Remembering Baseball Legends Lost (Pt. 2)

Sometimes, we miss making due tribute to those who left us in a given year, but also left us even a single memory over the years, never mind coaching two from the Orient to MLB greatness. Or, in one case, a baby step toward the liberation of Major League Baseball players. Remember these gentlemen, too. They became safe at home in 2005:

Bob Carpenter — The 1940s pitcher for the New York Giants, not the longtime Philadelphia Phillies owner. He had his best of five major league seasons with the 1941 Giants, going 11-6 in 19 starts and 10 relief appearances. Divided his final big league season (1947) between the Giants and the Chicago Cubs. He talked his father into moving the family to Florida for the sake of the old man's health, and attended a baseball school (where he learned a sharp curve ball) run by his future manager, Hall of Famer Bill Terry.

Danny Gardella — An outfielder whom the New York Giants discovered working in a wartime shipyard in his native New York, Gardella had a promising 1945 (18 bombs, 71 RBI, .426 slugging percentage), but spurned a $4,500 1946 contract, jumped to the Mexican League ... and sued to challenge baseball's old reserve system, after Commissioner Happy Chandler blacklisted all the major leaguers who jumped to the Mexican League. (Those included St. Louis Cardinals pitching star Max Lanier and future New York Giants pitching star Sal Maglie.)

The lawsuit argued that Gardella was bound by clause, but not by actual contract. A federal district court threw the suit out in 1948, but a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1949 that the Gardella suit deserved to go to trial — a ruling that shook baseball into settling with the outfielder for $29,000 and lifting the Mexican League blacklist. Gardella signed with but played only one game for the 1950 St. Louis Cardinals, but his suit proved a significant step toward the eventual elimination of the old reserve system.

Kent Hadley — A spare part first baseman for the late 1950s Kansas City Athletics and the 1960 New York Yankees, Hadley had a better playing career in Japan, for seven seasons with the Nankai Hawks following his major league days. He was the first non-Japanese player to hit one over the fence in his first at-bat in Japan (tagging an outbound fastball from Junichi Nakajima), and he evened up the 1964 Japan Series against Yomiuri at two games each with a 14th-inning, walk-off bomb off Minoru Murayama. He once said his time in Japan enabled him to play under three Hall of Fame managers: Rod Dedeaux (the legendary USC baseball coach is in ABCA Hall of Fame), Casey Stengel, and Kazuto Tsuruoka (Japan Hall of Fame).

But Hadley is probably remembered best for being part of the trade that made a Yankee out of Roger Maris: Maris, Hadley, and middle infielder Joe DeMaestri were shipped to the Yankees for former World Series perfectionist Don Larsen, outfielders Hank Bauer and Norm Siebern, and future Original Met legend Marv Throneberry.

Eddie Miksis — Immortalized in "The Chicago Cubs, Overdue," by George F. Will: "Every litter must have its runt, but my Cubs were almost all runts. Topps baseball bubble-gum cards always struggled to say something nice about each player. All they could say about Cubs' infielder Eddie Miksis was that in 1951 he was 10th in the league in stolen bases, with 11." But they also could have said Miksis was the pinch-runner (for Pete Reiser) who scored the game-winning run, when Brooklyn Dodgers pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto's walk-off double wrecked New York Yankee pitcher Bill Bevens's bid for the first no-hitter in World Series history, in 1947.

They were probably too nice to say, however, that Miksis was one of the principals in a deal that caused an unidentified Dodger executive to crow, "Gentlemen, we have just traded for the pennant" — the utility infielder was swapped with catcher Bruce Edwards, outfielder Gene Hermanski, and pitcher Joe Hatten to the Cubs for three spare parts (infielder Wayne Terwilliger, catcher Rube Walker — later, the man who coached the splendid New York Mets pitching staffs of 1967-73 to greatness — and pitcher Johnny Schmitz), and respected left fielder Andy Pafko.

Akira Ogi — Kintetsu and Orix manager in Japan, whom Hideo Nomo (at Kintetsu) and Ichiro Suzuki (at Orix) credited with coaching them to MLB readiness. Ichiro in particular felt beholden to Ogi, who rebuilt his confidence after his previous manager, Shozo Doi, believed Ichiro wouldn't hit with his batting style. (This suggests, too, that Ogi encouraged rather than tried to alter Nomo's distinctive straight-overhead stop-time windup and corkscrew, arm-straight-back delivery.) According to JapanBaseballDaily.com's Gary Garland, Ichiro was so grief stricken by Ogi's death that he went into seclusion for three days and declined to speak to reporters.

Marius Russo — Pitcher for the 1939-43 and 1946 New York Yankees, who won 14 regular season games twice (in 1940 and 1941), but proved deadly in the World Series. He started against and beat Fred Fitzsimmons and the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-1 on a four-hitter in the third game of the 1941 Series, and beating the St. Louis Cardinals and (in relief) eventual 1946 Series hero Harry Brecheen by the same score in the fourth game of the 1943 Series.

This time, the lone run against him was unearned: Cardinal first baseman Ray Sanders reached on Yankee shortstop Frank Crosetti's error, took third on left fielder Danny Lithwiler's double, and (following an intentional walk to Marty Marion), scored as pinch-hitter Frank Demaree (for St. Louis starting pitcher Max Lanier) reached on Yankee third baseman Billy Johnson's error. Russo himself made up the scoring difference with a little atonement help from Crosetti: he whacked a leadoff double off Brecheen to open the top of the eighth and scored on Crosetti's sacrifice fly.

Jack Sanford — The short-lived first baseman for the 1940-41 and 1946 Washington Senators, not the fine pitcher for the late 1950s Philadelphia Phillies and pre-Juan Marichal ace of the early 1960s San Francisco Giants. Sanford's rookie season was an offensive wash, but a defensive promise, and he started 1941 on the strong side of the plate (2-for-5 with a triple and a run scored in three games) before getting the call for World War II with the Army Air Force, playing and coaching on baseball teams around the service. He returned for six games with the 1946 Senators, fielding well but hitting weakly, and he left professional baseball for a career as a college coach, retiring from Barton College after coaching its baseball team to their first conference championship in 1984.

Bill Voiselle — Nicknamed Big Bill at 6'4", he was the starting and losing pitcher for the Boston Braves in the deciding sixth game of the 1948 World Series against the Cleveland Indians, even though Warren Spahn in relief surrendered the game-winning run in the eighth inning. Voiselle's best major league season was a wartime season, 1944, when he went 21-16 with a 3.02 ERA for the New York Giants. He followed with 14-14, 4.49, as the National League's regulars began finding their way back during the 1945 season. In June 1947, he was traded to the Braves in the deal that reunited former St. Louis Cardinals pitching star Mort Cooper with his catcher brother, Walker.

Don't miss part one of "Remembering Baseball Legends Lost!"