Alex George

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Alex Thomas Michael George

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Biographical Information[edit]

Alex George, a Kansas City schoolboy, was only 16 years old when he debuted in pro ball with his hometown Kansas City Athletics in a late September game in 1955. "In my first big league at-bat I came up against a pitcher named Al Papai of the Chicago White Sox. Sherm Lollar was the catcher and told me, 'Kid I'm going to tell you what every pitch is going to be.' And he did, but I still struck out on a 3-2 pitch."

Alex played in four more games, picking up 1 hit in 10 at-bats, and recalled, "I got the hit in Detroit and was the youngest player to ever get a hit in the American League." The following year 16-year-old pitcher Jim Derrington of the White Sox picked up a base hit and was a couple of months younger at the time.

George spent his first year in the minors, in 1956, with the Class D Fitzgerald A's of the Georgia-Florida League where he appeared in 124 games, hitting at a .268 clip. His fielding time was divided between the shortstop position and the outfield. In his eight-year career in pro baseball, the 1958 season, with the class C Pocatello A's was to be his best: he hit for a .282 average with 157 base hits that included 23 home runs.

During his time in pro baseball (1955-1963) Alex played in 8 different leagues with 9 different teams rising as high as AAA but never returned to the majors. He appeared in 942 contests with 3,337 at-bats, picking up 848 base hits (including 81 home runs) for a .242 minor league career batting average.

At the end of the 1963 season and at age 24 he returned home to Kansas City, and for 20 years was national sales manager for television station KMBA. As of last notice he was back in baseball as a business partner for the mighty KC Bat Company, which supplies bats to over 100 major league players and to several minor league teams. Alex resides in Prairie Village, KS.

Sources[edit]

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page

Further Reading[edit]

  • Chuck Hildebrandt: "Sweet! 16-Year-Old Players in Major League History", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 48, Nr. 1, Spring 2019, pp. 5-17.

Related Sites[edit]

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