Carmen Mauro

Carmen Louis Mauro

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 167 lb.
• School University of Washington
• High School J. Sterling Morton East High School
• Debut October 1, 1948
• Final Game September 27, 1953
• Born November 10, 1926 in St. Paul, MN USA
• Died December 19, 2003 in Carmichael, CA USA

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Biographical Information

Seventeen-year-old Carmen Mauro was signed as an amateur free agent by the Chicago Cubs before the 1944 season. The young outfielder was farmed out to the Lockport Cubs of the class D PONY League where he appeared in 89 games and hit .294. Carmen spent his first five seasons in the minors, hitting over .300 twice - the first came in 1945 when he had a split season with the class B Hagerstown Owls and the Portsmouth Cubs, hitting .305 with 6 homers and the second came in 1947 when he hit .308 for the Des Moines Bruins of the class A Western League.

Mauro got about as late a season call-up as a man could get when the parent Chicago Cubs brought him to Wrigley Field on October 1, 1948 and he appeared in three games, picking up two base hits in five at-bats, his first big league hit being an inside-the-park homer off Murry Dickson of the St. Louis Cardinals. He had two more stints with the Cubs in 1950, hitting .227, and in 1951, when he fell to .172. The Cubbies traded him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Toby Atwell in the December trades. The Dodgers sent the 25-year-old Mauro to the International League where he had his career year, hitting .327 with 11 homers in 140 games for the Montreal Royals in 1952.

Carmen's balloon more or less busted in 1953, starting out with the Dodgers for eight games during which he failed to pick up a hit. Come May he was traded to the Washington Senators for Ken Wood, and then in June the Philadelphia Athletics took him off waivers again. In between train rides, Carmen managed to hit .255 but this was his last season in the big leagues and he finished a four-year big league career with a .231 average and two home runs in 456 plate appearances. One reason he never played in the Show again was that after the 1953 season, he was sent to the New York Yankees in an eleven-player deal, and there was little chance for him to find a spot with the powerhouse team.

All this didn't seem to kill his sense of humor and he loved to talk about a game between the Cubs and Dodgers at Ebbets Field early on that he has never forgotten. "Brooklyn was leading in the 8th inning when I doubled in the tying run, then scored the go-ahead run. But Burt Shotton, the Dodgers manager, told the umpire I had batted out of turn and the two runs were canceled. Frankie Frisch, the Cubs manager, threw a fit, and was tossed out of the game. Vin Scully was in his first year as the Dodgers announcer and he would bring up that game on the air from time to time."

Carmen spent five more years in the minors, just about all in the Pacific Coast League with the Seattle Rainiers winding up a 14-year minor league tour in 1958 with a .295 average and 84 home runs. At the end of his playing days, he entered the University of Washington and earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in education.

Mauro also became the head baseball coach at the University of Washington from 1961-63. From 1964 until retiring in 1986 he was a teacher, a director of student services and baseball coach (1966-1970) at Cuesta Junior College in San Luis Obispo, CA. An accomplished piano, organ and accordion player, the Carmen Mauro Music Scholarship at Cuesta Junior College was established in 1990. Carmen died on December 19, 2003 in Carmichael, CA, at the age of 77.

Sources

Baseball Players of the 1950s