Al Epperly
From BR Bullpen
Albert Paul Epperly (Tub or Pard)
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 194 lb.
- Debut April 25, 1938
- Final Game July 7, 1950
- Born May 7, 1918 in Glidden, IA USA
- Died April 14, 2003 in McFarland, WI USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Al Epperly was signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox before the 1936 season with no idea he would still be in the game of baseball 17 seasons later. The eighteen year old pitcher was assigned to the Eau Claire Bears of the class D Northern League, his first season in the pros, he finished at 13-8 with a 4.41 ERA while pitching 196 innings while helping his team to the play-off Championship.
This would be his first of eight double digit winning seasons during his 17-year run. The Chicago Cubs got him away from the 1937 Red Sox Via a minor league working agreement with the Eau Claire club and the young pitcher threw a 14-6 record at the Three-I League for the Moline Plowboys, again helping his teammates to the play-off title.
Unknown at the time, AL "Pard" Epperly, was getting ready to go a dozen years between stints in the majors. He was just twenty years old in 1938 when the Cubs debuted him with his first big league start and victory with a 21-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He went 2-0 in nine games for his team before being sent down to the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association where he finished out the year at 4-6 appearing in 18 games.
The Cubs, of course, went on to win the National League Pennant and were crushed by the New York Yankees, four games to zip, in the World Series.
It would be some twelve years later and parts of three decades before "Pard" would take the mound in a major league ballpark when he appeared in five games with no decisions out of the Brooklyn Dodgers bullpen in 1950. This wound up his big league numbers at 2-0 and a 4.00 ERA while appearing in 14 games.
Throughout the 1940s and early '50s he had success at the AAA level before and after serving in the Army during World War II in 1944 and '45. Epperly went 16-5 for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1943 and was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the November 1943 Rule V Draft. Al also went 15-4 for the St. Paul Saints of the American Association in 1951 and would finish out his playing career in the early fifties having won 160 games while losing 127 with a 3.62 ERA. Al also pitched during the winters in Cuba.
Epperly retired in Davenport, IA, where for many years he served as chief deputy and captain of the postal division for the county sheriff's office. Al died April 14, 2003, at age 84 in McFarland, WI.
[edit] Sources
