Joseph Lowell Gordon (February 18, 1915 – April 14, 1978), nicknamed "Flash", in reference to the comic-book character Flash Gordon, was an American second baseman, coach and manager in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians from 1938 to 1950. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
As a rookie second baseman in 1938, Gordon set a new record for home runs in a season for a second baseman with 25. Gordon was the outstanding player at his position during the 1940s, winning the American League MVP Award and being named to The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team in nine of his eleven seasons. Known for his acrobatic defense, he led the AL in assists four times and in double plays three times. He was the first AL second baseman to hit 20 home runs in a season, doing so seven times, with his peak being 32 in 1948. His single season record of home runs at the position was a record until 2001. His 253 home runs were second all-time among players primarily playing the position of second base when he retired, and only seven players have passed him since. He played a major role on the champion Indians, leading the team in homers and runs batted in. He ranked sixth in major league history in double plays (1,160) upon retiring and was sixth in AL history in games (1,519), putouts (3,600), assists (4,706) and total chances (8,566) and seventh in fielding percentage (.970).
Early life
Gordon was born in Los Angeles, on February 18, 1915, to Benjamin Lowell Gordon (1875–1946) and Lulu Pearl Evans (1893–1984). The family moved to Oregon, where he attended Jefferson High School. After graduation, Gordon attended the University of Oregon, Playing on the Ducks baseball team during the 1934 and 1935 seasons, Gordon helped lead the team to a combined record of 30-14 – winning the Pacific Coast Conference's Northern Division both years.
Playing career
New York Yankees
After batting .418 in his sophomore year, he signed with the Yankees in 1936, with scout Bill Essick reporting: "(Gordon was) at his best when it meant the most and the going was toughest." After being assigned to the Yankees AA-level club, the Oakland Oaks, in the Pacific Coast League, Gordon proceeded to put up solid numbers in his first season in professional baseball, hitting .300 while spending the majority of time in the field at shortstop. In 1937, Gordon was moved to the Newark Bears, another AA team in the International League and continued to excel, hitting .280 with 26 home runs. His 1937 Bears' team is often regarded as the best minor league team in history with future all-stars George McQuinn, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Babe Dahlgren, and Spud Chandler joining Gordon to lead the team to an incredible 110 wins in 158 games.
Gordon's success led to the release of 33-year-old Tony Lazzeri following the 1937 season, and he made his debut with the Yankees in April . His 25 home runs as a rookie set an American League record for second basemen, surpassing Detroit Tiger Charlie Gehringer's previous record of 19. Gordon would hold the AL record for home runs by a second baseman 64 years before being surpassed by Bret Boone's 36 home runs in 2001. the AL's first black player, who had been a second baseman in the Negro leagues but became a center fielder with Cleveland. Over Doby's first two seasons, Gordon became close to the player who was theoretically there to replace him, and Doby would later refer to him as his first friend in white baseball; however, reports that Gordon deliberately struck out in Doby's first game to keep him from looking bad are erroneous. 1948 was even better, as Cleveland won their first AL title since 1920. Batting .280, he was second in the league to DiMaggio with 32 home runs, which remained the AL's single-season mark for a second baseman until Bret Boone hit 36 in . He again led the team with a personal high of 124 RBIs, and was sixth in the league in slugging (.507). Gordon placed sixth in the MVP vote, won by teammate and manager Lou Boudreau. In the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves, batting cleanup, he had a RBI single and later scored to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead in Game 2; they went on to win 4-1. In the final Game 6, he homered to give the Indians a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, and they went on to win 4-3 to capture the championship. His seven double plays in the Series are still the record for a six-game Series. In he slipped to a .251 average, though his 20 home runs and 84 RBI were still second on the team to Doby. His major league career ended in as he hit .236 with 19 home runs and 57 RBI.
Gordon was a career .268 hitter with 253 home runs, 975 RBI, 914 runs, 1,530 hits, 264 doubles and 89 stolen bases in 1,566 games. His .466 slugging average then placed him fifth among second basemen, behind Hornsby (.577), Gehringer (.480), Lazzeri (.467) and Nap Lajoie (.466), and only Hornsby had more homers among second basemen. Gordon might have had even higher batting totals had he played in other stadiums. His first several seasons were spent in Yankee Stadium, with its immense "Death Valley" in left field that frustrated right-handed power hitters; during his New York years, he hit 69 home runs at home and 84 on the road. Municipal Stadium in Cleveland was also an unhelpful venue, being hostile to power hitters on both sides of the plate. Over his career, he batted 23 points higher on the road (.279) than he did at home (.256). He was selected for the All-Star team nine times, in all but his first and last seasons. He was also selected to The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team in 1939–42 and 1947–48, and was runner-up to Gehringer in 1938 and to Billy Herman in 1943. In he was selected as one of the Indians' 100 greatest players.
Later years
thumb|upright=0.9|Gordon as manager of the [[Kansas City Athletics in 1961.]]
Gordon next became a player-manager with the Pacific Coast League's (PCL) Sacramento Solons in 1951–52. Showing he still had something in the tank, Gordon hit .299 with 43 home runs and 136 RBI in 148 games in 1951, but tailed off badly in 1952, hitting only .246 with just 16 home runs – his fewest since his World War II-shortened 1946 season. and Gordon became a scout and minor league instructor for the Los Angeles / California Angels from 1961 to 1968. In 1969, he had the distinction of managing his second team in Kansas City, this time with the expansion Royals, but lasted only one season with the club before resigning at the end of his one-year contract. Gordon later went into real estate.
Personal life and death
Gordon married Dorothy Irene Crum of Los Angeles in Elkton, Maryland in June 1938, who he had two children with. Gordon went into a Sacramento hospital on April 9, 1974 upon suffering a heart seizure. On April 14, 1978, he had another heart seizure and died at age 63 in Sacramento, California.
Legacy
On August 16, 2008, Gordon was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. Two of Gordon's grandchildren were present for his induction ceremony. On December 7, 2008, Gordon was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee with 10 out of 12 possible votes, 83.3%, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26, 2009; of the 20 candidates on two ballots, he was the only player to be selected. His only daughter, Judy Gordon of Idaho Falls, Idaho, gave his induction speech in Cooperstown in front of 21,000 people in attendance. "He (Joe) insisted against having a funeral", Judy said in the closing remarks of her speech. "And as such, we consider Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame as his final resting place to be honored forever."
Wall Street Journal sports writer Russell Adams wrote a piece titled "Who Is the Greatest Yankee?" Adams ranked Gordon as the 9th-greatest Yankees' position player in franchise history. "Gordon's great strength was defense — his range was the best of any of the 30 candidates we studied."
In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Gordon as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.
Managerial Record
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Team !! rowspan="2"|Year !! colspan="5"|Regular season !! colspan="4"|Postseason
|-
!Games!!Won!!Lost!!Win %!!Finish!! Won !! Lost !! Win % !! Result
|-
|-
!CLE||
||86|||| Interim || – || – || – ||
|-
!CLE||
||154|||| 2nd in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
!CLE||
||95|||| Traded || – || – || – ||
|-
! colspan="2"|CLE total ||335|||| || ||
|-
!DET||
||57|||| 6th in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
! colspan="2"|DET total ||57|||| || ||
|-
!KCA||
||59|||| Fired || – || – || – ||
|-
! colspan="2"|KCA total ||59|||| || ||
|-
!KC||
||162|||| 4th in AL West || – || – || – ||
|-
! colspan="2"|KC total ||162|||| || ||
|-
! colspan="2"|Total ||613|||| || ||
|}
See also
- List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
- List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
- Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
References
- Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia (2000). Kingston, New York: Total/Sports Illustrated. .
Further reading
- Career highlights at The Baseball Page via Wayback Machine
External links
- Joe Gordon at Baseball Almanac