Eddie Basinski

From BR Bullpen

Edwin Frank Basinski (Bazooka or Fiddler)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 172 lb.
School State University of New York at Buffalo
Debut May 20, 1944
Final Game July 4, 1947
Born November 4, 1922 in Buffalo, NY USA

1 Biographical Information
2 Further Reading
3 Awards & Honors
4 Related Sites

[edit] Biographical Information

Eddie Basinski debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944 straight from the sandlots of Buffalo, NY, where he had been a boyhood friend of Warren Spahn. He had never played high school, college or minor league baseball at that time. With his frail frame and unathletic appearance, he did not look like a baseball player, but he had a long career in the Pacific Coast League, including ten seasons with the Portland Beavers, with two stints in the National League, the second coming with the 1947 Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the Dodgers' regular shortstop while Pee Wee Reese was away in the military in 1945 but lost his job when World War II ended and Reese returned to the fold.

He make a prototypical rookie mistake when first coming up to the National League: hitting .389 after two weeks, he told a reporter that "Any man who can't hit .300 in this league ought to go get a lunch bucket." Opposing pitchers never let him live down those words.

[edit] Further Reading

Larry Stone: "Those were the most wonderful days I believe I ever had", in Mark Armour, ed.: Rain Check: Baseball in the Pacific Northwest, Society for American Baseball Research, Cleveland, OH, 2006, pp. 100-101.