"This is Gus' first campaign with the Red Sox. Last season he was with the Pale Hose of Chicago and was in 66 games, batting .256.
Gus had his best average in 1950 (divided between the Yanks and White Sox) when he hit .324 in 42 games. He began in baseball with Akron in 1941."
-1952 Bowman No. 129
"During the winter, Gus was traded by the White Sox to the Browns who traded him to the Red Sox.
A good receiver, he was with the Yankees for part of the 1946 season and was recalled in 1948 after hitting .321 at Kansas City in '47. Used sparingly in '48, '49 and '50, he was sent to the White Sox in 1950 and hit .324 in 105 at-bats.
Gus is called 'Greek' by his teammates. He served in the armed forces for three years and attended Auburn University for one year."
-1952 Topps No. 121
MCGREW'S BOY: NIARHOS
Red Sox Scout Spotted Him for Bucs
"'There, gentlemen, is the best catcher in baseball.' The man making that positive statement was Ted McGrew, chief scout of the Boston Red Sox, who bears the reputation, gained after many years at the job, of being as good as there is. The ball player he was boasting about was Gus Niarhos.
There had been much discussion over the winter as to what the Red Sox were to do for catching this year. Sure, they had acquired Niarhos by trade from St. Louis, whither he had just been traded by Chicago. Not too much was known about Gus, except that he seemed like a little fellow and that Chicago had got rid of him because he appeared to be brittle.
McGrew's daring statement thus became interesting. Ted Williams' declaration a few weeks before that the Red Sox made their best deal in years when they had got Niarhos was remembered. So, McGrew was pumped for his thoughts about Gus.
'I made up my mind about Gus back in 1947 when he was with Kansas City,' McGrew said. 'I didn't care that he was having a big year (Niarhos caught in 87 games that year, batted .321 and was almost perfect in fielding, with .995). It was the way he caught that appealed to me. He was sure all the time, called for the correct pitches, was like a cat, and though he doesn't break down any fences in hitting, he is far from a pushover at bat.
'I was scouting for Pittsburgh and Frank McKinney then. Larry MacPhail, then boss of the New York Yankees, was a close friend of McKinney's and told him we could have a pitcher and catcher in the spring of 1948. McKinney sent me to the Yankee camp. They had seven catchers. I thought Niarhos was the best of them all, but the Yanks didn't agree with me, which was all right.
'We now had a chance to get Niarhos. The deal was ready to be closed until MacPhail got into an argument with McKinney one night and a close friendship came to an end. MacPhail then wouldn't sell us a batboy.
'I've talked about Niarhos since. When I first joined the Red Sox I told Joe Cronin what I thought, but Gus was going good for Chicago and we couldn't get him. But Joe remembered, kept on his trail, and finally got him. When that deal was made last fall, Joe phoned me and said, 'We finally got your boy.' '
Bill Wight and Randy Gumpert pitched to Niarhos at Kansas City with the Yanks, and then with the White Sox, and they agree with McGrew when pressed on the subject. 'Pitchers love to have him do their catching,' was their summation on Gus.
'I don't see how anybody could see me as brittle,' Niarhos says. 'All catchers are bound to get hurt, but I've only had a little of it. I caught in nearly ninety games for the Yanks in 1948 (it was eighty-three games) when Yogi Berra was playing the outfield and didn't get hurt until the end of the season when Vern Stephens fouled one off at Fenway Park which broke a bone in my hand- not a finger.
'I didn't get hurt again until last summer. A foul tip caught me on the palm back of the little finger in the third inning. I finished the game. The hand was sore, but that wasn't anything unusual. The next morning I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, there was another broken bone. I took the cast off the hand before I should have and started catching. That was the mistake.
'The White Sox had started to slip and I couldn't help them with my bad hand. That's just the way things go. Maybe it was all for the best.' "
-Jack Malaney, condensed from the Boston Post (Baseball Digest, March 1952)
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