Blast From The Past: Dusty Rhodes 1954

The scout who signed James Lamar Rhodes to a contract gave him the nickname "Dusty" because "all ballplayers named Rhodes were called Dusty."  The story goes that the day he was signed, Dusty Rhodes played a semipro game in Alabama barefoot because he didn't know he was going to play and left his spikes at home.  He cultivated a reputation for being a country bumpkin in the big city with a taste for nightlife and alcohol.  He later downplayed this part of his life as a self parody for entertainment value.  For more colorful anecdotes of Dusty's off-field exploits, look up his biography on the SABR website.

He was a terrific lefthanded hitter but a terrible outfielder and spent a 7 year MLB career as a 4'th OF/lefthanded bat off the bench.  After struggling in a PH role his first two seasons, he became one of the best PH's in the history of the game.  His career year by a wide margin was 1954.  Here is his batting line for the regular season:

.341/.410/.695, 7 2B, 3 3B, 15 HR, 12.4 BB%, 12.0 K%, 186 PA.

That success carried over into the World Series in which Rhodes won Game 1 in extra innings with a pop fly HR down the RF line that travelled a little more than 257 feet.  He basically won Game 2 with a bloop single to drive in the tying run and later got up from a knockdown pitch by Early Wynn to hit a bullet of the RF roof as the Giants won the game 3-1.  He got his 4'th and final hit of the series in game 3 with a bases-loaded 2-run single to extend the Giants lead to 3-0 in an eventual 6-2 win.

He continue to enjoy success in a part-time/bench role in 1955 but his career tailed off after that.  After spending a very successful year in the AAA PCL in 1958, he played one season for the San Francisco Giants in 1959 exclusively as a PH.