George Shuba shakes hands with Jackie Robinson in Jersey City after Jackie hits his first HR in organized baseball in the 3rd inning of his first game, 4/18/46.
George “Shotgun” Shuba, one of the last Boys of Summer, died at his home in Youngstown, Ohio this week, Monday, 9/29/14. Had he lived until 12/13/14, he would have been 90 years old.
Outfielder Shuba never hit for any great stats as a major leaguer. Over the course of his seven all Dodger big league seasons (1948-50, 1952-55) Shuba batted only .259 with 24 homers in 355 games, but he was there as a member of the 1955 only World Series victory that the Dodgers ever earned during their years in Brooklyn.
In spite of his limitations on the numbers side of productivity, Shuba was a valuable clutch player on numerous occasions for Brooklyn. His nickname is derived as a description of the way he sprayed those shotgun blast singles to all parts of the outfield at what now seems like almost every time that Brooklyn needed him to come through for them as a clutch hitter.
The linked article below was sent to me this morning by Neil Miggins, one of the sons of our very own SABR member brother and good friend, Larry Miggins, 89, whom we also cherish as a former Cardinal, one of the very last surviving members of Houston Buffs, also, as one of the last survivors of those who played in Jackie Robinson’s original break of the color line in 1946, and a sterling human being and an almost mythical Houston figure of Irish good cheer and storytelling! We personally also have to add treasured good friend to our list of affections for Mr. Miggins.
The article by Richard Goldstein beautifully eulogizes how teammate George Shuba reached out to become the first white teammate of Jackie Robinson at Montreal during the 1946 season to shake his hand for the 3rd inning, 3-run homer he hit for the Royals against Jersey City on Opening Day at Jersey City, April 18, 1946. The photo shown here and on the Goldstein story stands out as testimony to the sincerity of Shula’s total acceptance of Robinson as the first black player in organized baseball to break the dreadfully ugly and unfair baseball color line in the 20th century.
Larry Miggins was the star of a feature by the Houston Chronicle upon the release of the movie “42” in 2013.
As many you already know, our Larry Miggins played 3rd base for the Jersey City Giants that day – as did center fielder Bobby Thomson, only five seasons away from his famous heartbreaking home run for the parent 1951 NL playoff New York Giants against Robinson’s future parent Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds with his “shot fired ’round the world.” By that time, Mr. Miggins was wrapping up his 1951 season as a member of the Cardinals’ AA Texas League club, the 1951 league champion Houston Buffs.
That’s also Miggins as the Jersey City 3rd baseman on 4/18/46, applying the late tag at 3rd on a safely stolen base by Robinson n his first game. Larry Miggins also likes to “kid” (At least, we think he’s kidding.) that two of Robinson’s other four hits that day, bunt singles down the third base line, were made possible by the deep position that he had taken in defense of Jackie’s lethal stroke of the ball that afternoon.
Here’s the link to the well-written story on George Shuba by Richard Goldstein:
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 