Posted by Joe O Link: The Daily Times Sports
on 9/25/2008, 12:48 am
65.78.48.68
Daily Times, Delco Sport: A Delco treasure is dead at 90
By HARRY CHAYKUN, Of the Times Staff
James B. "Mickey" Vernon, the Marcus Hook native who went on to a distinguished career in major league baseball, died Wednesday afternoon at Riddle Memorial Hospital. He was 90. He had suffered a stroke Saturday.
Vernon, an outstanding athlete at Eddystone High School, began his major-league career in 1939 with the Washington Senators. He won American League batting championships while playing for the Senators in 1946 (.353) and 1953 (.337).
He ended his playing career in 1960 as a player/coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were managed by Chester High's Danny Murtaugh. The Pirates defeated the New York Yankees, four games to three, to win the 1960 World Series.
After his playing days, Vernon spent two years in Washington as manager of the Senators and later was a hitting coach with several major league organizations, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Montreal Expos.
Jim Vankoski, former president of the Delco Baseball League, was a close friend of Vernon and his family.
"Delaware County has lost a great man," Vankoski said. "He was this county's role model, an example of how someone should act. If you wanted to know how to do something, all you had to ask yourself was how Mickey would have done it.
"His family appreciates the way people respected their privacy throughout the weekend and how so many people offered their thoughts, prayers and well wishes. And they would like to ask the public again to respect their privacy and will let everyone know as soon as the necessary arrangements have been made for funeral services."
Earlier this year, Vernon was one of 10 players named by the Baseball Veterans Committee for consideration for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A 12-member panel selected by the Veterans Committee will meet in December.
If nine of the 12 members of the committee include Vernon's name on their ballot, he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously in July 2009.
Vernon received many honors during his baseball career, in which he had 2,495 major league hits and set fielding records as one of the top first basemen of his era. He was named to the American League All-Star team seven times.
In 1999, the Daily Times chose Vernon its Baseball Player of the Millennium.
Vernon, who never liked to have attention focused on his accomplishments, told former Times sports editor Bob Tennant, "there have been a lot of good baseball players from Delaware County."
None could match his accomplishments as a player or as an ambassador for the game.
"In addition to being worthy of being in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he's worthy of being in the human being hall of fame," said Tennant, an editor at the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press, Wednesday.
"He was the nicest human being I ever met in any walk of like. He was kind, stately, never talked down to anyone, never presupposed he knew more than anyone else about baseball or life, never valued his (military) service time and what it meant to his baseball credentials, let alone his life credentials."
Vernon was a fixture at local sports banquets and enjoyed meeting those being honored, whether it was for achievements in athletics or academics.
"He was as genuine a human being I ever met," Tennant said. "I got to know him well when there was the push to get him in the Hall of Fame, and he was literally embarrassed for getting that attention.
"As a kid, I have vague recollections of seeing him at Shibe Park. I think he was playing for Indians then because I remember having a baseball signed by all the Indians. My father worked at Sun Oil with his father. As a kid you're like a puppy dog - wow, a major-league player. He was a very genuine then, and years later when I told him who my father was, he immediately remembered. He even remembered my mother's name."
When Vernon played in Washington, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made it known that he was "Ike's" favorite player. After Vernon won the American League batting championship, Eisenhower presented him with the silver bat that was awarded to him for that accomplishment.
Phillies Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas liked to tell the story of a trip with his father to Comiskey Park in Chicago as a youth. Vernon took Kalas into the Senators' dugout and immediately became his favorite player.
"I still looked up to him as the man who was responsible for my love of baseball," Kalas said before the Phillies game against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday night. "He was a wonderful, down to earth man who was just so gracious. The Phillies always welcomed him with open arms and he'd come into the clubhouse and talk to the players. I think a lot of that was because he was a local guy and a highly respected player who handled himself so well."
Former Daily Times sportswriter Rich Westcott, who wrote a biography of Vernon entitled "The Gentleman First Baseman," spent last Wednesday with Vernon.
"We did a thing at Chickie's and Pete's with (Phillies P.A. announcer) Dan Baker," Westcott said. "There were some people from the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame down there. As far as I could tell, he was fine. He drove home from my house when we got back.
"Whenever we'd go to the game, he'd drive to my house and I'd drive the rest of the way. That's the shocker. He seemed to be in such good condition. Didn't drink, didn't smoke."
Westcott, former publisher of Phillies Report and an official scorekeeper at Phillies games for many years, also recognized how fond the members of the Phillies organization became of Vernon.
"He loved to watch the games up there at (Veterans Stadium) or Citizens Bank Park," Westcott said. "And he loved going in the locker room."
"Earlier this season he went up to Jayson Werth and talked about how he played with his grandfather (Ducky Schofield) ... It didn't matter what generation it was, he just loved baseball. A lot of old timers put down today's game, but Mickey never said anything like that."
Over the years, a number of people and several organizations, including the Daily Times, have done what they could to make their feelings known that Vernon belongs in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"I'd like to think he would get in or not get in on his credentials, and that should've happened years ago," Tennant said. "Hopefully if this is the year, it's because people finally woke up ... if he played for the Yankees he would've been in Hall so long ago that we would've forgotten his induction by now.
"It's a great irony. He took his career as something that happened. He fulfilled his professional duty to play his best and represent himself and the Senators to the best of his ability for his entire career. To him, his reward was his career itself. When you think about it, it would be a good way for everyone to go about their business."
Westcott, who has accompanied groups of fans from Delaware County to Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, was hoping to be able to do that again next summer to help honor Vernon.
"I really firmly believe this is the year it's going to happen," Westcott, a resident of Springfield, said. "His chances are excellent. It's a tragedy this happened with him so close. He's going into the Philadelphia Sports Hall in November.
"He always said that he didn't want to talk about the Hall of Fame thing, that it's nice if it would happen but he wasn't going to hold his breath. He was so unassuming about these things. That was the life he lived. He was a gentleman to the Nth degree. When I was trying to do the book with him, it was something we talked about for a couple of years. Initially he said, 'Well, who would want to read about me?' That's the kind of guy he was - so incredibly modest."
In the photo below...Mickey Vernon, who had 2,495 hits in 20 major-league seasons, and his daughter Gay Vernon Sharon admire the statue of Vernon when it was dedicated at Mickey Vernon Field in Marcus Hook in September 2003.
36
Responses: