Before There Was Dentistry (‘50s Version)

I don’t see this happening in this day and age.  Heck, every American seems to get their teeth whitened, straightened, starched, pressed, and re-grouted as a matter of course these days.  And it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re a movie star or a forklift operator. 

It’s hard to remember that teeth don’t naturally look that way (though paying a couple of orthodontist’s bills does help – take it from me).  Even so, that “all natural” look sure can make you look a little … um … er … stoopit.

You’d think, though, that a ballplayer would have the dough to be able to straighten things up a little.  Yeah, I know, ballplayers didn’t make nearly as much back then (and I’m sure some of them drove a forklift in the offseason too).  Still …

Not too bad.

Hal Smith bounced around for 10 years with five clubs, usually part of a platoon.  His main claim to fame was hitting a homer in the bottom of the 8^th to put the Pirates up in the last game of the 1960 World Series.  Of course, the Bucs gave up the tying run in the top of the 9^th, then came back to win it with another homer in the bottom of the inning.  I forget who hit that one.  Some Polish guy, I think. (By the way, did you know Hal had quite the schnozz as well?)

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Ditto.

Lou Limmer was up in the bigs for only two years, but managed to do pretty well, getting 19 homers, 63 RBIs, and 66 runs over 530 at-bats total.  Unfortunately, all that went with a .202 average.

Some interesting facts about Lou:

• He graduated from the Manhattan High School of Aviation
• He was known as the Babe Ruth of batting practice
• He’s a member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Yeah, you can definitely tell on this one.

You’ve met Billy Pierce before, where I shared some of his HoF-level stats.

Sweet orthodontia!  You could drive a bullpen golf cart through those.

Elston Howard is is a pretty familiar name.  He was the first African-American Yankee, won an MVP award in 1963, and was in ten World Series (including one with the Red Sox!?!?)

He died at only 50 of a rare heart disorder.  New York Times columnist Red Smith wrote that "the Yankees organization lost more class on [that] weekend than George Steinbrenner could buy in 10 years."  Amen!

* - author has this card

And don’t forget to catch us next week, when we look at some guys who shilled out a couple of bucks and got a little work done.  In fact, you might say they got a little too much work done.