1953 Yankee of the Past: Frank Shea

"'Hey, you're getting freckles on your hand, Spec,' said one of the Washington Senators sunning himself next to Spec Shea by the clubhouse after a workout. 'Yeah, funny thing,' Shea replied, 'but that's the only aftermath I have from that burn I got during the war. A few freckles when I stay in the sun too long, but for five days I thought I'd be blind for life.'
The incident occurred two weeks after the Normandy invasion. 'I don't know what happened,' said Frank, the laughing boy of the Senators, 'but I was standing too close to a gasoline drum in the woods when it blew up and the gasoline sprayed all over my  hands and head.'
Shea ran around blind, screaming, out of his mind, until a buddy from Chicago grabbed him, shoved Spec in a jeep and headed for a first aid unit. 'I owe a lot to that kid,' Shea said, 'because if he hadn't acted as quickly as he did I'd probably be blind.
'He got help for me in a hurry,' Shea continued. 'They put enough goo on me to grease a fleet of trucks. All I could think of was going blind. I was scared, real scared.'
Five days later, Sgt. Shea could distinguish light. 'I don't know, maybe somebody else has been happier,' Frank said, 'but I think I established a new record for happiness when I knew I was going to see again.'
Shea has a large photograph of himself with 'no hair on my head, no eyelashes, no eyebrows, and my head twice the size it is now. I looked like something out of a Frankenstein movie. Man, you guys don't appreciate how handsome I am now.'
That frightening experience didn't teach Frank to keep his distance from gasoline. During the off-season he operates a gas station in his home town, Naugatuck, Conn., making a living from what nearly blinded him."

-Burton Hawkins in the Washington Star (Baseball Digest, May 1953)

"After a 1951 season with the Yankees that wasn't too successful, Frank was sent to Washington, and his work was a bright spot for the Senators. He appeared in 22 games, won 11 and lost 7, and his earned run average was a nice 2.93.
Frank first came to the Yankees in 1947 and had a 14-5 record that year, giving him a .737 winning percentage, best in the league."

-1953 Bowman No. 141

"In 1952, Spec turned in his best season since breaking into the majors in spectacular fashion with the Yankees in 1947. That year he had a league leading [.737 winning percentage] (14-5 record), won two World Series games and gained the victory in the All-Star Game.
Arm trouble plagued Frank after '47. He had a 9-10 record in '48, went to Newark in '49 and Kansas City in '50. In '51 he was 5 and 5 for the Yanks and was traded to the Senators in May of '52."

-1953 Topps No. 164