Blast From the Past: The Legend of Daddy Wags 1958

Younger readers who may feel frustrated with some of Brian Sabean's and/or Bobby Evans trades over the past 20 years or so really have no idea what a bad trade looks like.  For those of us who cut our teeth on Giants of the 1960's, the litany stars who got away in bad trades is almost too long to recount.  Orlando Cepeda, the Alous, Gaylord Perry, George Foster, Gary Matthews, Garry Maddox, Bobby Bonds, Jack Clark.  I could go on.  I'm guessing some of you have never heard of Leon Wagner and fewer of you know he had a great rookie season in 1958 but was later traded and became a star for other teams.  So, pull up a chair and let me recount the legend of Daddy Wags, as he liked to call himself.

When I was a kid, my parents did not have TV in our home.  We did not get a daily newspaper.  My connection to the outside world came through radio.  I used to beg to go to the barbershop because that was the only place I had a chance to read the Sporting Green.  We used to drive down to SoCal to visit my grandparents 2-3 times a year.  They had a black and white TV and I would scour the TV Guide looking for ballgames to watch.  I have a vague recollection of finding an Angels-Indians game and seeing a lefthanded batter for the Indians named Leon Wagner rake 2 XBH's in his first two AB's.  I've looked for that game on game logs on Baseball Reference but have not been able to find it, so maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.  I just remember thinking to myself that Leon Wagner would look very good in a Giants uniform.  Little did I know at the time, but he started his career wearing a Giants uniform!

Leon Wagner was a 3-sport star from Michigan in high school.  He went to Tuskegee Institute on a football scholarship but dropped out after 3 semesters to work in the auto industry.  A Giants scout literally signed off of a sandlot in 1954.  He raked at every level of the Giants farm system with an interruption for military service.  The Giants had an unsettled left field situation in their inaugural San Francisco season in 1958 and Wagner got his promotion to MLB on June 22.  He crushed the ball for a .317 BA with 13 HR's in 240 PA's.  Unfortunately, he was not a good fielder and committed 5 errors in left field.  Although he always insisted that he was actually a good defensive outfielder, his managers saw him as having bad hands, taking bad routes to the ball and a weak throwing arm.  Manager Bill Rigney preferred the better fielding Jackie Brandt for LF in 1959 and Wagner was traded to....you guessed it....the Cardinals.

Wags didn't play much for the Cardinals in 1960 and might have washed out of MLB entirely had it not been for expansion in 1961.  He was traded to the Angels where he enjoyed 3 really good seasons, again with Bill Rigney as his Manager.  He loved Southern California where he was an eager entrepreneur who started a clothing store("Buy your Rags from Daddy Wags!) and a record store.  He was traded to the Indians after the 1963 season in a move that was widely criticized by Angels fans and sportswriters.  Although he hit well for the Indians for several years and was loved by Indians fans, he left his heart in Southern California and maintained his businesses there.  All in all, from 1961-1965 he averaged 30 HR's and 90 RBI's for the Angels and Indians.  He hooked on with the Giants at the tail end of his career and got 15 PA's in 1969 and retired as a Giant.

Wags started a movie career after retirement appearing in a small role in the John Cassavetes movie A Woman Under the Influence and a bigger role in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.  Unfortunately, he did not get any more significant roles and his businesses struggled.  Sadly he ended up addicted to drugs and alcohol and lived on the streets for years.  He was found dead on January 3, 2004 in a shed behind a video store he had converted into a makeshift home. It's been said that if Leon Wagner was born 10 years later, he might have been a very successful DH.

And that is the legend of Daddy Wags, one more Giants trade that helped other teams.

*Biographical info gleaned mostly from SABR biography and stats from Fangraphs.