Randy Gumpert who had a ten year major league career with six teams died recently. He is known for giving up Mickey Mantel's first home run. For you soccer fans out there Mantel retired with 536 home runs (15th of all time).
The brief news item on the sports page noted that former major league pitcher Randy Gumpert had died at age 90 in Wyomissing, Pa.
What a flood of memories were released by that name.
In the summer of 1956, Randy Gumpert was the manager and third base coach for the Kearney Yankees in the rookie Nebraska State League. Ol’ Clark was an umpire in the league.
The Yankees were a solid club. The center fielder was Deron Johnson, who had a 16-year major league career; Phil Mudrock, who pitched a no-hitter (which Ol’ Clark umpired) and logged one major league inning; and Ken Bracey, who never made it to the big leagues but spent more than 40 years as a major league scout, mostly with the San Diego Padres, led the pitching staff.
The third baseman was Jay Ward, a native of Brookfield, who eventually played in 27 major league games, and hit .163 in 49 at bats over three short stops with the twins and the Reds. Jay was a career Triple A guy and later a longtime minor league manager and instructor. He hit exactly zero major league home runs.
Gumpert had pitched in the majors for 10 years with five organizations, finishing in 1952 with a 51-59 record and a 4.17 earned run average.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Dec/20081210Feat001.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment