Ducky & Pie : Two Baseball Legends

This week marks the passing of two All Time Hall of Fame greats from baseballs past. Lets take a quick look at the careers of Ducky & Pie.

Joseph Michael Medwick was born in Carteret, New Jersey on November 24, 1911. He became known to fans as "Ducky" because of the way he waddled when he walked. Players knew him as "muscles" and never dared call him Ducky. A very intense player who played the game with a fierce competitive style.

He is the last player to win the NL Triple Crown Award, doing so back in 1937. He was a ten time All Star, who hit over .300 fourteen times in his 17 year career, including 11 straight. Ducky drove in over 100 runs six times and led the league in RBIs three times. A lifetime .324 hitter, good enough for 48th on the All Time list. Ducky holds the MLB record with seven straight seasons of 40 or more doubles.

In the 1934 World Series he hit .379 for the St. Louis Cardinals "Gas House Gang". A famous incident occurred in the 6th inning of Game #7 in Detroit. With the Cards up 7-0, the ever competitive Medwick, slid hard into third baseman Marv Owen on a triple. The two players got into a brawl. After the dust settled Medwick returned to his left field position in the bottom of the inning. The Detroit fans took out their frustrations on him, they pelted him with any kind of garbage they could find. The field was littered with fruits, vegetables, bottles, cushions and other debris. The game was stopped and Commissioner Mountain Landis removed him from the game in fear of his safety. Landis also had Detroit's Owen removed from the game.

Medwick was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941 and helped lead them to the World Series hitting .310. After two seasons in Brooklyn he ended up at the Polo Grounds with the Giants for two years batting .337 in 1944.

That off season he went on a USO Tour and met Pope Pius XII. Upon being asked by the Pope what his vocation was, Medwick replied, "Your Holiness, I'm Joe Medwick. I, too, used to be a Cardinal."

In a game against his former Cardinals, he was nearly killed by a bean ball. It affected his hitting and he began to wind down, his career. He finished up back in St. Louis in 1948 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968.

Medwick is one of three players from New Jersey to be elected to the Hall of Fame. He is the highest ranking athlete to ever come from that state and was elected New Jersey Athlete of the 20th Century. Medwick died of a heart attack in St. Petersburg Florida on March 21, 1975.

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Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor was born in Massachusetts in 1899. He earned his nickname because of his passion of eating pie. He was regarded as the greatest third baseman of all time, until Brooks Robinson came along. Traynor was quick, able to protect the line and stop anything in the hole. He posessed a rifle arm that would throw anybody out. His life time batting average of .320 is 54th all time. In 7559 at bats he only struck out an amazing 278 times. Although he never led the league in any category except triples in 1923, he was amongst the season leaders throughout his career. He hit over .300 ten times, including a high .366 in 1930, and drove in over 100 runs seven times in a 17 year career.

Traynor is the only player to ever steal home plate in an All Star game. A lifetime Pittsburgh Pirate, he also managed them for five seasons. He was known to thoughtful & gentle to be a successful manager. He once advised a young player with a drinking habit to quit the booze as to not ruin his career. When the player stopped hitting after he quit drinking, Pie told him to "fall off the wagon". The player went on a hitting tear again soon after.

Pie scouted players and hosted a radio show in Pittsburgh for years. Known for traveling by foot,he use to walk from his home to his radio station job five miles away. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1948 and was named third baseman on the Centennial Team in 1969, honoring the 1st 100 years of baseball. The Pirates retired his number 20 in their new Three Rivers Stadium in 1970. Traynor died on March 16,1972 at the age of 73.