JOE GORDON
"One of the greatest second basemen in baseball. Joe was the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1942. He holds a number of fielding records for regular season play and World Series play.
Joe spent two years in the minors before joining the Yankees in 1938. He remained with the Yanks until being traded to Cleveland for the 1947 season.
He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oregon."
-1949 Bowman No. 210
"His 32 home runs set the slugging pace for Cleveland's 1948 title drive. Joe smashed out 154 hits with 279 total bases for a .280 bat mark and a .507 slugging average- fourth best in the American League. He finished fifth among regular fielding second sackers with .971.
Joe came to Cleveland from the Yankees in a deal for Allie Reynolds."
-1949 Leaf No. 117
1949 Yankee of the Past: Red Rolfe
THE TIGERS HAVE A QUIET RINGMASTER
"Ever since the days of Ee-Yah Hughie Jennings, the Detroit Tigers have been a fierce lot, clawing their opponents with long hits and dashing baserunning. Last year, however, they began to look like a collection of moth-eaten, stripped felines in the zoo. With this summer, baseball enters a new era at the cool stadium in the heart of the Motor City- and it will not be surprising if the Tigers will look like the aristocratic Yankees a few years hence.
For Professor Robert A. Rolfe, the best-educated, best-dressed and politest Bronx Bomber of the Thirties has entered the Tigers' lair as their new manager.
Ever since Red Rolfe's playing career ended in 1942, his many friends had conducted an underground campaign to win a pilot's berth for him. They had given up, for Rolfe is not the dashing, umpire-baiting type that attracts attention, but a quiet, cultured, college-bred New Englander who literally thought his way to major league stardom.
But there is iron in his character and his baseball bears the old New York Yankees' stamp of artistic excellence.
Rolfe faces a difficult task as he assumes leadership of the tattered Tigers. After winning the 1945 World Championship, the Tigers declined rapidly. On their roster are such numerous temperamental stars as Hal Newhouser, a pitching genius who likes to have his own way, and Dizzy Trout, who alternates between winning games and comic pranks. Despite such luminaries as Pat Mullin, Virgil Trucks, George Kell and Hoot Evers, Detroit finished in fifth place last year, eighteen and one-half games behind the champion Cleveland Indians. This season Rolfe must convert Dick Wakefield, the $52,500 problem child, into a serious-minded performer if that gap is to be closed.
Rolfe must also cure Aaron Robinson, his newly acquired first-string catcher, of irresponsibility. He must discover a substitute starting pitcher for Art Houtteman, who was hurt in an auto crash. And he must discover a workmanlike second baseman to replace the aging Eddie Mayo.
That Rolfe will tame the Tigers is the opinion of those who closely watched him during his Yankee career. He was essentially a team player of great efficiency. Most fans think of third base as one of the easier positions. Rolfe made it a key post as the Yankees won six pennants during his nine years with them. He didn't win headlines for his slugging as did Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Keller and Dickey; nor by zany wisecracks, as did Lefty Gomez. But when he quit the Stadium scene, a wide gap was left at the hot corner.
'Little things win as many ball games as home runs,' said Rolfe one day. He is one of the few diamond luminaries who keeps a card index of batters' habits. When he first reported to the Yankees in 1934, he was a shortstop, with no hope of supplanting the brilliant Frankie Crosetti. Shifted to third base, his job was to defend himself against hot shots rifled in his direction by strong-armed batters. He did much more. He broke down the area between the foul line and the overlapping space between his position and Crosetti's, shifting from point to point in accordance with opponents' hitting habits.
He sidestepped to his right for right-handed batters, to his left for southpaws. His chief concern was where a batter usually hits and how he runs. In his day Earl Averill and Charlie Gehringer of Detroit, Hal Trosky of the Indians and Ted Williams of the Red Sox were lefties who either tried for a long drive or drilled liners between second and first. The famous Boudreau Shift was foreshadowed a decade ago when the entire Yankee infield shifted to the left, narrowing the space between second and first, Rolfe playing at least 15 feet toward short and from ten to fifteen feet back of the bag, just in case those big boys poled an outside pitch toward left field.
'But dangerous as home run drivers may be,' he says, 'speedy left-handed batters are worse. They can spray the ball all over the lot. They can drive, bunt, top, bound a ball, or scoot a grass-cutter anywhere within fair territory. Before a pitcher has two strikes on these triple-threat batters, the third-sacker must stand close to the grass so he can come in quickly for a bunt, yet be far enough back to handle a hard drive. After the second strike the tension eases, for they aren't likely to bunt; but late-swinging, fast lefties are tough problems to face. When the big, powerful right-handers like Joe Gordon, Sam Chapman and Vern Stephens are up, third is no place for anyone for slow reflexes. The third baseman should move fifteen feet back of the bag. Such hitters are a special study all by themselves.'
Red has analyzed other positions as keenly as his own. He is especially noted for his scientific batting. 'Red Rolfe has personality,' said Joe McCarthy, his old Yankee manager. 'He has color, and I don't mean just his hair. And he asks plenty of questions and writes down the answers. He also has a lot of other information in his little black book. For instance, he writes down just what every pitcher throws in the clutch, so the batter can be set in the pinch.'
Although Red was not a long hitter, he became expert in batting behind the runner, placing drives to left and right at will. He occupied the number two slot in the batting order, getting on base often, then waiting for DiMaggio, Gehrig or Keller to drive him home. In 1939 he led the American League in runs scored, hits and two-baggers, for a peak average of .329.
Something must be said about Red's ability to make two-base hits, for he was not especially fast. He did it by studying opposing outfielders' methods of stopping his low line drives. In those days Wally Moses, now with the A's, played for Chicago. Moses had a habit of falling to one knee to field a ground ball, losing a precious second or two before he straightened up for the throw to second base. 'When I hit toward Moses or a fielder who backed up, I never stopped running around first ... I slid into second easily.'
Although Red's lifetime average was a substantial .289, he was seldom mentioned as a member of the fence-busting Bronx Bombers. During the third game of the 1939 World Series, the Yankees scored five runs on five hits against Cincinnati, four of the tallies on homers- two by Keller, one by DiMaggio, one by Dickey. The fifth run was scored by Professor Rolfe. 'I singled. Keller's homer drove me in.
'When I reported to the clubhouse after the game, some wag, probably Lefty Gomez, had posted a notice: 'Attention, Red Rolfe: singles forbidden on this club. Report for batting practice, 10 A.M. tomorrow.''
Until now the Tigers have been best known for their hitting, pitching, slow running and slower thinking. Professor Rolfe may be expected to teach them inside baseball. He engaged Ted Lyons, former White Sox manager, as instructor in the subtler side of hurling. Peppery Dick Bartell conducts classes in infield play. A mathematician compiles statistics about hitters' habits and pitchers' proclivities. Rodin's statue of 'The Thinker' will occupy a prominent place in the Tigers' dressing room this year.
Bob Rolfe was born in the tiny town of Penacook, New Hampshire four decades ago. He was a studious lad, despite a zeal for athletics. After high school, he attended exclusive Philips Exeter Academy, and then entered Dartmouth College, not on an athletic scholarship but as an English major.
'I really wanted to be a newspaperman,' he says. 'While I was still a Yankee, I wrote a baseball gossip column which had too much inside dope, I'm afraid, for President Edward G. Barrow told me to cease and desist.'
At Dartmouth, Rolfe batted .400 in the Ivy League. Word soon reached Barrow, who sent the legendary White Ties McCann to scout him. McCann was so impressed that Barrow paid Bob a substantial bonus when he signed him two years later.
He is not the sentimental type who dwells on how he broke into professional baseball. He took one training trip with the Yankees, then was farmed to Albany, moving up to Newark, and finally to the Stadium.
It was a hard wrench to quit shortstop for third base, where Manager McCarthy posted him, but Red made the switch with ease. When he had mastered defensive technique, he turned to a consideration of his batting style boning as carefully as he had in English Lit. IV in school.
As Yankee fans glanced toward third base during the next nine summers, they saw a lithe young man crouch low for bunts or leap high into the air for liners. Game after game, Rolfe played with such flawless efficiency that his artistry was taken for granted. In 1937 no one knew that he suffered excruciating pain, caused by a calcium deposit on his thigh bone. He batted and fielded as consistently as ever until the final out of the World Series, then went to a hospital for an operation. The Yankees crushed the Giants, Cubs, Reds and Dodgers, with Red playing every Series game.
During the 1942 spring training trip, he contracted an intestinal ailment, which caused him to lose weight rapidly. He was still a young man as ball players go, and it was a severe shock to learn that, at thirty-three, he was must turn in his glove forever.
The following spring his health improved, but he was warned not to risk daily competition on the diamond. Yale University had offered him the post of baseball and basketball coach.
'I was happily resigned to a campus career,' he says, 'for I like the university atmosphere, and especially the opportunity to dabble in good books. I do a lot of reading, in politics, philosophy and economics, and always try to keep abreast of current affairs.'
After his Yale term, Red briefly coached the ill-fated Toronto professional basketball five, winning many personal friends among Canadians. Although he converted Eric Craddock's outfit into a high-scoring combination, he could not turn it into a winner. The franchise was abandoned.
In 1946 the Yankees needed a coach and Red once more donned the uniform in which he had starred. That year the Yankees had three managers, McCarthy, Dickey and Johnny Neun. With the signing of Bucky Harris in September, Red returned to New Haven.
The following August he received a phone call from Detroit. 'How would you like to supervise out farm system?' asked General Manager Billy Evans.
The Tiger farm chain had been dissolved during the war. Red's task was to rebuild it. In a single season he increased the number of rookies from 100 to 200, uncovering several fine prospects.
When Spike Briggs went looking for a new manager last November, he and Evans scribbled down a list of 50 applicants. Slowly they reduced the number to twelve. Day after day they debated. Long past one midnight, Briggs said, 'There's a name missing from this list. What's the matter with Red Rolfe? He's got the temperament, the experience, the tradition and the executive ability.' Evans sighed with relief. 'I've been thinking of Rolfe for three days. He's our man!'
'I can't promise to lift the team out of the second division this year,' Red frankly admits. 'We haven't been able to obtain enough new players.'
But by 1950 or 1951 he hopes to hand his Tiger students their World Series diplomas."
-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest (May 1949)
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