Albert Gregory Pearson (September 12, 1934 – February 21, 2023) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a centerfielder for the Washington Senators (1958–59), Baltimore Orioles (1959–60), and Los Angeles/California Angels (1961–66). Pearson stood tall, weighed , and batted and threw left-handed.
Named for star college football player Albie Booth, Pearson grew up desiring to play baseball. Though he initially attended Mt. San Antonio College, he dropped out to sign with the Boston Red Sox after a psychology professor suggested he was more interested in baseball than his lectures. Pearson spent five years playing Minor League Baseball in Boston's organization but had not yet reached the major leagues upon his trade to the Senators in 1958. Pearson made Washington's roster out of spring training that season and batted .275, winning the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year and the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Awards. He struggled to start off the 1959 season, though, and was traded to Baltimore during the year; Pearson went back and forth between the minor leagues and the majors in 1959 and 1960. Hearing that his native California was about to be awarded the expansion Los Angeles Angels, Pearson wrote Fred Haney, the Angels' general manager, asking the Angels to pick him in the expansion draft. Haney did draft Pearson–as the 30th and last pick.
With the Angels, Pearson turned his career around. He batted .288 in his first year with the ballclub and became a starting outfielder again. The Angels named him their starting right fielder in 1962, but he was moved to centerfield on May 4 after Lee Thomas batted only .149 in his first 17 games. Pearson led the AL with 115 runs scored that season. In 1963, he was selected to the All-Star Game, earning the start in the game over Mickey Mantle, who had broken his leg a month earlier. Pearson was one of four AL players to hit over .300 in 1963, a season in which he set career highs in many categories. After Pearson batted .214 in the first two months of 1964, he was replaced in centerfield by Bob Perry, serving as a reserve player the rest of the year and only batting .223 on the season. He earned a platoon role with Lou Clinton in 1965 and batted .278 while playing 122 games. However, a back injury suffered in spring training of 1966 limited Pearson to two games, and he retired after that season.
After retiring, Pearson was involved in Christian ministries. He became an ordained minister in 1972, and in 1997, he and his wife sold their home to found Father's Heart Ranch in Desert Hot Springs, California, an home for abused, neglected and abandoned 6- to 12-year-old boys. Golf was one of Pearson's hobbies, and he also acted in television shows and released a record under the Capitol label.
Early life
Pearson was named after star college football player Albie Booth. He inherited his short height from his parents; his father was and his mother was . He was their only child. He said that he dropped out of Mt. San Antonio to sign with the Red Sox after a psychology professor suggested he was more interested in baseball than his lectures (which Pearson agreed with). "I was afraid they wouldn't give me another chance," Pearson said of his decision to sign. "I realized this was the way it had to be." Pearson was back with the Seals in 1957 and continued to hit, batting .297 with five home runs, 50 RBIs, 11 triples, and 22 doubles. He wrote Senators' owner Calvin Griffith a letter that month, asking permission to report to camp early, as he wanted to make a good impression despite his short size. Hitless in his first three games, his first major league hit came on April 19, a single against Mike Fornieles in a 4–3 victory over the Red Sox. On July 28, he had three hits and hit his first major league home run against eventual Hall of Famer Early Wynn in a 6–5 loss to the Chicago White Sox. On September 2, he hit an inside-the-park home run against Hal Brown, driving in three runs in a 4–3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Three days later, he hit a two-run home run against Bob Turley in a 6–3 victory over the New York Yankees. In 1958, he won both the Major League Baseball (MLB) Rookie of the Year and the Sporting News Rookie of the Year Awards in the American League (AL). However, Pearson started the 1959 season hitting only .188 over the first 25 games with no home runs and only two RBIs, after which he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for centerfielder Lenny Green. After hitting over .300 in Miami, Pearson returned to Baltimore in September. Used mostly as a centerfielder early on, Pearson batted .250 in 30 games through May 21. For the next 30 days, he was used mainly as a pinch-hitter, batting .319 over that period. From June 19 through the end of the year, he made most of the team's starts in right field, batting .296 for the rest of the season. Pearson hit .288 with 7 home runs, 41 RBIs, and 92 runs for the season. The Angels played another doubleheader two days later, but Pearson became the first player to go hitless when receiving at least 11 at bats in a doubleheader. He walked three times and had three RBIs on June 28 in a 19–7 victory over the Red Sox. With the Angels trailing the Yankees 7–6 in the bottom of the ninth inning on July 14, Pearson led off the inning with a game-tying home run against Marshall Bridges; however, the Yankees won the game in the tenth. Eleven times during the year, Pearson had three hits in a game. Pearson set a career-high with 160 games played, and he led the AL with 115 runs scored. He batted .261 with 160 hits, five home runs, 42 RBIs, and 15 stolen bases in 21 attempts. He had four RBIs on May 6, including a game-ending, two-RBI double against Bill Pleis in the ninth inning that turned a 3–2 deficit into a 4–3 win over the Minnesota Twins. In the first game of a doubleheader on May 19, his third-inning, three-run home run against eventual Hall of Famer Whitey Ford put the Angels ahead to stay in a 6–2 victory over the Yankees. Pearson had four hits and two RBIs on June 5 in an 8–2 victory over the White Sox. He was selected to the All-Star Game in 1963. At the game, he had Mickey Mantle and Brooks Robinson autograph a bat for him. Pearson was chosen to start the game in centerfield over Mantle, who had gotten off to a slow start to his season. During his All-Star season, Pearson set career highs in RBIs (47), hits (173), and stolen bases (17, though the 10 times he was caught stealing led the AL). Pearson also led the AL with 139 singles, and his .304 batting average (another career-high) ranked him fourth in the batting crown race behind Carl Yastrzemski (.321), Al Kaline (.312) and Rich Rollins (.307), the only other American Leaguers to bat over .300.
Pearson only batted .214 in the 1964 season's first couple of months, and in June, he lost the starting centerfield job to Bob Perry. For the rest of the season, he was used as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner, making occasional starts in left field and centerfield. He also had three hits on May 22 in a 4–3 loss to the Yankees. In 107 games, Pearson had only 265 at-bats, batting .223 with 59 hits and two home runs. His runs scored total dropped from 92 the previous season to 34. After Lou Clinton, the right fielder, only batted .200 in April, Angels manager Bill Rigney began using Pearson in a platoon role with him. Pearson, who was left-handed, typically started against right-handed pitchers, while Clinton, who was right-handed, typically started against left-handed pitchers. On June 12, Pearson had three hits, three RBIs, and two stolen bases in a 13–2 victory over the Yankees. In the first game of a doubleheader against the Twins on August 20, Pearson had four hits in a 3–1 victory. Eight days later, in the seventh inning of a game against the Tigers that was tied 3–3, Pearson delivered a go-ahead RBI single against Orlando Peña, providing the margin of victory in a 4–3 win. On August 31, his first-inning home run against Bill Stafford provided all the scoring in a 1–0 win over the Yankees. In 122 games for the Angels in 1965, Pearson had 360 at-bats and batted .278 with 41 runs scored, 100 hits, four home runs, and 21 RBIs. He only stole 12 bases but also only got caught stealing once all season. The injury kept him from playing until July, and he only made two pinch-hit appearances before sitting out the rest of the season.
In his nine-year major league career, Pearson was a .270 hitter with 28 home runs and 214 RBIs in 988 games. He compiled a 2.45 walk-to-strikeout ratio (477-to-195) and a .369 on-base percentage. He stood tall and weighed . His small size helped make him a favorite of children, as he was closer to their height. While he was with the Angels, his roommates at various times included Bo Belinsky and Don Lee. Pearson was also an actor and singer. He was offered a part in The Petticoat Pirates, a movie, but he turned it down because the proposed scene involved him drinking. However, he did appear in Day in Court, a TV show, and he would have appeared in an episode of The Roaring 20's, only his scene was cut before the episode was released. In 1961, he made two records for Capitol (only one of which was released), and he sang "Because" when his bride-to-be came down the aisle at his wedding. In the 1961–62 offseason, he served as a disc jockey on KPRO in Riverside County, California. During his career, he owned 27.5% of the stock in the Mighty Mite Corporation, which made adhesive grips for sporting equipment. In 2004, Albie and his wife became the pastors of Thousand Palms Community Church, which they later renamed Desert Christian Community Church, in Thousand Palms, California.
In 1997, Pearson and his wife sold their home to found Father's Heart Ranch in Desert Hot Springs, California, an home for abused, neglected and abandoned 6- to 12-year-old boys. The ranch includes a Pop Warner football team and a Little League baseball team. "It's interesting and amazing how they respond to love," Pearson said of the boys at Father's Heart Ranch. "We found that to be a key. When they find out that they are not just something to kick and hit, but that they have a purpose, a God who really loves them, they begin to respond in a dramatic way. They are little miracles." In 2011, the Orange County Register noted that the Pearsons' Father's Heart International foundation was providing food to about 4,000 Zambian children each week whose parents had died of AIDS.
See also
- List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders