The Sporting News continued their coverage of the White Sox and Sherm Lollar with the fragile. aging February 25,1959 edition, also in my collection of magazines. The cover story written by Jerry Holtzman is titled, Veeck Sees Bonanza in White Sox Gate. The illustration shows him hovering over a pile of coins under the heading: Hi-Yo Silver! Burrhead’s Back on Big Time Trail. Two boxes inserted on Page 1 tell the tale in ALL CAPS:
BILL VEECK TURNED DOWN OFFER OF $200,000 FOR HIS OPTION ON DOROTHY RIGNEY’S 54 PER CENT OF WHITE SOX. OPTION COST HIM 100 BUCKS. INSTEAD HE PAID $2,700,000 WITH DOWN PAYMENT OF $1,750,000 TO BE MADE WITHIN 45 DAYS OF EXERCIZING OPTION.
BILL HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAST WITH A BUCK AND BOXCAR NUMBERS DO NOT FAZE HIM. HE BOUGHT THE INDIANS IN ’46 FOR LESS THAN TWO MILLION DOLLARS AND SOLD THEM THREE YEARS LATER FOR $2,200,000. IN ’51 HIS SYNDICATE PURCHASED THE ST. LOUIS BROWNS FOR TWO MILLION AND PEDDLED THEM TO BALTIMORE INTERESTS TWO YEARS LATER FOR $2,475,000! ? NEXT STOP —LOS ANGELES—WHERE THERE ARE ACRES OF BUCKS!
Bill Veeck can grab the pre-season headlines with his negotiations, for all I care. My main interest in this particular tabloid is once again Page 3, where Sherm Lollar is the focus, and the Sox face great expectations. His half-page Illustration is surrounded by message-carrying cartoon characters under the bold headline: Lollar Gets Stronger as ChiSox Pillar. Just below those words, in slightly smaller letters it reads: Best Season in ’58 Brings Boost in Pay for Star Backup, and in the box under that: Solid Man as Socker…and Rugged Receiver. As always, there’s a lot to take in with The Sporting News feature article lead-ins:
Sherm Lollar SOFT-SPOKEN, HARD HITTING RECEIVER…Drawing of Sherm in a SOX hat.
LAST SEASON WITH MINOSO AND DOBY GONE, LOLLAR HAD TO ASSUME THE LONG-BALL BURDEN …HAD HIS BEST SEASON IN 13-YEAR BIG LEAGUE CAREER…An animated character swings three bats labeled Minoso, Doby, and Lollar.
SHERM MORE THAN COMPENSATES FOR THE LACK OF A RIFLE ARM WITH AN UNCANNY KNACK FOR HOLDING RUNNERS ON BASE…A baserunner is chained to the base.
THE QUIET LOLLAR MAY NOT SAY MUCH…BUT WHENEVER HE DOES EVERYBODY LISTENS… A group of cartoon players gather around a catcher.
ONCE TRADED TO YANKS IN 1946…HE GOT INTO 33 GAMES IN TWO SEASONS…THEY HAD ANOTHER YOUNG CATCHER NAME OF YOGI BERRA!! The cartoon caption of a catcher commenting to his teammate reads: SOME GUY BY THE NAME OF BERRA IS CATCHING TODAY.
I’m doing my best to describe the action on the busy page. The article itself is written by Jerry Holtzman. The surprising header reads, “Veteran Now Ranked No. 1 A.L. Catcher” Certainly not according to Yankee fans, I might add.
“Quiet, Yet Take Charge Guy Behind Plate. He’s Viewed as Managerial Prospect.”
Manager Al Lopez was trying to decide between Billy Goodman, Ron Jackson, Earl Torgeson, and Ray Boone, as to who would likely cover first base for the ’59 season, because if they were to overtake the Yankees, they have to be solid at that key position. Finally, Lopez conceded, “We always have Sherm Lollar. I’ll shift him there.”
Looking back to the 1958 season, Holtzman reported, “He led the club in RBIs and homers with a .273 clutch average. He was the team’s only consistent power threat and was consistent throughout. For example, he smashed 20 homers – ten in the first half and ten in the second: he drove in 84 runs – 43 in the first half and 41 in the second.”
Lollar graciously thanked Vice-President Charles Comiskey about his pay raise offer in a note but asked “if he might want to raise the ante even more. “After all,” Sherman wrote, this was the best season of my career.” Lollar apparently made a counter, but Comiskey in a phone call replied, “you’re right. You had a great year, but your salary estimate is too conservative.”
“Comiskey mentioned a figure higher than Lollar had dared to ask – boosting him into the $35,000 -$40,000-a-year bracket.”
“It used to be that Yogi Berra of the Yankees was automatically considered to be the American League’s No.1 catcher. But it isn’t that way anymore. Lollar is the top man and this was particularly apparent last year when Gus Triandos was chosen as the A.L.’s starting catcher in the All-Star Game. Lollar fans sent up a howl and even the players ordinarily placid in these matters, agreed they were right.”
Statistically, according to baseball-refernce.com, Triandos of Baltimore batted .245 with 79 RBIs and 30 home runs in 1958. Berra hit .266 with 90 RBIs and 22 HR. Lollar finished with a .273 batting average, 84 RBIs and 20 homers. Any one of these three catchers could have been named to the All-Star team, but somehow Triandos got the call. 1957 and 1958 were the peak of his career, but Berra and Lollar continued to be successful.
As Lopez pointed out, “Triandos may swing a slightly heavier bat but he still isn’t the catcher Lollar is today. Maybe in time he’ll be as valuable. But right now Lollar is the best all-round catcher in the league, maybe even in the majors.”
“Lollar always seems a bit surprised when Lopez rates him so highly, particularly as a defensive catcher. For as Sherman admits, ‘I don’t have the real strong arm and I’m not as good as Yogi getting balls hit in front of the plate and I know that Jim Hegan has always been the best for foul flies. But I’ll say this – I have always been consistent.'”
Lopez goes on with the compliments: “Lollar more than compensates for the lack of a rifle arm with an uncanny knack of holding runners on base. He may not be as graceful as Hegan, but no one can recall when he last dropped or misjudged a foul fly. Furthermore, he handles all pitchers equally well, including Dick Donavan, Gerry Staley, and Early Wynn, all of whom are essentially low-ballers with a tough assortment of breaking stuff.” Lopez also feels that Lollar has outstanding managerial potential and “could fit in equally well as a front office executive.”
Jerry Holtzman also included three smaller articles in his two-page spread on Lollar:
Hunting, Fishing Kept Sherm in Shape During Off Season
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Sherman Lollar of the White Sox isn’t among the current breed of ballplayers who work the year ’round. He does not have an off-season, gray flannel suit job, such as selling insurance or working as a public relations or promotion man for a big corporation.
Indeed, he spends all his time with his wife, the former Connie Maggard, and their two sons, Pete, 7, and Kevin, 6. Lollar is an ardent hunter and fisherman and also coached a sixth-grade basketball in the Park District program here.
Receiver 16 Years, Lollar Never Had Broken Finger
CHICAGO, Ill. – Though Sherman Lollar has been a catcher in the minors and majors for more than 16 years, he has never had a broken finger. However, he has suffered several minor bone chips and in 1957 was out for two months with a broken wrist.
“I have a theory about that,” Lollar explained. I’m convinced that most finger and hand injuries suffered by catchers come in the pre-game practice. There is a tendency to have your mind on other things at that time.”
“But once a game starts, a catcher must be so engrossed and alert that it’s very seldom he will suffer any injury by a pitched ball. At least that has been my experience. “
Lollar says he disagrees with the opinion that the easiest and fastest way for a boy to crash into the big leagues is by becoming a catcher. The reasoning behind this is because there are comparatively fewer catchers and less competition.”
“A youngster has to like catching,” Lollar explained, “and not just use the position as a means for rapid advancement. There is more work to catching than any other position and I would never advise a boy to become a catcher unless he actually preferred it to all other positions.”
Sherman, Legion Grad of Year, Recalls His Thrills in Junior Ball By JERRY HOLTZMAN Photo of Sherman Lollar
CHICAGO, Ill.
It has been almost two decades since Sherman Lollar, named the American Legion Graduate Player for 1938, participated in the Junior baseball program, but the veteran White Sox catcher says he remembers many Legion games just as vividly as some of his major league contests.
Lollar played for three seasons – 1938-39-40 – with the Lynn-Shelton Post No. 27 team in Fayetteville, Ark. Fayetteville then a town of about 9,000, had four Legion teams which played a round robin schedule.
“One of the things I’ll never forget was that we played about 30 games a season and about half of them were against “town” teams. We didn’t have enough competition among ourselves so we played the grown-ups just about every Sunday.”
“But I don’t suppose Fayetteville was any different in this respect from most of the other small town Legion programs. We just didn’t have enough fellows to form a big enough league to keep us busy, so we were forced to challenge the grown-ups.”
Lollar said that one of his biggest thrills while playing Legion ball came in May 1940, on the Sunday before the opening of the Class D Arkansas-Missouri League season.
Fayetteville in those days had a team in the Arkansas-Missouri League and agreed to play an exhibition against the Lynn-Shelton nine. “We were just kids,” Lollar recalled. “I was sixteen years old then, but in the second or third inning, I don’t remember which, I homered off the Fayetteville pitcher. It was the only run of the game but it actually didn’t count since we were rained out in the fourth inning.”
I can almost hear Sherm reluctantly telling this story in a slow, southern drawl, although I never got to meet him, and certainly never spoke with him. I did see him play at Comiskey Park with my dad, but I was far too shy to approach or ask for an autograph. Fortunately, I’ve been able to collect a few through the years. I have signed photos, note cards, baseball cards and a ball with his authenticated signature. Just a personal sidenote as the Holtzman article continues…
Legion Ball Opened Path to Career
“Hitting that homer was something I can never forget but I’ll say that that wasn’t necessarily my biggest thrill in Legion ball. When I look back now, it was a thrill every time we had a game. I remember waking up in the morning and if the sky was cloudy I’d be sweating it out until the sun came out.”
“Playing Legion ball was a great experience for me. I know if it wasn’t for the Legion program I never would have had a chance to go into Organized Ball. In those days we didn’t have any Little League or Pony League or Babe Ruth League.”
Lollar said that his Legion coach was Rube Marshall, who he described as “one of the most dedicated men he had ever met. He was a great baseball man,” Lollar explained, “but he was even more than that. He was dedicated to helping boys. I can never forget Rube Marshall.”
When told he had been named as the American Legion’s Graduate Player of the Year, Lollar said it was a tremendous honor. “We never won any state championships on our Legion team,” said Lollar, “but we had plenty of fun. I’m very thankful that I was chosen for this honor, especially when you consider that just about all the big leaguers today played Legion ball.”
About the Author:
Jerome Holtzman’s fascination with sports manifested itself in the printed form.
Jerry or more formally Jerome Holtzman has covered baseball with the Chicago Sun-Times for 22-years and with the Chicago Tribune for well over 40 years. Holtzman was also a weekly contributor to the Sporting News for 30- years, both as a columnist and correspondent.
“His book, “No Cheering in the Press Box” is a highly-praised collection of interviews with some of America’s greatest sports writers.”
“He is credited with inventing the save for relief pitchers in 1959, deriving a formula that evolved into the official statistic in 1966. In 1999, Holtzman was named official historian for Major League Baseball.
Holtzman passed away on July 19, 2008, but lived to see the White Sox win the 2005 World Series.
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