1955 Yankee of the Past: Leo Durocher

ONLY PULL IS NEEDED TO OPPOSITE FIELD
"Laraine Day, wife of Leo Durocher, talked sense. 'If I were a boy,' she said, 'I'd try for catcher. I don't want my son to be a ball player. But if he showed any aptitude, I'd recommend catching. There are so few catchers. He'd always be in demand.'
The actress is a smart cookie and her thoughts are independent of her husband's.
'I'm not sports-minded,' she protested candidly. 'But I will say for baseball that it is the only profession where you can get ahead without knowing anybody. Baseball goes and seeks you. If you live in a hamlet 100 population 200 miles from the nearest railroad, a scout will eventually find you.
'It's not that way in movies and television. I know. You can have talent to burn, but unless you know somebody or his uncle who is close to the ear of the producer, your chances are awfully bad.' "

-Will Connolly, San Francisco Chronicle (Baseball Digest, January-February 1955)

1955 Yankee of the Past: Branch Rickey

THE NIGHT RICKEY GOT A CHILL
"Hank Greenberg says that one of the great unsolved mysteries of his years in baseball is his experience with Branch Rickey in the fall of 1950, when the Indians decided to get rid of Lou Boudreau and replace him with Al Lopez.
'We sincerely liked Lou,' Hank began, 'so we thought it would be a fine thing if we could line up another managerial job for him before we announced the change. Out of the blue, Rickey telephoned and said he'd like to fly over from Pittsburgh and talk with us about getting Boudreau as his manager.'
The Pirates' then-new general manager was told that Boudreau still had a job with the Indians, but he insisted that he'd like to discuss the situation.
'Rickey arrived about six that evening,' Greenberg continued. 'Ellis Ryan invited him to his apartment, and for six full hours, until midnight, we listened to Rickey tell us how much he wanted Boudreau. Then I took him to my home to spend the night, and we sat up until 3 A.M., still talking about the things Lou could do for the Pirates.
'We had breakfast at 9:30 that morning and I drove Rickey to the airport. By the time we got there, I couldn't have given Boudreau to Rickey on a platter. He just had lost all interest. Here was a man who made a trip to Cleveland to get a manager, spent nine hours telling us how much he wanted him- and then wouldn't take him. I haven't the foggiest notion why he changed his mind.' "

-Ed McAuley in the Cleveland News (Baseball Digest, January-Feburary 1955)

BRANCH RICKEY: "The abundant progress of the far-reaching Pittsburgh Youth Movement is obvious to the discerning eye of the qualified observer. We have men in camp this spring who will be outstanding performers in the not-too-distant year of 1960. Will we get into the first division by 1957? That all depends on a great number of vital related factors which I have not completely evaluated at this moment."

Baseball Digest, March 1955

1955 Yankee of the Past: Hal W. Smith

"Three outstanding catchers are included in the freshman crop this spring [Baseball Digest's Top 50 Rookies of 1955]. All were brought up from the minors by the Yankees last fall. All should be playing in the majors Opening  Day. But only one likely will be catching- and he not for the Yanks! That's Hal Smith, the American Association's leading hitter (.350) at Columbus last year. He'll be mask-and-padding it for Baltimore, who secured him in that 'I-can-get-for-you-wholesale' 18-player trade with the Yanks. (He is said to have been the man most wanted by Pilot Paul Richards)."

-Herbert Simons (Baseball Digest, March 1955)

LION-HEARTED ORIOLE
Rookie Hal Smith's A Blood-And-Guts Catcher
"Knockdown pitches and violent home plate collisions have failed to deter Harold Wayne Smith, a 'blood and guts' catcher of extraordinary polish, from becoming one of the brightest new names on the American League marquee.
This same Smith qualifies as 'Exhibit A' when the Baltimore Orioles are asked the now monotonous question of why they traded away Bob Turley.
Smith's sparkling work at the plate and behind it, particularly, has him high upon the 'rookie of the year' ballot. Paul Richards, a manager of discriminating opinion, especially where catchers are concerned, may or may not be interested in getting out the vote, but he thinks Smith is one of the finest looking receivers to come on the major league horizon in a decade.
The Yankee-bred Smith has more than impressed Richards with his handling of the low ball, snapping rifle shots to second base, running down those high, tantalizing foul flies, drawing the most from a pitcher and doing a satisfactory job of getting his own base hits- when they counted most.
Richards, a cautious man with a quote, nodded his head in the direction of Smith during a dugout discourse the other day. 'If that fellow over there,' speaking of Smith, 'doesn't have the heart of a lion then he's the greatest actor I ever saw.'

Smith has a hungry competitiveness about him and a desire to win that seems almost Yankee-given. He's neither belligerent, brash or boastful, but don't think that he has any inferiority complex about his own ability. He hasn't.

Like Richards, he has a quiet, assured manner which gives the impression that he has everything, including the game, under complete control. But Smith is no pop-off or clubhouse lawyer. He believes in himself and there's nothing wrong with that.

When asked if he could have climbed the ladder of baseball success as a shortstop, the position he played as a kid growing up, Smith uttered matter-of-factly:

'Yeah, I would have fought my way up somehow.'

That the Yankees signed him, raised him up to the majors with six years of minor league apprenticeship and then traded him away came as no disappointment to Hal. 'No, that didn't worry me. Why should it? The Yankees honestly did me a favor by sending me to a club where I could play every day. That's what I want to do. With the Yanks, I would have had Yogi Berra in front of me.'

It seems a certainty that Smith, barring injury, will catch over 100 games in his first major league campaign. Even back in April, Richards was using Smith in both ends of double-headers and it wasn't out of necessity, either. The veteran Les Moss was in good health and waiting for the nod.

Richards has extreme confidence in Smitty. The youngster is on his own calling pitches and he has been used as high as fifth in the batting order. The Oriole pilot believes Smith will be the cornerstone for a rebuilt club in Baltimore which, in time, will move in on the first division and, Richards hopes, offer a serious challenge.

If Richards ever had any doubt about Smith's bravery, he had a demonstration in spring training which should have given him reason to expect that his freshman catcher would stand up to an express train. In a spring training exhibition with the Dodgers, Junior Gilliam tagged up at third after a down-the-line fly had been caught by shortstop Witty Quintana.

Rookie Quintana put his head down as he ran back to the infield. Gilliam broke in a streak for the plate. By the time Quintana realized what was happening, the daring Dodger was homeward-bound. The throw was late arriving, but Smith met Gilliam man-to-man. The Oriole blocked the plate without even a slight chance of getting the ball. Gilliam unloaded on him and Smith came out of the scrimmage with a twisted knee.

Since that time, Richards has worked with Smith in his technique of guarding the plate. 'Paul has taught me how to take a sliding man on my shin-guards instead with my body,' says Hal. 'That way it's less wear and tear on the catcher. He also has moved me closer to the batter and told me not to lean forward with the trunk of my body when I'm receiving a pitch.'

Richards is only the second former catcher Smith has worked under in seven years of organized ball. At Newark, in the Ohio-Indiana League, Smith was managed by Billy Holm, a one-time Chicago Cub receiver.

'Holm helped me a lot when I started out. He himself was one of the best catchers I ever saw,' relates the serious, business-like Hal.

The young Oriole was quickly reminded that when he was a kid in Detroit, the Tigers had a catcher who also knew what he was doing when it came to crouching under a bat, the aforesaid Mr. Richards.

'Yeah, that's right,' agrees Hal, 'but I was just a kid of 14 then and Paul was just another player to me when I went out to Briggs Stadium with my father. I guess if I had any single favorite it was Hoot Evers. And dern if I'm not on the same team with Hoot now.'

Last summer Smith led the American Association with a .350 batting average at Columbus. However, though his footwork and poise in catching leave nothing to be desired, Smith isn't exactly a picture with a bat in his hand. He'll occasionally look bad lunging at a pitch. For the most part, however, he is a line drive hitter and sprays hits to all fields.

He's up on the bat about half-an-inch and rarely strikes out. He resents, though, any inference that he's a 'punch-and-judy' hitter. 'I hit the way I think is most effective for me,' he stresses in a determined tone.

Smith, at Detroit's Redford High School, was a shortstop when Scout Ray Meyers saw him. Smith later played on the Joe Gentile amateur team which featured four other players later in the majors- Ted Kazanski of the Phils, Ray Herbert of the A's, Hobie Landrith of the Redlegs and Joe Altobelli of the Indians.

After Meyers forwarded a flattering report on Smith, he visited Yankee Stadium for a trial in 1949. The Yanks looked at him not as a shortstop but as a pitcher and catcher. They decided his best chance was a catcher and signed him at a $6,000 bonus.

'I wasn't after the big money because I didn't want to be a bonus player. I knew I needed to play every day and going to the minors was the only way I could expect to improve.'

Smith played only briefly his first year out, after reporting to Twin Falls in the Pioneer League and his subsequent shift to Ventura in the California League. But the next year, 1950, he hit .363 at Newark. Then came a .308 season at Quincy in the Three I League;.260 at Beaumont in the Texas League; .311 at Birmingham in the Southern Association and then his excellent .350 at Columbus in the American Association.

Three of his years in the Yankee system were spent with the same roommate, a pitcher named Joe Crowder. Crowder died suddenly after the 1953 season when he suffered a fatal heart attack while fishing in Seneca, Mo. 'Joe and I were real close,' says Hal. Smith and Crowder, batterymates as well as roomies, were both notified of their promotion to the Yankees on the same day in 1953- but Joe didn't live to get the chance.

Smith got to go to spring camp with the Yanks last year and hit .353 before being optioned to Columbus in the Enos Slaughter deal. He didn't get back up to the Yanks at season's end because Columbus was in the Association playoffs. It was during the post-season series that Richards, who had moved to Baltimore from Chicago in early September, scouted Smith personally. He had heard so many glowing things about the young catcher that he decided to go out and take a look for himself.

What he saw of Smith he liked. So much so that he was the one player that Richards insisted on when he sent Turley, Larsen and Billy Hunter along to the Yanks in what was termed a 'million dollar deal.'

On Smith's initial trip to Yankee Stadium this year he hit an opposite field home run into the right field seats for two runs and drove in another as he led the Orioles to a 6-3 victory- their first of 1955 after suffering six straight reversals.

It was his take-charge defensive performance, however, which caught Casey Stengel's eye. Next day Ol' Case was saying that 'Smith is a carbon copy of Richards. He looks like Richards back there already. Richards is doing a good job on that kid. Not only does he catch like Richards, but he moans and groans just like Richards did when the umpire called 'em bad. I never seen anything like it.

'Yeah, that Richards knew what he was doing all right. He got himself one of the best young ball players in the country.'

On the Orioles' first visit into Detroit, Smith was also up to the occasion for the benefit of the home folks and came through with two-for-four against Ned Garver.

Pitchers in the league don't fear the Bird backstopper for any propensity at 'rattling the fences,' but he's the type of hitter whois going to get his hits without too long a dry spell in between.

Washington's Camilo Pascual tried knocking Smith down the first time he faced him in Baltimore. Smith went spinning into the dirt in an effort to keep from having a facsimile of Will Harridge's signature imprinted on his skull.

Smith gathered himself off the ground, picked his spikes clean of mud and glared out at Pascual. He re-entered the batter's box and defiantly planted his right foot deeper than before. Pascual came in with his next pitch and Smitty lashed it hard at Third Baseman Eddie Yost- who got a glove on the ball, but that was all, as it caromed into left field. The next time around he tripled over the head of Jim Busby in left center off the same Pascual.

What's particularly interesting about Smith, when you probe his background, is that he has caught over 100 games a year for the last five seasons. In the last four of these campaigns, he has fielded the same identical percentage- .973. 'Don't ask me to explain that because I can't,' he pleads. 'I didn't even realize it until somebody brought up the point this spring.'

Smith, 195 and an even six-foot, has all the staying power that is needed to go on and become one of the best catchers in the business. He doesn't wilt in hot weather and the grind doesn't worry him. His wife, Shirley, says, 'Hal is honestly sorry when the season ends every year.'

The well-buffed new Oriole was born in West Frankfort, Ill., Dec. 7, 1930, but has lived most of his life in Detroit. His father is a painting decorator and Hal pursues the same occupation in the off-season. He has a younger sister, Pearl, and a brother, George, now playing second base at Michigan State, whom Hal hopes the Orioles sign when he graduates next year.

Looking and reminiscing of his days in the minors, Hal tells of the time he was catching at Beaumont in a game against Oklahoma City. 'Tom Tatum was managing Oklahoma City and coaching at third base. I forget who was hitting. Anyhow, Tatum didn't like a called strike and came storming at the umpire.

'He got himself worked up to a point where he was really wild. He started acting like Tom Mix, the cowboy. He was playing he had guns and was going to shoot the umpire. Then he made like he was riding a horse. It was the derndest thing you ever saw.

'Finally, Tatum starting moving his arms like he was a butterfly and the police had to come on the field to get him to leave. Never saw anything like that in my life before.'

The name Hal Smith, incidentally, has made for some confusion, especially last year when he was on 'loan' to the Cardinal system. The Cards, you see, also have a catcher in their organization named Hal Smith. He's at Houston this year but Hal (Oriole) Smith and Hal (Cardinal) Smith have never met- even though people continue to get their names crossed.

Last summer Stengel was asked what he was going to do with the two most talked-about young catchers in the high minors. Reference was to Elston Howard, the Negro catcher on option to Toronto in the International League, and Smith at Columbus.

'Well,' said Case, 'Smith is a better catcher than Howard right now. But we sent Howard up to Toronto so Luke Sewell could work with him. I wanted to take another look at Smith before we sent him out but he got the virus bug, or something, coming North and was a sick boy. I don't know which one will be the better bet for the future as both have different things to recommend them.'

With Berra to contend with, it meant that either Smith or Howard would be surplus and 'bait' for trading. Richards made his bid for the former. He gave up Turley, Larsen and Hunter and came away with Smith, Gus Triandos, Gene Woodling, Don Leppert, Jim McDonald, Harry Byrd, Bill Miller, Kal Segrist and Willie Miranda.

Moving Turley to the Yankees was supposed to win the pennant. Maybe it will. All Richards knows is that with Smith squatting behind home plate, he didn't get shut out."

-John Steadman (Baseball Digest, July 1955)

"The Orioles hope that Hal will add plenty of hits to the lineup in '55. Judging by his minor league record, there's every reason to believe he won't disappoint them.

Hal batted .363 for Newark in '50 with 108 RBIs. At Quincy in '51 he batted .308 and in '53 for Birmingham batted .311. Last season he was the star of the American Association and he won the batting title."

-1955 Topps No. 8

"The leading hitter of the American Association in 1954, Hal joins the Orioles this year. In 1950 at Newark he hit a sizzling .363 and batted .311 for Birmingham in '53."

-1955 Topps  Doubleheader No. 70

1955 Yankee Prospect of the Past: Hank Foiles

"Hank Foiles, a catcher built like a fullback, handled the rapid Herb Score effortlessly last year and should make it with him. He has a fine arm but needs polish defensively. His .332 average included 17 homers."

-Herbert Simons, Baseball Digest, March 1955

1955 Yankee of the Past: Clint Courtney

HE BOASTS THE HIGHEST BATTLING AVERAGE
Brash Courtney Holds Modern Record For Times At Battle
"Clinton Dawson Courtney, baseball's belligerent, brash and bespectacled backstop, first came to the attention of White Sox General Manager Frank Lane in 1950. This was on a day when the cocky catcher's chatter and spirit spurred Rogers Hornsby's Beaumont club of the Texas League to an exhibition victory over the Sox. Following the game Lane told Hornsby:
'That Courtney's an old-time tobacco-chew type of player, like Nellie Fox and Burrhead Fain. There aren't enough of 'em left in the majors. Too bad the little son-of-a-gun wears glasses.'
With a snort, Hornsby predicted: 'Glasses or not, Courtney'll fight his way to the big leagues.'
Hornsby's prophecy hit the bullseye. Clint actually DID fight his way to the majors, throwing punches and insults as readily as baseballs. In 1951 Courtney was in spring training with the Yankees,  having since become his sworn enemies, and volunteering critical appraisals on the ability of some the world champions' pitching standouts.
One season and several fights later found Clint wearing a St. Louis Browns uniform, promoting more interesting fistic contests than anything ever presented by the International Boxing Club, and gaining designation as the American League's rookie of the year.
But the finest endorsement ever given the ex-cotton picker came last winter, when the foxy Lane baited a trading hook and snared Courtney- spectacles and all- from Baltimore's Orioles.
White Sox Field Manager Marty Marion, who was exposed to Courtney with the Browns, prefers to think of him as 'the Toy Bulldog,' a tag Clint traces to Dizzy Dean.
When Lane first attempted to make 1955 salary negotiations, Courtney's response was a reminder that the Sox should know that they were dickering with a prize catcher instead of a bench jockey.
But it was Bill Veeck, the former St. Louis Browns' owner, who encountered the diamond's leading financial shark at his best. After that excellent rookie season, Courtney set a $12,000 price tag on his 1953 services. He offered a logical explanation.
'When you got it, you got it,' observed Courtney. 'I got it.'
Veeck obliged by mailing the scrapper a contract for $11,000. Courtney's reply read:
'Dear Veeck: I changed my mind. I want $14,000, not $12,000. Clint.'
The letter illustrates the steady rise of the battler who joined the Yankee organization in 1947 for an $850 bonus, $250 of it in cash and $600 of it contingent on an impressive showing. Courtney lost no time in making the impressive showing.
The Yankees sent him to Beaumont, where he caught four games before being shipped to Bisbee of the Arizona-Texas League. At Bisbee, Courtney participated in 114 games and one spectacular brawl. Courtney, of course, paid no more attention to the fracas than to a haircut, but it had a keen influence on the baseball careers of two players with Phoenix, the team Bisbee was engaging when the fireworks exploded.
Courtney went into second base with spikes high, butchering the hand of Phoenix's playing manager. The manager took aim at Courtney's jaw. This proved a mistake. The manager suffered a fractured hand that ended his playing days.
Phoenix put a young pepperpot named Billy Martin on second base. He was so proficient he subsequently moved to the Yankees, where he was to figure in a pair of Courtney's finest rough-and-tumbles.
One came in midseason of 1952, when a punchfest between Courtney and Martin saw an umpire knocked down and Clint slapped with a $100 fine and a three-day suspension. Observers report that trouble began to brew when Clint's spikes caught Martin, causing the Yankee to drop the ball. Later in the game, Clint again barrelled down the basepaths. This time Billy was waiting and planted the ball forcefully between Clint's eyes. Fists flew.
Courtney obtained a rematch with the Yankees. It cost Courtney $250, and Billy Hunter, his Brownie teammate, $150. Yankees assessed fines for enthusiastic participation in the Donnybrook were: Martin, $150; Allie Reynolds, $100, and Gil McDougald, $100.
Tempers first flared in the top of the tenth inning when McDougald, an old Beaumont buddy, charged home as Courtney blocked the plate. They collided. Courtney took one direction, his shatterproof spectacles another, and the ball a third, while McDougald scored what became the winning run.
Clint led off in the Browns' last time at bat and slammed the ball to the right-field fence. Going into second base, he trampled Phil Rizzuto. This was the signal for the Yankees to swarm out en masse. An army of Browns flocked to meet the challenge. Fans showered the field with bottles, and play was suspended for 17 minutes.
Two months later Clint defended his title as baseball's number one cyclone by brawling with the Tigers. This cost him $100.
Opposing players are not the only ones to suffer Courtney's fury. The brown-eyed, squat catcher (he's five-eight and weighs 180) has turned on teammates. One drew a shower of punches because he kibitzed Clint in a card game. Two teammates became embroiled at separate times because Clint estimated they were not showing the proper spirit during a game.
The scrapping Irish catcher was born on St. Patrick's eve, 1927, in Hall Summit, Louisiana, the son of a tenant farmer. Cotton picking, not baseball, was the first trade the youngster learned.
Work in the Arkansas oil fields followed. Later, during World War II, he became a welder in a Texas ship yard. Along the route, Courtney had developed into a proficient ball player.
A call to the Army in 1945 caused no delay to Clint's baseball development since he promptly was assigned to catch for a Service team. The Yankees were waiting to greet Courtney with a contract when he left the Army in 1947.
The stays at Beaumont and Bisbee were followed by employment with Augusta of the Sally League and Norfolk of the Piedmont League in 1948. The 1949 campaign found him opening with Manchester in the New England League and winding up in Norfolk, where his .349 Manchester average was whittled to .243.
The return to Beaumont came in 1950, and Clint quickly earned the admiration of Hornsby. It was Hornsby's recommendation that sent Clint to camp with the Yankees the following spring.
Unfortunately for Clint, the Yankees also had veteran Yogi Berra in camp, and when their Kansas City farm club needed a catcher it wasn't Berra who was dispatched.
After the season, the Yankees traded Courtney to the Browns, where Veeck had taken charge as owner and Hornsby had been signed as manager. Also on hand, as player-coach, was Marty Marion, who succeeded Hornsby as manager following a player insurrection. One of Marion's first remembrances of Courtney centers on an attempt to coach the rookie catcher.
'I still think my way is better,' said Courtney after Marion had given his demonstration.
'That was a sample of Courtney's self-confidence,' recalls Marty, who inherited the Sox manager's mantle last season. 'He wants to be the game's best catcher.'
Well, Courtney is not baseball's best catcher. He's probably not even baseball's meanest man. But you have to go along with the appraisal that he's its most determined one!"

-David Condon, Chicago Tribune (Baseball Digest, June 1955)

"The scrappy little catcher was traded to the White Sox during the off-season between 1954 and 1955. Clint was with the Baltimore Orioles in 1954 and appeared in 122 games for them. He batted .270 and had 107 hits for a total of 143 bases. These included 18 doubles, three triples and five homers. He had 37 runs batted in and scored 25.
Clint began in baseball in 1947. He worked up through the Yankee chain and first came to the majors with them at the end of the 1951 season for one game. He was traded to the St. Louis Browns for 1952. Clint hit .286 in 119 games that year."

-1955 Bowman No. 34

1955 Yankee of the Past: Tom Sheehan

A W.T.B.U. MAN
"Tom Sheehan, New York Giants scout and a former right-handed pitcher of considerable minor and some major league fame, was telling about some of his experiences with the Philadelphia Athletics years ago.
That was back when Connie Mack's club was having its troubles just as it had this year.
'In those days we were so hard up for players that anyone could come in off the street and get a tryout,' Sheehan explained.
'This particular day I was hitting fungoes to the outfield and Donie Bush was hitting to the infield.
'There was a young fellow in left field, but the first thing I knew he was in center field, then in right field and eventually at third base and short.
'Donie turned to me and said, 'I wonder where that guy plays.'
'I said, 'I don't know, but let's find out,' so I called to him and told him to come to us.'
' 'Son,' I asked, 'where do you play? What is your best position?'
'He hesitated and then said, 'Oh, I play most any place but I'm best as a backer-up for wild throws.'
' 'You got a job with this club,' Bush said. 'We need somebody like you.' ' "

-Sec Taylor in the Des Moines Register (Baseball Digest, November 1954)