Blast From The Past: Jim Hearn 1951

This is a story that needs to be shared.  In all my years as an obsessed Giants fan, I had never really heard of Jim Hearn before I started researching the 1951 season.  I guess you could call Hearn the Giants #3 starter after Larry Jansen and Sal Maglie and ahead of swingman Dave Koslo.  He was one of several Giants who had career or near-career years in 1951.

Jim Hearn was big for that time at 6'3", 205 lbs.  His first sport was basketball.  He played center on his high school team and played basketball at Georgia Tech.  He played semi-pro baseball in the summers which is where he was discovered by a scout for the Cardinals and signed a pro baseball contract.  He did not start pitching until after he turned pro and had trouble adjusting to the nuances of pitching.  He threw hard but after a promising rookie season in 1947, he struggled with command and pitch-tipping issues.  "Big Jim" was a gentle giant and the Cardinals owner and manager accused him of a lack of dedication and of preferring golf to baseball.  He was released early in the 1950 season and the Giants paid the $10,000 waiver claim.

Giants Manager Leo Durocher immediately confronted Hearn about his dedication to baseball saying if his heart wasn't completely in it, he might as well say so and not waste more time.  Hearn apparently satisfied Leo.  The Giants pitching coaches lowered his arm slot to give his fastball more sink.  This adjustment paid immediate dividends and he broke out, finishing the season with a record of 11-4 and a 2.49 ERA. That success produced an uproar in St Louis about how Manager Eddie Dyer could have misjudged him so badly and ultimately led to Dyer being fired.  For his part, the New York press dubbed him the "Miracle Man."  He was not as dominant in 1951 but the potent Giants offense was enough to propel him to a 17-9 W-L record with an ERA of 3.62.  He also won Game 1 of the playoff against the Dodgers and Game 3 of the World Series against the Yankees.

Jim Hearn pitched 5 more seasons for the Giants but with uneven success due to a series of nagging injuries.  Durocher became frustrated and resurrected his suspicions that Big Jim was thinking more about golf than baseball.  Hearn finished his career pitching mostly in relief in three seasons with the Phillies.  After retirement from baseball, he opened a Golf Center in his hometown of Atlanta which became his lifelong post-baseball career.

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I found most of the biographical information for this post on the SABR website. It also apparently appears in a book entitled The Team That Time Won't Forget:  The 1951 New York Giants, published by SABR.  Check it out!