hours throwing a tennis ball against the gutter and working on my fielding.

      Barone said that when he was 12 he wanted so much to play on a recreational league team that when he couldn't find one he organized one himself, and was its manager and starting pitcher. I talked to a gym teacher at the middle school about how to register a team with the league, he said. Then when we started the season, I made up the lineups. I would hit infield to the team and then go and warm up so I could pitch the game.

      At San Jose High School, Barone played both basketball and baseball, and was an all-star in both sports.³ In 1950, when he was a senior, Barone had tryouts with the Chicago White Sox and the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals. According to Barone, Vince DiMaggio, the manager of the class D Far West League Pittsburg (California) Diamonds, offered him a contract to play the summer after he finished high school but, partly because the pay was so low ($300 a month), he turned it down for an opportunity to attend college. That idea didn't last long and I decided I would rather play baseball, he said.

      The next year, he had another tryout, with the Pittsburgh Pirates:

      I used to spend a lot of time playing ball at [San Jose's] Backesto Park and I often saw [Pirates scout] Bob Fontaine there, Barone said. I knew he was a scout and I asked him about trying out for the team. The Korean Conflict was going on and he said that because of that a lot of teams would be folding. I told him that I understood that but I still wanted a tryout because I'd always wanted to play professional ball. He arranged for me to go to Anaheim for a tryout and the Pirates signed me to a contract for their [Class C Pioneer League] Great Falls [Montana] team.

      While the team didn't give him a bonus to sign his contract, his manager at Great Falls, Buck Elliott, did give him a new pair of baseball spikes because, Barone said, he thought the ones I had were too big.

      Going into his first professional season, 1951, Barone was projected to compete with teammate Don Swanson for the starting third-base job.⁴ His manager, Buck Elliott told a sportswriter that Barone is a power at the plate, has a strong throwing arm and is a better than average runner.⁵

      Barone won the job and, despite his relatively small stature (5-feet-9, 165 pounds), proved his manager correct in at least part of his assessment almost from the start: in his second professional trip to the plate, he hit a grand slam in the third inning of what turned out to be a lopsided 14-2 victory.⁶

      Barone was the starting third baseman until the last few games of the season when, because of his strong arm and good range, Elliott moved him to shortstop.⁷ He ended the season hitting .255 with six home runs. At least one sportswriter picked him for the second team on his post-season Pioneer League All-Star team, behind the Pocatello Cardinals' Nick Ananias who hit .318 with 18 HR.⁸ In retrospect, Jamie Selko in Minor League All-star Teams, 1922-1962 suggests that Barone should have been on the first team since Selko noted that Ananias played fewer than half of his games at third base, and said that Richard Barone was the best full-time third baseman in the league.⁹

      In 1952, Barone played the full season at shortstop at Billings, Montana, also in the Pioneer League, where one of his teammates was future major-league star Dick Stuart, who led the PL in home runs that year with 31. After the season, Barone was drafted into the Army, where he spent 18 months.¹⁰ He completed his basic training at Fort Ord in California then went to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, where he was in the military police, before ending up in special services, playing baseball for an Army team that traveled the US playing for the troops.

      After Barone was discharged, the Pirates sent him to Williamsport in the Class A Eastern League for 1955, where he played shortstop alongside future Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski and hit .264 with 9 HRs. The next year, the Pirates promoted him to New Orleans of the Double A Southern Association. Coming into the season, Barone was tagged as a flashy 23-year-old shortstop who had all of the equipment of star baseball material.¹¹ An opposing manager from the previous year, Reading's Jo-Jo White, rated him the best [majorleague] prospect [in the league].¹² White added, He's a fine fielder, good base runner, fair hitter, and probably will be playing for Pittsburgh during the coming season.¹³

      Barone hit .270 at New Orleans and earned a spot on the major-league roster to take spring training with the Pirates the next season. In February, Pirates manager Bobby Bragan told reporters that Barone was ticketed for reserve duty.¹⁴

      As it turned out, after spring training the Pirates sent Barone to Columbus of the International League, where he had an injury-plagued season in 1957, breaking bones in his foot and hand. He got into only 95 games and batted .182.¹⁵ Even so, the Pirates added him to the major-league roster in September of that year, with yet another spring training invitation for 1958.¹⁶

      Barone was with Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League for both 1958 and 1959, where his hitting was weak but fans appreciated his defensive work. Wrote Salt Lake Tribune sports editor John Mooney, [One] of the great defensive shortstops in baseball is performing right out there in the person of little Dick Barone. Eddie Leishman [a former PCL shortstop who went on to become a minor league and then major league executive] is amazed every time Barone goes in the hole and throws out a speeding runner....he says, 'It's worth the price of admission to see that guy field.' ¹⁷

      Barone's play there earned him yet another shot at making the major-league roster in 1960. Reporting on the Pirates once again acquiring his contract, Mooney took another opportunity to praise Barone, saying, Bee fans will miss little Dick Barone, the hard-throwing shortstop...but they will be glad to see Dick get a chance at the majors, especially after working so hard to succeed in the minors. There are those, among them Glen (Buckshot) Wright [a major-league infielder for 11 seasons], who have contended that Barone was a major-league fielder all the time. His only drawback was a light batting average...¹⁸

      Echoing the writer, Barone's manager at Salt Lake City, Larry Shepard, said, Dick Barone...rates with me as the best defensive shortstop out of the major leagues...[He will] be a fine prospect for the majors. Good hands, great arm and speed--he's got them all.¹⁹

      In spring training that season, Barone ended up being the last player cut. It was between me and Gene Baker for a utility infield spot and they decided to go with him because he had more experience already, Barone said. At that point, Baker had six seasons in the major leagues, including several years as a starter and one season (1955) as an All-Star second baseman with the Chicago Cubs.

      The team's decision did not sit well with at least one fan, who wrote a letter to The Sporting News, expressing his dissent: I was disappointed to learn the Pirates sent Dick Barone back to the minors. I protested when Frank Howard was named the top minor leaguer over Barone last year...I look for Barone to be recalled soon.²⁰

      Although he ended up at Columbus in the International League for the season, the Pirates gave Barone a major-league contract, and his $7,200 salary for the year was the highest he ever had in baseball. Despite that, by his own assessment, he didn't do well there at all, He ended the season hitting .204, the worst average of his career except for the season when he broke two bones. He did, however, win a spot on the midseason All-Star team.²¹

      It was ironic, then, that at the end of what turned out to be the worst full season of his professional career, Barone finally got the call to the Pirates that September. The team intended it to be a paper move, but when Dick Groat broke his wrist and the team found itself down an infielder as it closed in on its first National League pennant since 1927, Barone finally had his ticket to the major leagues. To activate him, the Pirates needed special permission from the baseball commissioner's office since his International League season was not yet over.²²

      Barone got into his first major-league game on September 22 as a pinch-runner for Mickey Vernon with two on, one out in the bottom of the ninth of a 2-2 game against the Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. A little earlier, Barone said, [Pirates Manager Danny] Murtaugh had told me to go down in the runway [beside the dugout] and warm up since I might pinch run. When I took the base, I was just thinking about breaking up a double play. He ended up stranded on first.

      The team clinched the pennant three days later. Without having had a single major-league plate appearance, Barone found himself in the middle of a celebration. I remember being in the clubhouse in Milwaukee where, even though we lost the game, everyone was drenching everyone else with champagne, he said. As I remember, we got back into Pittsburgh at 2 a.m. and fans were lined up all the way from the airport to downtown. A New York Times article about the parade from the airport estimated that 125,000 Pittsburgh natives turned up for a torchlight parade to cheer the Pirates players passing by in convertibles; the newspaper said it was the largest crowd in the city since the late President Franklin Roosevelt had visited in 1932.²³

      On the day after the celebration, Barone was in the starting lineup for a game against the Cincinnati Reds, playing shortstop and batting eighth. He wound up going hitless in five at-bats, striking out in his first at bat, against Bob Purkey. His second time up, he hit a fly ball to left that he was certain was going to fall in for his first hit. I remember, because this was Forbes Field, I came out of the [batter's] box thinking I would go for three but [Frank Robinson] tracked it down.

      Barone batted three more times, grounding out each time, but playing flawlessly in the field, handling five chances. He got into one more game, as a late-inning substitution at shortstop; he went 0-for-1 and made an error on a groundball.

      That was the end of Barone's brief major-league career. He was not a member of the postseason roster, but the players voted him a small World Series share that he recalls was a few hundred dollars. The day Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run won the Series was Barone's 28th birthday. Shortly afterward the team sent him back to Salt Lake City.²⁴

      Barone played two more years in Triple-A. The Pirates traded him to the White Sox organization and he played shortstop for San Diego in 1961. Then he was traded to the Los Angeles Angels organization and played short for their Hawaii team in 1962. In his last game in Organized Ball (in Salt Lake City where he'd been such a fan favorite) Barone went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs.²⁵

      When the Angels didn't call him up at the end of the season, Baron decided it was time to leave the game. That [1962 season] was the last hurrah, he said. I'd played [10 seasons] and I was just tired of the travel. I decided it was time to move on.

      His decision was partly influenced by the fact that he had a family by then. He had married Ruth Talty in 1956 and had two sons at that point. For the first five years after baseball, he drove a milk truck for the Berkeley Farms dairy and then after that became a route salesman for a company called Langendorf Bakery in San Jose, for which he worked for 24 years until he retired at the age of 59. The Barones moved to Hollister, California, south of San Jose, in 1997, where the family began a business, selling Christmas trees and firewood.

      Barone's first wife, with whom he had two sons and two daughters, died in the early 1970s and he married Victoria Kangalos in 1976; she had two daughters. As of 2011, he had nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. His grandson Daniel Barone spent six years in the minor leagues (2004-9), primarily with the Florida Marlins organization, and appeared in 16 games as a pitcher for Florida in 2007, six as a starter. As of 2011, he was planning to undergo Tommy John surgery and attempt a comeback.²⁶

      Notes

      1 Unless otherwise noted, all information about Dick Barone's life before and after baseball, and all direct quotes from Barone, come from an author interview with him, June 4, 2011

      2 Year: 1930; Census Place: San Jose, Santa Clara, California; Roll: 218; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 98; Image: 464.0.

      3 Barone player information card on file in the archives of the A. Bartlett Giamatii Research Center of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

      4 Al Warden, Great Falls to Start Season with 11 Experienced Men, Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner (April 8, 1951): 10A.

      5 Joe Stell, Great Falls Has Talent Aplenty, Salt Lake Tribune (April 15, 1951): B11.

      6 G.G. 14, Mustangs 2, (Idaho Falls ID) Post Register (April 25, 1951): 12

      7 Barone player information card

      8 Joe Shepperd, Spray of the Falls, (Idaho Falls ID) Post Register (August 24, 1951): 10; Ananias statistics from BaseballReference-dot-com

      9 James Selko, Minor League All-star Teams, 1922-1962. ( Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company: 2007), 331.

      10 Barone player information card

      11 Hale Montgomery, Thirty Uniforms Hang Unclaimed, Aiken (SC) Standard and Review (April 5, 1956): 8

      12 JoJo White, Believes Grid Star Will Be Big Leaguer, The Gettysburg (PA) Times (March 16, 1956): 5

      13 Ibid.

      14 Bragan Still Sure of 4th Place for Pirates, The (Huntington and Mount Union PA) Daily News (February 28, 1957): 5

      15 Shortstop Test Under Way--Bees Wait Outcome, Salt Lake Tribune (March 19, 1958): 21

      16 Four Optioned Pirates Report, The (Monessen PA) Daily Independent (September 3, 1957): 7

      17 John Mooney, Sports Mirror, Salt Lake Tribune ( July 28, 1958): 26

      18 John Mooney, Sports Mirror, Salt Lake Tribune (October 21, 1959): 27

      19 Larry W. Shepard, "Rookie Frank Howard's Power Reaps Raves

      Despite Tendency to Cut at Bad Pitches," Joplin (Missouri) Globe. ( January 22, 1960): 13A

      20 Mike Conway, Barone Booster's Protest, The Sporting News (May 11, 1960): 11

      21 All-Star Team Roster Filled, The Lima (OH) News (June 21, 1960): 12

      22 Bucs Recall Dick Barone, The (Uniontown PA) Morning Herald (September 10, 1960): 13

      23 125,000 Cheering Pittsburghers Greet Their Champion Pirates, The New York Times (September 26, 1960): 43

      24 Bucs, Farms in Exchanges, The (Uniontown PA) Morning Herald (October 20, 1960): 21

      25 John Mooney, Buzzers Lose Pair as Season Ends, Salt Lake Tribune (September 10, 1962): 27

      26 Daniel Barone interview, June 4, 2011

      Harry Bright

      By Charles Faber

      graphics3

      During a professional baseball career of 20 years the much-traveled Harry Bright played in nearly 2,000 games. None of his exploits on the playing field, not even all of his 1,966 major- and minor-league hits, earned Harry Bright as much notoriety as one time at bat in the 1963 World Series.

      It was the opening game of the fall classic between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Behind the pitching of Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers had take a 3-2 lead into the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium. At the end of the eighth, a note on the scoreboard said that Koufax had tied the record for the most strikeouts in a World Series game. The first two outs in the ninth were routine putouts. With only one more chance for Koufax to break the record, Bright strode to the plate to pinch-hit for pitcher Steve Hamilton. He ran the count to 2 balls and 2 strikes before swinging and missing. Koufax had his record 15th strikeout, the crowd erupted, the Dodgers won the game, and Harry Bright became a footnote in the record books. It's a hell of a thing, Bright said. I wait 17 years to get into a World Series. Then when I finally get up there, and 69,000 people are yelling--yelling for me to strike out.¹

      Harry James Bright was born on September 22, 1929, in Kansas City, Missouri, the third of five children of Frank William Bright, a chauffeur, and Maude Lois (Hayward) Bright. At a very early age the youngster earned a reputation for his baseball prowess on the playgrounds of Kansas City. When he was 16 years old, he was signed as a catching prospect by Yankees scout Bill Essick. The teenager threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet tall and weighed 175 pounds. (Later his frame filled out to a sturdy 190 pounds.) The minor leagues were just resuming play after a great scaled-back operation during World War II. Frank Lane, director of the Yankees farm system, said the young catcher had a good arm and was a hitter. He assigned him to the Twin Falls (Idaho) Cowboys of the Class C Pioneer League. One spring day the umpires were late for arriving for a twin bill, so the 16-year-old rookie umpired behind the plate in the opener of the doubleheader. Bright did not hit well in Idaho and was demoted to Fond du Lac in the Class D Wisconsin State League, the first of many moves he was to make during his career. In a 12-year stretch from 1946 through 1957 he played for 14 different minor-league clubs.

      As a Yankees farmhand Bright never lived up to his promise. By 1950 he was the property of the Chicago Cubs and was assigned to the Clovis Pioneers of the Class C West Texas-New Mexico League. In the rarified air of that semi-arid area, Harry hit his stride, leading the league with a sensational .413 batting average. He hit 19 home runs in 95 games and compiled a .704 slugging percentage. Two years later he was playing manager for the Janesville Cubs in the Class D Wisconsin State League.

      At 22 he was the youngest manager in Organized Baseball that season and the youngest ever in the Wisconsin State League. He was no longer strictly a catcher. For Janesville, he managed, caught, played third base and the outfield--and drove the team bus. Such was life in the lower minors. He led the Cubs in hitting with a .325 average and led the league with a club-record 101 runs batted in.

      In 1953 Bright was acquired by the Chicago White Sox and assigned to their Memphis affiliate in the Double-A Southern Association, where he had a solid season, playing second base and hitting .295. By this time he had played every position except pitcher. In December the Detroit Tigers secured him in the Rule 5 draft for $7,500. During spring training in 1954, he played well and was given an excellent chance to win the second-base position. However, he lost out to Frank Bolling and it was back to the minors--Little Rock, Buffalo, and Sacramento. Bright had four good years with the Solons, earning him another shot at the majors. In July 1958 the Pittsburgh Pirates purchased his contract. After 12 years in the minors, Bright finally made his major-league debut at the age of 28 on July 25, 1958, coming in as a late-inning defensive replacement for third baseman Frank Thomas. For the remainder of 1958 and all of 1959, Bright was mainly a benchwarmer for the Pirates, pinch-hitting and getting into an occasion game at second base, third base, or the outfield. In the pennant-winning season of 1960, he played no games in the field, and pinch-hit only four times, getting no hits in the entire season. Not surprisingly, he was left off the World Series roster.

      In December 1960 Bright was traded with pitcher Bennie Daniels and first baseman R.C. Stevens to the Washington Senators for pitcher Bobby Shantz. Playing mostly third base in 1961 and first base in 1962, Bright had his two best major league years with the Senators. In 192 he appeared in 113 games, batted .273, and hit 17 homers. After the season he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for first baseman Rogelio Alvarez. After playing only one game for the Reds, he was purchased by the New York Yankees. For the Yanks he got into 60 games as first baseman, third baseman, outfielder, or pinch hitter. In his 17th season in professional ball he finally got in a World Series, famously striking out against Sandy Koufax in his first time at bat and repeating the act against Johnny Podres the next day in his only other World Series appearance.

      In 1964 Bright played in only four games for the Yankees, spending most of the season with their Triple-A farm club in Richmond, Virginia. He was released in September before getting a chance at World Series redemption. The Chicago Cubs signed him as a free agent the following spring and he played his last major league game on June 30, 1965, before being sent to Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League. In 1966 the Cubs moved their PCL franchise to Tacoma, where Bright played in 83 games. After not breaking into the major leagues until he was 28 years old, Bright had spent all or part of the next eight years in the majors.

      In 1967 the Cubs named Bright manager of their farm club in Quincy of the Class A Midwest League--15 years after he had first held the managerial reins in Janesville. During the next nine years, Bright managed seven clubs in six leagues. It seems he was on the move almost every year--San Antonio, Elmira, Coos Bay, Burlington, Binghamton, Sacramento, and Tucson between 1968 and 1976.

      When he managed the Sacramento Solons the club was an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. After the 1975 season the Brewers dropped their agreement with the Solons in order to associate themselves with the new PCL club in Spokane. Bright indicated to the United Press International that he would like to quit the Brewers organization to stay in Sacramento.²) However, the Texas Rangers, who took over the Solons, did not offer Bright a contract. In December he accepted a position as manager of the Tucson Toros, an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. The Toros did not play up to the expectations that were held for them, and Bright was fired on July 30, 1976.

      I am now a scout and instructor, Bright told sportswriter Steve Weston. I am to do advance scouting for the big club and instruct in the spring.³ However, the A's, under owner Charlie Finley, were an organization in disarray in 1976, and Bright was not with them long. On December 7 United Press International reported that the Montreal Expos had hired him as a scout. Bright remained with the Expos organization the rest of his baseball career. In 1985 he had a final managerial fling with the Carolina Bulls, and Expo affiliate in the Carolina League.

      Greg Van Dusen, who was public relations director and a radio announcer for Sacramento when Bright managed the Solons in 1975, said of Bright: He was a colorful Runyonesque character. He had a passion for the game and for life.⁴ As a manager Bright became known for his dislike of umpires. Once during a minor-league game he dropped his trousers and climbed a backstop to show his displeasure with a call. He carried his antipathy toward umpires into retirement. I remember we were at an old-timers game and Harry saw former umpire Emmett Ashford across the lobby of the Sacramento Inn, Van Dusen said. The next thing you knew they were bumping midsections, and within 30 seconds they're literally rolling around on the floor. People were laughing, but they weren't kidding. They had to be separated.⁵

      For many years Bright made his home in Sacramento with his wife, Agnes, and his daughter, Linda. (He had established his residence in Sacramento, and maintained a home there even when managing in other cities.) He died of an apparent stroke in California's capital city on March 13, 2000, at the age of 70. He was survived by Agnes, his wife of 50 years; a stepson, Larry Weaver, of Wellington, Kansas; and two grandchildren, Mildred and Heather Tibke of Sacramento. Daughter Linda had died in 1996. There were no funeral services for Harry Bright.

      Sources

      Time Magazine www.ancestry.com www.baseball-reference.com. www.newspaperarchive.com

      Notes

      1 Harry Bright, quoted in K is for Koufax, Time, October 11, 1963. 2 El Paso Herald-Post, August 22, 1975. 3 Tucson Daily Citizen, July 31, 1976. 4 Greg Van Dusen, quoted by Jim Van Vliet, Sacramento Bee, March 13, 2000. 5 Ibid.

      Smoky Burgess

      by Andy Sturgill

      Smoky Burgess was fat. Not baseball fat like Mickey Lolich or Early Wynn. But FAT fat. Like the mailman or your Uncle Dwight. Putsy Fat. Slobby Fat. Just Plain Fat. In fact I would venture to say that Smoky Burgess was probably the fattest man ever to play professional baseball.

      --The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book.

      You could wake (Burgess) up at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning, with two inches of snow on the ground, throw him a curveball, and he'd hit a line drive.

      — Joe Garagiola¹

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