Play Mandy Brooks for Me, Then Trade Him

We are going to go back a bit further than normal for this post's subject.

Mandy Brooks was a half-season wonder for the Cubs in 1925. In 90 games, the outfielder had 46 XBH, 72 RBI and a .281 average as a rookie centerfielder. The Cubs acquired Hack Wilson for 1926 and Brooks was an afterthought. Aftger 57 PA and a sub-.200 BA he was gone from the majors, never to return.

Brooks' Baseball-Reference page lists NO transactions for Brooks, which is not surprising. Baseball worked in a different way back then, as teams frequently bought and sold and traded players from and to independent minor league teams. We were able to find a few for Brooks, though, including his entry and exit from the Cubs!

Brooks had joined the Cubs mid-season from the Columbus AA team, an independent squad. This deal was covered by the Courier-Journal from Louisville Kentucky of May 27, 1925:

 "John ("Mandy") Brooks, an outfielder with the Columbus American Association Club, has been sold to the Chicago Nationals for $33,009, an outfielder and a pitcher, it was announced here today. Brooks, who has been batting better than (??), will report to the Chicago team Friday. He came to Columbus from Peoria in the Three Eye League. Outfielder (??) will be one of the Chicago nlers who will come to Columbus."

The (??) mark indicates garbled text. We can certainly pull out from this that the Cubs sent cash and two players to Columbus for Brooks.

Brooks' Baseball-Reference page is not complete when it comes to his minor-league career. In 1926 the Cubs optioned him to Minneapolis, but that record is not represented. From Minneapolis, the Cubs sold him to Louisville for 1927. From the Courier-Journal from Louisville Nov. 18, 1926:

"Mandy Brooks will wear the uniform of a Louisville Colonel next season. He comes to the Louisville club from the Chicago Cubs in part payment for Earl Webb. Brooks finished the 1926 season with Minneapolis after starting the year with Joe McCarthy's team."

This transaction is not listed on Earl Webb's page, either.  

Brooks' Louisville career isn't covered on his page either, just a stop at Waterbury (perhaps on option from Louisville). He goes to Nashville early in 1927: from the July 12, 1927 Tennessean from Nashville:

"Mandy Brooks, who was bought a week ago today from Louisville, joined the club yesterday down in Memphis and It filled the Vol roster."

So that was a cash deal. We found one more Brooks transaction that involved a (then) future major league player. In 1928 Brooks goes to the PCL in a deal outlined in the San Bernardino Sun of June 13,1928:

"A mild housecleaning in the Oakland baseball club today swept one regular out, while a veteran and three youngsters swirled in on the back stroke of the broom. Al Bool, one of the catching mainstays of last year's pennant winning team, was the victim. , He and a chunk of cash (amount unknown) went to the Nashville club of the Southern association in a trade for John "Mandy" Brooks, husky outfielder. Brooks, a right-hander all around, was with the Chicago Nationals in 1925 and 1926. To date this season, he has hit nine home runs and batted .534 for Nashville. He will report at once."

So we were able to not only add some transactions to the Mandy Brooks file, but fill in a couple stops on his baseball resume!

Brooks from pinterest, Webb from comc.com and Bool from the great Trading Card Database site.

 

Jerry Scala Was No Jok

Jerry Scaia was a centerfielder for the White Sox from 1948-50. He continued until 1955 bouncing thru quite a few organizations. However, his Baseball-Reference page only lists unknown deals before he surfaced with the Sox. He was involved in a few interesting transactions after that, and we were able to track many down.

Scala had a good shot at starting with the Sox in 1949 and came up a bit short. He was optioned to the Pirates' Indianapolis club, and was involved in a complicated trade that saw him bounced from Chicago to independent PCL team Oakland and back. From the Indianapolis Star of June 12, 1949:

"Earl Rapp, outfielder for the Chicago White Sox, has been sold to the Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League, the White Sox office announced today. The deal supersedes one announced last Thursday which would have sent Sox Outfielder Jerry Scala and First Baseman Gordon Goldsberry to Oakland in trade for George Metkovich, Oaks outfielder. However, Scala will stay with the Sox and both Rapp and Goldsberry will go to the Oaks."

Scala played for the ChiSox and AAA Buffalo on option in 1950, and Sacramento for Chicago in 1951. Then he goes to Baltimore, AAA for the Phillies. The Feb. 24, 1952 Baltimore Sun describes Scala as having come from "Sacramento in a trade that sent Bill Glynn to that club." Bill Glynn is covered in, I believe, two other UT blog posts.

Scala goes to the A's organization in Ottawa for 1953. From the March 10, 1953 Ottawa Journal:

"Gerry Scala. announced as signed by the Ottawa Athletics last-night is the leading choice to play centre field on the 1953 edition of the dub. Scala, who has said he's anxious to come here, was with the Baltimore Orioles last year, where he batted .240 while playing in centre. The A's obtained the 27-year-old outfielder in a trade tor Stan Jok earlier this Winter."

And, Jok's Baseball-Reference page simply has this as an unknown transaction.

Scala stayed with the Athletics thru the end of his playing days in 1955.

Scala from Stars of the Diamond.com

Jok from eBay

Goldsberry from Flickr

Rapp from Baseball in Wartime 

and Metkovich from

Sports Artifacts

 

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