Remembering Those Who Played Life’s Last Inning in 2022 - Part Two

Of the one hundred former Major League or Negro League professional baseball players who played life’s last inning in 2022, six played for the Kansas City Athletics. Three played under team owner Arnold Johnson after he bought the Philadelphia Athletics and moved the franchise to Kansas City in 1954: pitcher Ralph Terry (died March 16, 2022), infielder/outfielder Hector Lopez (died September 29, 2022), and pitcher Ray Herbert (died December 20, 2022). In my last blog post (June 2023), I wrote about them. 

The other three played with the Athletics when Charlie O. Finley became the team’s owner after the 1960 season and before he moved it to Oakland in 1968:  catcher Joe Pignatano (died May 23, 2022), pitcher Dave Wickersham (died June 18, 2022), and outfielder Leo Posada (died June 23, 2022). This blog post will pay tribute to them.

After purchasing the Athletics in December 1960, Finley had the daunting task of improving the team, which had finished in last place. One way of doing it, acquiring players available from other Major League teams. One player purchased in 1961, Joe Pignatano. 

Joe Pignatano

Born August 4, 1929, Pignatano signed up with his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. Making his Major League debut on April 28, 1957, he missed the “Boys of Summer” successful years of the Dodgers (1947 – 1956, seven National League pennants, 1955 World Series Champions).

After five innings on September 24, 1957, Pignatano entered the game   to replace catcher Roy Campanella in the Dodgers’ line-up. It would be   the Dodgers’ last game at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. The franchise would move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season. Permanently paralyzed after a car accident during the winter of 1958, unfortunately it turned out to be the last game of Hall of Famer Campanella’s career.

Pignatano played second-string catcher behind the Dodgers’ John Roseboro

 for the next three years. His single in the bottom of the 12th inning helped to lead the Dodgers’ scoring the winning run in the 1959 National League pennant playoff game against the Milwaukee Braves. The Dodgers then defeated the Chicago White Sox in the World Series four games to two.

In the winter of 1961, the Kansas City Athletics purchased Pignatano’s contract from the Dodgers. He shared the team’s catching duties in 1961 with Haywood Sullivan, playing in ninety-two games and batting .241.

Retiring after the 1962 season with the New York Mets, Pignatano became a Major League coach (1965 – 1982) including being the bullpen coach for the 1969 World Series champion New York Mets.

Two minor league players signed when Arnold Johnson owned the A’s made their Major League debut in 1960 and played with the team when Finley became the owner: Dave Wickersham and Leo Posada.

Dave Wickersham

Born September 27, 1935, in Erie, Pennsylvania, Wickersham signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955 after pitching at Ohio University.  He spent four successful years in the Pirates’ minor league system, 53 - 26 at levels AA and lower.  The Kansas City Athletics chose him in the 1959 minor league draft.  Wickersham made his Major League debut with the Athletics on September 18, 1960. 

Used as a spot starter and relief pitcher, Wickersham went 11- 4 for the Athletics in 1962. As the team’s main starting pitcher in 1963, Wickersham went 12 – 15 (4.09 ERA, 237.2 IP).

In November after the 1963 season, believing the A’s needed more power in the line-up, Finley traded Wickersham, second basemen Jerry Lumpe, and pitcher Ed Rakow to the Detroit Tigers for All Star right fielder Rocky Colivito.

Wickersham (19 – 14) along with Mickey Lolich (18 – 9) were the mainstays of the pitching staff for the fourth place Tigers in 1964. Slumping to 9 – 14 the next year, Wickersham became a spot starter & relieve pitcher for the team by 1967.

After one year with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1968, he finished his career with the Kansas City Royals in 1969. Wickersham, Moe Drabowsky, and Aurello Monteagudo are the only three to have played with both the Royals and the Kansas City Athletics.

 

Leo Posada

Posada, born April 1, 1934, in Havana, Cuba, signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954.  The Athletics took him in the 1956 minor league draft and he made his Major League debut on September 21, 1960. 

As the team’s main left fielder in 1961 (116 games), Posada hit .253 with seven Home Runs and 53 RBI. However in 1962, the competition for the Athletics’ outfield positions increased with the addition of rookie fellow Cuban Jose Tartabull, Manny Jimenez, and veteran Gino Cimoli.  With Posada hitting .196 in 29 games, the Athletics traded him along with pitcher Bill Kunkel to the Milwaukee Braves in August 1962 for pitcher Orlando Pena; another player from Posada’s homeland of Cuba.

Posada spent the remainder of his pro baseball career playing in both the minor and winter leagues (1963 – 1969).  After retiring, he became a minor league manager and coach for the Houston Astros (1968 – 69, 1972 - 74, 1976 – 78) and the New York Yankees (1975).  Also, beginning in 1979, Posada coached hitting in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization. 

Remembering Those Who Played Life’s Last Inning in 2022 - Part One

 In 2022, one hundred former Major League or Negro League professional baseball players died. This group that played life’s last inning included Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry (December 1, 2022). Perry won a career 314 games (53 shutouts, and 3,534 strikeouts). Also dying in 2022 were former Los Angeles Dodgers teammates Tommy Davis (April 3, 2022) and Maury Wills (September 19, 2022). Davis won consecutive National League Batting Titles with the Dodgers, 1962 and 1963. Wills led the National League in stolen bases for six consecutive years (1960 – 1965), including stealing 104 in 1962.

There were six former Kansas City Athletics who played life’s last inning in 2022. Three played under team owner Arnold Johnson after he bought the Philadelphia Athletics and moved the franchise to Kansas City after the 1954 season: pitcher Ralph Terry (March 16, 2022), infielder/outfielder Hector Lopez (September 29, 2022), and pitcher Ray Herbert (December 20, 2022). The other three played with the Athletics when Charlie O. Finley became the team’s owner after the 1960 season and before he moved it to Oakland in 1968:  catcher Joe Pignatano (May 23, 2022), pitcher Dave Wickersham (June 18, 2022), and outfielder Leo Posada (June 23, 2022).

In his efforts to purchase the Philadelphia Athletics, businessman Arnold Johnson had the support of New York Yankees’ co-owners Del Webb and Dan Topping.  They were partners with Johnson in non-baseball related businesses. Johnson’s relationship with the Yankees raised concern from some American League team owners as possibly a conflict of interest. However, the League approved the sale to Johnson despite those concerns.

During the six years Johnson owned the Kansas City A’s, he died in March 1960, the team made twenty trades or player acquisitions with the Yankees. Most of the trades lopsidedly favored New York. The Yankees gave the A’s players nearing the end of their playing careers, second string players, and journeymen with limited talent. In exchange New York would get talented players that would help the team rebuild and continue its dominance of the American League in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Two players in talent funnel from Kansas City to the Yankees were Ralph Terry and Hector Lopez.

Ralph Terry

 

Terry, born January 9, 1936, in Big Cabin, Oklahoma, signed with the New York Yankees in 1953. The highly touted righthanded pitcher had early success in the minor leagues, but no spot existed for him on the Yankees’ pitching staff in 1957. To give Terry experience pitching at the Major League level, Yankee management traded him to the Kansas City Athletics on June 15, 1957. In 1958, Terry posted an 11- 13 record. Considering the A’s finished next to last in the American League standings that season, Terry’s statistics showed he had the potential to be a successful Major League pitcher.

When the Yankees needed to rebuild their pitching staff in 1959, Terry came back to New York through another trade with the A’s and helped the Yankees to win five pennants (1960 – 1964) and two World Series (1961 and 1962).

From 1959 through 1964 Terry won seventy-six games, including being the ace of the pitching staff in 1962 winning twenty-three. Although he has a place in baseball history as the pitcher that Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski in 1960 hit the only Game Seven 9^th inning walk off World Series winning home run, Terry got his redemption in 1962. In the World Series that year against the San Francisco Giants, he won two games including a four hit 1- 0 shutout in Game Seven for the Yankee’s Series win.  Terry received the 1962 World Series Most Valuable Player Award. 

 

Hector Lopez

The first Panamanian (born Colon, Panama April 8, 1932) to have an extensive Major League career, Lopez came to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952 out of the Canadian Provincial League. He had the versatility to play each infield and outfield position, plus hit consistently with sometimes power. From 1955, his rookie season, Lopez averaged fifteen home runs and 61 RBI for consistently bad A’s teams.

Injuries and the advanced ages of formerly key players made the New York Yankees need offensive help early in the 1959 season. Lopez got off to a good start for the A’s hitting .281 with 6 Home Runs and 24 RBI after 35 games. Once again giving the Yankees what they needed, the A’s included Lopez in the June 15th Ralph Terry trade with New York. Lopez finished the season with the Yankees hitting .283 with 16 Home Runs and 69 RBI.

He made contributions to the New York Yankees’ successes in the early 1960s as a utility infield or outfield player. Lopez hit fourteen home runs with 52 RBI in 1963. In the 1961 World Series, he hit .333 and led the team with 7 RBI as the Yankees defeated the Cincinnati Reds four games to one.

 

Ray Herbert

Herbert (born December 15, 1929) signed with his hometown Detroit Tigers in 1948. After two years in the minor leagues and a brief appearance with the Tigers in 1950, the righthanded pitcher went into the military. Returning in 1953, Herbert had little success on the mound for the Tigers.

The Kansas City Athletics purchased his contract in 1955. By 1959, Herbert became a frontline starting pitcher for the A’s finishing 11 – 11 in 1959 and 14 – 15 in 1960.

Under new team owner Charlie O. Finley, the A’s traded Herbert to the Chicago White Sox in June 1961. For the next four years Herbert won forty-eight games for Chicago, including being 20 – 9 in 1962.

The next post will be about Joe Pignatano, Dave Wickersham, and Leo Posada. Stay Tuned!

History of the Kansas City Athletics 1955 - 1967

This month I will teach the following class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Kansas:  History of the Kansas City Athletics 1955 - 1967.

The franchise was a product of the post-World War II geographical shift that changed the face of Major League Baseball.  Formerly the Philadelphia Athletics, the franchise's new owner moved it to Kansas City in 1955.  This course will explore the details surrounding the move, the impact of it on Kansas City, the team's 1950s controversial relationship with the New York Yankees, the era of the 1961 new owner Charlie Finley, and the team's acrimonious departure from the city.

The dates for the course are April 13th, April 20th, and May 4th.  The length of the course each day is 2 hours, 2:00 PM - 4 :00 PM.  

Although I will teach the course in-person, you can enroll to attend on-line via Zoom.

Below is the link to get more information about the course, enrollment, and the on-line connection to attend via Zoom.

The History of the Kansas City Athletics, 1955-1967 - Shopping cart (enrole.com)

Revisiting Dr. King, Baseball, & Jackie Robinson

 In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday celebration today, January 16, 2023, I have repeated below my 1/15/17; "Dr. Martin Luther King, Baseball, & Jackie Robinson".

Today is the national celebration for the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., what would have been his 88^th.  Much will be written giving tributes to his life and the impact his legacy continues to have not only on this country, but also the world.  However, I want to mention what appears to have been Dr. King’s favorite sport, baseball. 

When Jackie Robinson crossed the “invisible color line” in 1947 to be the first African American to play Major League baseball in the 20^th Century, he became the idol of an 18 years old teenager in Atlanta, Georgia; Martin King Jr.  Like many other African Americans at that time, whether baseball fans or not, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the young King’s favorite baseball team because of Jackie Robinson.  Many of those African American Dodger fans, including King, remained loyal to the team after Robinson retired and it relocated to Los Angeles in 1958.  In addressing the 1966 Milwaukee Braves’ move to his hometown of Atlanta, Dr. King indicated it would complicate his personal allegiance that had existed since 1947.  “And so I have been a Dodger fan”, he said, “but I’m gonna get with the Braves now”.

But Dr. King had been more than a fan of the Dodgers; he understood the significance for African Americans of what Jackie Robinson had done in 1947.  After becoming a leader in the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King knew where his idol as a teenager’s accomplishments fit overall in reference to that movement.

When Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on that Montgomery, Alabama city bus in December of 1955 triggering the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, Jackie Robinson was nearing the end of his baseball career.  He announced his retirement on January 5, 1957; fifteen days after the successful end of the Montgomery bus boycott led by the 26 years old pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


In the 1960s, Robinson became actively involved in the Civil Rights movement with Dr. King.  He spoke at Civil Rights rallies in the South for Dr. King, marched in demonstrations with him, and held fund raisers for Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).  Dr. King and Robinson became co-laborers in the African American struggle for equality.  He considered Jackie Robinson a friend.

At a testimonial dinner for Robinson on July 20, 1962, celebrating his upcoming National Baseball Hall of Fame induction in three days; Dr. King paid tribute to him.  He defended Robinson’s right to speak out about segregation and civil rights.  “He has the right”, King insisted stoutly, “because back in the days when integration was not fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which comes from being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways towards the high road of Freedom.  He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.  And that is why we honor him tonight.”**

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have liked other sports.  However; because of Jackie Robinson, baseball appeared to be his favorite.  Since idolizing Robinson while being a teenager in 1947, Dr. King never forgot the significance of the baseball player’s accomplishments in the struggle of African Americans for equality.  

* "At Canaan's Edge:  The King Years 1965 - 1968", Taylor Branch P. 394

** "Jackie Robinson:  A Biography", Arnold Rampersad p. 7