CASEY STENGEL (Manager)
CASEY'S GREATEST CIRCUIT TOUR
"Casey Stengel served briefly as manager of the old Oakland Oaks and his digressions left an indelible mark.
I can remember sitting in the Sonoma Mission Inn lobby during the Oaks' spring training as Casey held court. Some baseball managers shun the lobby because the public can be bothersome. Not Stengel. A dozen writers and hangers-on encircled the man with the pleasant but deep-lined face and the rhythmic, expressive hands.
One writer, Jim McGee, asked a question, 'How about that rookie, Rudy Biale? Can he make the grade?'
Casey adjusted to the question. He touched on the state of the stock market, the mannerisms of Wallace Beery, the cost of sweat sox, the place of married women in camp, the longevity of the Democrats, and, my golly, have you seen Dagmar?
As the minutes ticked by, the writer who asked the question, McGee, slipped out of his seat and left the lobby. Casey paid no never mind. He continued the monologue as one by one, members of his audience moved away, only to be replaced by others. About 25 minutes after the introduction of Rudy Biale's name, writer McGee returned.
This was Stengel's supreme moment. Turning to McGee, he pontificated: ' ... and in answer to your question, I think that young fellow will go far.' "
-Art Rosenbaum, San Francisco Chronicle (Baseball Digest, December 1959)
"Oldest and most successful at his trade is Charles Dillon Stengel. Before taking over the Yankees, the 70-year-old Casey first managed the Dodgers (1934-36) and the Braves (1938-43) and never took a club into the first division. This changed when he came to New York in 1949. In 11 years he has won nine pennants and seven World Series. Only John McGraw managed more pennant winners.
Born in Kansas City, Mo., Casey was a fine outfielder (Dodgers, Pirates, Phils, Giants, Braves), compiling a .284 lifetime batting average."
-Don Schiffer, 1960 Mutual Baseball Annual
"In the spring and summer of 1910, a young left-handed hitting outfielder broke into Organized Baseball at Kankakee, Illinois. But before the summer was over the league failed and our ambitious young player caught on with Maysville, Kentucky, where he hit an unpretentious .223 in 69 games.
Fifty years have passed, but our hero still looks ahead, rather than backward as he hopes to pilot his Yankees to a tenth pennant in his dozen years at the helm. Of course, Charles Dillon Stengel has a remarkable career to look back on. In 14 major league seasons, he hit a commendable .284 (in the so-called 'dead ball' era). In three World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, he hit .393. Never in Series play was his average lower than .364. He hit the first World Series home run (as a Giant) in Yankee Stadium history (1923). He played for such immortals as John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson; served as manager of the Dodgers and Boston Braves as well as several minor league clubs.
Now in his 70th year with a full half-century behind him, Casey Stengel is still shooting for records. He's won nine pennants and seven World Championships in his 11 years in New York. McGraw won 10 pennants and three world titles while Yankee Joe McCarthy won a total of nine pennants and seven World Series. One more of each would give Casey a pennant tie with McGraw and most Series won by any manager.
In his tenure with the Bombers, the Yanks have won 1,052 games, lost 639 for a championship percentage of .622. In World Series play, Casey has managed the Yankees to 34 wins, 22 losses for a .607 record.
Happy Anniversaries, Casey!"
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
Charles Dillon Stengel (MGR) #37
Born July 30, 1890 in Kansas City, Missouri, resides in Glendale, California. Married.
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
"Not content with seeing his Yankees finish third in 1959, Manager Casey Stengel hopes to get back on the pennant trail this season. If successful, Ol' Case would be ringing up the flag for the 10th time in 12 years as Bomber pilot. Only John McGraw of the Giants has won as many as 10 pennants, and it took McGraw 30 years to do it.
Stengel, who first saw the light of day in Kansas City, Mo., on July 30, 1890, makes his home in Glendale, California, with his wife, Edna.
Casey, who threw and batted left-handed, played the outfield for Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and Boston of the National League from 1912 through 1925, compiling a lifetime batting average of .284. His greatest moments came during the 1923 World Series when he hit a pair of home runs to win as many games for the Giants over the Yankees.
Stengel was a Dodger coach in 1932 and '33 before succeeding Max Carey as manager in 1934. He bossed the Flock through '36 and was paid to sit out '37 before taking over the helm of the Boston Bees in 1938, with whom he remained until after the 1943 campaign.
Casey then managed Milwaukee, Kansas City and Oakland before taking over the Yankees in 1949.
One of the shrewdest of baseball men, he's known as a colorful, popular figure in every city in the circuit."
-New York Yankees 1960 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
STENGEL AIMS AT A.L. TITLE ON 50TH BASEBALL ANNIVERSARY
"Just 50 years ago this summer, a young outfielder from Kansas City broke into Organized Baseball at Kankakee, Illinois. In the half century since that inconspicuous debut, Charles Dillon Stengel has written baseball history ... as player, manager, man.
The colorful Casey (K.C.) spent 14 years as an active player in the National League where he compiled a lifetime .284 average. He participated in three World Series, hitting .393. As a Giant he hit the initial home run at Yankee Stadium in World Series history.
Before winning fame as the successful manager of the Yankees, Stengel piloted the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. After going back to the minors, he won the Sporting News award as Minor League Manager of the Year at Oakland in 1948; then proceeded to win the same honor in the majors.
In 11 seasons as Yankee manager, Stengel teams have won nine pennants and seven World Championships. Included in this run was the incredible five straight World Series victories, 1949-53. Now in his 70th year, Casey Stengel has his eyes on another championship."
-1960 New York Yankees Official Program and Scorecard
THREE KINDS OF PLAYERS
Casey Stengel Says It's Biggest Lesson He's Learned
"This, I suspect, may well be the last campaign in which Charles D. Stengel will lead the Yankee uniformed troops in battle.
I have no idea whether his successor, and undoubtedly Casey's own choice, will be Al Lopez, as so many New Yorkers with the gift of seeing beyond tomorrow's ball game seem to agree, or whether it will be Ralph Houk, the man in charge during Stengel's recent illness.
For all I know, with any degree of certitude, for publication at least, it might be Mel Allen, or possibly one of Chicago's Near North Side bistro bartenders who, perhaps, knows even more about how certain of the Yankees got that way than George Weiss does.
Early on the morning after Casey left the hospital, I called at the Stengels' Essex House apartment. This, obviously, was neither the time nor the place to discuss Stengel's long-range plans, or even ask how he felt- as I often do- that there can't be such a thing as a fool-proof team in the American League this year, the way none is able to shake off the others.
But I did have a question for Stengel, whom I have known as long as I have been preparing bits and pieces for a newspaper.
Looking backward, rather than ahead, what would he consider the most important truth he has learned, as player and manager?
This occasioned more time for reflection than Casey usually gives to answer questions.
I realized soon enough that this was because his reply was not to be couched in what is known as Stenglese, losing the interrogator at the first turn, and rendering him, long before the finish, unsure what the original question was.
'I'd say that the longer you stay in baseball,' he said, 'the more certain you are that you meet up with three kinds of people. Players, I mean. You can have your own opinion of owners, boards of directors, stockholders and general managers, and I'll have mine. Fair enough?'
Eminently fair.
'There are the men who can play regular, and want to, every minute of every game, if possible. (Nellie) Fox, for instance.
'There are those who can't play regular, but think they can. They keep grousing about sitting on the bench, to friends of the press, radio or TV, or sometimes to the high brass, or to someone who has the ear of the high brass.
'There are players who don't give a darn whether they play or don't play, just so long as the first and fifteenth comes around.
'That's what you have to put up with. That's what you have to make the most of.
'It's no different here (with the Yankees) than it is with Lopez, Lavagetto, Alston or Mauch.
'Now you'll ask what do you do? I don't have to tell you what I or anyone else does with players as eager, as anxious and as capable as Fox, except that if any manager ever comes up with as many as 15 like that, Lord help the rest of the league!
'I let the grousers slip in, now and then, generally, I'll admit, because it can't be avoided. But the effect is just the same.
'Just give them time. They'll prove it's better for all concerned for them to sit it out and tell their friends things would be different if they only got the chance to be in there every day.
'They used to say that the Yankees had better players sitting on the bench than other clubs were able to put on the field. I don't hear so much of that, anymore.
'I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's because the game has dropped down in class, or whether it's because most of the ones we've traded or sold away haven't managed to win a helluva lot of championships for anyone else, or kept up with the parade when the parade got tough.' "
-Warren Brown, Baseball Digest, August 1960
CASEY'S CREDO
"It is obvious that the mellowed Casey Stengel has more discipline for the New York Yankees than the training rules he required when he was managing Brooklyn, 1934-36.
'Drink all the beer you want,' Stengel told his Dodgers, 'and if you have a toothache, take a shot of grog- it won't hurt you. But don't let me catch any of you guys sneaking out of the hotel at three in the morning to mail a letter.' "
-Bill Bryson, Des Moines Register (Baseball Digest, September 1960)
"One of the most significant achievements of Casey Stengel's colorful and successful Yankee career was the winning of the record five straight pennants and world championships in his first five years as Bomber pilot. Casey celebrated his 50th anniversary in the game on May 10. On his 70th birthday (July 30), the Boy Scouts of America who, like Casey, were celebrating their 50th year, honored the Yankee manager."
-1960 World Series Official Souvenir Program
IT'S NO. 10 FOR CASEY
"Ten pennants in twelve years is the amazing managerial record of Casey Stengel. No manager in baseball history has compiled a record to match that of the Yankee skipper. Only his old New York Giant mentor, John J. McGraw, managed as many pennant winners in a career. Casey now shares with former Yankee pilot Joe McCarthy the honor of having managed seven World Championship clubs and needs only this Series to set a new mark.
This has been a tremendous year for Casey Stengel. On May 10 he celebrated his 50th anniversary in Organized Baseball. On July 30 he reached his 70th birthday ... and now his 10th pennant as manager of the New York Yankees, the oldest manager ever to win a pennant.
Warm congratulations, Casey, from all your friends in baseball ... the players, rival managers, the Yankee management, the press and, above all, from your fans!"
-1960 World Series Official Souvenir Program
YANKEE COACHES
"Manager Casey Stengel is mighty proud of his coaching staff, all of whom have made great contributions to previous Yankee pennant winners: pitching coach Ed Lopat, third base signalman Frank Crosetti, first base coach Ralph Houk and batting coach Bill Dickey, a Yankee Hall of Fame immortal."
-1960 New York Yankees Official Program and Scorecard
"The Yankee Brain Trust combines ability, experience and enthusiasm in aiding Manager Casey Stengel in the development of this 25th championship Yankee team.
The veteran of the group is third base coach Frank Crosetti. Cro is completing his 29th year in Yankee Pinstripes. He spent 17 years as a Yankee infielder and has served as coach since 1947. This is Frank's 19th World Series, a record.
Jim Hegan is the newest member of the coaching staff, having joined the club in mid-season of 1960. Jim spent most of his career in Cleveland where he caught with distinction for nearly 16 years. Twice he was an All-Star and he played on two championship Indian teams.
Ed Lopat was a member of the Yankees' 'Big Three' (with Allie Reynolds and Vic Raschi) during the run of five straight pennants and World Championships (1949-53), winning 21 games in 1951. In those five Series, 'Steady Eddie' won four of five decisions and had a 2.60 World Series earned run average. After managing the Richmond farm club for three years, Ed moved up to the Yankees and is completing his first season as Yankee pitching coach.
Ralph Houk served all or part of eight seasons as a utility catcher, behind Yogi Berra. A World War II hero, Ralph managed Denver for three seasons before returning as first base coach of the Yanks in 1958."
-1960 World Series Official Souvenir Program
ED LOPAT (Coach)
"Ed Lopat returns to the Yankees this year after three years as manager of the Yanks' Richmond, Va., International League farm club and a year as minor league pitching coach.
In 12 major league seasons, 'Steady Eddie,' as he was known, won 166 games, lost 112. He had a 4-1 record as a Yankee in Series competition.
An expert at working with young pitchers, Ed hopes to aid in the development of several very promising Yankee hurlers."
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
Edmund Walter Lopat (CH) #36
Born June 12, 1918 in New York, NY, resides in Hillsdale, N.J. Married and father of two.
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
"Returning to the Stadium as a Stengel aide this season after piloting the Yankees' Richmond farm club in 1957 and '58, and serving as the Bombers' minor league pitching mentor in '59, is popular Ed Lopat. The stocky southpaw captured 21 decisions in 1951 and beat the Giants twice in that year's Series. He led the American League in ERA (2.43) and winning percentage (16-4, .800) in 1953.
The New York native came to the Bombers from the White Sox in a 1948 trade for Aaron Robinson, Bill Wight and Fred Bradley."
-New York Yankees 1960 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
FRANKIE CROSETTI (Coach)
"This is Frank Crosetti's 29th consecutive year as a Yankee. He spent 17 years as an infielder, playing 1,682 games and 29 more in seven World Series. He has coached the Yankees since 1947. He's been in 18 World Series as a Yankee, a record.
Frank gives the signs from the third base coaching box, tutors infielders and looks and acts as though he could still play an acceptable shortstop."
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti (CH) #2
Born October 4, 1910 in San Francisco, California, resides in Stockton, California. Married and father of two.
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
"Third base coach Frank Crosetti is in his 14th straight season as a Yankee aide. He came to the Bombers in 1932 and was the club's regular shortstop through 1940 until the advent of Phil Rizzuto. He remained active through the '48 campaign, though named a coach in '47.
Frank appeared in seven World Series and an All-Star Game. The 49-year-old native of San Francisco holds two Series fielding records."
-New York Yankees 1960 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
HIDDEN CHARM
"If you're a young ball player interested in winning enemies and enhancing your unpopularity among opposing players, you might learn the Frankie Crosetti technique on the hidden ball play which the Yankee coach perpetrated successfully more than a dozen times when he was shortstopping for the club (1932-48).
Frankie says he learned the trick from another San Franciscan- Babe Pinelli, the retired National League umpire who was a past master of the hidden ball play when he was a Cincinnati third baseman 30-odd years ago.
'Babe taught me to carry the ball over to the pitcher, tossing it a couple of feet into the air with my bare hand and catching it in my glove,' Crosetti recalled recently. 'Then as I pretended to hand the ball to the pitcher, I slipped it inside my glove- not in the pocket, but between my hand and the glove.
'When I walked back, I had my gloved hand down at my side and the runner knew or thought he knew that I didn't have the ball. Then if he wasn't careful, I had him.' "
Baseball Digest, October-November 1960
RALPH HOUK (Coach)
"Ralph Houk spent all or a part of eight seasons as a Yankee catcher. But he was behind Yogi Berra, which meant comparative oblivion. He got into a total of only 91 games, served as part-time coach in 1953-54 and was named manager of Denver.
He piloted the Bears to playoff berths while helping to develop several Yankee stars. He returned as a full-time coach in 1958.
Ralph was honored with a field commission as a Major in the Rangers during World War II."
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
Ralph George Houk (CH) #35
Born August 9, 1919 in Lawrence, Kansas, resides in Saddle River, N.J. Married and father of three.
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
"Powerfully-built, blond Ralph Houk has coached for Stengel since 1958 after piloting Denver to the Junior World Series title in 1957. He appeared in Fall Classics against the Dodgers in '47 and '52. He caught for the Yankees from '47 to '54 before being named Denver helmsman.
Houk entered military service as a private in 1942, being discharged as a major in 1946. He served in the U.S. Rangers during some of the bloodiest battles of World War II."
-New York Yankees 1960 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
BILL DICKEY (Coach)
"After two years of scouting, Bill Dickey returns as batting coach of the Yankees.
One of the great catchers of all time, Bill spent 17 years as a Yankee backstop, hitting .313 with 202 home runs while driving in 1,209 runs. He played in eight World Series and in an equal number of All-Star Games. Longtime roommate of the late Lou Gehrig, Bill's great playing career was recognized in 1954 when he was selected to baseball's Hall of Fame."
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
William Malcolm Dickey (CH) #33
Born June 6, 1907 in Bastrop, Louisiana, resides in Little Rock, Arkansas. Married and father of one.
-The New York Yankees Official 1960 Yearbook
"Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1954, Bill Dickey spent his entire big league catching career with the Yankees from 1928 through 1946. He served in the Navy during the 1944-45 seasons. He batted .313 and took part in eight World Series and eight All-Star Games as an active Bomber.
After piloting the Yankees for part of the 1946 season, Dickey bossed Little Rock in 1947, returning to coach the New Yorkers in 1949 and remaining until the 1957 campaign. A scout in '58 and '59, his health permits him to return to a Bomber coaching post."
-New York Yankees 1960 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
JIM HEGAN (Coach)
HEGAN CALLS THE PITCHES NOW!
Cleveland's Catcher Has Last Laugh
"Speaking at one of the numerous banquets in his honor this winter, Manager Lou Boudreau was explaining why and how the Cleveland Indians won the pennant and the World Series.
'And then,' he said, 'there is Jim Hegan.'
There was a nervous rustling in the audience. It was common knowledge in Cleveland that, at the start of the 1948 season, Boudreau and Hegan were talking to each other only when baseball required it.
'Jim Hegan,' Boudreau continued, 'is the finest catcher and one of the finest fellows in baseball. As much or more than any man, he was responsible for what we did.'
Pressed by reporters following the banquet why Hegan suddenly flamed into a long ball hitter and fighting catcher from mid-season on, Boudreau smiled.
'It took a good fight to get him really mad,' he said. 'The only thing Jim lacked before this year was aggressiveness. He was just too nice a guy on and off the field.'
Boudreau wasn't referring to his own difficulties with Hegan, which began in 1947 when the Cleveland manager decided to give the pitching signs from shortstop. He was referring to the pennant that roused the Irish in his 28-year-old catcher from Lynn, Mass.
Whatever did it, there is no doubt that Hegan finally arrived at the gates of greatness in 1948. He was left off the All-Star team because of his slow start, but you now may bet the family plate that Hegan will be the American League's All-Star catcher for years to come.
Prior to Cleveland's greatest baseball adventure and the first pennant for the Indians in twenty-eight years, it was generally admitted that Hegan had catching class.
Tall (six feet, two inches), very fast for a catcher, owning a miraculous arm, and being an uncanny judge of foul flies, Hegan had what it took.
When he came out of the Coast Guard in 1946 after three years of service, everybody said: 'He's a big boy now. He's ready to make his move.'
Rogers Hornsby, who had managed him at Oklahoma City, was one of the loudest boosters and the Rajah was sure of one thing that nobody else felt was certain.
'Sure he will hit,' said Hornsby. 'He can hit the ball a mile and he can hit line drives between outfielders.'
So- for two and a half seasons Hegan didn't hit well enough to justify regular service, despite his great natural talent behind the bat.
Bill Veeck was in the saddle and riding hard toward his first major league pennant when the Indians went west for spring training in 1947. He knew his club needed more power so took Hornsby along to become an instructor in a school that contained just two pupils. They were Hegan and Pat Seerey.
Hegan and Seerey reported weeks ahead of the others. They went to the park daily with Hornsby. They batted so much they actually raised fat blisters on their hands.
During the exhibition games it appeared Hornsby had found the correct equation. Seerey was hitting the ball a country mile in country ball parks and Hegan was hitting steadily.
It may have been because Hornsby didn't remain with the ball club after the season started, or it may have been in the difference of pitching, but once the pennant pursuit started, Seerey and Hegan stopped hitting.
Always a player to keep his disappointment to himself, to brood rather than bluster, Hegan quietly went through the motions. As the team sank in the standings and as the pitching was hammered hard, the notion got around that Jim wasn't calling pitches too brightly.
Finally, one night in Boston, Boudreau confided in the Cleveland baseball writers.
'I want you to know,' he said, 'that I'm now calling the pitches for Hegan. I flash them to him and he gives them to the pitcher.'
The Cleveland manager requested it be kept quiet to protect Hegan's pride, but eventually it leaked out as all stories do.
Hegan was humiliated but he said nothing. No complaints and no explanations. He merely held his head higher and kept plugging.
The Indians finished well, although the recovery of Bob Feller and an improvement in the hitting of the team as a whole were more important factors than Boudreau's handling of the pitching signs. Hegan went home and it wasn't until then that his bitterness boiled over.
'Boudreau was trying to make himself look good,' he said, in effect, at his home in Lynn. He made it quite plain in a holdout campaign that he wanted to be traded, preferably to Boston, which was in need of catching.
Veeck, desperate for additional pitching, was willing to trade Hegan during the winter of 1947-'48. But not to Boston, the team which figured to be the top contender.
He parried with the Detroit Tigers, trying to get a pitcher the caliber of Freddie Hutchinson. Steve O'Neill, a former catcher who recognized Hegan's outstanding ability, wanted the slim backstop desperately. Yet, he felt that pitching was Detroit's only hope and the deal never came off.
When the Indians returned to Tucson, Ariz., their training base, in the spring of 1948, Hegan was aboard. Always in excellent physical condition, for he is a young man of perfect habits, he was ready to prove that Boudreau and Veeck were wrong.
In the beginning, the feeling between Hegan and Boudreau was decidedly of an arctic temperature. Boudreau soon made it clear to everybody, however, that Hegan was in complete charge of pitching signs again, and this helped the situation considerably.
'I stepped in last year only because I felt Jim was worrying so much about his hitting that it was affecting his catching,' Boudreau explained further. 'I was just trying to take part of the load off his shoulders.'
Picked to finish fourth in a nationwide poll of experts, who were to be proved as wrong as Dr. Gallup was about Truman, the Indians shot to the front from the opening gun of the American League race.
Thurman Tucker, a Chicago castoff, proved to be a sparkplug in center and lived on the bases. Ken Keltner launched himself into the most vicious hitting streak of his career. Bob Lemon was a steady winner in the box.
But through the early weeks of the season, Hegan was no more than he had ever been. He was the most classical catcher since Bill Dickey and he must have been calling the pitches right, for the entire staff, with the exception of Bob Feller, was enjoying marked success.
Still, he couldn't get straightened around at bat and he again failed to become what everybody wanted him to be ... a 'take charge guy.'
There are many who believed the tide turned in Yankee Stadium on July 21. That was the day Hegan hit his first grand slam home run in the major leagues, a soaring sock into the left field seats against Karl Drews that beat the Yankees.
After the game, Boudreau was in a challenging mood, although the Indians still looked to be far from certainties to win.
'We've got the best ball club in the league and we'll win the pennant,' he said. Hegan's dramatic drive helped him to that conclusion.
From there until the last game of the World Series, Hegan was a changed character. He looked different stepping up to the plate and he suddenly became one of the leading home run threats in the league.
Although he had hit just five home runs in his major league career prior to 1948, he now was swinging for the seats and the fences every time he came up. Along with his batting revival came a change of attitude on the field.
It now wasn't unusual for Hegan to berate umpires when he felt their decisions were wrong, and his base running picked up in daring and aggressiveness. He didn't become a cocky, objectionable player, but he did finally become one who believed in himself.
From July on, Hegan batted nearly .300 and this enabled him to finish the season with a mark of .248. True, that isn't an impressive average, but it must be remembered he was down around .200 in the early section of the season.
More remarkable was the home run total of 14, and he added another in the World Series, one with two men on.
Twelve of his home runs were hit from June to the finish and he would up with a total of 192 bases. He also contributed twenty-one doubles and six triples. Six of his home runs were with one or more men on the bases.
And what about his imagination behind the plate ... his selection of pitches?
How much Boudreau came to depend on Hegan in all ways is in the records. Hegan was in there day and night, double-headers and all. He appeared in 144 games and two Cleveland pitchers, Bob Lemon and Gene Bearden, won twenty games each, while Bob Feller won nineteen.
With the aid of Herold (Muddy) Ruel, one of the most resourceful catchers in baseball history, Hegan became a master at outguessing the batter.
'Used to be,' commented one Cleveland pitcher, 'that I could call Hegan's sign before he gave it. Now he mixes up those pitches good.'
All of which brings our hero to the threshold of a new year and a brand new career. The Cleveland family, from President Veeck to the clubhouse boy, is certain that Hegan next season will be the greatest catcher the American League has seen since Bill Dickey's most fruitful baseball days.
'He will bat .280 and hit twenty or more home runs,' Veeck prophesies. Then he reemploys the phrase he has used so often in explaining why he ever thought of trading Lou Boudreau.
'We sure were lucky we didn't make a deal for Hegan,' he grins. 'The best trades very often are those you can't make.' "
-Frank Gibbons, Baseball Digest, January 1949
THEY CUSS OUT HEGAN
He Always Gives What You're Not Looking For
"Joe Dobson sneaked around behind the grandstand for a drag at a cigarette and encountered a couple of Cleveland fugitives from the pressbox.
'How do you like our catcher?' one of them asked the White Sox pitcher.
A few minutes later Dick Alyward had picked one White Sox runner off second base and had flagged another tying to steal.
'He can throw that thing,' Dobson offered as his entry in the understatement sweepstakes. 'And so what?'
What did he mean so what?
'I mean,' said old Turkeyneck, 'you've got the best catcher in the world. What difference does it make if you come up with a kid with a helluva arm?'
That outspoken admiration for Jim Hegan is a thing you run into wherever you move in the American League. If you move among pitchers you run into trouble.
'If Jim could hit .300,' said Dobson, 'nobody would ever mention another catcher in the same sentence.'
'If he could hit a steady .270,' one of the writers said, 'he'd be Hall of Fame material the minute he hangs 'em up.'
'If he didn't get six base hits a year he could catch for my ball club,' Dobson said with emphasis. 'There's no other catcher in the business does for a pitcher what he does.'
And he told an old familiar story.
'I came up one day last year with the bases full. I'm a pitcher, see, and so I know they're going to curve me. You always curve pitchers. So I'm set for the hook and I get fast balls right down the pipe. The next time I'm up with the bricks empty and I don't know what to look for. I get three curves and go and sit down again.'
It was Joe Tipton when the Indians bought him from the A's last June, who first reported a phenomenon which was borne out by Dobson's testimony.
'No hitter likes to get struck out,' Tipton said, 'and when he does he usually comes back to the dugout cussing the pitcher. But when Hegan's catching they come back cussing him. He's the only catcher I know who always, but always, gives you the pitch you're not looking for.'
It's a good thing, probably, for Clevelanders to go about and talk to the Dobsons and Tiptons, for there's a disposition among us to low-rate Hegan because he's a weak hitter. If he's not exactly without honor in his home town he's at least discussed pretty often with many an 'if' and many a 'but.'
Even the white-shirted front office people who dream up trades sometimes are lukewarm when Hegan is mentioned in a possible player deal, as he has been several times in recent years.
'Yeah,' they say, 'but what does he hit?'
But if ball players, and especially pitchers, were consulted on trades, Jim would be snapped up at the first offer. It's as Bill Dickey, an authority, said one day last summer.
'When you can catch like Hegan, you don't have to hit.' "
-Gordon Cobbledick, condensed from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Baseball Digest, June 1953)
WHAT OF HEGAN NOW?
Indians Weaken On Ace Receiver
"Perhaps as interesting a phenomenon as Cleveland's baseball fans have had the chance to ponder in recent years is the case of Jim Hegan.
Only two years ago, with a slightly guilty look in the direction of Yogi Berra, we were calling Hegan the American League's best catcher. Hank Greenberg told 700 people at a baseball dinner that Jim deserved a large measure of the credit for the success of the Indians' pitching staff.
Yet today, although there has been no conspicuous decline in the quality of the tall receiver's contributions, either at the plate or behind it, most people take it for granted that one of the things the club needs is an abler first-string catcher.
I do not quarrel with this opinion. I only wonder how so many of us reached it. Jim didn't hit much this past season, but when he did he ever hit much? So far as I've been able to observe, he has lost none of his defensive artistry.
I suppose the answer is that, in connection with so many other disappointing averages among the regulars, Hegan's .217 has grown a bit discouraging. We're willing to see if someone else can bring more punch to the attack.
But I'd like to see some breakdown of our pitchers' records in relation to the identity of their various catchers. I'd like to know if Greenberg had something when he said Jim helped the mound corps.
You may recall the story Joe Tipton told soon after he joined the Indians summer before last. Joe had started his second term in the Wigwam with two home runs in Chicago and there were those who suspected that he would move into Hegan's job.
'I'm not kidding myself,' Joe told me. 'There's nobody like Hegan. When batters strike out, they often go back to the bench cussing the pitcher. Against Cleveland, batters who strike out go back to the bench cussing out Hegan. He's the one who fools them.'
I think this testimony is worth investigating, especially in view of the records of the Tribe's best pitchers not only in 1953, but in 1952, when Al Lopez first began to give Hegan more rest than the strain of combat seemed to justify.
The Big Three won a lot of games in 1952 and won a lot again this past season. But Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia and Early Wynn also lost a lot. I don't know- but I'd want to know before I disposed of Hegan- how many bad innings our aces had while Jim was wearing the 'tools of ignorance,' and how many they had when other catchers were on duty.
Perhaps Greenberg and Lopez already have convincing evidence on the subject. Perhaps they had it in 1952, when one got the impression that Hegan was allowed to catch only when Wynn was pitching, and then because he was more accustomed than the others to handling Early's knuckleball.
Birdie Tebbetts usually caught Garcia, with the manager explaining frankly- and not without supporting evidence- that Mike seemed to get better results when the Chirper was his batterymate. Tipton was usually on duty when Lemon worked.
If memory serves, I wrote at the time that the American League's 'best catcher' ought to be good enough to toil more than one game out of every three. Only one conclusion was available. Lopez did not consider him the league's best- or even the Indians' best.
Lopez, if anybody, should know a catcher when he sees one. If he thinks that Hegan represents one of the club's weak spots, I am not prepared to quarrel with him.
But I do wish he had reached this decision earlier. There was a time when Jim could have been made the key man in a first-class trade."
-Ed McAuley, condensed from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Baseball Digest, January 1954)
THEY'RE NOT UNMASKING HEGAN NOW
Nearing 35, Tribe Catcher Isn't Wearing Out
"A year ago the Indians and Jim Hegan were looking around for a successor to Jim Hegan, as unholy as the thought might have been. There was a movement underway to supplant Hegan as the Cleveland catcher, thus destroying a custom that had been pursued with religious zeal ever since World War II.
Hegan was playing the role of elder statesman and had hand-picked his successor, Hal Naragon. The Indians, not being too sure that Naragon possessed the graces of Hegan behind the plate, were whispering a hard-luck story into the ears of numerous teams who had catchers to spare.
Hegan had offered his own obituary only a few months prior to the beginning of the 1954 season. He had wanted to quit the Indians and become a radio sports announcer, teaming with Jimmy Dudley in handling the Tribe's games. Hank Greenberg refused to release him. After all, a Hegan with only half a glove is to be preferred to most catchers with three mitts, and to cut loose a player of such skills without getting anything in return would have been sheer economic suicide.
So Hegan, openly a bit discouraged and plainly dubious of his baseball future, reported last spring and tried to forget the 1953 season, his worst since 1947. The averages told their own brutally frank story of Jim Hegan in 1953. His batting average was an all-time low, .217. He drove in only 37 runs in 112 games, another all-time low. And his fielding average dived to .976, still another low. He had fewer assists than any time in his service and committed 11 errors, another inverted record.
All these frightening facts disturbed Jim's slumber between 1953 and 1954 and his yen to challenge a microphone was understandable. Unable to land the radio job and unwilling to sacrifice his handsome salary with the Indians by just up and quitting, nuts to the silly business, Jim gave it another whirl. He got back to normal with a .234 lifetime batting average (his lifetime mark is .232). His catching through 137 games, all but 19 played by the Tribe, was artistic. He made only four errors, his throwing was again brilliant. And he was in full command of baseball's most effective pitching staff.
I mention this past history of Hegan in a fresh appraisal of the man, who'll be coming up on 35 this summer, as it seems again as if the Indians never had another catcher. There is no false talk about someone moving Jim out of his job. You see Jim sitting around with the old pros again, with Rosen and Feller and Garcia and now Kiner.
Once it was important that Hegan hit a little more than his quota- .232. There was a void in the batting order when you got past the big kids, down to Strickland, Hegan and the pitcher. It's still there, that 'out' space, but there is so much power up ahead that it doesn't make too much difference now. It didn't last season, either.
Alfonso Lopez, probably the number one judge of catchers, having been of royalty himself when wearing the robes of ignorance (mask, shin pads and belly protector), tipped off his estimation of the 'new' Hegan last winter when he said he wanted to send Naragon back to the minors for more experience that would help him when he finally did succeed Hegan. To spell off Jim, the Tribe would keep Hank Foiles, whom no one recognizes yet as a big league catcher although his work at Indianapolis last year was impressive. (Naragon's spring training showing could change this.)
Let there be no chit-chat about a switch in catchers on the varsity. The catcher will be Jim Hegan as long as he can pick up a mitt and he isn't wearing out very much. You could take him to the used car lot and get full value for a new go-cart.
He's got it made again and it gives you sort of a warm and comfortable feeling about the whole thing."
-Franklin Lewis, Cleveland Press (Baseball Digest, May 1955)
"As a catcher, the Cleveland veteran is the personification of grace. He was a masterful worker with the so-called tools of ignorance."
-Franklin Lewis, Cleveland Press (Baseball Digest, October 1957)
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