Roy Hawes

Roy Lee Hawes

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.

• Debut September 23, 1951
• Final Game September 30, 1951
• Born July 5, 1926 in Shiloh, IL USA
• Died October 9, 2017 in Ringgold, GA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Roy Hawes' fleeting major league experience lasted only one week with the Washington Senators in 1951 with one career base hit. He then toiled in the minors for 10 more seasons, trying to make it back to the majors, to no avail.

Hawes started off his professional career by spending four seasons in the minor leagues at the Class D level, from 1947 to 1950, after serving in the US Navy during World War II. after which the Washington Senators obtained him from the Vincennes Citizens of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League, where he was coming off his best year with a .328 average and 13 home runs. In 1951, he compiled a .311 average with 17 round-trippers in 136 games for the Sherman-Denison Twins of the class B Big State League.

This performance got the left-handed swinging first baseman his late-season three-game trial in the big show as he debuted with the Senators on September 23rd of that year.

He continued his career in the minors where he played for a total of 14 seasons (1947-1960), six of those years with the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association. The first four of these came in 1952-1955. He finished his career with the Lookouts in 1959 and 1960, with his best hitting average coming in the 1959 season, when he hit at a .299 clip with 16 homers in 141 games at the age of 32.

" While in the Southern League Roy was termed. . . one of the Lookouts' all-time favorite players . . ." - from the book Baseball in Chattanooga

Hawes finished out his minor league and pro baseball career with the Chattanooga club in 1960, playing in three different decades, with 13 different teams and building a .271 hitting average with 167 home runs while appearing in 1,739 games.

After baseball Hawes became the owner of the Mountain Chemical Company and retired in Ringgold, GA where he died in 2017 at the age of 91. He was involved in youth baseball after his playing days and was elected to the Chattanooga Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sources

Baseball Players of the 1950s

Related Sites

• BR Minors page