Hal Quick

James Harold Quick (Blondie)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10½", Weight 163 lb.

• Debut September 7, 1939
• Final Game September 28, 1939
• Born October 4, 1917 in Rome, GA USA
• Died March 9, 1974 in Swansea, IL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Georgia native Hal Quick spent eleven seasons in professional baseball from 1936 to 1950. He also spent four years (1942-1945) serving with the United States Air Force during World War II. The 18-year-old infielder played his first season with the Americus Cardinals of the class D Georgia-Florida League in 1936, hitting at a .288 clip. He would spend the next two seasons (1937-1938) with the same club and with about the same success. Quick was moved up to the Greenville Spinners of the class B South Atlantic League in 1939, where he hit .338 in 132 games.

The Washington Senators, the parent team of the Greenville club, moved him up to the major leagues for the last three weeks of the 1939 season and he made his debut on September 7, 1939, appearing in 12 games and garnering ten hits in 41 at-bats for a .244 average. He played his final game on September 29, both for the season and his big league career.

Quick spent the next two seasons (1940-1941) in the Eastern League with the Springfield Nationals and the Williamsport Grays, hitting right at a .232 two-year average. He spent the next four years in the service and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs from the St. Louis Browns in the minor league phase of the 1945 Rule V Draft. He was with the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association on his return in 1946, and hit .263 for the year. This prompted the New York Giants to draft him from the Chicago Cubs on November 5, 1946, in the minor league phase of the 1946 Rule V Draft.

He stayed with the Vols for the next three seasons (1947-1949), hitting over the .300 mark for the second time in his career, with a .302 sum in '47 and .312 in '48. Hal turned 31 in 1949 and fell to a .246 number and finished out his minor league run in 1950 with the Macon Peaches of the South Atlantic League, hitting .237 in 70 games. Quick's career minor league figures show that he appeared in 1,201 games and had a .271 career batting average. He also fielded the short-field position at a .935 percentage.

After baseball, Quick retired as a lieutenant colonel from the United States Air Force after serving 25 years, including World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He received Bronze Stars in both World War II and the Vietnam War. He died from emphysema and a heart ailment on March 9, 1974 in Swansea, IL, at the age of 56.