Word: shortstopped
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Boudreau had been a Cleveland pet ever since he joined the Indians as a shortstop in 1939. In 1942 he became the "boy wonder" manager (at 24). Lacking speed afoot (his nickname is "Old Shufflefoot"), Lou made up for his slowness by getting a fast jump on the ball and by developing an almost uncanny knack of knowing where opposing batters were most likely...
Last year Lou slowed down at the plate, benched himself half the season in favor of agile young Shortstop Ray Boone. The Indians, a red-hot pennant contender in August, cooled down in the September stretch while Manager Lou, always at his best as a field leader, sat on the bench nursing a sickly .269 batting average and a pair of sore, 33-year-old legs. Cleveland's new manager: 42-year-old Al Lopez, once (1947) a second-string catcher for Boudreau, since then a highly successful manager for the Indianapolis Indians. At week...
Fifteen years ago Casey Stengel, then manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, took a quick look at a skinny little kid who claimed to be a shortstop. Casey gave the youngster a blunt piece of advice: "Go peddle your papers, Shorty, you're too small ever to become a major-leaguer...
Little Phil Rizzuto was short on size, long on determination. He was not much of a hitter, but he taught himself to be the best bunter in the business. As a shortstop, he had none of the easy, fluid grace of the Cardinals' Marty Marion, nor the rifle arm of the Red Sox's Vern Stephens. But Rizzuto learned to scoot around his short-field like a hopped-up water bug, to make throws from any position short of standing on his head. Within five years after Stengel's blunt advice, the "Scooter" had nailed down...
Last season, at the advanced shortstop age of 32, the Scooter was still teaching himself a few new tricks. To get a little more power out of his 5-ft.-6-in. frame, he borrowed Heavyweight John Mize's big 36-oz. bat. It worked just fine; he finished the season with a .324 batting average, highest of his major-league career, and 50 extra-base hits...