Walt Dropo was the first Boston Red Sox player ever to win the American League Rookie of the Year award.
He won it in 1950 despite starting the year in the minor leagues. He was called up only after first baseman Billy Goodman suffered an injury, according to this July 19, 1993 Sports Illustrated article.
He was a 27-year-old major league rookie, too, “because his college career at the University of Connecticut had been interrupted by three years of service in Europe during World War II,” according to the Sports Illustrated article.
Dropo was a three-sport star at UConn, playing baseball, football and basketball.
He died just last month on Dec. 17, 2010. An article on the UConn athletic website stated that Dropo is recognized as the greatest three-sport star in UConn athletic history. It also states he “completed his college career in 1946-47 as Connecticut’s all-time leading scorer in basketball and more than 60 years later still ranks No. 2 all-time at UConn in career scoring average at 20.7 per game.”
The Sports Illustrated article stated that Dropo had offers from the Chicago Bears and from Providence in the Basketball Association of America, but instead chose to sign with the Red Sox.
“I never thought about basketball.” Dropo told Sports Illustrated in 1993. “I really wasn’t that good. I was big. That’s all you needed then. I couldn’t do any of the things they do today. Football, I don’t know if I could have made the Bears. I was an end, and they had great ends. My first love, anyway, was baseball.”
Dropo had a sensational rookie season for the Red Sox. He led the league in RBIs (144) and total bases (326). He hit 34 home runs, and for a .322 batting average and recorded a .378 on-base percentage.
Dropo played for five different teams during his 13-year major league career and never again batted for a .300 or better average in a season after his rookie year. He finished his career with a .270 batting average, 152 home runs and 704 RBIs.
“I had a .270 career average, which doesn’t look so bad these days,” Dropo said in the 1993 Sports Illustated article. “That’s what I was, a .270 hitter with some power. I look at that year, and what I had going for me was I got a lot of good pitches. Our lineup was so strong that pitchers had to challenge the rookie. I got the pitches. I hit them. That was the story.”
In 1950, Dropo was surrounded by some terrific hitters in the Red Sox batting order. The 1950 Red Sox offense was the only Boston offense in club history to score more than 1,000 runs and to hit for a .300 batting average or better. The team scored 1,027 runs and posted a .302 team batting average. And it scored that many runs in just a 154-game schedule. The team hit 161 homers and ranked first in the American League in runs (1,027), hits (1,665), doubles (287), batting average (.302), on-base percentage (.385), slugging percentage (.464), OPS (.848) and total bases (2,557).
The 1950 team included Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr as well as Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio.
Doerr hit .294 with 27 home runs, 120 RBIs and a .367 on-base percentage.
Shortstop Vern Stephens hit 30 homers, drove in 144 runs, batted for a .295 average, and had an OBP of .361. He scored 125 runs.
Pesky hit .312 with one home run, 49 RBIs and a .437 OBP.
Outfielder Al Zarilla hit .325 with nine home runs and 74 RBIs and .423 OBP.
Williams, who played in only 89 games because of a fractured elbow, hit 28 homers, drove in 97 runs and hit for a .317 batting average. He recorded a .452 OBP and a 1.099 OPS.
DiMaggio hit .328 with seven homers, 70 RBIs and a .414 OBP.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
A video on the Homestead Grays:
MLB HALL OF FAMER OF THE DAY
Larry Doby.
Doby was the second African-American player, behind Jackie Robinson, to play in modern day Major League Baseball.
A center fielder, he broke into the major leagues with the Cleveland Indians in 1947, hitting just .156 in 29 games. But he had a much better season in 1948, batting .301 with 14 homers and 66 RBIs.
He led the American League in home runs in 1952 with 32. He led the league in home runs (32) and RBIs (126) in 1954, a year in which he finished second in the MVP voting behind Yogi Berra.
During his 13-year MLB career, Doby hit 253 homers, knocked in 970 runs, hit for a .283 batting average, a .386 on-base percentage, scored 960 runs and stroked 1,515 hits.
Doby was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1998.
Here is his page on the Baseball Hall of Fame website.
Here is a video of him:
MLB STATISTIC OF THE DAY
Ty Cobb has the highest career batting average in MLB history (minimum 3,000 plate appearances).
- 1. Ty Cobb (.3664)
- 2. Rogers Hornsby (.3585)
- 3. Shoeless Joe Jackson (.3558)
- 4. Lefty O’Doul (.3493)
- 5. Ed Delahanty (.3458)
- 6. Tris Speaker (.3447)
- 7t. Billy Hamilton (.3444)
- 7t. Ted Williams (.3444)
- 9t. Dan Brouthers (.3421)
- 9t. Babe Ruth (.3421)
Statistics from Baseball-Reference.com
TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY
What year did Orlando Cepeda play for the Red Sox?
Answer to yesterday’s trivia question: Pete Runnels won his batting titles with the Red Sox in 1960 (.320 average) and 1962 (.326).
