![]() ![]() ![]() They wouldn't sign a black.' They always said the blacks couldn't play under pressure things got hot, they would fold up. He told me: 'Pee Wee, the Dodgers signed a black.' And I kind of laughed about it. "I was aboard ship, coming back from Guam," he remembered. When he returned for the 1946 season, a new era was emerging in baseball. Reese enlisted in the Navy after the 1942 season. He was sidelined for much of his rookie season by a beaning and a broken heel, but in 1941 Reeseīecame a regular, a youthful spark on an otherwise veteran team that captured the Dodgers' first pennant in 21 years. Reese was brought up by Brooklyn in 1940, envisioned as the successor at shortstop to the Dodgers' manager, Leo Durocher. $40,000 after his second year at Louisville. So Reese was sold to the Dodgers for a reported But the Boston manager, Joe Cronin, also happened to be the team's shortstop and was not ready to quit. Yet he was impressive at shortstop, and the Boston Red Sox laterīought into the minor league team to insure the rights to Reese. He was all of 5 feet 9 inches and 140 pounds when he began his professional baseball career with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in 1938. Harold Henry Reese was born on July 23, 1918, in Ekron, Ky., some 45 miles south of Louisville, the son of a railroad detective. He didn't have to say anything, he just showed everyone." He never shouted, and he played every day. Pitcher Carl Erskine said yesterday: "He could look at a guy with a half-snarl and burn his shorts off. On the day Reese was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Campanella observed: "He was the leader of the team. 1, and that was how his teammates saw him. He befriended Jackie Robinson when Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947, easing his acceptance among Dodger teammates while standing up for him in the face of opposing teams' racial taunts.Īnd Reese was the leader of a club with a formidable array of stars - the likes of Robinson, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Carl Furillo, the power hitters who would be remembered with Reese as the Boys of He gained the nickname when he won a tournament shooting pee-wee marbles as a boy. Reese was indeed a presence, despite a modest frame and a nickname that suggested perpetual boyishness. ![]() His plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1984, cites his "intangible qualities" of leadership. Reese was a superb fielder and an outstanding base runner, he exceeded the 2,000-hit mark and he was a nine-time All-Star, but Reese was remembered as much for attributes that transcended box scores. Pee Wee Reese, Captain of the 'Boys of Summer' (12 Reese's greatest contributions to the team did not show up in the box scores. He had been battling lung cancer since 1997, when he underwent radiation treatment after surgery to remove a malignant tumor, his son, Mark, said.
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