A Quiet Visit with Jack Graham

One of the highlights of my month is the monthly old-timers meeting in Long Beach. A good place to shmooze with the greats and not-so-greats of baseball's old days. I had lunch with Jack Graham a few months back. The son of George "Peaches" Graham, who hit .265 with four big league clubs in the early years of the century. Jack, a first baseman had two years in the majors, right after the second World War.

Followers of the Pacific Coast League during the 1940's are more apt to remember Jack than New York and St. Louis fans of that era. He got into the Baseball Encyclopedia by virtue of his 1946 season, in which he divided time between the Dodgers and Giants, and 1949, when he was with the Browns for the entire campaign. However, it was with the old Triple-A Padres that he enjoyed his greatest success.

He looks back on his 1948 season in San Diego as the highlight of his career. And why not? By July 24 he had hit 46 home runs!

And then it happened. The Padres were in L.A. for a series with the Angels at old Wrigley Field, a smaller version of the Cubs major league ballpark. Late in the game, when a shadow falls across the infield, Jack stepped up to the plate. Graham lost the pitch, which was coming out of the sun, on its flight to the plate. He took the pitch in his right eye. Helmets were not worn in those days, only lightweight plastic liners under the cap; and Jack wasn't even wearing that on the hot July afternoon. He could have been killed.

Doctors recommended that the PCL's top slugger take the rest of the season off. Sports writers. particularly Earl Keller of the San Diego Union, had other advice.

"Keller told me that if I came back and finished the season, he and the other writers would name me MVP," the old ballplayer, who turns 80 in December, recalled.

He did and they did. But he shouldn't have.

"I wasn't ready. I played in four games in August, and I hit only two more home runs. "

Hard to hit good pitching when you are experiencing dizzy spells and have to turn to face the pitcher in order to get your good left eye on the ball. He had blurred vision at best in his injured right eye.

Still. 48 dingers in a little more than half a season. Not bad.

Jack dismissed the notion the pitcher had tried to hit him. "No pitcher ever tries to hit a batter in the head," he said. And he bristled at the suggestion that the incident had a permanent effect on his hitting.

"I hit 24 home runs the next year in St. Louis, third best in the league" (after Ted Williams' 43 and Junior Stephens' 39).

Graham batted left and threw left. His problem was that against pitchers who threw left he didn't hit a whole lot. Some say he was the strongest hitter ever to play in the PCL, surpassing the likes of Max West, Louie Novikoff, and Steve Bilko.

Jack shrugs off such compliments. "Luke Easter hit with more power than me."

When he had to face big league pitching, with lefties who could put the ball exactly where they wanted it, who could throw 3-2 curves for strikes on the black part of the plate...Well, he wasn't the first nor has he been the last to walk back to the dugout and eventually right out of major league baseball under similar circumstances.

But he did manage to hit 384 home runs in the minors, and another 38 in the big leagues.

Starting his pro career in Akron (Class C), 1936, right out of Wilson High School in Long Beach, he steadily climbed the minor league ladder until he made the jump to Triple-A ball in Montreal in 1941. He stayed there until he went into the Army Air Corps 50 games into the '43 seasons.

Like many other players of his era. Graham can think about what might have been, for WW II took the bat of his hand and replaced it with a gun. In his case he "fought" the war in places like Kearns Army Air Corps Base in Utah. His inability to pass the strict physical requirements for pilot training kept him from doing what he really wanted to do in the service.

However, at Kearns he found three other men who had been on big league rosters and figured that with a little help from some guys with high school, college, they could have a pretty good team. One of the former big leaguers scrounged some uniforms. The team was simply named KEARNS, and some of their home games were played on skin diamonds, while others were played at Derks Field, home of the Salt Lake City Bees. When they went on the road they did so in a GI bus.

Graham remembers facing Van Lingle Mungo. the Dodger pitcher of the 1930s, who was also playing some service ball during the war. No other big league opponents come to mind. although he is sure there must have been some

"Memory ain't my thing.'' Jack admitted.

Along with all the other servicemen who could claim major league roster status, the slugging first baseman-outfielder was discharged in early 1946 so that he could report to spring training. For him that meant Clearwater, FL, site of the Dodger camp in the years before O'Malley bought the Vero Beach facility from the U.S. government.

He started the season at first base. The ever-modest octogenarian was quick to point out that this was not because he was the number one man at his position. Eddie Stephens, the regular at that spot, had an impacted wisdom tooth so Graham, who had been with the club for two springs before the war, got to play the first two games of the season, which happened to be against the Boston Braves.

"I had to face Sain and Spahn right off," he said with a wince. Spahn and Sain with Eddie in pain.

Ten days into the '46 season the Dodgers decided they could make it the rest of the way without the Long Beach native who was nearing his 30th birthday. WW II vets could not be optioned out, they had to be put on waivers. The Giants picked lack up and he finished the season with them (He hit .218, but did knock 14 homers in only 275 at bats.) The move positioned him for his most embarrassing moment in baseball.

It happened at the Polo Grounds. Jack doesn't remember the opponent, but with two outs in the top of the ninth and the Giants up by one run. a slow roller that should have been the game-winning out was hit down the first base line.

"My mother could have fielded that ball," Jack said sheepishly. It went through his legs. the Giants lost the lead and could not pull the game out in their half of the ninth.

"The worst part of it," he recalled. was that the clubhouse was under the outfield stands. "I had to run all the way across the outfield to get there, with fans giving me hell all the way for not making the play.''

He watched the 86 World Series between the Red Sox and the Mets when Bill Buckner found himself in a not-so-instant reply of an identical situation. It gave New York a win and the chance to come back the next game to take the Series. 4-3.

"Same damn play," said Jack. shaking his head.

The next season he was sent down to Jersey City, and in ‘48 he had the big, if abbreviated, season in San Diego. Then it was back up to the majors in ‘49. this time with the St. Louis Browns.

Despite his 24 homers, he hit only .238. so in 1950 it was back to San Diego where he played through the '52 season. In 1953, he helped close out the Triple-A era in Baltimore. Ironically, they were replaced by his last big league club. the Browns.

In 1954 he returned to the West Coast with Modesto of the Class C California League as player-manager.

"At that time in the Cal League the managers had to play." Jack recalled. "You got $750 a month to play and $250 a month to manage.''

Two young pitchers on his club eventually made it to the Show. Johnny James, and Ernie Broglio. An injury left Jack unable to play, though and the ballclub fired him.

At that point. he decided to return to Long Beach, where he found a job as equipment man at the Naval Ship Yard. When a similar job opened at Wilson High. his alma mater, he took it.

"I said. Gee, that's a good job for me because you don't have to work too hard. It didn't pay much. but it was OK."

For the next 25 years he passed out towels, repaired equipment, and inventoried uniforms. He also helped Long Beach maintain its status as one of the top producers of baseball talent in the U.S. by coaching American Legion ball.

He considers Bobby Grich to have been the top athlete he ever coached. But, "Jeff Burroughs was the best natural hitter I ever had. I told my assistant that we should never make the mistake of trying to coach him. If we did. we might screw him up. We just let him hit.''

Andy Messersmith is another youngster he remembers. "He had been a pitcher but my Legion team had pitchers, so we let him play shortstop. Then, the second year he was with us we had him pitch."

Besides 16 years coaching Legion ball he managed the semipro Long Beach Rockets for 26 years. There also was a three-year stint as a scout for the Baltimore Orioles.

What does an 80-year-old ex-ballplayer do to occupy his time I wondered?

"I m an avid pocketbook reader." Historical novels are his favorite.

"If anybody asks me about baseball. I can give advice. Anything else, it's tough 'cuz I don't know about anything else. But I do know something about baseball."

After lunch Jack and I walked out to the parking lot. He lost his footing on the steps and fell against the wall. With the athleticism that had enabled him to make it to the big leagues, he recovered nicely, embarassed to have stumbled. Then, like a lot of us, he had trouble locating his car. A few minutes later I watched him take off for Leisure World, a retirement community a few miles down the coast. In a month he would be back having lunch and talking baseball with his old buddies. A lifelong bachelor, he was on his way home to the simple life that seems to suit him just fine.