This column first appeared in January 2012.
With all of the end-of-the-year news we were all inundated with over the past few weeks, I caught a glimpse of a news tidbit that saddened me a little bit. Ted Beard died on December 30, 2011, two days before the New Year dawned and 63 years after he starred on one of the greatest Indianapolis Indians teams ever. The fans voted Ted Beard their most popular player on that team that won 100 games, a feat rarely accomplished before or since. The Indianapolis Indians were the AAA affiliate of the Pirates during that memorable season.
Cramer Theodore Beard was born on January 7, 1921 in Woodsboro, Maryland just a stone’s throw from the historic National Road. Little did his family realize that someday Ted would take the road all the way to Indianapolis and stardom. During Beard’s baseball career, Ted played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago White Sox for parts of seven seasons, spanning 1948-1958. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1942 and spent the next six years playing in the minor leagues. He signed with the Pirates just in time for World War II and, like many patriotic Americans, enlisted in the Army where he served two years in the Pacific Theater as a medic. When the war ended, he returned to resume his career in the minor leagues.
The Indianapolis Indians of 1948 achieved a popularity that would not be equaled in the league for another 32 years. That year, the team drew 494,455 fans — a record that would stand until 1980.
The 1948 Indianapolis Indians flew out of the starting gate, winning 12 of their first 15 games. Except for a brief stint in May, the Indians were in first place the entire season. They finished with a 100-54 record, 11 games ahead of second-place Milwaukee. However, ten days before the close of the regular season, Indians co-owner Frank McKinney announced that the Pirates were calling up star right-fielder Ted Beard. The Bucs were trying to make a run for the pennant and Beard, who hit .301 with 85 RBI, led the league in triples (17), runs (131) and walks (128), looked like the last piece of the puzzle.
The call-up of Beard did not sit well with Indians fans — especially when you consider that McKinney made a pre-season promise that Pittsburgh would not call up any players until the pennant was won and the Indians had clinched first place. McKinney back-tracked by telling fans that Pittsburgh was battling Boston for first place in the National League and “definitely needs an outfielder who can catch the ball.” Besides his hitting prowess, Beard was fast as lightning and had a tremendous throwing arm.
The loss of Ted Beard notwithstanding, the Indians remained optimistic about the playoffs. After all, the Indians were led by future Hall of Fame catcher Al Lopez, who had wrapped up a 19-year major league career the year before. His 1,918 games spent behind the plate for the Dodgers, Braves, Pirates and Indians set a record for endurance that lasted until Bob Boone broke it in the 1980s. Not only did Lopez manage the team, he served as a backup catcher for more than 40 games that season. The ’48 Indians led the league with a .289 average, led by All-Star first baseman Les Fleming. Fleming finished the season hitting .323, with 26 homers and a league high 143 RBI and was voted the league MVP.
Joining Fleming and Beard on the All-Star team in 1948 were second baseman Jack Cassini (.305), shortstop Pete Castiglione (.308), and catcher Earl Turner (.313). All of the four saw service in the big leagues. In addition, part-time outfielder, Roy Weatherly, enjoyed a ten-year career in the majors from 1936-50, batting .286 for the Indians, Yankees, and Giants. The Indians’ speedy center fielder was 27-year-old Tom Saffell, a World War II Navy fighter pilot. Saffell played four seasons with Pittsburgh, batting .322 in 75 games for the Pirates in 1949. He later served as president of the Gulf Coast League and was the voted the minor league’s “King of Baseball” at the Baseball Winter Meetings in 1999.
None of the Indianapolis pitchers possessed sparkling ERAs, (did I mention that the Indians hit .289 as a team?) but 6-foot 5-inch right hander Bob Malloy led the league with 21 wins. Teammate Cal McLish (12-9) led the loop with four shutouts and was an effective switch hitter. Other Indian hurlers who saw time in the majors included Jim Bagby who won 97 games from 1938-47, Ed Bahr who went 11-11 in 1946-47 for the Pirates, Frank Barrett who relieved in 102 games from 1939-50, Jack Hallett who won 12 games in six years, Johnny Hutchings who went 12-18 primarily as a relief pitcher from 1940-46, Malloy who won only four games in five years for the Reds and Browns and McLish who enjoyed a 19-8 season in 1959 for Cleveland. But really, that 1948 Indians team was about two things: hitting the ball and Ted Beard.
Ted Beard’s life and career were defined by momentous events; first it was World War II, then came that great season of 1948 with the Indians and then came July 16, 1950. In a game against the Boston Braves, 5-foot 8-inch tall 165 lb. Ted Beard connected with a hanging curveball thrown by pitcher Bob Hall, hitting a mammoth home run over the 86-foot tall right-field grandstand 376 feet away. The ball went clean out of Forbes Field! At that time, the only other player to have accomplished that feat was Babe Ruth. For years, Beard’s unlikely blast became something of an urban legend around the league. In time, Willie Stargell, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Eddie Matthews also cleared right-field, but “Ted Beard” is the name that sticks out among those Hall of Famers. In 1956, Beard returned to Indianapolis to wind down his career and roomed with a young Roger Maris.
In 1957, at the age of 36, Beard hit .347 and scored 91 runs in only 96 games. Despite his limited playing time, he still finished second in the league in triples, had a .457 On-Base-Percentage (OBP) and slugged .559; his OBP would have led the league and his slugging would have been second had he played enough games to qualify. Beard finished his playing career with his beloved Indians in 1963, hanging up the spikes at age 42 as one of the greatest minor leaguers of his era. In 1960, he served as player-manager for Indianapolis. He continued to coach in the minors until he eventually faded away from the public eye in the late 1960s.
Despite time spent overseas during the war, Beard still played 13 years for the Indianapolis Indians. In 1,834 minor league games, Beard scored 1,339 runs, walked 1,296 times and hit .284 while slugging .437. Throughout his career he showed speed, a great ability to draw walks, superior defensive skills and occasional deceptive power. True, Ted Beard played in 194 games during seven seasons in the Big Leagues, finishing with a lifetime .198 average, 6 homers and 35 RBIs in 474 at bats. But I’d like to think that it was the years spent roaming the ivy covered walls of old 16th Street Bush Stadium that defined Ted Beard best. Even today, Beard is the Indians career leader in walks (707) and strikeouts (521, second in in runs scored (683) and triples (76), fourth in games (975) and doubles (139) and fifth in hits (880). Not bad for a guy who hung up his spikes when John F. Kennedy was President.
As for me, when I heard that Ted Beard died recently at nearly 90 in Fishers, Indiana, I thought of my dad. My dad, an Arsenal Tech graduate and lifetime eastsider was a Bush Stadium Cracker Jack, popcorn and program vendor during that memorable season of 1948. He spoke often of that team and all of those fellows mentioned above. He even mentioned in passing being in the stadium when the great Babe Ruth visited old Bush Stadium on his prelude to death tour during that mythical season. But it was Ted Beard that dad spoke of the most, and as he did so, he always had a smile on his face. Rest in Peace Ted Beard.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
