Leon Culberson

Delbert Leon Culberson
(Lee)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180 lb.
• School Georgia Institute of Technology
• High School Darlington School
• Debut May 16, 1943
• Final Game May 12, 1948
• Born August 6, 1918 in Hall's Station, GA USA
• Died September 17, 1989 in Rome, GA USA

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Biographical Information

Leon Culberson played six seasons in the majors, mostly with the Boston Red Sox. In his best season, 1946, he hit .313. Later, in the 1946 World Series, he hit a home run in Game 5, in the 6th inning, while batting seventh in the lineup. Culberson was also a busy base-stealer, swiping 107 bases in his 371 regular-season major-league games.

Leon was born in Hall's Station, GA in 1918. At age 21 he hit .304 with 14 home runs in 68 games for the Kannapolis Towelers. 1941 and 1942 were spent with the Scranton Red Sox, and although he played a few games with the Louisville Colonels in 1943, mostly he was up in the majors.

The Baseball Digest issue from May 1965 recalled a time in 1942, while Leon was with Scranton, that his at-bat was interrupted by a practice wartime blackout, which caused his at-bat to take 30 minutes from beginning to end.

With the Red Sox in 1943 Leon appeared in 81 games, getting 347 plate appearances. He stole 14 bases in 14 tries, and also hit 6 triples. He is listed as a regular outfielder for the team, although he split his time between center field and left, and thus was not the most-utilized player at either position. On July 3rd, he hit for the cycle against the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium. The cycle was remarkable for a number of reasons: it was a rare natural cycle, with the hits being hit in order - single, double, triple and homer; it was the last cycle to be hit by a rookie in Red Sox history; and the homer was hit inside-the-park. No one has achieved a cycle with such a homer since that day. He was remembered in a 2007 article when Jacoby Ellsbury nearly hit for the cycle, as Culberson was the last Red Sox rookie to have accomplished the feat.

In 1944 he was the fourth outfielder, as Pete Fox got into more games. Leon and Catfish Metkovich shared the center field duties, with Metkovich getting into slightly more games.

Leon became a regular again in 1945, which was the season in which he appeared in the most games in one season. He again played primarily center field.

A lot of war-time players did not succeed in keeping their jobs when the war ended, but Culberson did. He continued to play outfield for the 1946 Red Sox, although he was in fewer games since Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio were filling up two outfield spots.

One of the key events of the 1946 World Series was called Slaughter's Mad Dash, when Enos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals scored from first base on a hit by Harry Walker. Culberson was playing center field at the time, and threw the ball to Johnny Pesky, who some sources claim hesitated before throwing the ball home.

In 1947 he slumped, and in the off-season he was traded to the Washington Senators. They played him briefly in 1948, and then traded him to the New York Yankees, who did not use him at the major league level.

Leon played minor league ball through 1952, also managing in 1951 and 1952.

An article called The Ghost Who Batted for Boston describes the search to figure out the unknown player who appeared in one game in 1943 (one boxscore called the player "Culbson"). The article called the mystery "The Culberson Puzzle". Culberson has denied that it was him, but nobody seems to know who it was.

Culberson was the father of minor leaguer Charlie Culberson, Sr. and the grandfather of Charlie Culberson.

Related Sites

• Leon Culberson at the SABR Bio Project

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