Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
TIMESTAMPS
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20181028042526/http://www.baseball-almanac.com:80/players/player.php?p=reesepe01
Pee Wee Reese was born on Tuesday, July 23, 1918, in Ekron, Kentucky. Reese was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 23, 1940, with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Pee Wee Reese baseball stats page.
"I don't think legalizing the spitter would make much difference. They never stopped throwing it anyway." - Hall of Fame Shortstop Pee Wee Reese [Pee Wee Reese Quotes]
Pee Wee Reese
Pee Wee Reese Autograph on a 1995 Topps Dodger Archive Baseball Card (#333)
Teammate Joe Black spoke at the funeral for Pee Wee Reese and said, "Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie (Robinson), all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a white guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, 'Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.' With Pee Wee, it was number one on his uniform and number one in our hearts."
Pee Wee Reese only wore #1 with the Dodgers, in Brooklyn and when they moved west to Los Angeles in 1958. In 1984, the club retired his uniform number and no player has worn it since. Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate to one of the best shortstops in Major League history:
5 - Pee Wee Reese played five games his senior year in high school! Our source, Pee Wee, "I had only played five games in my senior year in high school. I was not large enough. Hell, when I graduated, I was about five foot four and weighed 120 pounds. I didn't go with the Dodgers until spring training of 1940 and I weighed all of 155 pounds soaking wet. Looking like I was sixteen, I guess. When I got there, I didn't know any of the fellas on the team, and I was scared to death. Wherever they went, they took me with them. Why did they do it? Beats the hell out of me. I was just a scared kid from Kentucky, and these guys had been up in the majors for a while. I guess it was because I was just such a helluva nice kid - if you'll accept that."
8 - Pee Wee Reese never won a Most Valuable Player Award, but he did finish in the top ten during eight seasons: 1946 (6th), 1947 (8th), 1948 (6th), 1949 (5th), 1952 (8th), 1954 (9th), 1955 (9th), 1956 (8th).
42 - Pee Wee Reese was a good friend of Jackie Robinson (#42) who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. A sportswriter asked Pee Wee if he was threatened by Robinson taking his position of shortstop, Reese simply responded, "If he's man enough to take my job, I'm not gonna like it, but, dammit, black or white, he deserves it." Reese kept his position, Robinson was moved to first, and an important friendship was born.
104 - Pee Wee Reese had a National League leading 104 bases on balls in 1947. When he finished his career he was top 50 on the Top 1,000 list and once said, "If I had my career to play over, one thing I'd do differently is swing more. Those 1,200 walks I got... nobody remembers them."
200 - Pee Wee Reese delivered newspapers after high school, worked for the telephone company, and played baseball with a local church team in Louisville, Kentucky, which won the city championship. The local American Association team, the Louisville Colonels took notice of the best player on the team (Reese) and signed him with a $200 bonus and a $150 per month salary.
1,338 - Pee Wee Reese scored 1,338 runs with the Dodgers, the most by any player in franchise history to this day. His 1,210 walks, are also the most in Dodgers history.
1943 - Pee Wee Reese did not play baseball in 1943, 1944 or 1945 - The Little Colonel had enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 and was shipped out to fight in the Pacific theater during World War II.
Pee Wee Reese | National Baseball Hall of Fame Plaque | Class of 1984 (HOF)
Did you know that the Baseball Writers Association chose not to elect Pee Wee Reese to the Hall of Fame, passing him over ever year (1964-1978) until he was removed from the ballot? In 1984, the Veteran's Committee selected Reese and Rick Ferrell.