- 1879 - RHP Joe “Chick” Robitaille was born in Whitehall, New York. He spent his two year MLB career as a Pirate (1904-05), going 12-8 with a 2.56 ERA before being released in August 1905. Chick signed on with the Washington Senators the following season as a free agent, but never returned to the big leagues.
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| Chick Robitaille 1905 (photo Chicago Daily News via Library of Congress) |
- 1918 - 1B/OF/PH Frank Colman was born in London, Ontario. He played for the Bucs at the start of his career (1941-46), getting just 373 PA and hitting .233. In 1947, Frank’s career ended with the Yankees when a leg injury followed by surgery finished his MLB playing days. Frank caught on as a player-manager in the minors for awhile, then bought the team he started out on, the London Majors. Frank later founded the Eager beaver baseball group for kids, and for his efforts as a ballplayer and ambassador for the sport was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
- 1924 - OF Cal “Abie” Abrams was born in Philadelphia. He spent 1953 in Pittsburgh as the starting RF, hitting .286 with 15 HR, and was traded early in 1954 to Baltimore for P Dick Littlefield. Abrams hit .269 over his career, but drew 304 walks to just 290 whiffs and ended up with a .386 lifetime OBP in eight seasons with the Dodgers, Reds, Pirates, Orioles and White Sox.
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| Abie Abrams 1953 Bowman |
- 1936 - RHP Don Schwall was born in Wilkes-Barre. After an All-Conference basketball career at Oklahoma, he won the AL Rookie of the Year honors in 1961 with the Red Sox, beating out teammate Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski. He settled into journeyman status and was converted to the bullpen later in his career by the Bucs. He was with Pittsburgh from 1963-66, going 22-23-4 with a 3.23 ERA.
Baseball has always had a number of competent "professional journeyman" type players over the years. Most are largely forgotten, though some (like Travis Ishikawa and Jim Leyritz) have a knack for the big play on the big stage and so they still get their 15 minutes of fame and some good times at team reunions.
ReplyDeleteJust took a look at Abrams' career stats and he was definitely in this category. He seems to have been the quintessential fourth outfielder, and his overall body of work reminds me somewhat of Chris Denorfia, a guy I saw when he was winning the batting title in his last season in Triple A. Denorfia hits for a slightly better average and can steal a few bags here and there, where Abrams probably had a little more power and a better eye for drawing walks, but they're similar players overall. They're even about the same size and bat from the same side. Thanks for another of your great historical tidbits, Ron!
He was a competent ballplayer, Will, and actually did pretty well as a starter. One thing that I didn't mention that may have have contributed to his fourth OF'er resume was that he missed three full years to the service during WW2. Who knows how he would have turned out if he went into the minors right out of HS rather than the Army?
ReplyDeleteWell, I think he served the higher calling, Ron, and still had a respectable career as a professional major league ballplayer. Not a bad resume for any man, seems to me! BTW, dunno if you knew about this guy or not, but one of the crewmen on the first atomic bomb mission was Tom Ferebee. He was a really good player who was certain to be signed by a big league organization---I think it was the Red Sox who were interested in him, though don't quote me on that. One of the Enola Gay crewmen, the navigator, Dutch van Kirk, told me all about Ferebee's skill on the diamond when I met van Kirk at Oak Ridge, TN, about 15 years ago. It was quite an experience.
ReplyDeleteAfter the war, as far as I know, Ferebee did not choose to pursue his baseball career. I also had a cousin who was said to be on the Dodgers' radar before he got sent to Vietnam. There is a website called "baseball in wartime" that has a lot of stories like these.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great site, Will; I run across it doing background on the ol' Bucs every so often. I'd recommend it to anyone with any historic interest in the game. ( http://www.baseballinwartime.com/ )
ReplyDeleteHey, maybe you should add it to your Green Weenie recommended links? Figures you're already familiar with it! :-D
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