Ellis Burton

Ellis Narrington Burton

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 165 lb.
• High School David Starr Jordan High School
• Debut September 18, 1958
• Final Game August 23, 1965
• Born August 12, 1936 in Los Angeles, CA USA
• Died October 1, 2013 in Fontana, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

On May 3, 1961, Ellis Burton hit a two-run homer batting left-handed and a grand slam batting right-handed in the 8th inning of a Toronto Maple Leafs game. It was the first time in organized baseball history that a switch-hitter had homered from both sides of the plate in the same inning. In his big league career, he twice homered from both sides of the plate in the same game, a feat done only twice previously at the time by Mickey Mantle and Jim Russell.

Burton was originally signed before the 1955 season by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent. He spent his first season with the Class C Phoenix Stars, where he hit .314 and had 14 homers. He spent a couple more seasons in the minors and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1957 minor league draft. Ellis appeared in 147 games for the Houston Buffaloes and got his first major league action in a late-season look with the Cardinals in 1958, appearing in eight games and hitting .233. Ellis had good speed but had trouble making contact from either side of the plate in later major league trials. The Cleveland Indians acquired Ellis via the 1962 Rule V Draft and he was with the Chicago Cubs from 1963 to 1965, where he ended his five-season major league effort with a career average of .216. He did appear in 215 games, with 556 trips to the plate and collected 120 hits, including 17 home runs. Playing from 1955 to 1965, his minor league stats show he appeared in 1,213 games, with 4,210 at bats and 1,155 hits, including 169 home runs, for a .274 batting average.

Ellis went into banking after baseball and, in 1974, became manager of the Bank of America in Burbank, CA.

Sources

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