Saturday, July 29, 2006

Featured Player: Lefty O'Doul

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul (March 4, 1897 - December 7, 1969) was an American Major League Baseball player who went on to become an extraordinarily successful manager in the minor leagues, and also a vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan.

Beginning his career as a left-handed pitcher in for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from 1919 to 1923, before converting to an left fielder for the New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1928 to 1934. O'Doul was born in San Francisco, California and came up through the minor leagues as a pitcher with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Lefty had success as a pitcher but developed a sore arm which relegated him to being a reliever. O'Doul returned to the Pacific Coast League where he converted himself to a power-hitting outfielder. The Giants brought him up to the Big Leagues in 1928 where he batted .319 as a platoon player.

Lefty was traded to the Phillies in 1929 and, teaming up with Chuck Klein, had one of the all-time best hitting years in baseball history. O'Doul hit .398 that year with 254 hits, 32 home runs, 122 RBIs and 152 runs scored. He continued to play well for the Philadelphia club but was traded to Brooklyn in 1932, finishing up his playing career in 1934 with the Giants. Lefty then returned to the Pacific Coast League as manager of the San Francisco Seals from 1937 to 1951, later managing several other teams in the circuit and becoming the winningest manager in PCL history. One great coup while managing the Seals was in developing Joe DiMaggio, who eventually wound up with the New York Yankees.

Later on, O'Doul became an idol in Japan, serving as baseball's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II. In addition, he was a hero in his hometown of San Francisco, where his fame lives on through Lefty O'Doul's Bar, and the Lefty O'Doul Bridge, which takes San Francisco's Third Street over what would be known as McCovey Cove, adjacent to AT&T Park, in 2000.


Add to RootZoo
BallHype: hype it up! Posted by Steve Kenul at 8:32 AM

0 Comments

Post a Comment

« Home

Sponsors

By far, the online casino reviews can be found at Jaxcasinos.com. Looking for a top online sports betting website? Try Sportsbetting3.com. When Pro football starts, look to NFL-betting.com for the best NFL betting news and information. At the end of the season, enjoy first class SuperBowl betting by joining our top sportsbook sites.

Blogging Sponsorships

If you would like to sponser on this site, contact:
bronxbloggers@yahoo.com

Vote 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards

Scores

Baseball Terminology

Terms and Abbreviations

Front Office

Owner [-]
Bio [-]
Name:
Location: Plainview, New York, United States

I have, and always will be, a true Yankees fan. Don't give me that bandwagon crap; bandwagon fans are for people who need to belong.

Public Relations [â??]
Enter your email address below to subscribe to Bronx Bloggers!


powered by Bloglet

Links





The Bandwagon

Kokoyaku
RetroSheet
Baseball Reference
SABR
National Baseball HoF
Yankees Official Site
SportsWorld NY
A Must Read
Cheating Barry
CGBB
Live Soccer Streaming
Yankees-Chick
The Sports Flow
The Sports Hernia
Sports Blog Directory
BernieWilliams.net
Big Reds Blogger
Sport For People
SportsBlog NY
Sports Betting
Smarter Sports Blog
BigFlySports.com
Sport Blog Man
Don Mattingly Online - The Official Website!

The Back Page

Attendance

Web Page Hit Counters eXTReMe Tracker

Disclosure statement
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.