Preacher Roe
December 8, 1947: The Brooklyn Dodgers trade right fielder Fred "Dixie" Walker, and pitchers Hal Gregg and Vic Lombardi to the Pittsburgh Pirates for pitcher Elwin Charles "Preacher" Roe, 3rd baseman Billy Cox and utility infielder Gene Mauch.
Walker was a 5-time All-Star. He had helped the Dodgers win the National League Pennant in 1941, their 1st in 21 years. He had led the NL In batting average in 1944, and in RBIs in 1945. He had helped the Dodgers win another Pennant just 3 months earlier. He was so popular, that he was known as "The People's Cherce" -- "The People's Choice," in the Brooklyn accent. Why trade him away? And why trade Gregg and Lombardi, a pair of decent pitchers?
For one very good reason: Dixie, as his nickname suggests, was a Southerner, and opposed to team president Branch Rickey's desegregation of the team, starting with Jackie Robinson. Plus, Walker was 37, and the Dodgers had Carl Furillo coming up. He would also become an NL batting champion, in 1953; and while Walker was a good fielder in right field, Furillo was a better one, with an arm that got him nicknamed, after his Pennsylvania hometown, the Reading Rifle.
Walker played 2 more seasons, mainly as a pinch-hitter, and retired. Aside from the manpower-drain year of 1945, when he went 18-13, Gregg was never more than a journeyman, and was done after 1952. Lombardi was average at best, and was done after 1950.
What did the Dodgers get? Mauch was an afterthought. Ironically, he became one of a few future major league managers stuck at shortstop behind Pee Wee Reese. That list would also include Dick Williams, Sparky Anderson and Don Zimmer.
Cox was certainly not acquired for his bat. Only once in Brooklyn would he top .279, only once reach double figures in home runs, and he never had more than 54 RBIs in a season. But he was one of the best-fielding 3rd basemen of all time. Before Brooks Robinson, before the Yankees' Clete Boyer, he dove all over Ebbets Field to snare anything hit to the left side. It was said that he could get to a grounder and count the stitches on the ball, and still throw the batter out. My grandmother, a Dodger fan from Queens, insisted to the end of her life that Billy Cox was the best 3rd baseman she'd ever seen.
The real key to the trade was Roe. A lefthander from Arkansas, his nickname came at the age of 3, when an uncle asked his name and Roe responded "Preacher," because of a minister who would take him on horse-and-buggy rides.
His key pitch was a sinker, though many have suggested that he really threw a spitball. Along with righthanders Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, he gave the Dodgers what amounted to 3 aces in their starting rotation.
Rickey phased out the farmboys who helped the Dodgers win the 1941 and 1947 Pennants, and the near-misses of 1942 and 1946. By Opening Day 1949, he had the classic lineup that would become known, in the title of the book by Roger Kahn, a Brooklyn-born sportswriter who covered them, taken from the poetry of Dylan Thomas, as "The Boys of Summer": Gil Hodges at 1st base, Robinson at 2nd base, Reese at shortstop, Cox at 3rd base, they never quite settled on a left fielder, Edwin "Duke" Snider in center field, Furillo in right field, and Roy Campanella as catcher.
This Dodger team won the Pennant in 1949, fell 1 game short in 1950, lost a painful Playoff for the Pennant in 1951, won the Pennant in 1952, and won it again in 1953. But they couldn't quite win the World Series.
In 1949, Roe went 15-6. In 1950, he went 19-11. In 1951, he went 22-3, and would have won the Cy Young Award had one then been available. In 1952, missing part of the season due to injury, he went 11-2. In 1953, again missing time due to injury, he went 11-3. So, over a 3-year stretch, he was 44-8, a winning percentage of .846.
Roe was a terrible hitter, even by the standards of pitchers. My grandmother was always telling me that Roe was a great pitcher, but the worst hitter she ever saw. On July 7, 1953, the Dodgers swept a doubleheader against the Pirates at Forbes Field. Erskine started and won the 1st game. Roe started and won the 2nd game, and also hit a home run. On the radio, Red Barber said, "Well, old Number 28 has hit a home run, and we'll never hear the end of it, folks!" What Grandma didn't say was that Roe got a 2nd hit in the game; and that, in the same game, the light-hitting Cox hit 2 home runs. The Dodgers won, 9-5.
Roe and Cox arrived in Brooklyn together, and they left together: On December 14, 1954, they were traded to the Baltimore Orioles for a pair of minor-leaguers, infielder Harry Schwegman and right-handed pitcher John Jancse, and $60,000. The following year, with Johnny Podres having replaced Roe as Dem Bums' top lefty starter, and Robinson and Zimmer splitting time at 3rd base, the Dodgers finally won the World Series.
Roe retired, and never pitched again, finishing his career with a record of 127-84, an ERA of 3.43, a .110 batting average, 28 RBIs, and that 1 home run. Cox played 1 more season, and was replaced as Oriole 3rd baseman by Brooks Robinson. Cox died in 1978, while Roe proved more durable, living until 2009, age 92.
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December 8, 1947 was a Monday. Rock music legend Gregg Allman was born. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football was 23 years away. There were no games scheduled in the NHL. There was 1 game in the league that would become the NBA: The New York Knicks beat the St. Louis Bombers, 71-56 at the old Madison Square Garden.
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