philliesfiend55
10-09-2008, 01:24 PM
While researching a topic "Living MLB Players Who Played Before 1940" I came across a tangential fact about Philadelphia A's shortstop, Al Brancato.
Brancato suffered through the worst fielding season in the last 70 years, if not ever in 1941. In 139 games at shortstop and 7 games at thirdbaseman Brancato committed a remarkable 61 errors, although none of his errors occurred at 3B, all were at Short. In four major league seasons (1939-41 & 1945) he didn't fare much better with the bat, hitting .214 lifetime. Brancato must have had good fielding range to get to some balls others wouldn't have been credited with a fielding chance on, because despite all those errors, his fielding percentage that season was .915, and with 61 errors, any fielding average over .900 seems a bit high.
Brancato has however, enjoyed a very lenghty life. Getting back to my original research topic of living players who played in the majors before 1940, Brancato, at 89, is the youngest of 29 surviving players who played in 1939 or earlier. He was born on May 29,1919 and made his MLB debut in
September 1939 at age 20.
Ironically, and perhaps with a measure of divine compensation, Brancato has outlived nearly all his opponents (and teammates) who reacted to Al's 1941 fielding performance with some not-so-goodnatured ribbing, (if not actual derisive comments and scorn).
All other Pre-1940 surviving major leaguers are in their 90s, except Hall Of Fame pitcher, Bob Feller, who is due to reach that milestone 90th birthday in just over three weeks on November 3. Brancato is still about seven and a half months away from "The Big 9_0". Now 63 years after appearing in his last major league ball game, Brancato certainly has persevered in life, after his playing days were over.
Note For Baseball Card Collectors: Brancato is included in the 1941 'Play Ball' baseball card set and there is a card of him in the 1998 Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society's retrospective Philadelphia A's card set also.
-philliesfiend55- (Dennis Orlandini)
Brancato suffered through the worst fielding season in the last 70 years, if not ever in 1941. In 139 games at shortstop and 7 games at thirdbaseman Brancato committed a remarkable 61 errors, although none of his errors occurred at 3B, all were at Short. In four major league seasons (1939-41 & 1945) he didn't fare much better with the bat, hitting .214 lifetime. Brancato must have had good fielding range to get to some balls others wouldn't have been credited with a fielding chance on, because despite all those errors, his fielding percentage that season was .915, and with 61 errors, any fielding average over .900 seems a bit high.
Brancato has however, enjoyed a very lenghty life. Getting back to my original research topic of living players who played in the majors before 1940, Brancato, at 89, is the youngest of 29 surviving players who played in 1939 or earlier. He was born on May 29,1919 and made his MLB debut in
September 1939 at age 20.
Ironically, and perhaps with a measure of divine compensation, Brancato has outlived nearly all his opponents (and teammates) who reacted to Al's 1941 fielding performance with some not-so-goodnatured ribbing, (if not actual derisive comments and scorn).
All other Pre-1940 surviving major leaguers are in their 90s, except Hall Of Fame pitcher, Bob Feller, who is due to reach that milestone 90th birthday in just over three weeks on November 3. Brancato is still about seven and a half months away from "The Big 9_0". Now 63 years after appearing in his last major league ball game, Brancato certainly has persevered in life, after his playing days were over.
Note For Baseball Card Collectors: Brancato is included in the 1941 'Play Ball' baseball card set and there is a card of him in the 1998 Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society's retrospective Philadelphia A's card set also.
-philliesfiend55- (Dennis Orlandini)