Jim Kirby's Adventure in the Majors: Three Games

Jim Kirby was an outfielder during the World War II years that had a very brief stay with the 1949 Cubs, one hit in two at bats over three games without playing in the field.

He had a long career in the minors, starting in 1942, skipping three years for the war, then coming back to C ball in Tyler, Texas. He graduated to AA independent Shreveport in 1947 and 1948 with a couple nice years, good enough to be drafted to the Cubs for 1949, according to his Baseball-Reference page.

After his short major league stay, the Cubs optioned him to their AA Nashville club (Kirby's hometown) and then to independent AA Dallas later in that year. Baseball-Reference lists no further deals for Kirby, be we were able to uncover a few.

Kirby stayed at Dallas for 1950, having been purchased by the club, according to the Nashville Tenneseean from Sept. 7, 1949:

"The Dallas club of the Texas league yesterday announced the purchase of Outfielder Jim Kirby from the Chicago Cubs. Kirby played here this season but was with Dallas on option."

Dallas became a Cleveland affiliate for 1951 and Kirby started the season there. Partway through the season, he was dealt to the Reds' AA Tulsa affiliate. From the Times from Shreveport, LA for July 29, 1951:

"The Shreveport Sports sold Third-baseman Vern Petty to the Dallas Eagles last night after the game in Dallas, and the Eagles promptly traded him to the Tulsa Oilers along with Outfielder Jim Kirby for Outfielder Eddie Knoblauch. Shreveport peddled Petty for an unannounced amount of cash and another player to be named later. If the Eagles do not part with a player for the Sports. Shreveport will receive an additional amount of money, Club President Bonneau Peters announced."

Petty and Knoblauch never made the majors. Kirby was optioned by Tulsa to B-league Gainesville after a less-than stellar performance at Tulsa, and a succeeding poor performance at Tulsa in 1952 sent him to independent B and A ball (except for a short stay in the Red Sox system in 1958 at age 35) for the rest of his career.

Kirby pic stolen from the www.findagrave.com website.

Tommy Fine

Tommy Fine had a couple trips to the majors, in 1947 with the Red Sox, and 1950 with the Browns. He had spent many seasons in the minors for Boston, starting with his signing in 1938, and, after years off for World War II, finally cracking the bigs at age 32. His trip with the Red Sox netted just one win, one complete game, but a poor overall record, and his Baseball-Reference page lists his trade/sale to PCL San Francisco for 1948.

The next transaction listed on that page has him signing as a free agent with the Browns before the 1949 season...with no explanation as to how he gets there from independent San Francisco. The Feb. 16, 1949 Stanford Daily tells us what happened to Fine:

"Feb. 15 — The San Francisco Seals tonight announced outright release of pitcher Tommy Fine, who came to them last year from the Boston Red Sox."

So he was a free agent after being released in what the article inferred was a roster cut-down rather than a performance issue.

Fine made it back to the majors with the Browns in 1950, unfortunately with poor results again. He was optioned to San Antonio in the Browns' system, then to the White Sox' Memphis affiliate, still under option in 1952. Memphis then acquired Fine outright; this from the Schenectady Gazette of Feb. 15, 1953:

"The Browns also sold Tommy Fine, right-handed pitcher, outright to Memphis in the Southern Association. Fine was on option this year and played with Memphis the latter part of the season.”

Fine had a good year at Memphis, but was on the move again after the season. From the Montreal Gazette of Feb. 15, 1954:

“Richmond Virginians announced Saturday the purchase of Tommy Fine, veteran righthanded pitcher who last year played a key role in Memphis’ drive to a Southern Association pennant”

The article mentions a purchase from the White Sox.

Fine played into his forties with independent Memphis, then went to Shreveport for his final season.

Fine pic from the Baseball Birthdays site.

ONE-SHOTS: Addis, Burkhart, Lade and Layton

As we head into the second hundred posts, lets run through some "one shots," one-time transactions that can help fill in some baseball players' histories.

BOB ADDIS was an outfielder in the early fifties, and had a nice ,281 lifetime average. He had been barely used by the Pirates, though after the Cubs sent him in a multi-player deal for Ralph Kiner. The Baseball-Reference page has:

June 13, 1953: Released by the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

But that is contradicted by this article from the Sunday Herald of June 14, 1953:

“Bob Addis, 27-year-old outfielder obtained from the Chicago Cubs in the Ralph Kiner trade, was sold by the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday to Toronto of the International League for an undisclosed amount of cash.”

He finished his career in the minors.

KEN BURKHART won 18 games as a rookie pitcher for the Cardinals in 1945, and followed that up with a pretty good 1946. Things went sour in the next few seasons and he wasn't as effective, going to Cincinnati in 1948. He spent 1950 in Syracuse, Cincinnati's AAA club, then finished his career in independent Oakland in 1951. That transaction wasn't covered on his Baseball-Reference page, but we find it here in the St. Petersburg Times of Apr. 11, 1951:

“Buck Tanner, Rudy’s younger and pitching brother, is about to become a member of the Syracuse Chiefs of the International Leaague. The Chiefs are trading Ken Burkhart, former Cardinals hurler, to Oakland in the Pacific Coast League for Buck..”

 

Bill "Buck" Tanner never got to the majors. Burkhart became a major league umpire.

DOYLE LADE pitched for the Cubs in the late forties, with a 11-10 mark in 1947, and 25-29 over five seasons. By 1951 and 1952, Lade had been farmed out to Los Angeles of the PCL for the Cubs. 

LES LAYTON was a minor league slugger that hit .231 in 1948 for the New York Giants. The Cubs had claimed him in 1950 and he played for their LA club from 1950 to 1952.

After the season, both Lade and Layton go to the independent Texas League Shreveport team, no mention of the deal on either's Baseball-Reference pages. I found the deal here, in the Pittsburgh Press of Dec. 7 1952:

“Outright sale of Pitcher Doyle Lade and Outfielder Les Layton to Shreveport of the Texas League was announced today by the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League.”

So a few quick ones, wrapping up histories of some players.

Addis from wikipedia

Burkhart from ebay

Layton from baseball-birthdays.net

Lade from ebay