Hank Behrman

Hank Behrman pitched for the Dodgers, Pirates and Giants in the late forties.

After a very good rookie season in 1946, his performance tailed off so badly in 1947 that he was sold off to the Pirates....and returned after posting a 9.00+ ERA in 10 games.

He recovered in 1948 for the Dodgers enough for the Giants to purchase his rights in 1949, but a 4.92 ERA and a 2:1 walk to strikeout ratio for that season ended his time up top. His Baseball-Reference page ends his transaction section there, but he was involved in a few more deals, we found.

For 1950, Behrman went to Oakland in a very interesting deal, according to the Reading Eagle of Apr, 2, 1950:

 On Hank Behrman (and Roy Zimmerman, formerly of the Yankees’ farm system)…

“Both were released to Oakland of the Pacific Coast League by the National League Club.”

“Durocher said that by sending Behrman and Zimmerman to Oakland, the Giants have obtained an option on purchasing Bill Taylor, left-handed hitting outfielder, at the end of the current PCL championship season.”

So the deal was for selling Behrman and the formerly-blackballed (for jumping to the Mexican League) Zimmerman to independent Oakland, Leo Durocher and the Giants would get right of first refusal on Taylor, who they later DID purchase. Taylor has an interesting set of transactions too, we will get to them later.

Behrman plays in 1951 in three places, Oakland, San Francisco and AA Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma trip must have been a look-see, because otherwise the next two deals I found make no timeline sense.

In 1951, Behrman goes from independent Oakland, to the Yankees' San Francisco farm team. From the Ellensburg Daily Record of Apr. 11, 1951:

“San Francisco’s cellar-dwelling Seals shelled out ‘in excess of $10,000’ yesterday for a righthander who earned 17 victories for their cross-bay rivals, the Oakland Acorns, last year.”

“He is Hank Behrman…”

Despite the trip to Oklahoma City, of which I was unable to find a reason, Behrman is still San Francisco property when he is sold to Toledo, of the White Sox system. From the Toledo Blade of Feb. 27, 1952:

“The Mud Hens, whose financial troubles were slated to be ironed out today, continued to move on the pitching front by the purchase of Hank Behrman, former major league right-hander, from San Francisco.”

 

Unfortunately those financial problems were NOT totally ironed out and the team moved to Charleston during the season (by American Association mandate). After one more sub-par season on the mound, Behrman's career was over. SABR has a nice biography of Behrman you should check out.

Behrman from
goldenrankings.com
Zimmerman from
www.vintagecardprices.com
Taylor from
www.baseball-almanac.com

 

Roy Foster and Marcelino Lopez Cruise to Hawaii and Mexico; Plus, Mike Jackson!

Sometimes jut randomly looking up a player can come up with a blog topic.

I was looking into the stats of former Indians outfielder Roy Foster, who had just a couple big league seasons, but they were productive ones. I had noticed on his Baseball Reference page that he had an unexplained trip to Hawaii in 1973.

I found this from the Eugene Register-Guard for June 11, 1973...in an article describing Hawaii's player shortage in the midst of a roster upheaval:

"....the Islanders are low in personnel. Two more players, pitcher Marcelino Lopez and outfielder Roy Foster, will soon arrive from Oklahoma City, however."

Both Lopez and Foster were in AAA Oklahoma City as Indians property. Apparently this was a loan rather than a trade, because this shows up in the Panama City News-Herald of Dec. 6, 1973:

"Cleveland Indians Wednesday sent lefthander Mike Jackson to the Milwaukee Brewers for righthander Lloyd Gladden in a trade of minor league players. Jackson, 27. was 4-5 at Oklahoma City last year and was sent to Evansville of the American Association. Gladden, 27. was 7-7 at Evansville last season and was assigned to San Antonio of the Texas League. The Indians also sold the contracts of two Oklahoma City players, lefthander Marcelino Lopez and outfielder Roy Foster, to Vera Cruz in the Mexican League. Lopez, 30, was 0-4 and Foster, 28, hit .266 last year."

Foster and Lopez were still Indians property after the 1973 season, obviously, and they were both sold to and played for Veracruz in 1974. Lopez came back to the Pirates organization in 1974, and I will try to look that up.

BTW, the Jackson-Gladden trade isn't mentioned on Jackson's Baseball Reference page, and Gladden never made the majors.

S

Foster and Lopez pics from

www.tradingcarddb.com

Jackson taken from www.kcroyalshistory.com