Bob Lennon
From BR Bullpen
Robert Albert Lennon (Archie)
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.
- Debut September 9, 1954
- Final Game May 11, 1957
- Born September 15, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY USA
- Died June 14, 2005 in Dix Hills, NY USA
Contents |
[edit] Biographical Information
Bob Lennon earned his first big league cup of coffee following a Triple Crown winning season in the minors in 1954. That year, he hit .354 with 64 home runs and 161 RBI for the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association.
Bob Lennon was an outfielder for 16 years, four in the Major Leagues (1954-57) and 16 in the minors (1945-1950;1952-1961), losing one year to the military. He served as a corporal in the U. S. Army for one year during the Korean War (1951) (BP). He missed the 1951 season, but was released before his two-year hitch was up because of back trouble. He had four cups of coffee with the New York Giants (1954-1956) and Chicago Cubs (1957). He hit .281 with 278 homerons and 1,067 runs batted in his 16 years in the minors.
Lennon was born on Saturday, 15 September 1928, in Brooklyn, NY, the son.of Martin Lennon, who was a New York City policeman. His grandparents had come from Ireland. He had four brothers and two sisters. Three of the brothers joined an uncle on the New York Fire Department. A younger brother, John Lennon, played two seasons in the Giants farm system before a beaning ended his career. Bob attended Brooklyn Specialty Trades High School, later known as George Westinghouse Vocational High School, and played on Police Athletic League and Kiwanis League teams. He also played club basketball and football.
When Bob was 15, a Dodger "bird-dog" scout, Turk Karam, took him to Ebbets Field for a workout in front of General Manager Branch Rickey. The Dodgers signed the promising lefthanded hitter the next year, after he turned 16. That was in early 1945, when teams were scrambling to find players who were too young or too old to be drafted into World War II. He married Florence Shearman.
Lennon was 25 years old when he broke into the big leagues on 9 September 1954 with the Giants. He earned his first big league cup of coffee following a Triple Crown season in the minors in 1954. That year, he hit .354 with 64 home runs and 161 RBI for the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association.
Lennon hit 64 home runs for the Vols in 1954, but his most memorable homer came on 30 April 1957, when he was playing for the Cubs. "It was what I had dreamed about," he recalled in a 1993 interview. He hit it in Ebbets Field, where he had rooted for the Dodgers as a boy. It was his only major league home run.
He won the Southern Association Triple Crown and posted an OPS of 1.145. His league-leading totals included 139 runs, 210 hits, 64 homers, 161 RBI, .345 batting average, .734 slugging percentage and 447 total bases. He hit two home runs in a game nine times, three in a game twice and four in a doubleheader, but, in his recollection, no grand slam. He homered once in every 9.5 at-bats. He struck out 97 times in an era when few players fanned 100 times in a season. Despite his dominating performance, he drew only 65 walks,
Writers described him as blond and powerfully built at six feet and 200 pounds, a speedy centerfielder with a strong arm. While he was hitting all those home runs, he occasionally filled in as a relief pitcher. His Nashville manager, Hugh Poland, praised his hard work and pleasing personality.
At the end of the Pacific Coast League season in 1957, Detroit claimed him on waivers. He joined the Tigers at Yankee Stadium, but as soon as he was issued a uniform, the club informed him that they were returning him to the Cubs. They said they had just found out about his bad arm.
During that season, Lennon and his wife, Florence, who had no children, adopted a baby girl with the help of the Montreal team physician's connections. They named her Kathleen. Their son Bobby was born soon afterward, and Billy and Debby came along later.
He said his wife urged him to quit in 1961: "We had our third child that year...and I wasn't going anywhere...I wanted to keep playing, but I'd just bounce around Triple-A or maybe Double-A." When he wasn't playing winter ball, he had worked in the off-seasons as an ironworker. He had his union card (Local 580 in New York) and easily found a job. But he acknowledged that the break from baseball was painful: "I missed it every spring...the first three or four or five years...From, what, [age] 16 to 33, that was my life."
Lennon later did some "bird-dog" scouting for the Yankees. During the 1990s he underwent two open-heart surgeries. In 2001 he said he still got a couple of requests for autographs every week: "Sometimes they want to send you money. Hey, I'm just glad somebody remembers me." Lennon died at age 76 on 14 June 2005, at his home in Dix Hills, NY and was buried at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton NY. His wife, four children and six grandchildren survived him. His only surviving sibling, his sister Mary Reynolds, described him as a gentle, loving man.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- Won Triple crown in the Southern Association in 1954
- Set Southern Association record for homeruns in a season, 1954 (64)
- In 1954, he hit two home runs in a game nine times, three in a game twice and four in a doubleheader
[edit] Highlights
Before 1945 Season: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent.
1947: On 20 November he was drafted by the Giants from the Dodgers in the 1947 minor league draft.
1954: Breakout year in Nashville (see above)
1957: On 16 April, he was traded by the Giants with Dick Littlefield to the Cubs for Ray Jablonski and Ray Katt. On 30 April, when he was playing for the Cubs, he hit his only major league home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The pitcher was Sal Maglie. At the end of the Pacific Coast League season, the Detroit Tigers claimed him on waivers but returned him to the Cubs.
[edit] VA Records
VA Records: LENNON, ROBERT A CPL US ARMY KOREA DATE OF BIRTH: 09/15/1928 DATE OF DEATH: 06/14/2005 BURIED AT: SECTION 41 SITE 2524 CALVERTON NATIONAL CEMETERY 210 PRINCETON BOULEVARD RT 25 CALVERTON, NY 11933 (631) 727-5410
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for Bob Lennon include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs {{{WW}}} (WW), old Baseball Registers {{{BR}}} (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN {{{DAG}}} (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) {{{MORE}}} and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.
