Bob Brady

Robert Jay Brady

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 175 lb.

• Debut August 24, 1946
• Final Game April 17, 1947
• Born November 8, 1922 in Lewistown, PA USA
• Died April 22, 1996 in East Hartford, CT USA

BR page

Biographical Information

In 1937, during the revival of the previously defunct Eastern Shore League, Bob Brady, with a reported birth date of November 8, 1922, would presumably have been fourteen years old. Other sources claim he was 18 in 1934, giving him a birth year circa 1916, and making him a more believable 20 or 21 in 1937. He reportedly was involved in one of baseball's most bizarre happenings while playing first base for the Salisbury Indians of the league for 15 games when they opened up the season with a 21-5 run and appeared to be running away for the league pennant. In June, however, the league president, Colonel J. Thomas Kibler, ordered all 21 victories forfeited because he ruled that Salisbury had five players with previous pro experience on the roster, one more than the league rules allowed. The disputed player, first baseman Brady, had signed a contract with the Harrisburg Senators in the Class A New York-Penn League in 1934 and had been carried on the suspended list without playing a game before his ultimate release, and did not play pro ball until signing with Salisbury. Many pleas were entered by the Salisbury club, but the ruling stood and they re-started with an 0-26 record. Brady was finished in Salisbury and records show he hit .246 (15 hits in 61 at-bats). Salisbury regrouped, won 48 of their final 58 games and won the league title in the final week of the season.

According to other records, Brady, just seventeen years old in 1940, spent his first year of pro ball with the York Bees and the Allentown Wings of the Class B Interstate League, getting into just 12 games and hitting .118. The Boston Braves thought enough of his play and signed him as an amateur free agent for the 1941 season. Brady spent that season with three different clubs, appearing in only 29 games and hitting .207. Brady was the catcher for the Welch Miners of the Class C Mountain States League in 1942 and had his best season in the pros at this point, hitting .306 with 16 home runs in 111 games. Bob had two good seasons with the Hartford Laurels of the Eastern League, catching 114 games in 1943, and in 1944 he cracked the .300 barrier again with a .302 average while catching 121 games.

These showings put Brady in the American Association with the Indianapolis Indians for the 1945 season, where he hit .282 and appeared in 116 games. He caught 67 games for the Indianapolis club in 1946 and got a late August call up to the major league Boston Braves. He appeared in 3 games and managed 1 hit in 5 at-bats. He had a good spring in 1947 and was back with the Braves, but he had only one plate appearance with no hits, and this ended his time in the big leagues with a .167 batting average. He spent the rest of the season with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association, hitting just .207 in 46 games. Bob spent five more seasons in baseball, all in the minors, and had one more good year, hitting .281 with 21 home runs for the Minneapolis Millers in 1949. He wound up his 13-year minor league pro career in 1952 with the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League at the age of 29 (or, more likely, 36) with a .267 batting average and 85 home runs in 986 games.

After baseball, Brady lived and worked in Manchester, CT, and died in nearby East Hartford, CT on April 22, 1996.

Sources

• 1937 Salibury Indians Article By Bill Weiss & Marshall Wright, Baseball Historians [1]
• The Eastern Shore Baseball League, by William W. Mowbray

Related Sites

• BR Minors page