PLAY BALL!...BATTER UP!!

With the World Series set to start next week I was in a baseball frame of mind this weekend and dug out some of my old baseball bats just for the fun of it and old times sake. Typically (for me) there is a story behind several of these old chunks of ash dating back to my playing days in the early 1950's.

Perhaps the most unique bat in my collection (see above photo) is not really a bat per se, but a miniature Hillerich & Bradsby replica bearing the signature of Billy Rogell, an old Detroit Tiger in the 1930's. Rogell actually presented this bat to me at a banquet honoring members of a Dresden Legion-sponsored team that won the Ontario Juvenile "C" championship in 1953.

Billy Rogell

Billy Rogell played 14 seasons in the big leagues, mostly for the Detroit Tigers. He appeared in two World Series. Rogell was in 1,235 games at shortstop, but also in 104 at third base and 78 at second base. He came up originally at age 20 with the Boston Red Sox in 1925. After being out of the majors in 1929, he came back in 1930 with the Tigers. During his big league career, he was one of the best fielding shortstops in the league (despite committing as many as 51 errors in a season). From 1932 to 1938, he finished in the top five in shortstop fielding percentage, leading the league in that statistic twice.

Rogell's New York Times obituary remembered him as Charlie Gehringer's double-play mate, and also as part of an infield that drove in 462 runs in 1934 - 139 for Hank Greenberg, 127 for Gehringer, 100 for Rogell and 96 for Marv Owen.

In a strange play in the 1934 World Series, a throw by Rogell knocked out Dizzy Dean who was pinch-running. It led to the quite possibly apochryphal headline "X-Rays of Dean's Head Revealed Nothing". Rogell worked as a minor league manager with the Lancaster (PA) Red Roses for part of the 1941 season.  After his baseball days Rogell was on the Detroit City Council for 36 years of a 38-year period ending in 1980.

I hit two home runs with the big brown Spalding bat bearing the autograph of major league star Barney McCowsky (also shown in the photo) in an Ontario Junior "C" championship final game played against a Niagara district all-star team in Chippewa the following season (1954). Of particular significance was the fact that I had never previously connected for a four-bagger in organized minor baseball. Oddly enough this was a particularly long 36-inch bat and at 16-years-of-age I should not have been using it at the plate.

Barney McCosky

William Barney McCosky was an outfielder in Major League Baseball. From 1939 through 1953, he played for the Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. McCosky batted left-handed and threw right-handed. McCosky played in 1170 games, 535 in center field and 477 in left field.

The other bat in the photo was a more reasonably-sized 34-inch "Al Kaline Louisville Slugger" Hillerich and Bradsby model that was always a favorite, whenever I could get one, later in my career. It was Flame Tempered, surprisingly a grade below the more common Powerized bat, but ideally weighted and suited to my swing and grip, particularly when connecting with inside pitches. I put a few out of the park in the 1960's with this one too. 

Al Kaline

Al Kaline, nicknamed "Mr. Tiger" and needing no introduction, was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers. For most of his career, Kaline played in the outfield, mainly as a right fielder where he won ten Gold Glove Awards and was known for his strong throwing arm. He was selected to 18 All-Star Games, including selections each year between 1955 and 1967. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, his first time on the ballot. Near the end of his career, Kaline also played as first baseman and, in his last season, was the Tigers' designated hitter.

*It should be noted that all of the abovementioned bats were Canadian made, Hillerich & Bradsby being manufactured in my hometown of Dresden in the 1930s and 40s before the entire operation was moved back to Louisville, KY. headquarters in about 1956. The Spalding bat may have been made in St. Marys or Hespler.