Baseball History Podcast

Harry Franklin Sallee, nicknamed “Slim”, was born February 3, 1885 in Higginsport, Ohio. Sallee toiled in obscurity for eight and one-half seasons with what might have been the worst major league team of the Dead Ball era. Yet, the lean junkballer, gifted with fantastic control, won consistently.

Edmund Walter Lopat (originally Lopatynski), nicknamed “The Junk Man,” but better known as “Steady Eddie”, was born June 21, 1918 in New York, New York. Lopat teamed with fireballers Vic Raschi and Allie Reynolds to be one of the Big Three starting pitchers on the New York Yankees’ five straight World Championship clubs from 1949 through 1953. He turned his lack of a fastball into an advantage, keeping hitters off stride with an assortment of slow breaking pitches thrown with cunning and accuracy. To frustrated hitters he was the Junk Man.

Walter James Vincent Maranville, nicknamed “Rabbit”, was born November 11, 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Maranville compensated for his lack of size with an overabundance of spunk and determination. Over his 23-year Major League career, spent exclusively in the National League, the wide-ranging shortstop accumulated a record 5,133 putouts and developed a reputation for his eye-popping basket catches.

Bobby Ray Murcer was born May 20, 1946 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Murcer was slated to be the Yankees’ shortstop but ended up being the center fielder, following in the footsteps of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio. A left-handed hitter, Murcer had a career .277 batting average and 252 home runs. He became one of the Yankees most popular players of the era.