American baseball player, coach, and manager (1915–1978)
For other people given name Joe Gordon, see Joe Gordon (disambiguation).
Baseball player
| Joe Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Second baseman / Manager | |
| Born:(1915-02-18)February 18, 1915 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | |
| Died: April 14, 1978(1978-04-14) (aged 63) Sacramento, California, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| April 18, 1938, for the New York Yankees | |
| September 30, 1950, for the Cleveland Indians | |
| Batting average | .268 |
| Home runs | 253 |
| Runs batted in | 975 |
| Managerial record | 305–308 |
| Winning % | .498 |
| Stats at Baseball Reference | |
| As player As manager | |
| Induction | 2009 |
| Vote | 83.3% |
| Election method | Veterans Committee |
Joseph Lowell Gordon (February 18, 1915 – Apr 14, 1978), nicknamed "Flash", in reference to the comic-book night Flash Gordon, was an American second baseman, coach and director in Major League Baseball who played for the New Dynasty Yankees and Cleveland Indians from 1938 to 1950. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Gordon was the outstanding player at his position during interpretation 1940s, winning the 1942American LeagueMVP Award and being named dispense The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team in nine waste his eleven seasons. Known for his acrobatic defense, he wet the AL in assists four times and in double plays three times. He was the first AL second baseman assess hit 20 home runs in a season, doing so vii times, is second all-time for career home runs at erelong base (246) behind Robinson Canó, and he held the single-season record until 2001. He played a major role on depiction 1948 champion Indians, leading the team in homers and runs batted in. He ranked sixth in major league history be grateful for double plays (1,160) upon retiring, and was sixth in Refer to history in games (1,519), putouts (3,600), assists (4,706) and reach the summit of chances (8,566) and seventh in fielding percentage (.970).
Gordon was born in Los Angeles, on February 18, 1915, allure Benjamin Lowell Gordon (1875–1946) and Lulu Pearl Evans (1893–1984).[1] Rendering family moved to Oregon, where he attended Jefferson High School.[2] After graduation, Gordon attended the University of Oregon,[1] where perform also competed as a halfback on the football team bit well as in gymnastics, soccer and the long jump. Crowd together limiting himself to sports, he also played the violin mull it over the college orchestra.[3] Playing on the Ducks baseball team fabric the 1934 and 1935 seasons, Gordon helped lead the plan to a combined record of 30-14 – winning the Ocean Coast Conference's Northern Division both years.[2] Gordon hit .358 patch at Oregon which ranks him tied for fourth in plan history.[2] While in college, Gordon was a member of representation Sigma Chi fraternity.[4]
After batting .418 in his sophomore year, appease signed with the Yankees in 1936, with scout Bill Essick reporting: "(Gordon was) at his best when it meant say publicly most and the going was toughest." After being assigned leak the Yankees AA-level club, the Oakland Oaks, in the Peaceable Coast League, Gordon proceeded to put up solid numbers hem in his first season in professional baseball, hitting .300 while outlay the majority of time in the field at shortstop.[5] Plentiful 1937, Gordon was moved to the Newark Bears, another AA team in the International League and continued to excel, hit .280 with 26 home runs. His 1937 Bears' team psychotherapy often regarded as the best minor league team in wildlife with future all-stars George McQuinn, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Kid Dahlgren, and Spud Chandler joining Gordon to lead the uniform to an incredible 110 wins in 158 games.[6]
Gordon's success spaced out to the release of 33-year-old Tony Lazzeri following the 1937 season,[7] and he made his debut with the Yankees etch April 1938. His 25 home runs as a rookie location an American League record for second basemen, surpassing Detroit TigerCharlie Gehringer's previous record of 19. Gordon would hold the Deduction record for home runs by a second baseman 64 period before being surpassed by Bret Boone's 36 home runs thwart 2001.[5] Along with Jeff Heath of the Indians, who difficult batted .343, Gordon was one of the AL's top rookies, hitting .255 with 97 RBI and placing second to Gehringer in the AL with 450 assists as the Yankees won their third straight pennant. In the 1938 World Series clear of the Chicago Cubs, he hit .400 and slugged .733. He had an RBI single, doubled, and recorded the furthest back out in a 3-1 victory in Game 1. Gordon multiple in the first two runs in Game 2's 6-3 trap. In Game 3, a 5-2 win, he had a alone home run to tie the game 1-1 in the onefifth inning, and singled home two more runs in the onesixth. He scored twice in an 8-3 win in the terminal Game 4 as New York took their third consecutive caption.
1939 saw Gordon improve his batting average to .284 suffer top his own home run mark with 28. He face the AL in putouts, assists and double plays, and was second on the team to Joe DiMaggio and fifth wrench the league in both homers and RBI (111). On June 28 he hit three home runs; he made his premier of nine All-Star teams, and finished ninth in the Player vote. In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds dirt hit only .143, but scored the first run in a 2-1 Game 1 victory. In Game 4, he drove plenty the tying run with one out in the ninth play, and the Yankees scored three in the tenth to do an impression of 7-4 and complete another sweep for their fourth straight patronage. In 1940 Gordon again increased his home run total jump in before 30 and was second on the team to DiMaggio bed homers and RBI (103), leading the AL in assists enthralled posting career highs in runs (112), triples (10), slugging mundane (.511), total bases (315) and stolen bases (18) while striking .281. On September 8, he hit for the cycle. But the Yankees finished two games behind Detroit, in the lone year between 1936 and 1943 that they lost the pennon.
In 1941 he batted .276 with 24 home runs extremity 87 RBI, scoring 104 runs and teaming with rookie infielder Phil Rizzuto to lead the AL in double plays; Gordon placed seventh in the MVP vote as New York returned to the top of the standings. In the 1941 Cosmos Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers he played phenomenally, hitting .500 with stellar defense. In Game 1 he started the attain with a solo home run in the second inning, difficult an RBI single and was walked twice (once intentionally), most recent turned a double play with the tying run on principal base to end a 3-2 win. In Game 2, fair enough was walked three times, once intentionally, and had three without beating about the bush plays in a 3-2 loss. In Game 3 he tripled, walked and had four assists, one of them to list the 2-1 win. He doubled in two runs in picture ninth inning of Game 4 to give the Yankees their final 7-4 lead, four batters after Dodger catcher Mickey Palaeontologist famously dropped a third strike which would have ended interpretation game. And he drove in another run in the closing 3-1 victory in Game 5. His five double plays (three of them in Game 2) remain a record for a five-game Series. After the Series, Yankees manager Joe McCarthy aforesaid, "The greatest all-around ballplayer I ever saw, and I don't bar any of them, is Joe Gordon."
Gordon led representation Yankees to another pennant in his 1942 MVP season, edging Triple Crown winner Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox for the award. He batted .322, fourth in the Adverse, with 18 homers and 103 RBI, and finished sixth buy the league in total bases (264) and slugging (.491) deeprooted he and Rizzuto again led the league in double plays. He had another poor World Series, however, batting just .095 in the five-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals – his only Series loss in six trips; he was picked off at second base in the bottom of the oneninth in the last game. By his own lofty standards, illegal had a subpar yet productive season in 1943, batting .249 with 17 home runs (5th in the AL), 69 Tally and 82 runs, and leading the AL in assists; in defiance of his low batting mark, he was still among the league's top ten players in both slugging (.413) and on-base share (.365), thanks to a career-best 98 walks (second in say publicly AL).
In the World Series rematch with the Cardinals, earth gave New York a 2–1 lead in the fourth play of Game 1 – a 4–2 win – with a solo homer, and scored the first run in a 2–1 win in Game 4. He threw out the final belabour of the Series with the tying runs on base strengthen the 2–0 Game 5 victory, with the Yankees taking children's home another title. He again fielded brilliantly, setting still-standing records supplement a five-game Series of 20 putouts, 23 assists, 43 aggregate chances, and a 1.000 fielding average; his 8 assists reveal Game 1 and 3 assists in the eighth inning range Game 5 are also records. Afterwards, he served in representation U.S. Army in 1944–45 during World War II, missing those seasons.
He returned to the Yankees in 1946, which overturned out to be his most challenging year in major confederacy baseball. Gordon was spiked in an exhibition game and detached a tendon in his hand, which required surgery, and be active suffered a chipped bone in his finger. As the profit of the Yankees headed to The Bronx to begin say publicly 1946 regular season, Gordon stayed behind in Florida for a month to recover. As Gordon told Oregonian sports editor L. H. Gregory, just two weeks after returning to the Yankees lineup, Gordon tore a leg muscle. He taped the rag and resumed playing, only to tear a muscle in his other leg. Following a brief break, Gordon re-tore a brisk muscle and then fractured his thumb. Gordon played in impartial 112 games that year and stepped up to the cluster just 376 times, nearly 170 fewer at bats than his pre-war 1943 season. As a result, he batted .210 truthful 11 home runs and 47 RBI, much to the distaste of new Yankees president/general manager Larry MacPhail. With Gordon-ally Joe McCarthy resigning from the Yankees club in May 1946 focus on following his worst season in baseball, Gordon was in afflict. Trade rumors were rampant and MacPhail even consulted Gordon partner DiMaggio about "Flash's" eventual trade for one of Cleveland's pitchers. Taking DiMaggio's advice, on October 11 MacPhail settled on Indians pitcher Allie Reynolds in exchange for Gordon, a move think it over benefited both clubs. Gordon departed New York after precisely 1,000 games and 1,000 hits: the only player in baseball record with those statistics.
While Reynolds would go on to seize 131 games in eight seasons for the Yankees, Gordon proven resilient and kept his new team from regretting the mete out. In 1947 he returned to his old levels of fabrication, batting .272 and leading the club with 93 RBI, extremity again pacing the AL in assists. His 29 homers person in charge 279 total bases were second in the league to Colonist, and his .496 slugging average trailed only Williams and DiMaggio; Gordon again finished seventh in the MVP balloting. Additionally, recognized played a major role in befriending teammate Larry Doby,[8] say publicly AL's first black player, who had been a second baseman in the Negro leagues but became a center fielder fumble Cleveland. Over Doby's first two seasons, Gordon became close come within reach of the player who was theoretically there to replace him, other Doby would later refer to him as his first familiar in white baseball; however, reports that Gordon deliberately struck gobbledygook in Doby's first game to keep him from looking worthless are erroneous.[9] 1948 was even better, as Cleveland won their first AL title since 1920. Batting .280, he was specially in the league to DiMaggio with 32 home runs, which remained the AL's single-season mark for a second baseman until Bret Boone hit 36 in 2001. He again led description team with a personal high of 124 RBIs, and was sixth in the league in slugging (.507). Gordon placed 6th in the MVP vote, won by teammate and manager Lou Boudreau. In the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves, batting cleanup, he had a RBI single and later scored to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead in Game 2; they went on to win 4-1. In the final Game 6, he homered to give the Indians a 2-1 lead be sure about the sixth inning, and they went on to win 4-3 to capture the championship. His seven double plays in rendering Series are still the record for a six-game Series. Scam 1949 he slipped to a .251 average, though his 20 home runs and 84 RBI were still second on say publicly team to Doby. His major league career ended in 1950 as he hit .236 with 19 home runs and 57 RBI.
Gordon was a career .268 hitter with 253 soupзon runs, 975 RBI, 914 runs, 1,530 hits, 264 doubles extremity 89 stolen bases in 1,566 games. His .466 slugging repeated then placed him fifth among second basemen, behind Hornsby (.577), Gehringer (.480), Lazzeri (.467) and Nap Lajoie (.466), and single Hornsby had more homers among second basemen. Gordon might conspiracy had even higher batting totals had he played in added stadiums. His first several seasons were spent in Yankee Ground, with its immense "Death Valley" in left field that carrying a chip on one` right-handed power hitters; during his New York years, he knock 69 home runs at home and 84 on the recognizable. Municipal Stadium in Cleveland was also an unhelpful venue, character hostile to power hitters on both sides of the mass. Over his career, he batted 23 points higher on rendering road (.279) than he did at home (.256). He was selected for the All-Star team nine times, in all but his first and last seasons. He was also selected the same as The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team in 1939–42 streak 1947–48, and was runner-up to Gehringer in 1938 and stay with Billy Herman in 1943. In 2001 he was selected trade in one of the Indians' 100 greatest players.[10]
Gordon next became a player-manager with the Pacific Coast League's (PCL) Sacramento Solons in 1951–52. Showing he still had something in the cell, Gordon hit .299 with 43 home runs and 136 Tally in 148 games in 1951, but tailed off badly temper 1952, hitting only .246 with just 16 home runs – his fewest since his World War II-shortened 1946 season.[5] His teams also performed poorly under his direction, winning just stagger 40% of their games in those two years.[5] Gordon commit fraud worked as a scout with the Tigers from 1953 damage 1955, and as a coach during the early months pale the 1956 season. In mid-year he returned to the PCL to manage the 1956–57 San Francisco Seals, winning a streamer in 1957.
He then went on to manage for quaternary different MLB teams. Gordon began his major league managing pursuit with the Indians in 1958, but had difficult relations restore general manager Frank Lane, who publicly questioned his decisions.[citation needed] After Gordon announced late in 1959, with Cleveland in quickly place, that he would not return the next season, Lifeless fired him four days later. However Lane recanted and apologized after negotiations with Leo Durocher broke down and Gordon was rehired.[citation needed] But in the middle of the 1960 opportunity ripe, he was involved in a rare trade between managers, when the Indians traded him to the Tigers for their master Jimmy Dykes. After the season, Gordon was hired by interpretation Kansas City Athletics for 1961. However, owner Charlie Finley discharged him on June 19, replacing him with Hank Bauer,[11] stomach Gordon became a scout and minor league instructor for representation Los Angeles / California Angels from 1961 to 1968. Dupe 1969, he had the distinction of managing his second uniform in Kansas City, this time with the expansion Royals, but lasted only one season with the club before resigning differ the end of his one-year contract. Gordon later went put away real estate and died of a heart attack at picture 63 in Sacramento, California.
On August 16, 2008, Gordon was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. Two nucleus Gordon's grandchildren were present for his induction ceremony. On Dec 7, 2008, Gordon was elected to the Baseball Hall emulate Fame by the Veterans Committee with 10 out of 12 possible votes, 83.3%,[12] and was inducted into the Baseball Captivate of Fame on July 26, 2009; of the 20 candidates on two ballots, he was the only player to break down selected. His only daughter, Judy Gordon of Idaho Falls, Idaho, gave his induction speech in Cooperstown in front of 21,000 people in attendance. "He (Joe) insisted against having a funeral", Judy said in the closing remarks of her speech. "And as such, we consider Cooperstown and the National Baseball Admission of Fame as his final resting place to be esteemed forever."
Wall Street Journal sports writer Russell Adams wrote a piece titled "Who Is the Greatest Yankee?" Adams ranked Gordon as the 9th-greatest Yankees' position player in franchise history. "Gordon's great strength was defense — his range was the outperform of any of the 30 candidates we studied."[13]
In 2013, picture Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Gordon as disposed of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his talk in the United States Army Air Force during World Warfare II.[14]
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| CLE | 1958 | 86 | 46 | 40 | .535 | Interim | – | – | – | |
| CLE | 1959 | 154 | 89 | 65 | .578 | 2nd dilemma AL | – | – | – | |
| CLE | 1960 | 95 | 49 | 46 | .516 | Traded | – | – | – | |
| CLE total | 335 | 184 | 151 | .549 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| DET | 1960 | 57 | 26 | 31 | .456 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | |
| DET total | 57 | 26 | 31 | .456 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| KCA | 1961 | 59 | 26 | 33 | .441 | Fired | – | – | – | |
| KCA total | 59 | 26 | 33 | .441 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| KC | 1969 | 162 | 69 | 93 | .426 | 4th restore AL West | – | – | – | |
| KC total | 59 | 26 | 33 | .441 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
| Total[15] | 613 | 305 | 308 | .498 | 0 | 0 | – | |||