The Player Who Got Away From Rickey
Aug 01, 2021Posted by james
As a young man, he starred in basketball at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. He also played baseball for an amateur team in the Coney Island Sports League, informally known as the Ice Cream League, and then enrolled at the University of Cincinnati to pursue a career as an architect.
Sports, though, tugged at him. He played for his school’s varsity baseball team as a freshman. He struck out 51 batters in 31 innings with his fastball.
He had a tryout with the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. He was so nervous that he forgot to bring his glove. His pitches were wild and the Giants passed on him. He then traveled to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, where Branch Rickey watched with a scout. A former major league catcher crouched behind the plate. The young man threw harder and harder until one pitch broke the catcher’s thumb though it was protected by the mitt.
Rickey said that he thought the pitcher had the best arm he had ever seen in the game, and considered providing the young man with a generous signing package of approximately $15,000.
The star of the Ice Cream League and Lafayette High School chose to think about it. He went home and then decided to try out with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The team’s chief scout, Al Campanis, stood in the batter’s box. The moment was memorable, with the scout indicating that only twice did the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. The first was when he saw Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and the second was when he saw that fastball.
The young pitcher, who received a $20,000 package from the Dodgers, figured that at least it would cover tuition for college if baseball timed out too soon. His arm finally forced him to retire as a young man, but not until his sports career lasted longer than he had expected and hoped. He had pitched so dominantly that he quickly entered the game’s Hall of Fame.
For one of the few times in baseball, Branch Rickey did not get his player. The man who promoted Jackie Robinson, despite all the backlash hitting him square on the jaw as he tried to right a wrong in the game and society, just could not sign one of the few Jewish players at the time.
Sandy Koufax would take Rickey’s former Dodgers, though mostly in Los Angeles now, to new heights during the 1960s.
by james on Aug 01, 2021 |
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