Author: mikeljohnston1 (Page 7 of 269)

Continued from Post #2615

After the 1959 AL Pennant, the White Sox were favored by many to return to the World Series. As Roy Terrell pointed out in the April 11, 1960, edition of Sports Illustrated: 

“The White Sox, a gang of quick artists a year ago, are equally quick and artistic and noticeably more muscular. Minnie Minoso has returned, Ted Kluszewski will be available from the beginning, Gene Freese will drive in runs, Billy Pierce no longer has an aching back. Now Roy Sievers, the big slugger from the Senators, has joined the act too. Added to the defensive genius of Sherm Lollar, Fox, Aparicio, and Landis and the pitching skill of Early Wynn and Bob Shaw, this should be enough again to make the Sox again the strongest ball club in the American League.”

The 1960 Major League Baseball Annual displayed a picture of Sherm with these author comments:

“Loudest noise in the Sox ’59 lineup was made by silent, SHERMAN LOLLAR, the workmanlike catcher. Sherm was high in home runs (22) and RBIs (84) as he registered a not-too-flashy .265 average. Sherm’s booming bat won many late-inning battles, and his smart receiving made the mound staff a bit more effective. Sherm, born in Durham, Ark., started in ’46 as an Indians and went to the Yankees in ’47. There were three seasons past with the old St. Louis Browns before the Pale Hose traded for him in ’52. Sherm’s best of 14 seasons was ’56 when he hit .293.”

The June 15, 1957, Saturday Evening Post – 15 cents, had a really interesting multi-page article on Lollar written by William (Red) Gleason. It starts with a dugout photo of Sherm with mask and glove in hand followed by a candid admission by Sherm. ” I wouldn’t be as good a hitter as Yogi if I were hitting in a phone booth. I’m a great admirer of his.” The title of Red’s piece was: “Is Lollar Better Than Berra?” Just underneath an explanation in bold print follows: “Some experts believe that the White Sox star has been overshadowed by Yogi Berra so long that he’s probably the most underestimated catcher in baseball.”

The body of the article reads:

“It is the fate of some illustrious men to spend a career in the shadow of a contemporary. Adlai Stevenson had his Dwight Eisenhower. Lou Gehrig had his Babe Ruth. Bob Hope had his Bing Crosby. And Sherman Lollar had his Yogi Berra.”

“Sherman Lollar, a reflective 32-year-old, whose father was one of very few Republicans in Fayetteville, Arkansas, understands from experience the frustrating thoughts that must occasionally nag at those other men. If it weren’t for Berra of the New York Yankees, Lollar of the Chicago White Sox would be the number one catcher in the American League.”

“Last season was the best Lollar has had with the bat since he came to the Major Leagues with Cleveland in 1946. Sherman hit .293, drove in 75 runs, and hit 11 homers, a most respectable set of figures. Berra, however, hit .298, drove in 105 runs, and hit 30 homers.”

“This is the way it is always been for Lollar when fans speak of American League catchers. The discussion usually begins and ends with Berra. Yogi’s domination of the League’s Mask, Chest Protector, and Shin Guard Society has been so complete that Lollar’s accomplishments are overlooked.”

“Only his closest friends seem aware that Lollar has been named to four American League All-Star teams. Here again, Berra has shunted the Chicago catcher into a dark corner of the dugout. Three times – 1950, ’54, and ’55 – Lollar went to play the All-Star game just for the trip. He didn’t play. Last year, at Washington, Casey Stengel finally gave Sherman an opportunity. He responded with one hit in two tries against the National League team.”

“Almost nobody remembers that he played in a World Series and compiled a .750 batting average. To be sure, White Sox players are seldom thought of in connection with the Series – the team hasn’t been in one since 1919. However, Lollar sneaked in, back in 1947, with the organization that has made the World Series a hobby, the Yankees. Lollar got into only two games and batted only four times, but he made three hits.”

I refer to a Chicago Baseball Museum web article by John McMurray who quotes sportswriter Dan Daniel, known as “the dean of American baseball writers”: “In Game Three, a secondary standout was Sherman Lollar, who started the game as a surprise entry. [Manager Bucky] Harris benched Berra in favor of the right-handed Lollar against the southpaw [Joe] Hatten. Lollar got a single which became a run in the third, and in the fourth drove in a run with a double.” 

Dan Daniel followed up in August 1948, observing, “Sherman Lollar, right-handed hitting catcher, is another who has possibly had his last big opportunity with the Bombers. Now that Yogi Berra is available again, Gus Niarhos will handle all the receiving duties against left-handed pitching.” Berra stayed with the Yankees, while Lollar eventually moved on again to the St. Louis Browns. There was no place for him behind the plate with the Yankees, who justifiably soon favored Berra.

Lollar struggled for years to find a starting role, while Berra found a permanent home in Yankee Stadium. Before the two met, according to writer Bill Roeder in this same McMurray article, “The Cleveland complaint was that Lollar displayed insufficient dash and spirit. He had the ability all right, but no inclination to exploit it. Within a month, he was homesick for Baltimore, and [Cleveland manager Lou] Boudreau sent him back. Now Sherman belongs to the Yankees, and they hope he will react favorably to the fresh start.” This is when the Berra roadblock began.

“Berra earns something like $58,000 a year, and is one of the best-known athletes of our time. Lollar, whose pay is around $20,000 is little publicized. Yet there are insiders who rate Lollar as a better catcher than the Yankees’ Yogi man. They will readily concede that Lollar does not compare with Berra as a hitter. They won’t argue with the record book. Going into this season, Berra’s lifetime achievements include a ,294 batting average, 1,003 runs batted in, and 238 runs. Lollar’s figures were a .264 average, 451 RBIs, and 86 homers. But the Lollar adherents maintain that while Yogi has the edge at the plate, Sherman is clearly superior behind it.”

“Billy Pierce, the White Sox’ great left-handed pitcher, says of his battery mate, ‘sure Yogi hits better, but Sherm is better defensively. He helps us pitchers on every pitch, in every game.'”

“Chuck Comiskey, co-owner and vice president of the White Sox is another who believes that Lollar is a better receiver than Berra. ‘You have to rate Berra first for all around ability because of his power,’ Comiskey says, ‘but on defense, you would have to take Lollar. For catching ability, I would rank Lollar first, Jim Hagen of Cleveland second, and Berra third.”

The last point – the size of Comiskey Park’s playing field – often is raised by Lollar’s advocates. They argue that Berra has a decided advantage in playing seventy-seven games in Yankee Stadium, a park tailored for left-handed pull hitters like Yogi, while Lollar, who swings from the right side, plays half the schedule in a vast enclosure that is a pitcher’s paradise.”

The extensive Sports Illustrated article continues in great detail, but I’ve chose to include some pertinent excerpts. Manager Al Lopez mentions that “our pitchers have great confidence in Lollar.” Lopez was a catcher himself, overshadowed in a similar manner by legends like Gabby Hartnett and Ernie Lombardi.

“One of Lollar’s greatest boosters is Ray Schalk, the old White Sox catcher, who is a member of the baseball Hall of Fame, currently coaching baseball at Purdue, declares ‘Lollar does everything well that you can do back there. And when you talk about his batting average, don’t forget that he is playing in a ballpark that was built by a real baseball man, the first Charles Comiskey. You don’t think Berra or Campanella or any of those guys would’ve hit .300 very often playing at Comiskey Park, do you? I sure don’t”

I certainly don’t want to take away from Ray Schalk’s Hall of Fame credibility, just add to Sherm’s case. Lollar had better overall stats. They both played for 18-years and were separated statistically by only 10 games – 1,752 for Lollar and 1,762 for Schalk. Schalk averaged .253, while Lollar was at .262. Schalk only had 11 homers but 177 stolen bases. Lollar was painfully slow with only 20 stolen bases, but he had 155 home runs. Both were good glove men, with Lollar’s .992 slightly better than Schalk’s .981. A classic case of speed vs. power, but speed apparently got Schalk in the Hall of Fame. Just for the record, Berra had 30 career stolen bases. Also, Lollar may have been slower, but his career on-base percentage was higher than Berra’s (.357 versus .348). 

“Berra is celebrated for malapropisms. Loller is seldom quoted. An unobtrusive workman, he is obscured on his own club by crowd-pleasers such as Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso, Jim Rivera, and Luis Aparicio. The Sox catcher has been described as one of those guys who say ‘hello’ in the spring and ‘goodbye’ in the fall. Obviously, nobody is that quiet or uncomplicated. John Sherman Lollar – to give his full name – is not a baseball recluse. It doesn’t take long to discover that he is intelligent. His teammates elected him their player representative after Ferris Fain was traded late in 1954. In this capacity, Sherman has represented the Sox in player negotiations with the club owners on such matters as the baseball pension plan.

History might be different if Lollar and Yogi Berra had initially competed at a different ballpark than Yankee Stadium. In parts of two seasons with New York, Lollar saw action in only 33 games. Berra played 18 seasons with the Yankees and played in 2,052 games, all with the same team.  He spent the next year as their manager, then joined the New York Mets in 1965 as coach, playing in another 68 games for a grand total of 2,120. He was at bat in 7,555 games, compared with Lollar’s 5,351 trips to the plate in 1,752 games. These stats from baseball-almanac.com.  

What if it had gone head-to-head at Comiskey Park, instead? And what happened to the high expectations for the 1960 White Sox team?

To be continued…

Continued from Post #2614

I’ve taken things a bit out of chronological order, but I only knew Sherm Lollar as a White Sox. He wore uniform #10, and that became my number when playing Little League baseball and Media Softball. I had only one skill that Sherm didn’t – speed, otherwise I was a mediocre player, but somehow lasted through six decades. He was with the White Sox for 12-years, two thirds of his playing career. Although he got off to a dismal start with the team under manager Paul Richards in 1951, he peaked in 1959 with an American League Pennant. That’s when I first saw him on TV in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Circling back to John C. Hoffman’s main article in The Sporting News, August 3, 1955, the title, as previously mentioned, reads: 

“Lane Regards Him Among League’s Best”

It was quite a compliment coming from Frank Lane, the White Sox General Manager from 1948 to 1955.

The sub-title then emphasized:

“Soft-Spoken Sherm Carries Big Stick and Plays 100 Games a Year for ChiSox” 

This Hoffman story opened with, “not many students of the successes and frustrations of the White Sox during the past four seasons have come to know that the “best pitcher” on the team is not a pitcher at all. He is a catcher named John Sherman Lollar, an unobtrusive, 31-year-old native of Durham, Arkansas.”

During Lollar’s years as catcher with the White Sox, he worked with two Hall of Fame pitchers, Early Wynn and Hoyt Wilhelm. Two more of his teammates, Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, were also inducted into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown. They would have all probably agreed that Sherm Lollar should be there, too!  

In 1955, Lollar tied a Major League record by getting two hits in each of two innings of the same game. In 1956, he hit a career-high .293 with 28 doubles, so once again his bat could be deadly, but his defense was better!

Furthermore, Sherm helped the White Sox to their first American League pennant since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, guiding the pitching staff to the lowest ERA in the league. I watched the NBC broadcast against the Los Angeles Dodgers in black ‘n white from home and actually got to take our Magnavox 12″ TV set to school. It was the first World Series on the West Coast and reportedly drew record October crowds of up to 92,706 for Game 5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Walter Alston, who I once met at Wrigley Field after watching the game with his nephew was the Hall of Fame Dodger manager for the Series, while Al Lopez, also in the Hall of Fame guided the White Sox. Broadcast legends, Jack Brickhouse and Vin Scully called the action. Unfortunately, the Dodgers took the series with their bevy of Hall of Fame stars, including Don Drysdale. Gil Hodges, Sandy Koufax, and Duke Snider.

The Sox easily won Game 1, 11-0, at Comiskey Park after Ted Kluszewski slugged two homers, but the Dodgers tied it up with a 4-3 victory in Game 2 thanks to two round-trippers by Charlie Neal and a solo shot from Chuck Essegian. The slow-running Sherm Lollar was thrown out easily at home after third base coach Tony Cuccinello waved him through. The bad guys went on to win Game 3 in L.A., 3-1, behind Don Drysdale, and once again took advantage of the home crowd in Game 4, 5-4, despite Sherm Lollar’s 7th inning 3 run-homer. That’s when I must have caught Lollar fever!

“The Good Guys,” a slogan coined later in the ’90s, went on to shut out the “Blue Crew” in Game 5, 1-0, when Sherm Lollar grounded into a double play in the 4th inning against Sandy Koufax, scoring Nellie Fox. The White Sox then gladly returned home, down three games to two, to a “real ballpark,” as opposed to L.A.’s converted football stadium, but the results were not favorable. The Dodgers sadly won it all, 9-4, after a disastrous 6-run 4th inning against Early Wynn. Lollar finished the Series with five hits plus five RBI’s and his double-play blunder, due to the carrying a piano on his back, turned out to be beneficial rather than costly. However, his lack of speed was indeed a factor in Game 2. 

The six-foot-one-inch tall, 185-pound Lollar spent 12 years with the Chicago White Sox and was an excellent receiver who threw out base stealers with regularity (46.18%).  He’s ranked seventh on the all-time best list in this category.  Only three Hall of Famers were better, including recently inducted Ivan Rodriguez.  Sherm was a seven-time American League All-Star, playing in nine games, and was considered one of the best catchers and recognized as a team leader during the 1950s. His best offensive season was 1959, the year of the World Series runner-up “Go, Go Sox”, in which he hit 22 homers and had 84 RBIs. 

Sherm Lollar was the very first recipient of the Major League Gold Glove Award as catcher in 1957. The very next year these awards from Rawlings were given for both the American and National League position players, so he also won the AL Award in 1958 and 1959. He might have won more, but four Sox players, including Aparicio, Minoso, Landis, and Fox, dominated in 1960 and two each in 1961 and 1962, both Landis and Aparicio. Earl Battey, Lollar’s back-up from 1955 through 1959, finally got a starting position with the first-year Minnesota Twins, formerly the Washington Senators, and won for catcher in 1960 and 1961. I’m sure he learned from the master.

Sherm Lollar’s most amazing statistic is his .992 lifetime fielding percentage, a ML record in his era. Modern day catchers have gotten an advantage with lighter, less cumbersome gear. Lollar also caught a record-tying six pop-ups in one game.

To be continued…

Continued from Post #2613

Among the collection of articles from the August 3, 1955, The Sporting News, was a short piece about Sherman Lollar’s management skills. Marty Marion was in his second year as White Sox Manager, replacing Paul Richards, who resigned and went to Baltimore to be both field manager and general manager of the Orioles. The title of this Hoffman offering on Page 4 was Sherman ‘Great Help to Me on Field’ Declares Marion. 

“I’d hate to be without him.” That was a quick appraisal of Sherman Lollar’s value to the White Sox by manager Marty Marion. “Sherman is a big factor among the personalities and things which have taken us as high as we are in the race,” continued Marion. “I depend upon him for so much.”

“Before the start of each series, I turn the meetings over to him and he gives the pitchers an intelligent and very correct rundown on the hitters of the opposing team.”

“He is a quiet unassuming fellow, but he is a good talker in our meetings and his opinions are factual.”

“He’s also a good field general, an excellent handler of pitchers, a good thrower and a very dangerous hitter. He is a big help to me, too, in deciding whether a pitcher has lost his stuff and should be taken out of the game.”

“I always wait for Sherman to come out to the mound when I go in to talk to a pitcher,” Marion went on. “He never comes right out and says a pitcher has lost his stuff. I guess he doesn’t like to seem too presumptuous, but I can tell by his manner if I should yank the pitcher. Hhe will start hemmin’- and-hawin’ when I ask him how things are going, and when he does that, I know the pitcher has got to come out.”

It is apparent that Marion places more responsibility on Lollar than Paul Richards did when he managed the White Sox. Sherman caught 107 games last year but will catch many more this season. 

“I suppose Sherman would hit better if I could rest him now and then,” said Marion, “but I feel better about things when he’s in there so I just have to sacrifice some hitting to utilize his services to the fullest extent on defense. He’s more than a coach. He’s my first assistant.” 

“It is my opinion that Lollar will someday make a very good manager.  He’s pleasant, intelligent and loyal. He might not be tough, but I think being tough is not a manager’s big job. His biggest problem is to command the respect his players and I think Lollar would rate very high in that respect.” 

Marion was right about Sherm’s leadership abilities, because when Lollar retired from playing in 1963, following a thumb fracture, he went right into management. 

In 1964, he became bullpen coach of the Baltimore Orioles until 1967, earning a 2nd World Series ring in 1966. Maybe this one fit better? Next, he was bullpen coach of the 1968-69 Oakland Athletics, with a stable that included Catfish Hunter, who threw a perfect game on May 8, 1968. Then he got a manager’s position with the Iowa Oaks from 1970 to 1972, and ended his career as manager of the Tucson Toros, claiming a division title in 1973, and finally retiring from baseball in 1974. Maybe his health started to become an issue? 

Long before these career-ending managerial stints were twelve great years that #10 spent with the White Sox. It became my favorite player number starting in 1959.

Continued from Post #2612

As this series continues, there was another small article by Hoffman on Page 4 of the August 3, 1954, edition of the Sporting News, as he continued to examine the career of Sherm Lollar. The headline read:

     At 12-14 Years Battled Priddy, Cooper, and Tucker 

“Sherman Loller was in the swing of organized baseball long before he actually became an important part of it. The current number one White Sox catcher was a batboy, warm-up catcher, and batting practice backstop in 1936, 1937, and 1938 for the Fayetteville, Arkansas team in the Arkansas-Missouri League. At the ages of 12,13, and 14, then, he was pleased to mingle with such future Major League stars as Jerry Priddy, Walker Cooper, and Thurman Tucker.

“I was big stuff in those days, Lollar laughed as he recalled his youth. Nothing else would’ve suited me better. Little did I know how far I still had to go to get where I am today, and I suppose there’s still a long way ahead. I hope so anyway.” 

According to Wikipedia, Gerald Edward Priddy became a second baseman for the Yankees, Senators, Browns, and Tigers. He was five-years older than Sherm and they just missed crossing paths in St. Louis, since Priddy left in 1949 and Lollar joined the team in 1951. He was groomed to be paired with future Hall of Fame shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, as a double-play combination, after playing together in Norfolk. Priddy was one of the league’s best prospects in 1939, hitting .333 with 24 home runs and 107 RBIs. When it came to playing with the Yankees, however, his cockiness apparently got in the way, with respect to another future Hall of Famer, Joe Gordon. Gordon was the final choice to play with Rizzuto while Priddy was eventually traded to the Washington Senators, where he became a solid starter. Joe Priddy also became a baseball hero to then 11-year-old Maury Wills, just as Sherm Lollar influenced me around that impressionable age. 

The second Fayetteville player that made it to the Majors was Thurman Lowell Tucker, six years older than Sherm. A center fielder, Tucker played for nine seasons with the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians. In 701 career games, he recorded a batting average of .255 and accumulated 24 triples, nine home runs, and 179 runs batted in (RBI). Due to his resemblance to the film comedian Joe E. Brown, Tucker was nicknamed “Joe E”.

The third Fayetteville future Major Leaguer was William Walker Cooper. He was 8-years older than Sherm and most likely his closest mentor, particularly since he went on to serve as a catcher from 1940 to 1957, most notably as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He won two World Series championships with them and was an eight-time All-Star. After his playing career, he managed the Indianapolis Indians (1958–59) and Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers (1961) of the Triple-A American Association and was a coach for the 1960 Kansas City Athletics, before leaving the game. Cooper is remembered as one of the top catchers in baseball during the 1940s and early 1950s, but like Sherm, apparently not good enough for the Hall of Fame. 

It’s time once again for me to get on my soap box when it comes to catchers and the Hall of Fame. As I pointed out in my post titled, Who Was That Masked Man?, a baseball catcher is a special type of athlete.  It’s up and down from an uncomfortable squat inning after inning, it’s often guiding and supporting a star pitcher, and it’s being involved in every play.  Arguably, no one touches the ball in a game more than the catcher, and no one on the field has a better view of the field of play.  They are the field generals and often go on to be managers and coaches.  It’s just another reason why these masked men, like Sherm Lollar, deserve more respect from the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

As of 2024, there are 346 elected members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including 20-catchers, so these “masked men” make up less than 6 percent of these inductees.  Pitchers make up the majority, about a third, so catchers that I’ve written about in this series like Lollar, Cooper, Hayes, and Hegan get left out in the cold, even though many consider them to be the best pitchers of all. Baseball is a team game of nine positions, if we don’t yet count the designated hitter.  Ask yourself these questions.  What would a pitcher be without a catcher?  Or the seven other teammates on the field, for that matter?  The other half of the battery deserves more attention.   Or, maybe just call it the Pitcher’s Hall of Fame?

We don’t judge pitchers based solely on their hitting skills.  We judge them on their ability to pitch, so the main criteria for a catcher should be their defensive skills.  Although, this is where the game has evolved.  Today’s catchers can do it all, and their statistics now make them more competitive with other stars of the game.  In simple terms, however, pitchers pitch and catchers catch – that’s the way the game was designed.  Let’s give more credit to those who are fundamentally sound behind the plate like Sherm Lollar.  

Who’s one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time?  Take off your mask Sherm Lollar – with a .992 fielding percentage, a ML record in his era.  He also caught a ML record-tying six pop-ups in one game.  Look at the statistics chart at the end of this article.  It compares the 15 players in the Hall, plus the three “Negro League” inductees and potential inductees, with Lollar’s career.  Only Elston Howard, also not in the Hall of Fame, has a higher FP at .993, but he did not play as many years or in as many games as Sherm Lollar.  Jorge Pasada ties Lollar, but also played 4 fewer years and 270 less games.  He is also not yet in the Hall of Fame.  Granted, they were both better hitters, but my point is recognizing the ability to catch and throw out batters.  After all, taking away runs from others is equally as important as scoring runs.

Hall of Fame Catchers as of this writing:

Johnny Bench, Cincinnati Reds 1967-1983

Yogi Berra, New York Yankees 1946-1963 

Roger Bresnahan: Washington Senators, 1897; Chicago Orphans, 1900; Baltimore Orioles, 1901 – 1902; New York Giants, 1902 – 1908; St. Louis Cardinals, 1909 – 1912; Chicago Cubs, 1913 – 1915. 

Roy Campanella: Brooklyn Dodgers, 1948 – 1957. 

Gary Carter: Montreal Expos, 1974 – 1984, 1992; New York Mets, 1985 – 1989; San Francisco Giants, 1990; Los Angeles Dodgers, 1991. 

Mickey Cochrane: Philadelphia Athletics, 1925 – 1933; Detroit Tigers, 1934 – 1937. 

Bill Dickey: New York Yankees, 1928 – 1943, 1946. 

Buck Ewing: Troy Trojans, 1880 – 1882; New York Gothams/Giants, 1883 – 1889; New York Giants, 1890 – 1892; Cleveland Spiders, 1893 – 1894; Cincinnati Reds, 1895 – 1897. 

Rick Ferrell: St. Louis Browns, 1929 – 1933, 1941 – 1943; Boston Red Sox, 1933 – 1937; Washington Senators, 1937 – 1941, 1944 – 1945, 1947. 

Carlton Fisk: Boston Red Sox, 1969, 1971 – 1980; Chicago White Sox, 1981 – 1993. 

Josh Gibson: Homestead Grays, 1930 – 1931, 1937 – 1939, 1942 – 1946; Pittsburgh Crawfords, 1932 – 1936; Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo, 1937; Azules de Veracruz, 1940 – 1941. 

Gabby Hartnett: Chicago Cubs, 1922 – 1940; New York Giants, 1941. 

Ernie Lombardi: Brooklyn Robins, 1931; Cincinnati Reds, 1932 – 1941; Boston Braves, 1942; New York Giants, 1943 – 1947. 

Biz Mackey: St. Louis Giants, 1920; Indianapolis ABCs, 1920 – 1922; Hilldale Giants, 1923 – 1931; Philadelphia Stars, 1933 – 1935, 1937; Newark Eagles, 1939 – 1947. 

Mike Piazza: Los Angeles Dodgers, 1992 – 1998; Florida Marlins, 1998; New York Mets, 1998 – 2005; San Diego Padres, 2006; Oakland Athletics, 2007. 

Ivan Rodriguez: Texas Rangers, 1991 – 2002, 2009; Florida Marlins, 2003; Detroit Tigers, 2004 – 2008; New York Yankees, 2008; Houston Astros, 2009; Washington Nationals, 2010 – 2011. 

Louis Santop: Philadelphia Giants, 1911; New York Lincoln Giants, 1912, 1914 – 1916; Brooklyn Royal Giants, 1917 – 1918, 1919; Hilldale Daisies, 1918, 1919 – 1926. 

Ray Schalk: Chicago White Sox, 1912 – 1928; New York Giants, 1929. 

Ted Simmons: St. Louis Cardinals, 1968 – 1980; Milwaukee Brewers, 1981 – 1985; Atlanta Braves, 1986 – 1988. 

Joe Mauer: Minnesota Twins 2004-2018 

Catchers likely to be inducted in the Next 10 Years:

Buster Posey: San Francisco Giants eligible 2027. 

Yadier Molina: St. Louis Cardinals eligible 2028. 

Sherm Lollar was far too quiet and humble to say all this for himself, but he and his contemporaries should be recognized as part of this elite group. He wasn’t flashy and outspoken like the great Yogi Berra. Bottom line, catchers should comprise at least 10% of those in the Hall of Fame. 

To Be Continued…

Continued from Post #2609

John C. Hoffman of The Sporting News went on to report that the John Sherman Lollar name spans several generations. I also sourced a PSA Bio and discovered that John Sherman Lollar Senior was an old semi-pro ballplayer who played catch with his son outside their family grocery store in Fayetteville, Arkansas, starting at the age of three. Senior died five years later in 1932. The great-grandfather fought for the North in the Civil War and started the name tradition in honor of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who passed it on to his son, came to be known as “Sherm.” The name connection is even more appropriate after he proved, as a Major League catcher, to be a dependable field general. 

The death of Sherm’s father added additional responsibilities for the entire family. His mother, Ruby, who helped support the family as a librarian, sold the store, temporarily moved to Guin, Alabama, but returned to Fayetteville to work for the Veteran’s Administration.  There were three younger siblings, Bonnie, Pat, and Jerry. Despite the disruption in his life, Lollar’s interest in baseball never waned. In 1936, shortly before he turned twelve, he became a batboy for the Fayetteville Bears in the Arkansas-Missouri League.

A 1957 Saturday Evening Post article added, “Sherman would warm up the pitchers between innings and do a good job. The crowds would get a big kick out of seeing this frail, skinny kid catch and throw to second base.”

Hoffman then went on to write: “After graduating from Fayetteville High School, a school that had no baseball team, so his sole sports option was to play basketball, the sixteen-year-old Lollar took a job with J.C. Penney in Pittsburg, Kansas. He played with a team affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce in the Ban Johnson League while also studying at Pittsburg State Teachers College (now Pittsburgh State University). Two years later, after the Ban Johnson League folded, Lollar both played for and managed the semipro Baxter Springs (Kansas) Miners, working as a brakeman in a local mine when he wasn’t playing baseball.” 

As Hoffman further reported, “the mining team, managed by Barney Barnett, an old semi-pro player, and played three or four times a week. Lollar had been rejected by his draft board in World War II and one of his teammates was a pitcher named Stan West, who belonged to the Baltimore team of the International League. West was engaged in defense work, but he recommended Lollar to Tommy Thomas, former White Sox pitcher, who was then managing the Baltimore team.”  

A cyst on his throat kept him from the service, so he was able to continue to play ball, unlike some of his contemporaries whose careers were interrupted by the war. He had to be thinking of his father, who died in the hospital from a carbuncle or cluster of boils caused by bacterial infection. Sherm’s cyst was not related but it was in a similar part of the body. It might have been related to his premature death at the age of 53 in 1977. Cancer was the cause, and I have medallion in my collection from the Sherm Lollar/Nellie Fox Cancer Foundation. Fox died two years earlier at only 48-years-of-age from skin cancer related to smokeless tobacco that always filled his cheek and became a trademark. 

“Lollar joined the minor league Orioles in August, 1943 and caught 12 games before the conclusion of the season. The next season he became the regular catcher for the Orioles but batted only .250 in 126 games. However, he had 15 home runs and drove in 72 runs and was the team’s number one catcher again in 1945.” 

Sherm was quoted as saying, “I don’t recall that I ever wanted to be anything else except a catcher. It seems like I was born with a catcher’s mitt on my hand. I can remember playing pepper and catching with my arm was still sore from vaccination. That must’ve been before I was six years old.”

“When the time came for me to join the Baltimore team in Buffalo, mother was pleased. She knew it would have been dad‘s wish that I should be a professional ball player and so she gave me her wholehearted support.”

He went on to say, “the Baltimore club sent me my transportation to Buffalo, but it never occurred to me that I should get any kind of a bonus for signing a contract. I was just glad to get the chance to play.”

“Lollar told, too, how he happened to break into the lineup and then became the regular catcher in 1944. Most of the boys had gone into the service, he said, and there wasn’t there weren’t too many players left. Then in 1944, the Cleveland club, which had a working agreement with Baltimore was supposed to send a couple of catchers to the Orioles, but they were late getting around to it. And by the time they got there, I had caught several games and was going pretty good, so Tommy Thomas just left me in the lineup.”

Sherm became the International League MVP in 1945 after a great season with a league-leading “.364 batting average, and 111 RBIs in 139-games. He also hit 34 homers, 27 doubles and four triples. Half a dozen big league teams, including the White Sox had tried to buy him. Chicago offered $50,000 for his contract but Cleveland had first choice. At spring training, he was one of a dozen catchers and one of them, just out of the service was Jim Hegan. Hegan won the job.” 

Sherm Lollar made his Major League debut April 20, 1946, with the Indians, and caught 28-games as back-up to Frankie Hayes, who held a 312-game streak of consecutive games as well as Hegan, just another future catching legend, like his predecessor, somehow ignored by Cooperstown. 

I was disturbed to find that although Lollar was born in Dunham, Arkansas and spent his younger years nearby Fayetteville, the Arkansas Department of Tourism website does not even recognize him as worthy of their list of “famous athletes.” This lack of disrespect extends to the Baseball Hall of Fame, where only a handful of catchers are enshrined, despite their key leadership role on their respective teams. At least, there’s a blurb about him in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Thankfully, The Sporting News has been generous on their reporting of his career.

On the next page of The Sporting News was a side-article written with the headline: Top Moment? Game in ‘53 when his bat beat the Yankees. According to the author Hoffman, “it is doubtful if anyone would have detected it, because Sherm Lollar, ace catcher of the Chicago White Sox staff, is never demonstrative, but he was a mighty pleased young man the evening of May 14, 1953. In fact, it was his biggest thrill of his baseball career. The White Sox were behind four to one in the seventh to the Yankees in a game in New York. Teammates, Tom Wright and Vern Stevens were on base when Lollar hit a homer in the left field stands to tie the game. The score was tied again 5-5 in the eighth and then in the ninth Lollar opened with a single but replaced by a pinch runner, Red Wilson, who scored the winning run.”

The box scores that day showed two singles, a home run, and a walk. Lollar also scored twice and drove in three. Perhaps he had a personal grudge to settle against the Bronx Bombers and Manager Bill Dickey, who first sent him to Newark, favoring left-handed Yogi Berra behind the plate. Lollar was then traded the following year after a wrist injury to the St. Louis Browns, despite a 3-4 performance including two doubles in the 1947 World Series. Yogi replaced him in the batting order in Game 3 and hit the very first pinch-hit homer in Series history.

Maybe the Championship ring that Lollar earned that year never fit him comfortably. “I thought I was in after that,” Lollar said, “but I sat on the bench practically all of the next season. I got into only 22 games, and I guess that kind of shook my confidence, but you just have to take the bad breaks with the good ones in this game.” With the move to the Browns in 1949, he earned his first of 7 career All-Star selections. 

It wasn’t until he came to the White Sox for the 1952 season before he got a full-time catching job, after spending six of his eighteen years as a non-starter. I was only one-year old at the time, so it wasn’t until 7-years later that I became one of his biggest fans, during the course of the 1959 World Series.

To be continued…..