Hugh Casey (baseball)

Hugh Thomas "Fireman" Casey (October 14, 1913 – July 3, 1951) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Chicago Cubs (1935), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–42 and 1946–48), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1949), and the New York Yankees (1949).

Hugh Casey
Pitcher
Born: (1913-10-14)October 14, 1913
Atlanta, Georgia
Died: July 3, 1951(1951-07-03) (aged 37)
Atlanta, Georgia
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 29, 1935, for the Chicago Cubs
Last MLB appearance
September 23, 1949, for the New York Yankees
MLB statistics
Win–loss record75–42
Earned run average3.45
Strikeouts349
Saves55
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Professional career

Casey began his professional baseball career with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association, at the age of 18.[1] After going 13–14 for Memphis in 1938, he was drafted by the Dodgers. He pitched effectively for the next four seasons, but his career is best known for an alleged wild pitch that he threw in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the 1941 World Series, which precipitated a Yankee rally. Catcher Mickey Owen thought that the pitch was a spitball; Casey always swore it wasn't. Officially the play was recorded as a passed ball.[2] Brooklyn lost the game and, eventually, the series. Casey went 0–2.

In January 1943, Casey entered the Navy.[3] He was discharged in December 1945.[3] Upon his return to Brooklyn, he had two good seasons in 1946 and 1947. In 1947, he led the National League in saves for the second time.[4] He pitched well in that year's World Series as well, going 2–0 with a save, but the Dodgers lost in seven games.

Like many of the colorful Dodger players during that era, Casey had his share of adventure. One story recounts a time that he sparred with writer Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway's house.[5]

Casey's major league career ended in 1949. He went 10–4 for his old team, the Crackers, in 1950; Atlanta won the pennant.

Later life

Towards the end of his life, Casey ran a restaurant in Brooklyn.[6]

On July 3, 1951, Casey died in Atlanta, by a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the neck while his estranged wife was pleading with him on the phone.[6] Casey was upset that he had recently been named as the father of child by another woman in a paternity suit. He was 37 years old.[7]

Casey was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Hugh Casey Minor Leagues Statistics & History". baseball-reference.com. sports-reference.com. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  2. "1941 World Series Game 4, Yankees at Dodgers, October 5". baseball-reference.com. sports-reference.com. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  3. "Baseball in Wartime – Hugh Casey". BaseballinWartime.com. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  4. "1947 Dodgers: Jackie Robinson's first game". sabr.org. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  5. Golenbock, Peter (2002). Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. pp. 44–46. ISBN 9780486477350. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  6. Hugh Casey at the SABR Baseball Biography Project, by Russell Wolinsky, Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  7. "Hugh Casey Commits Suicide". The Telegraph Herald. Dubuque, Iowa. Associated Press (AP). July 3, 1951. p. 7. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
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