Hod Ford

Horace Hills Ford

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.
• School Tufts University
• Debut September 8, 1919
• Final Game May 8, 1933
• Born July 23, 1897 in New Haven, CT USA
• Died January 29, 1977 in Winchester, MA USA

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Biographical Information

Hod Ford found out it was tough to break into a championship team in the big leagues. That's what Horace Ford was up against when he broke in with the Boston Red Sox in 1918. He didn't get a chance to play, so he went back to Tufts University that fall, graduated and joined the Boston Braves and in 1919 the young infielder won a spot on the team. Hod started with the New Haven Weissmen of the Eastern League appeared in 69 games and hit for a .249 average. Horace finished out his first year with the big league Braves, got into 10 games and hit .214.

The Boston Braves would have Hod for five seasons, 1919 through 1923, and it appears his best year came in 1921 when he played 152 games, most of them at second base, fielding at .962 percentage and hitting at a .279 clip. As things go, on December 15, 1923 the Braves traded Horace along with Ray Powell to the Philadelphia Phillies for Cotton Tierney but Powell refused to report to his new team and the Braves sent cash to the Phillies to complete the trade.

Horace played the keystone sack for 145 games for the Phillies in 1924, carried a .961 fielding percentage and a .272 hitting average but then on May 16, 1925 he was selected off waivers by the Brooklyn Robins and finished up his one and only year with the Robins, appearing in 66 games and hitting at a .273 clip. In an unknown transaction at the end of the year the Brooklyn club dealt Horace to the Cincinnati Reds where he stayed for six seasons 1926 through 1931. Hod would be an everyday infielder for the team, hitting in the middle .270's, three out of his six seasons with the Crosley Field bunch.

The slim infielder was nearing the end of his game in 1932. The St. Louis Cardinals purchased him from the Reds on January 26, and released him on April 28 of the same year. The Boston Braves signed him as a free agent and after five games in 1933, he was released. Hod's 15 year major league time was finished and the 35-year-old veteran of 1,446 games called it a career, hitting for a career .263 average and fielding every infield position at a .947 percentage. Hod had spent only parts of two seasons in the minors. At the start in 1919, and in 1926 when he spent 90 games with the Minneapolis Millers, hitting .288.

After baseball Ford returned to Winchester, MA, where he passed away on January 29, 1977, at 79 years of age.