American baseball player (born 1931)
Baseball player
Charles Abraham Essegian
(born August 9, 1931) is an American former
professional baseball
left fielder
. He appeared in 404
games
in
Major League Baseball
(MLB) over six seasons (1958?1963) for the
Philadelphia Phillies
,
St. Louis Cardinals
,
Los Angeles Dodgers
,
Baltimore Orioles
,
Kansas City Athletics
and
Cleveland Indians
. During the
1959 World Series
, Essegian, then with the Dodgers, set a Series record with two
pinch-hit
home runs
against the
Chicago White Sox
. The mark was matched by
Bernie Carbo
of the
Boston Red Sox
, who a hit pair of pinch-hit homers against the
Cincinnati Reds
in the
1975 World Series
.
[1]
Essegian also played one season (1964) in
Nippon Professional Baseball
(NPB) for the
Kintetsu Buffaloes
.
[2]
Listed as 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and 200 pounds (91 kg), he threw and batted right-handed.
Stanford baseball and football star
[
edit
]
Essegian was born in
Boston
but grew up from the age of five in
Los Angeles
. He graduated from
Fairfax High School
and matriculated at
Stanford University
in
Palo Alto, California
, where he played varsity baseball and
football
. A
linebacker
, he played in the
Rose Bowl
after Stanford's
1951 football season
and became the second player (after
Jackie Jensen
) to appear in both the
World Series
and the Rose Bowl.
[3]
MLB career
[
edit
]
Essegian entered professional baseball by signing with the independently-operated
Sacramento Solons
of the Open-Classification
Pacific Coast League
in 1953. After spending four full years with Sacramento or its affiliates, Essegian was acquired by the Phillies in
1957
, then joined the Philadelphia varsity in
1958
, getting into 39
MLB
games and bashing five home runs.
In
1959
, he played for two
Triple-A
clubs and two MLB teams, and set his World Series mark. He began the year with the Cardinals, playing in 17 games but
batting
only .179; he was sent down to
Rochester
, then traded to the Dodgers on June 15. His hometown team optioned Essegian to Triple-A
Spokane
for six weeks before recalling him in early August. Essegian responded by batting .304 for the Dodgers in 24 games and helped them win the
National League
(NL)
pennant
. Then, during the 1959 World Series, he clubbed his two pinch hit homers; the first, hit in the seventh
inning
of Game 2 off
Bob Shaw
, enabled the Dodgers to tie the game 2?2
[4]
and turn the tide of the World Series. After losing Game 1 to the White Sox 11?0, with Essegian's game-tying blast (then
Charlie Neal
's two-run shot two batters later), Los Angeles went on to win Game 2, 4?3, and then capture the world championship in six games.
Essegian continued his nomadic career soon after the 1959 Fall Classic, however. After batting only .215 in 52 games for the
1960 Dodgers
, he was dealt to the
American League
(AL), where he had a one-game trial with the Orioles (
1961
), two stints (1961;
1963
) with the Athletics, and his most prolonged tenure, 166 games, as a member of the Indians (1961?
1962
). He was traded along with
Jerry Walker
from the
Orioles
to the
Athletics
for
Dick Hall
and
Dick Williams
on April 12, 1961.
[5]
His most productive season came in 1962, when he posted career bests in batting (.274),
runs
(59),
hits
(92),
doubles
(12), home runs (21),
runs batted in
(RBI) (50), and games played (106).
[2]
In his six-season career, Essegian was a .255 hitter (260-for-1,018) with 45 doubles, four
triples
, 47 home runs, and 150 RBI in 404 games. Defensively, he recorded a .981
fielding percentage
as an outfielder.
[2]
Japan and minor leagues
[
edit
]
Following his big league career, Essegian played the
1964
season in NPB, for the Kintetsu Buffaloes of the
Pacific League
. He also played in seven seasons in
Minor League Baseball
(MiLB) seasons between 1953 and 1959, registering a .311 average, with 97 homers, in 717 games.
[6]
[7]
Life after baseball
[
edit
]
After Essegian’s baseball career ended, he earned a
law degree
and became an attorney in
Southern California
, retiring in 1987.
[8]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Baseball Digest ? World Series record book: high marks for a single series
- ^
a
b
c
"Chuck Essegian Stats"
.
Baseball-Reference.com
. Sports Reference LLC
. Retrieved
April 13,
2020
.
- ^
The Baseball Page
Archived
2010-03-24 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Retrosheet
box score: October 2, 1959
- ^
"Orioles gain Hall, Williams,"
United Press International
(UPI), Thursday, April 13, 1961.
Retrieved February 28, 2023.
- ^
Japan Baseball Daily
Archived
May 17, 2006, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Chuck Essegian Minor & Japanese Leagues Statistics & History"
.
Baseball-Reference.com
. Sports Reference LLC
. Retrieved
April 13,
2020
.
- ^
Wancho, Joseph,
Chuck Essegian.
Society for American Baseball Research
Biography Project
External links
[
edit
]