April 2, 1972: Gil Hodges dies of a heart attack in West Palm Beach, Florida, while playing golf with his New York Mets coaches. He was 2 days short of turning 48.
Gilbert Ray Hodge was born on April 4, 1924 in Princeton, Indiana, and grew up in nearby Petersburg. By the 1930 Census, the family name had been changed to "Hodges." He played baseball and basketball at St. Joseph's College in Collegeville, Indiana, but dropped out to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers on September 6, 1943.
He played in 1 game, the regular season finale on October 3, then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. So often described as "quiet," he nonetheless served as an anti-aircraft gunner in the battles of Tinian and Okinawa, and was awarded the Bronze Star.
After playing the 1946 season in the minor leagues, he was moved from catcher to 1st base, and was part of the Dodger team that became known as "The Boys of Summer," winning National League Pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956, and just missing in 1950 and 1951. He was an 8-time NL All-Star, and received the Gold Glove for NL 1st basemen the 1st 3 times it was awarded.
Infamously, he went 0-for-21 in the 1952 World Series. It got so bad that priests, knowing that Gil was a devout Catholic, asked their parishioners to pray for him. In the 1955 World Series, he batted .292 with a home run and 5 RBIs, and was key to the Dodgers finally beating the Yankees and winning a title.
After the 1957 season, the Dodgers were moved to Los Angeles. But Gil, having married a Brooklynite, Joan Lombardi, kept a house in Brooklyn. The Dodgers won another World Series in 1959, not that it mattered to Brooklyn. The following off-season, Gil and his Dodger teammate Duke Snider were contestants on the baseball-themed game show Home Run Derby.
In 1962, the expansion New York Mets made him their 1st baseman, but age and injuries had caught up with him. On May 23, 1963, the Mets traded him to the Washington Senators, who immediately made him their manager. He then retired as a player. His 370 career home runs don’t sound like much now, but, at the time of his retirement, they ranked 10th all-time.
In 1968, he was named manager of the Mets. In 1969, he led them to win the World Series, making himself a New York sports hero all over again. The contrast between Gil's quiet leadership and the boisterousness of the opposing manager, Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles, helped to underscore the difference in the teams' performances.
He guided the Mets to 3rd-place finishes in 1970 and 1971. But he had already suffered a heart attack in Washington, and he may have known another one was likely. It happened at the end of Spring Training in 1972. He was the first of the Brooklyn "Boys of Summer" to die. (The last survivor of the players that Roger Kahn identified as such in the book with that title was another Indiana native, pitcher Carl Erskine.) He remains the last manager or head coach of a New York Tri-State Area team to die in office.
The Mets retired Gil’s Number 14 on June 9, 1973. On April 4, 1978, what would have been his 54th birthday, the Marine Parkway Bridge, which connected Marine Park, Brooklyn to Rockaway, Queens, was renamed the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in his memory. Also in Brooklyn, P.S. 193 and a Little League field were named for him. Between Avenue L and Avenue N, Bedford Avenue, about 3 miles south of where that road bordered the right field wall of Ebbets Field, is named Gil Hodges Way.
For many years, Hodges was mentioned as one of the best players never elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although his baseball career, between playing and managing, was one of the noblest in the sport's history, the Hall does not combine such accomplishments into a "Contributor" category, the way the Basketball Hall of Fame does. On December 5, 2021, 53 years after he was first eligible for election to the Hall, he was finally elected, by the Hall's Golden Days Committee.
The Dodgers subsequently retired Number 14 for him, on June 4, 2022, on a day when the Mets were the visiting team. It was appropriate for another reason: My grandmother, who was from Queens, was a Dodger fan who became a Met fan, and June 4 was her birthday. Alas, while she lived to see several commemorations and honors of her old team, this was not one of them.
Nor was his induction ceremony at Cooperstown, New York, on July 24. His daughter, Irene, 1 of 4 children that Gil and Joan had, delivered the acceptance speech. Joan, 96 years old, was too ill to make the trip, had to watch on television, and died a few weeks later.
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April 2, 1972 was a Sunday. Baseball, as I said, was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games in the NBA Playoffs:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Baltimore Bullets, 104-103 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Archie Clark scored 35 for the Bullets.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics, 112-110 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta. Pete Maravich scored 36 for the Hawks.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 108-97 at the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 106-99 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
There were 3 Playoff games in the American Basketball Association:
* The New York Nets beat the Kentucky Colonels, 105-90 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. Rick Barry scored 35 for the Nets.
* The Virginia Squires beat the Miami Floridians, 118-11 at Miami-Dade Junior College North (now named Miami Dade College) in Miami. A rookie named Julius Erving, already known as "Doctor J," scored 53 points.
* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Denver Rockets, 122-120 in overtime at the Denver Auditorium Arena.
And the Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, with these 4 games:
* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at the Boston Garden. Jim Harrison scored the winning goal, 2:58 into overtime.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis blues, 6-5 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Bill Goldsworthy scored the winning goal, 1:36 into overtime.
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