John Powers

From BR Bullpen

John Calvin Powers

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.

Debut September 24, 1955
Final Game May 31, 1960
Born July 8, 1929 in Birmingham, AL USA
Died September 25, 2001

[edit] Biographical Information

Nineteen year old outfielder John Powers was signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before the 1949 season. John would be with the class D Valley Rebels of the Georgia-Alabama League for 62 games and also spend 75 outings with the Gadsden Chiefs of the class B Southeastern League, hitting for a combined .303 average with 17 homers before being sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates in an unknown transaction before the 1950 season.

Powers would hit a league leading 39 homers along with a .311 batting average for the Waco Pirates of the Big State League in 1950 and come back with 17 homers and a .255 batting average for the Charleston Rebels of the class A South Atlantic League in 1951 before spending the next two seasons (1952-53) in the United States Military Services during the Korean War.

Powers would come back from Military Service ready to play and busted 23 homers with a .262 average in 1954 for the New Orleans Pelicans of the AA Southern Association and bettered himself with 29 four-baggers in '55, getting a brief look by the major league Pirates in 1955, getting into two games and going 1 for 4. John would be in the major leagues for short periods during 1956 getting into 11 games after he had hit 39 homers and .312 for New Orleans and in 1957 appearing in 20 games and hitting .286. After he had hit 29 home runs and tallied a .294 batting average for the AAA Columbus Jets.

John would get his first season long big league trial in 1958 with the Pirates appearing in 57 games but hitting just .183 with two homers and was traded to the Cincinnati Redlegs on January 30, 1959. He failed to perform up to expectations and the Redlegs sold him to the Baltimore Orioles on December 15, 1959 and on May 12, 1960 the Cleveland Indians claimed John on waivers from the Orioles. This signaled the end to his major league hopes and he wound up with a career .195 average. John hit only six homers in the majors but one of them, on September 29, 1957, was the last ever hit against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.

Powers was not quite ready to call it quits just yet and would go back to the high minors from 1960 through '65 where he wound up a 13 year minor league run with 298 homers and a .270 batting average. After baseball John would work for the Butler Manufacturing Company in his native Birmingham, AL, where he died on September 25, 2001, at the age of 71.