Ralph Schwamb

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Ralph Richard Schwamb
(Blackie)

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Biographical Information[edit]

"It is a fascinating trip along a life on the edge, in and out of trouble, golden opportunities and missed chances. Damon Runyon would have been proud to tell the tale of Blackie." — television anchorman Tom Brokaw, about Eric Stone's book chronicling the life of Blackie Schwamb

Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb is famous as both a convicted killer and a major league ballplayer. He worked for a gangster at the same time as he moved up in baseball, and he played in the majors with the St. Louis Browns in 1948, during the same year that he killed a man. His story is told in The Wrong Side of the Wall: The Life of Blackie Schwamb, the Greatest Prison Baseball Player of All Time, published in 2005. While he was in prison, at San Quentin, CA and Folsom, CA, many major and minor league players came to play games against Schwamb's prison teams.

Schwamb was born in California. He went to high school in Los Angeles, CA and played minor league ball beginning in 1947.

He got in trouble during high school, and a condition of probation was that he join the military. He went into the Navy during World War II, although he spent more than half of his time behind bars for various infractions. After the war and before his minor league time, he played semi-pro ball. Before his arrest for the murder, he had apparently committed a number of robberies. He was frequently drunk, including when he was a professional ballplayer.

Although a pitcher, he hit .323 at his first minor league stop, the Globe-Miami Browns. His pitching record, split between Globe-Miami and Aberdeen in 1947, was 8-3.

He was with Toledo in 1948 and came up for some time with the big-league Browns that year. He appeared in 12 games and had a 1-1 record. He was the youngest pitcher on the staff, although position player Dick Kokos was younger.

He pitched for a couple of minor league teams in 1949.

After being convicted, he served 10 years in prison, and after he got out, he tried a comeback with the 1962 Hawaii Islanders, for whom he went 1-2 in six games at age 34.

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