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| George Selkirk, left, and his arm rasslin' buddy the Great Lou Gehrig. |
Danny Gallagher is a freelance writer, author, and Montreal Expos historian. He began covering the Expos in 1988 for the Montreal Daily News. He is the author of five books on the Expos. In recent years, he has been a regular contributor to the Canadian Baseball Network website. He lives in Uxbridge, Ontario and is a native of Renfrew County where he himself was a pretty good baseball player in his day. I have followed Danny's writings for years and consider him one of the best. I have been particularly impressed with his recent story on the little heralded George Selkirk who played for the New York Yankees after inheriting Babe Ruth's famous No. 3. Here is the story which was featured the National Post. You will be surprised at the detail on the life and career of George Selkirk never before revealed as far as I know. *Photos are from my archival search.
HUNTSVILLE, Ontario — He’s this town’s forgotten baseball hero. He succeeded Babe Ruth in right field for the Yankees, played on five World Series championships, was a six-time all-star and is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The case for George Selkirk: Why the man who replaced Babe Ruth deserves some attention from his Ontario home town.
Few people know about George Selkirk, even in the pretty tourist town where he spent most of his childhood.
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| GEORGE SELKIRK |
I’ve spent countless hours trying to get George Selkirk some local recognition,’’ Haynes said. “Huntsville is a lacrosse and hockey community so it was difficult for them (politicians) to recognize the significance of a person who left town at age seven as one of their own.
“There are so many layers to this story — I think my favourite is that Selkirk is credited with inventing the warning track.”
He left as a child, but Selkirk’s roots in the town were deep.
Selkirk’s father, Bill, was born in Huntsville in 1872. He was the town’s police chief from 1904-08, and was a funeral director, firefighter, farmer, carpenter and stone cutter. His own dad — the ballplayer’s grandfather — had been the town’s second official municipal bell-ringer, and was the bridge turner when the town’s first swing bridge was erected in 1902, manually opening and closing the bridge to let steamships through.
Bill Selkirk moved his family — wife Margaret, sons George and Donald and daughter Pauline — in 1918 to nearby Midland, when George was 10, and then later to Rochester, New York. At Rochester Technical School, young George became a catching phenom and began attracting the attention of scouts.
He played in the minors for years, including a stop in Toronto in 1932 for a pathetic Toronto Maple Leafs team that finished 54-1/2 games out of first place with a 54-113 record. In 90 games, Selkirk had a .287 batting average with 11 home runs for Toronto, which at the time was a Double-A farm team of the Detroit Tigers.
He made stops in Jersey City, N.J., Cambridge, Md., Columbus, Ohio, Newark, N.J. and Rochester (in both 1927 and 1933). He got married on June 23, 1931, to Norma Fox, whom he had met in Rochester. Their only child, Betty, was born in 1933.
“Norma had not had much of a life before George,’’ said son-in-law Bill Hine, who ran Selkirk’s estate from his home in Harrisonville, Pa. “Her family, they were egg producers in a small town in between Rochester and Syracuse. Norma’s family lived a life of poverty.’’
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| George (right) with Joe DiMaggio and Tommy Henrich. |
batting .313 with five homers and 38 runs-batted-in (RBI).
“His nickname was Twinkletoes,” Hine said. “The reason for that is that his feet hurt and so he ran up (he also walked) on his toes. His daughter Betty … used to walk on his back when he’d come home from a day at Yankee Stadium. She would walk on his back on the bed at George’s insistence to make him feel better so he could loosen up the muscles.
It was midway through the 1935 season that Selkirk told reporters that a “six-foot cinder warning track” should be installed at ballparks to warn players about the oncoming outfield fence. Some 14 years later, Major League Baseball implemented his idea.
In 1936, Selkirk was also exemplary with a .308 average, 18 homers and 107 RBI. Selkirk’s numbers in 1937 and 1938 slipped due to injuries but he rebounded in 1939 with 21 homers, 101 RBIs and a .306 average. In 1941 and 1942, he got very little playing time with the Yankees.
Selkirk had the privilege of rooming on the road with ironman Lou Gehrig. Despite the wrestling skills he honed at Rochester Technical School, Selkirk lost most of the playful skirmishes he had with the Popeye-strong Gehrig.
“They rassled and rassled in a hotel room because hotels in those days didn’t have much to offer in the way of a workout room,’’ Hine said.
“Lou was stronger. Lou was winning most of the matches even though George was well configured and he was a man that kept in shape,” Hine said. “He didn’t put on pounds. I never saw George looking like a businessman. He always looked like he was an athlete.”
But Gehrig began to succumb to the disease that eventually took his life. It started with something subtle in one of those hotel room wrestling battles.
“One day, Lou all of a sudden went limp. George didn’t want to hurt him,” Hine said.
So Selkirk backed off, surprised.
“Lou, what’s wrong?” Selkirk asked Gehrig.
“I don’t know,” Gehrig replied.
“Lou professed innocence,” Hine said. “He just didn’t know. That was the start … a sensitivity that something was wrong. That was before the Lou Gehrig Day at the ballpark (July 4, 1939).”
Soon after, Gehrig ended his consecutive-games streak of 2,130 and never played another game. He died on June 2, 1941.
Selkirk also played with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, and played under legendary manager Joe McCarthy. He was enchanted by a glorious life in the Big Apple.
“George enjoyed the notoriety and the fancy cars. He lived a good life,” Hine said. “They may not have had the money celebrities have these days but they were celebrities nonetheless.”
Feeling a wartime duty to his second country, Selkirk enlisted in the U.S. Navy and earned the rank of ensign as an aerial gunner while coaching naval recruits in shooting. Upon returning from the war, he gave up the game as a player after he was released by the Yankees prior to spring training in 1946 and after he had a brief stint in the minors in Newark.
Selkirk’s impressive MLB resumé included six all-star selections and five seasons of batting over .300. He was arguably one of Canada’s finest baseball players in the first half of the 20th century.
Selkirk became a minor league manager for more than 10 years. While managing in Binghamton, N.Y., in 1949, his pupils included future Yankees greats Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle. Ford was about 20 and took a liking to the manager’s daughter, Betty, who was a mere 16.
“Betty was an athlete herself. She often threw batting practice and Whitey hit the ball,” Hine said. “They went on two dates but it didn’t take. Betty decided, ‘I don’t want to be married to a baseball player.’”
After Babe Ruth was released in 1935 and signed with the Boston Red Sox, Selkirk became a regular in right field. Much to the consternation of Ruth and his supporters, he wore the Bambino’s No. 3.
“In his first game at Yankee Stadium with the Yankees, George was greeted with boos,’’ Hine said. “They retire numbers like that today but I think an organization like the Yankees was different in the 1930s.’’
Selkirk told reporters in the 1930s that he “was just cocky enough” to say wearing Ruth’s number wouldn’t make him a “nervous” person.
“I got his job and it took a long time for people to forgive me,” Selkirk said. “Instead of just being another outfielder, one who was no (Tris) Speaker or (Earle) Combs in the outfield, I was expected to make the fans forget one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Ruth.
“Did I worry? Well, I tried not to. Ruth, you know, always had been my baseball hero. But never had I thought I would be taking his place.”
Selkirk enjoyed a tremendous 1935, including an eight-RBI game on Aug. 10. He finished with a .312 average with 11 homers and 94 RBI.
It was midway through the 1935 season that Selkirk told reporters that a “six-foot cinder warning track” should be installed at ballparks to warn players about the oncoming outfield fence. Some 14 years later, Major League Baseball implemented his idea.
In 1936, Selkirk was also exemplary with a .308 average, 18 homers and 107 RBI. Selkirk’s numbers in 1937 and 1938 slipped due to injuries but he rebounded in 1939 with 21 homers, 101 RBIs and a .306 average. In 1941 and 1942, he got very little playing time with the Yankees.
Selkirk had the privilege of rooming on the road with ironman Lou Gehrig. Despite the wrestling skills he honed at Rochester Technical School, Selkirk lost most of the playful skirmishes he had with the Popeye-strong Gehrig.
“They rassled and rassled in a hotel room because hotels in those days didn’t have much to offer in the way of a workout room,’’ Hine said.
“Lou was stronger. Lou was winning most of the matches even though George was well configured and he was a man that kept in shape,” Hine said. “He didn’t put on pounds. I never saw George looking like a businessman. He always looked like he was an athlete.”
But Gehrig began to succumb to the disease that eventually took his life. It started with something subtle in one of those hotel room wrestling battles.
“One day, Lou all of a sudden went limp. George didn’t want to hurt him,” Hine said.
So Selkirk backed off, surprised.
“Lou, what’s wrong?” Selkirk asked Gehrig.
“I don’t know,” Gehrig replied.
“Lou professed innocence,” Hine said. “He just didn’t know. That was the start … a sensitivity that something was wrong. That was before the Lou Gehrig Day at the ballpark (July 4, 1939).”
Soon after, Gehrig ended his consecutive-games streak of 2,130 and never played another game. He died on June 2, 1941.
Selkirk also played with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, and played under legendary manager Joe McCarthy. He was enchanted by a glorious life in the Big Apple.
“George enjoyed the notoriety and the fancy cars. He lived a good life,” Hine said. “They may not have had the money celebrities have these days but they were celebrities nonetheless.”
Feeling a wartime duty to his second country, Selkirk enlisted in the U.S. Navy and earned the rank of ensign as an aerial gunner while coaching naval recruits in shooting. Upon returning from the war, he gave up the game as a player after he was released by the Yankees prior to spring training in 1946 and after he had a brief stint in the minors in Newark.
Selkirk’s impressive MLB resumé included six all-star selections and five seasons of batting over .300. He was arguably one of Canada’s finest baseball players in the first half of the 20th century.
Selkirk became a minor league manager for more than 10 years. While managing in Binghamton, N.Y., in 1949, his pupils included future Yankees greats Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle. Ford was about 20 and took a liking to the manager’s daughter, Betty, who was a mere 16.
“Betty was an athlete herself. She often threw batting practice and Whitey hit the ball,” Hine said. “They went on two dates but it didn’t take. Betty decided, ‘I don’t want to be married to a baseball player.’”
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| George encouraging young rookie Mickey Mantle before he broke into the Majors. |
While Selkirk was managing in Toledo, Ohio, in 1953, Betty married Hine, whom she had met through a roommate.
Selkirk moved up to the executive suite as director of player personnel with the Kansas City Athletics from 1957-59. From 1960-62, he was the field co-ordinator of player development for the Baltimore Orioles, and then was named general manager of the Washington Senators.
“I was present because of George when JFK threw out his last ball to start the baseball season,” Hine said. “There was a luncheon for JFK in the Senators’ lunch room. I sat 10 rows behind the president during the game. It was pretty special.”
When he was let go by the Senators in 1969, Selkirk returned to the Yankees as a scout for another 15 years. He and Norma moved to south Florida from Rochester permanently. Hine joked that his father-in-law’s golf score was the same as the age when he died: 79.
He bought the condo with cash, thanks to some good advice from an old boss.
Player salaries back in Selkirk’s day were small and he earned at the most $18,000 a season, but he had listened to Senators co-owner and president James M. Johnston, an investment banker, when he was the team’s GM.
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“He said, ‘George, you’ve got to be saving money for your retirement. You don’t have a formal plan.’” said Hine.
“George bought a rest-home stock and other stocks. If it weren’t for Mr. Johnston, George probably would have died penniless. I think George lived for 10 or 15 more years (financially) because of Mr. Johnston’s advice.”
When he died of cancer on Jan. 19, 1987, his estate was worth close to $500,000, which he bequeathed to Hine. It likely would have been higher, save for the thieves who hit Hines’ Fort Lauderdale condo in the 1960s and stole five World Series rings and other memorabilia.
Hine is Selkirk’s only surviving relative, and is tickled at the prospect his father-in-law will be honoured by his hometown.
“I would love to be at any ceremony in Huntsville. I would love very much to be there,” Hine said.
Huntsville’s Haynes hopes that happens soon. He said he has been given “preliminary” support for his plan to have Diamond F at the McCulley Robertson Recreation Park named the Selkirk Diamond.
“In my mind, the story of George Selkirk has not been told enough,” said Haynes.
Selkirk moved up to the executive suite as director of player personnel with the Kansas City Athletics from 1957-59. From 1960-62, he was the field co-ordinator of player development for the Baltimore Orioles, and then was named general manager of the Washington Senators.
“I was present because of George when JFK threw out his last ball to start the baseball season,” Hine said. “There was a luncheon for JFK in the Senators’ lunch room. I sat 10 rows behind the president during the game. It was pretty special.”
When he was let go by the Senators in 1969, Selkirk returned to the Yankees as a scout for another 15 years. He and Norma moved to south Florida from Rochester permanently. Hine joked that his father-in-law’s golf score was the same as the age when he died: 79.
He bought the condo with cash, thanks to some good advice from an old boss.
Player salaries back in Selkirk’s day were small and he earned at the most $18,000 a season, but he had listened to Senators co-owner and president James M. Johnston, an investment banker, when he was the team’s GM.
Article content
“He said, ‘George, you’ve got to be saving money for your retirement. You don’t have a formal plan.’” said Hine.
“George bought a rest-home stock and other stocks. If it weren’t for Mr. Johnston, George probably would have died penniless. I think George lived for 10 or 15 more years (financially) because of Mr. Johnston’s advice.”
When he died of cancer on Jan. 19, 1987, his estate was worth close to $500,000, which he bequeathed to Hine. It likely would have been higher, save for the thieves who hit Hines’ Fort Lauderdale condo in the 1960s and stole five World Series rings and other memorabilia.
Hine is Selkirk’s only surviving relative, and is tickled at the prospect his father-in-law will be honoured by his hometown.
“I would love to be at any ceremony in Huntsville. I would love very much to be there,” Hine said.
Huntsville’s Haynes hopes that happens soon. He said he has been given “preliminary” support for his plan to have Diamond F at the McCulley Robertson Recreation Park named the Selkirk Diamond.
“In my mind, the story of George Selkirk has not been told enough,” said Haynes.
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| Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees George Selkirk, left, and Penetanguishene's Phil Marchildron. |
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