Dusty Rhodes | |||
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Outfielder | |||
Born: Montgomery County, Alabama |
May 13, 1927|||
Died: June 17, 2009 Las Vegas, Nevada |
(aged 82)|||
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MLB debut | |||
July 15, 1952, for the New York Giants | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
September 27, 1959, for the San Francisco Giants | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .253 | ||
Home runs | 54 | ||
Runs batted in | 207 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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James Lamar "Dusty" Rhodes (May 13, 1927 – June 17, 2009) was an outfielder with a 7-year career who played from 1952 to 1957 and in 1959. He played for the Giants franchise of the National League (1952-57 in New York, 1959 in San Francisco).
Of him, manager Leo Durocher said "a buffoon is a drunk on a hitting spree". In the 1954 season, he was often used as a pinch-hitter for Monte Irvin, and came through with an incredible number of clutch hits.
In the first game of the 1954 World Series, Rhodes had a pinch hit home run in the bottom of the tenth inning off Bob Lemon to win the game. The next day he delivered a pinch hit single in the fifth inning and then remained in the game to play left field. In the seventh inning he hit a homer off Early Wynn to help ensure the victory.
Roy Campanella, the Brooklyn Dodger catcher, said of Durocher and his action of pinch-hitting Rhodes: "If they have to pinch hit Rhodes for Irvin, they must be hurting." Willie Mays mocked this assumption in his autobiography. Mays considered Rhodes to be a "fabulous hitter", as did Durocher, who wrote in his autobiography, ". . . boy could he hit!", while commenting on Rhodes' atrocious fielding abilities.
After his baseball career, Rhodes worked for a friend on a tugboat for 25 years, a job which he said he loved. When asked why his career was so short, Rhodes said, "After Durocher left the Giants, baseball wasn't fun anymore."