American baseball player (1911-1993)
Baseball player
Hank Leiber
|
---|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Hank_Leiber_1943.jpg/160px-Hank_Leiber_1943.jpg) Leiber, circa 1943
|
Center fielder
|
Born:
(
1911-01-17
)
January 17, 1911
Phoenix
,
Arizona
, U.S.
|
Died:
November 8, 1993
(1993-11-08)
(aged 82)
Tucson, Arizona
, U.S.
|
Batted:
Right
Threw:
Right
|
|
April 16, 1933, for the New York Giants
|
|
September 25, 1942, for the New York Giants
|
|
Batting average
| .288
|
---|
Home runs
| 101
|
---|
Runs batted in
| 518
|
---|
|
---|
|
|
|
|
Henry Edward Leiber
(January 17, 1911 ? November 8, 1993) was an
American
professional
baseball
player.
[1]
He played as an
outfielder
in
Major League Baseball
from 1933 to 1942 with the
New York Giants
and
Chicago Cubs
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Leiber was born in
Phoenix
,
Arizona
in 1911. He attended
Phoenix Union High School
and the
University of Arizona
and was a
pitcher
for the
Arizona Wildcats baseball
team.
[2]
He began his
professional baseball
career in 1932. He hit .362 in the Class B
Piedmont League
and debuted in the majors the following April, with the Giants.
[1]
However, he spent most of 1933 with the
Memphis Chickasaws
of the
Southern Association
, where he hit .358. In 1934, he started the season with the
Nashville Volunteers
. He was hitting .424 through 45 games when he was again called up by the Giants, this time for good.
[3]
Major league career
[
edit
]
Leiber came up to the major leagues at the beginning of the 1933 season, and batted .200 over 6 games and 10 at-bats. However, he was reassigned to the minor leagues for the rest of the season.
[4]
Leiber batted just .241 over 63 games and 187 at-bats with the Giants in
1934
.
[1]
The following season, he broke out, hitting .331 with 22
home runs
and 107
runs batted in
.
[1]
He finished 11th in the 1935
National League
Most Valuable Player Award
voting; this would remain his best season in the majors.
[2]
[5]
Leiber was a hold-out the following spring. He eventually played in 101 games, but his numbers dropped and he only batted .279.
[1]
Leiber
platooned
with
Jimmy Ripple
, who played in the games Leiber did not play.
[6]
Leiber is remembered for hitting one of the longest
fly ball
outs
in major league history. On October 2, 1936, during Game 2 of the
1936 World Series
at the
Polo Grounds
, Leiber hit a long fly ball to deep,
center field
that traveled an estimated 490 feet from
home plate
, before being caught by
Joe DiMaggio
for the final out of the game.
[7]
[8]
Leiber had a tendency to crowd the plate while hitting.
[9]
During
spring training
in 1937, he was
beaned
by one of the fastest pitchers in history,
Bob Feller
. Leiber suffered a
concussion
and was bothered by dizziness for the rest of the season.
[10]
However, he eventually recovered enough to play in the
1937 World Series
, hitting for a .364 average in three games.
[11]
Leiber was named to the
All-Star
team in
1938
. That December, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs, and he responded with two good seasons ? hitting over .300 in 1939 and 1940 and being named to his second All-Star team.
[1]
On July 4, 1939, he hit 3 home runs in a game in a losing effort against the
St. Louis Cardinals
.
[12]
On June 23, 1941, Leiber was beaned again, this time by
Cliff Melton
. He missed the rest of the season and was traded back to the New York Giants. He did play in 1942 but suffered a
calf
injury, and his production suffered. Although he had never pitched at the major league level, in the final game of his MLB career, Leiber took the mound in a game against the Phillies on September 25, 1942. Leiber was able to pitch a complete game in a 9?1 loss. With World War II going on, Leiber went back to his home in Arizona. He did not return to the majors when the war ended.
[13]
In a 10-year major league career, Leiber played in 813
games
, accumulating 808
hits
in 2,805
at bats
for a .288 career batting average along with 101 home runs, 518
runs batted in
and an
on-base percentage
of .356.
[1]
He retired with a .974
fielding percentage
.
[1]
Later life
[
edit
]
Leiber managed the Tucson Cowboys of the
Arizona?Texas League
for one season (1950).
[3]
He eventually became a successful real-estate developer.
[14]
In 1963, Leiber was inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.
[15]
He died in
Tucson, Arizona
at the age of 82.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"Hank Leiber"
.
baseball-reference.com
. sports-reference.com
. Retrieved
November 2,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
Hank Lieber
- Baseballbiography.com
- ^
a
b
"Hank Leiber Minor League Statistics & History"
.
baseball-reference.com
. sports-reference.com
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
- ^
"Hank Leiber Minor League Statistics at Baseball Reference"
.
baseball-reference.com
. Retrieved
February 20,
2024
.
- ^
"1935 American League Most Valuable Player Award Ballot"
.
baseball-reference.com
. sports-reference.com
. Retrieved
November 2,
2010
.
- ^
Loomis, Tom (May 13, 1987).
"Don't Blame Casey Stengel For Inventing Platoon System"
.
Toledo Blade
. p. 26
. Retrieved
February 3,
2014
.
- ^
Stanley, Frank (July 1947).
Diamonds Are Rough All Over
. Retrieved
November 2,
2010
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"1936 World Series Game 2 box score"
.
baseball-reference.com
. sports-reference.com. October 2, 1936
. Retrieved
November 2,
2010
.
- ^
Coffey, Wayne.
"The Yankee Clipper Sails In"
.
nydailynews.com
. Archived from
the original
on September 6, 2009
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
- ^
Neyer, Rob
(2008).
Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends
. Touchstone. p.
110
.
ISBN
9780743284905
.
- ^
"1937 World Series"
.
baseball-reference.com
. sports=reference.com
. Retrieved
November 2,
2010
.
- ^
"Hank Leiber 3-home run Game Boxscore at Retrosheet"
.
retrosheet.org
. Retrieved
February 16,
2024
.
- ^
Neyer, pp. 111-112.
- ^
"Hank Leiber; Baseball Player, dies at 82"
.
The New York Times
. November 11, 1993
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
- ^
"Hall of Fame"
.
phoenixsports.org
. Archived from
the original
on January 13, 2011
. Retrieved
October 28,
2010
.
External links
[
edit
]