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!