Mar. 5, 1965 - Pepper Martin (pictured in 1931), an outfielder and third baseman on the championship St. Louis Cardinal teams of the 1930’s, died of a heart attack today at the age of 61.
In the fall of 1931, John Leonard Martin had the kind of week that all athletes dream about but few ever attain. With his first major league season as a regular behind him, he played center field for the Cardinals against the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series.
Martin’s bat was hot — he tied a record with 12 hits during the series — and his feet were fleet as he stole five bases on Mickey Cochrane, the A’s star catcher. He personally accounted for three of the winning Cardinals’ four victories.
When he became an overnight favorite of the sports world in the ’31 series, Martin was 27, with a minor-league apprenticeship of 7 seasons behind him. He retired from the major leagues in 1940 but came back to play in wartime in 1944. His lifetime batting average was .298. He played on Cardinal teams that won pennants in 1928, 1931, 1934, and 1944. His batting average for 15 World Series games was .415.
On the diamond, the Oklahoma-born Martin was a colorful, combative player called the “Wild Horse of the Osage.” The Cardinal teams of the ‘30s had a number of unconventional performers, beginning with Dizzy Dean, the pitcher, and Martin fit into the cast. The teams were called the “Gashouse Gang,” and there was an auxiliary, the “Mudcat Band,” led by Martin.
The “Mudcats” played before and after games in the clubhouses of the National League and enlisted such members as Martin, guitar; Fiddler Bill McGee, violin; Bob Weiland, jug; and Frenchy Bordagaray, washboard. Hillbilly music was a staple.
Following the close of his playing career, Martin was a manager in the minors for many years. While managing the Miami Sun Sox of the Florida International League in 1949, he attempted to choke an umpire. He was suspended and brought before Happy Chandler, the commissioner of baseball.
“You really didn’t mean any harm, Pepper, did you?” asked Chandler.
Martin, who knew only the truth, replied, “I wanted to kill the buzzard.”
In 1952, he was made a deputy sheriff in Pittsburg County, Okla., but quit because the job was “too depressing.”
After arresting a young Army deserter, he said: “When I had to take the boy to jail, the family cried, and I did too.”
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments