Dave Pope
From BR Bullpen
David Pope (Davey)
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 5' 10½", *Weight 170 lb.
- School University of Pittsburgh
- Debut July 1, 1952
- Final Game September 30, 1956
- Born June 17, 1921 in Talladega, AL USA
- Died August 28, 1999 in Cleveland, OH USA
Contents |
[edit] Biographical Information
Dave Pope was an outfielder 17 years (1944-1961), three in college (1944;1946-1947); one in the Negro Leagues (1946); two in semipro/independent ball (1948-1949); four in the Majors (1952;1954-1956) and ten in the minors (1950-1953;1956-1961), losing one year to the Military (1945).
He was born on Friday, June 17, 1921 (SSDI)into a family of 15 children, in Talladega, AL but grew up in Library, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh. He graduated from High School in Library, PA, where he starred in baseball and basketball, in 1939 at age 18. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh, intending to become a doctor (1944-1949). He left to join the Army during World War II (Historicbaseball.com, TSN 9/13/1950 & 8/20/52).
Following discharge he played with the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the Negro National League (1946). He married Nellie Archie on October 9, 1947. He played for the Farnham Pirates in the "outlaw" Quebec Provincial League (1948-1949). Pope briefly managed the 1948 Farnham Pirates.
Signed by Hank Greenberg of the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent, he broke into Organized Baseball in 1950 at age 28 (his "official" age had been turned back four years) with Wilkes-Barre in the Eastern League. He played for Wilkes-Barre (1950-1951) and the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association (1952).
Pope was 31 years old when he broke into the big leagues on July 1, 1952, with Cleveland. It was back to Indianapolis for 1953 and he then played for Cleveland (1954-1955). He played in the 1954 World Series. On June 15, 1955 he was traded by Cleveland with Wally Westlake to the Baltimore Orioles for Gene Woodling and Billy Cox. Cox refused to report to his new team and the Orioles sent cash (June 15, 1955) to Cleveland to complete the trade.
He also played for San Juan in the Puerto Rican Winter League (1951-2 & 1952-3) and Gavilanes (1953-4) and Santa Maria (1954-5)in the Venezulean League. He played for Baltimore (1955-1956) and on May 13, 1956 he was traded by Baltimore Orioles back to Cleveland Indians for Hoot Evers, where he played his final MLB game on September 30, 1956 at age 35.
He returned to the minors with Indianapolis (1956); the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League (1957-1958). On October 13, 1958 he was traded by Cleveland with Larry Raines to Toronto for Bobby Tiefenauer. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League (1959); the Houston Buffaloes of the American Association (1960); and Toronto (1961); ending his baseball career at age 40.
His zeal for the game was apparent the first timne he took the field when he crashed into the right field wall and suffered a chest bruise while chasing a foul ball. Later in the 1954 World Series, Dave Pope drifted over toward the line but quickly came up against the fence. He leaped but the ball came down beyond his reach, into the first row of fans for a game-winning home run. Dusty Rhodes won the game with a home run that traveled barely 260 feet while, two innings earlier, Vic Wertz had sent one well in excess of 400 feet that was nothing more than a long fly out (THE CATCH by Willie Mays). Pope batted .294 as an extra with the 1954 AL Champion Indians. In the 1954 World Series opener, Pope made a futile leap at pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes's 260-foot 10th-inning game-winner, which barely cleared the Polo Grounds' short right field fence. (FK)
In 1955, his best year in MLB, he had 86 hits, 38 runs, 13 doubles, 4 triples, 7 home runs, 52 RBI and 5 stolen bases at (.264/.325/.393) in 121 games. In 1952, his best year in the minors, he had 167 hits, 77 runs, 29 doubles, 7 triples, 13 home runs, 79 RBI and 4 stolen bases at (.352/?/S) in 126 games. In 1953, he had 172 hits, 101 runs, 33 doubles, 14 triples, 24 home runs, 88 RBI and 3 stolen bases at (.287/?/) in 154 games.
Overall in MLB, he had 146 hits, 75 runs, 19 doubles, 7 triples, 12 home runs, 73 RBI and 7 stolen bases at (.265/.317/.390) in 230 games. Overall in the minors, he had 1317 hits, 783 runs, 237 doubles, 82 triples, 152 home runs, 725 RBI and 61 stolen bases at (.319/?/.526) in 1166 games. In 3 games in the 1954 World Series, he was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout.
He then worked in a job counseling program and spent most of his years with the Cleveland OH Recreation Department at the Cory Recreation Center. He remained involved in sports after he rertired. He was an amateur baseball coach. He was a supervisor for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when he reitred in 1994. He had been a Sunday school superintendent as a teenager and was active with First Zion Baptist Church in Cleveland. He had black hair and brown eyes, his ancestry was American Negro and his principal hobbies were all sports, books and music. He died at age 78 at his home in Cleveland, OH from leukemia on August 28, 1999 and is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. He was survived by his wife Nellie, daughters: Dr. Linda D. Pope of Houston, TX; Elaine Pope-Joffrien of Norwalk, CT; and Sharyon A. Pope-Prime of Cleveland; a son Vincent L. Pope of Cleveland; ten grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; four brothers; and four sisters.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- Led Eastern League in triples (18), 1950
- Led Eastern League in runs (113) and triples (13), 1951
- Led American Association in batting average (.352) and triples (14), 1952
- Led Venezuelan Winter League in batting average (.345), doubles (22) and triples (6), 1953-4
- Led Venezuelan Winter League in triples (6), and runs (32) 1954-5
[edit] Awards and Honors
- Member of the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame.
[edit] Further reading
The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations With 66 More Baseball Heroes (Hardcover) by Brent P. Kelley
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for Dave Pope 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 (1954-1956) (WW), old Baseball Registers (1953-1955) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (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) ; The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues by James A. Riley; The Negro Leagues Book by Dick Clark and Larry Lester; The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling; The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright; The American Association: Year-By-Year Statistics for the Baseball Minor League, 1902-1952 by Marshall D. Wright; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.
[edit] Related Sites
- Dave Pope on Retrosheet
- Dave Pope at the Baseball Almanac
- Bio at Baseball Page
- The Baseball Chronology for Dave Pope
- Dave Pope at Negro Leagues Players Association
- Dave Pope at find-a-grave
- Dave Pope at Historic Baseball
- Also see obituary at Dave Pope obituary
- and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)
