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…
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