Hal Trosky

Hal Trosky played first base (and was team captain) for the Cleveland Indians during the Great Depression. His career stretched from the heyday of Babe Ruth through the end of World War II. It was a time when the American League had perhaps the three greatest ever first basemen—Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg—whose feats consigned Trosky to the footnotes of history. Yet at his peak he played comparably to other pros, leading the American League in RBIs in 1936.
Trosky left baseball at 34, his career cut short by migraine headaches, and was elected to the Indians’ All-Time team in 1969. Drawing on family archives and exhaustive research, this first ever biography covers his early years in Iowa, his Major League career and his post-baseball life.

SABR member William H. Johnson is a retired naval flight officer. He has coauthored a book, and written an array of newspaper and magazine articles, on the story of baseball in eastern Iowa. He lives in Beavercreek. Ohio.

William H. Johnson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 184
Bibliographic Info: 31 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6645-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2676-5
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Preface 1

1. Baseball Beginnings 7

2. Welcome to Cleveland 28

3. Rookie 35

4. Sophomore Slump 47

5. At the Apex 58

6. Years of Stability 70

7. Disaster 93

8. Cleveland Sunset 109

9. White Sox Years 119

Appendix: Trosky’s Memorable Games 137

Trosky Meets the Babe—September 17, 1933  137

Trosky’s First Big Game—May 30, 1934  140

Trosky Switches Sides—September 15, 1935  142

Nine Consecutive Hits—September 13–16, 1936  144

Playing for the Pennant—September 27, 1940  147

Trosky’s Final Game—September 27, 1946  149

Career Statistics 151

A Note on Sources 152

Chapter Notes 157

Bibliography 163

Index 167

“exceptionally informative…recommended”—Midwest Book Review; “Johnson brings to readers the successes and setbacks of a potential Hall of Famer, first baseman Hal Trosky, who excelled for the Cleveland Indians during the Great Depression, when he was compared with the likes of Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, and Hank Greenberg. Johnson carefully portrays Trosky’s baseball career, including the down periods when the slugger suffered from migraine headaches and when he led the Tribe through the 1940 ‘Cry Baby Rebellion’ against manager Oscar Vitt. Readers will enjoy this most interesting period in the Tribe’s history and Trosky’s role as the team’s captain.”—James E. Odenkirk, Tribes and Tribulations: The Early Decades of the Cleveland Indians.