Walt Linden
From BR Bullpen
Walter Charles Linden
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 190 lb.
- School University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Debut April 30, 1950
- Final Game May 8, 1950
- Born March 27, 1924 in Chicago, IL USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Walt Linden was a catcher for 10 years, four in college (1946-1949); one in MLB (1950) and ten in the minors (1941-1942;1946-1951;1953-1954), losing three years to the Military and was out of OB in 1952. Linden was born on Thursday, March 27, 1924, in Chicago, IL He was signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent in 1941 by scout Ray (Red) Smith. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1943-1949) and served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II (1943-1945) (GB).
He was 26 years old when he broke into the big leagues on 30 April 1950 with the Braves and finished his MLB career eight days later. He played for Pittsfield in the Canadian-American League, Bradford in the PONY League and Harrisonburg in the Virginia League in 1941; Evansville in the Three-I League in 1942; Eau Claire in the Northern League (1946); Evansville in 1947; Milwaukee in the American Association (1947-1950); Jackson in the Southeastern League (1948);. Hartford in the Eastern League (1948); Denver in the Western League (1949); his cup of coffee with the Braves (1950); the Atlanta Crackers in the Southern Association (1951); Lincoln in the Western League (1953-1954); and Jacksonville in the South Atlantic League (1954). In March of 2006 he celebrated his 82nd birthday.
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for Walt Linden 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.
