H o o sier H ero of Brooklyn Excelling as both a major-league player for the Brooklyn an all-star , he initially logged playing time Dodgers and later as of the New York at both third base and catcher. Through the years, Hodges Mets—the “Miracle Mets” who captured the also occasionally doubled as an outfielder. The Hoosier in 1969— his memory is honored today as much for intan­ boy who had been only too happy at any position played gibles that never turn up in the record books. As New York that versatility into major-league stardom. Times columnist Arthur Daley pointed out, “It so happens Though received a great deal of fatherly empha­ that Gilbert Ray Hodges is one of the finest persons ever sis in the Hodges home, young Gil was equally skilled at to wear a big league uniform .” Daley, sportswriter every sport he tried, from football and basketball to track. to win a Pulitzer Prize, later noted upon Hodges’s death That teenage resourcefulness was best demonstrated by the that the former first baseman served as “the solid anchor­ fact that Hodges’s track specialties were the 220-yard dash man around whom the others revolved. He lent class and and the shot put—speed and strength, an unusual combi­ dignity and respect to his team and to his profession. As nation. Moreover, while attending the small Petersburg has been written—and rightly so—he had all the attributes high school, Hodges played six-man football, a much faster of an Eagle Scout. This was quite a man.” game than the conventional eleven-player variety. Even hese superlatives say nothing of Hodges’s Lincolnesque here, Hodges played the speed position of halfback. Standing sense of humor. W hen his classy behavior, home-run more than six feet in height and weighing nearly two hun­ power, and grace at first base led dred pounds, Hodges had, at that time, Tbaseball historians to compare him to excellent size for a high-school athlete. Brooklyn manager LEO New York Yankee legend , Perhaps Hodges’s greatest physical d u r o c h e r Hodges balked at the association with noted that attributes, however, were his hands. the Hall of Famer. “I appreciate the com­ when moving Hodges to Legendary Dodgers official Branch pliment but Gehrig had one advantage first base he had told Rickey, who integrated major-league over me,” said Hodges. When asked what him “to have some fun. baseball with the signing of Jackie the advantage was, Hodges simply Robinson, was frequently on record as say­ replied, “He was a better ballplayer.” Three days later, I looked ing the young “Hodges has the quickest The self-deprecating Hodges came up and, wow, I was hands I ever saw.” Of equal importance from humble beginnings in Princeton, looking at t h e b e s t fir s t was their unusually large size, even for a Indiana, where he was born on 4 April big man. His close friend and fellow b a s e m a n 1924. Like his frequent World Series I’d seen since Dodgers teammate enter­ rival, , he was raised by a Dolf Camilli.” tainingly observed, “Gil’s hands are so father who worked as a miner but huge that he could play first [base] with­ yearned to be a ballplayer. Charles Hodges had played out using a glove. He uses one only because it’s fashionable.” semi-professional baseball, and he tutored his two sons, Those monster hands were not, moreover, just famous for Bob and Bud (as Gil was then called), in hardball basics scooping up bad throws to first base. They were also helpful and urged them to find careers other than mining. when Hodges played the peacemaker. For example, during As the boys grew up in Petersburg, where the family had his first spring-training stint with the Dodgers in 1948, Hodges moved when the elder Hodges obtained a better job with adeptly rescued Reese from a much larger opponent: the Ingle Coal Corporation, conventional wisdom held that “Hodges reached out with a massive paw, grabbed the loose the older sibling was the better bet to make the major folds of [Fort Worth manager Les] Burger’s shirt front and leagues. Bob was the more aggressive type, while “Bud—well, lifted the 200-pounder clear off the ground. ‘I don’t know he’d play all right but he was sort of—well, easygoing.” where you’re going, Les, but it won’t be near Pee Wee.’” Ironically, Bob’s pitching career in the minor leagues was Between graduating from high school in 1941 and sign­ cut short by a sore arm at approximately the same time Gil ing with the Dodgers in 1943, Hodges attended St. Joseph’s was making his presence known with the Brooklyn Dodgers. College in Rensselaer, Indiana. The institution possessed An even greater irony was that Gil’s easygoing nature a good athletic program, and Hodges continued his involve­ assisted in his making it in the majors. As a child he was ment in several sports, hoping for a future as a college seen as overly complacent about playing various baseball . His baseball break came in the summer of 1943. positions based upon the needs or desires of other play­ While working for Indianapolis’s P. R. Mallory Company as ers. This flexibility and athleticism, however, encouraged a drill-press operator, he played baseball for the company’s the Dodgers to keep Hodges when he struggled with hit­ industrial-league team. His hitting brought him to the ting early in his career. Thus, while he eventually became attention of Stanley Feezle, a scout for the Dodgers, and

18 TRACES Fall 2003