Gene Woodling

Gene Woodling
Outfielder
Born: (1922-08-16)August 16, 1922
Akron, Ohio
Died: June 2, 2001(2001-06-02) (aged 78)
Barberton, Ohio
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 23, 1943, for the Cleveland Indians
Last MLB appearance
September 15, 1962, for the New York Mets
MLB statistics
Batting average .284
Home runs 147
Runs batted in 830
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Eugene Richard Woodling (August 16, 1922 – June 2, 2001) was a professional baseball player. He played all or part of seventeen seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians (1943, 1946, 1955–57), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), New York Yankees (1949–54), Baltimore Orioles (1955, 1958–60), Washington Senators (1961–62), and the New York Mets in their expansion year of 1962. Primarily an outfielder, he played most often in left field. The Akron, Ohio, native batted left-handed, threw right-handed, and was listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and 195 pounds (88 kg).

Playing career

Early career

Woodland's professional baseball career began in 1940 in the Indians' organization. He missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons while serving in the United States Navy in the Pacific. Before coming to the majors for good in 1949, Woodling was a four-time minor league batting average champion. He mostly played left field (1,208 games) when he entered the majors, but appeared in 325 contests in right field and played 93 games in center.

Yankees career

Woodling played with many teams during his career, the longest term of service being with the Yankees for six years and 698 of the 1,763 games played of his MLB career. With them, Woodling had what was probably his best year, 1953. Although he only had 395 at bats, he led the American League with a .429 on-base percentage.

While Woodling was with the Yankees, the team won five consecutive World Series (1949–53). During that time, Yankee manager Casey Stengel praised the outfielder's ability to run and throw. Stengel generally platooned him with right-hander Hank Bauer, but each averaged 400 at bats per season. Woodling hit a solo home run in each World Series from 1951 through 1953, and, in 1951, helped Allie Reynolds secure his first of two no-hitters on the season, when he homered in a 1–0 win over Bob Feller and the Indians. In 1952, Woodling became the first player to pinch-hit a triple in the World Series.

On November 17, 1954, a record seventeen-player deal took place between the Orioles and Yankees, involving Woodling, future twenty-game winner Bob Turley and Don Larsen, who would go on to pitch a perfect game in the 1956 World Series for New York. Woodling had been sidelined for the last part of the 1954 season with a broken arm.

Later career

Soon, Woodling moved to the Indians where he set career-highs in home runs (19), runs batted in (78), and batting (.321) in 1957. A few months before he turned forty, he was sent to the New York Mets, where old Yankees manager Casey Stengel was working on his latest project, the newborn Mets. Woodling would be managed by Stengel for the remainder of the 1962 season. He was released before the 1963 season, after publicly criticizing the front office's contract negotiations with Marv Throneberry.

Overview

In a seventeen-season career, Woodling batted .284 with 147 home runs and 830 RBI in 1,796 games. Woodling ended with a .386 on-base percentage and 1,585 career hits in 5,587 at bats. He hit .300 or better five times. In five World Series, Woodling hit .318 (27-85). As an outfielder, he recorded a .989 fielding percentage.

Post-playing days

Woodling was appointed on November 20, 1963 as the Orioles' first-base coach by former Yankees teammate Hank Bauer, who had become the team's manager one day earlier.[1] He remained in that capacity through the 1966 World Series Championship season and up until the announcement on September 28, 1967 that he would not be retained for the 1968 season.[2]

Woodling died in a nursing home in Wadsworth, Ohio. His biggest contribution to baseball may have come off the field. He worked to help bring a pension fund for major league players.

"He was just such a great guy", said former Yankees manager Ralph Houk in an article in the New York Daily News.

References

  1. ↑ Birds' Bauer Names Woodling And Hunter," United Press International, Thursday, November 21, 1963.
  2. ↑ "Bauer to Return; Three Coaches Fired," The Associated Press, Friday, September 29, 1967.

Sources

  • Gene Woodling's Secrets of Batting, by Gene Woodling and Robert Smith, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1967.
Preceded by
Hank Bauer		 Baltimore Orioles first base coach
1964–1967		 Succeeded by
Earl Weaver
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