| Do you have some favorite baseball names? Contact: |
|
The Browns were
an exclusive club
Hank Arft once said that playing for the lowly St. Louis Browns had its rewards, especially after showman Bill Veeck (below) took over the franchise and used a variety of stunts in an effort to boost attendance.
Arft told an interviewer: "Only a Brown can say he played alongside a midget and in a game managed by the spectators."
|
To pitchers he was
a lucky charm
Joe Azcue was the catcher of choice for pitcher Luis Tiant when the two Cuba natives were teammates in Cleveland. Tiant said he felt he performed better when Azcue was behind the plate.
Two other pitchers who had good luck with Azcue as their catcher were Sonny Siebert, who pitched a no-hitter against Washington on June 10, 1966, and Clyde Wright of the California Angels, who threw a no-hitter against Oakland on July 3, 1970.
It was another game against Washington, on July 29, 1968, that put Azcue's name in the baseball history books when his line drive to Senator shortstop Ron Hansen resulted in the major leagues' first unassisted triple play in 41 years. |
|
|
| Gair Allie (1935- ) |
 |
| Gair Roosevelt Allie. Few players were recalled so long for so little – a .199 batting average in one season (1954) with the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates. His unusual first name kept this infielder alive in my memory. That and his short stay with the minor league Syracuse Chiefs long after Pittsburgh let him go. |
|
| Flash Archdeacon (1898-1954) |
 |
| I missed this name
the first few times I scanned The Baseball Encyclopedia, but I'm certainly
glad I finally found it. I haven't gathered a whole lot of information
on Maurice John Archdeacon, but found enough to give him his own page, not for his
name, but for his 1920s claim to fame. See Flash. |
|
| Rugger Ardizoia (1919- ) |
 |
| Pitcher Rinaldo Joseph "Rugger" Ardizoia, a native
of Oleggio, Italy, lived his dream in 1947 when he made one appearance
with the New York Yankees, working two innings in relief, giving up four
hits and two runs. He then returned to the Pacific Coast League to resume
a minor league career that ended with Ardizoia winning 123 games, against 115 losses. His best season was with Oakland of the Pacific Coast League in 1946 when he posted a 15-7 record. The photo (right) is of Ardizoia, then an Italian citizen, serving with the U.S. Army during World War II. |
|
| Hank Arft (1922-2002) |
 |
| St. Louis Brown first baseman Henry Irvn Arft (1948-52) was stuck with an obvious nickname: Bow-Wow. He played 300 games in his five-season major league career, most of them in 1950 and '51. His batting average for those two seasons was .264, which made him one of the team's better hitters.
He returned to the minor leagues and finished out his playing career with Portland (Oregon) of the Pacific Coast Legue in 1954. His minor league lifetime batting average was .279. Arft made seven pitching appearances with Springfield (Illinois) of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (III) League in 1942 and 1946. His only two decisions were victories. |
|
| Yo-Yo Arroyo (1927- ) |
 |
| Luis Enrique Arroyo, a 5-foot-8 left-hander arrived in the major leagues in 1955 with the St. Louis Cardinals, went to Pittsburgh where he switched from starting to relief pitching.
After a stint in Cincinnati, Arroyo landed in heaven, playing with the 1961 New York Yankees. He had a standout year, posting a 15-5 record, adding a victory in the World Series sweep of Cincinnati. |
|
| Casper Asbjornson (1909-1970) |
 |
| The Concord, Massachusetts, native was just 19 when he made his major league debut as a catcher, playing six games with the Boston Red Sox in 1928.
The next season Asbjornson played 17 games and batted .103. That was too low even for the last-place Red Sox.
However, in 1931, with the Cincinnati Reds, the catcher hit a solid .305 in 45 games. Alas, his major league days came to an end in 1932 when his batting average fell again, this time to .172 in 29 games. One of his hits was his first and only big league home run.
There's some confusion over his name. The Baseball Encyclopedia lists him as Asby Asbjornson, full name Robert Anthony Asbjornson, making no mention of Casper, which apparently was his nickname. Most sources I found online indicated his last name was legally changed to Asby.
I assume Asbjornson is pronounced As-B'YORN-son (think tennis great Bjorn Borg or singer Bjork). |
|
| Joe Azcue (1939- ) |
 |
| Cuban-born Jose Joaquin Azcue y Lopez made his major league debut with Cincinnati in 1960, catching 14 games for the Reds, hitting .097. Two trades and three years later he arrived in Cleveland where he batted .284, getting so many clutch hits that he was facetiously dubbed The Immortal Azcue.
Azcue remained a popular member of the Indians until 1969 when he began the end-of-the-career shuffle, going from Cleveland to Boston to California to Milwaukee where he played his final 11 major league games in 1972 – after being a holdout for the entire 1971 season. |
|
