Sammy Byrd

Samuel Dewey Byrd
(Babe Ruth's Legs)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10½", Weight 175 lb.
• High School Simpson High School
• Debut May 11, 1929
• Final Game September 27, 1936
• Born October 15, 1906 in Bremen, GA USA
• Died May 11, 1981 in Mesa, AZ USA

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Biographical Information

"Sammy Byrd, the Yankee reserve outfielder, is a good golfer, but he has not had a real chance to show how good a ball player he is." - Boston Globe, December 17, 1934

Sammy Byrd earned the nicknames "Babe Ruth's Legs" and "Babe Ruth's Caddy" as he often replaced The Babe as a pinch runner late in the slugger's career. He later became a professional golfer who won 23 pro events.

Byrd was a backup outfielder who appeared in 645 games defensively, roughly equal amounts in left field, center field, and right field. Offensively, he received 1,700 at-bats, with his best year being his rookie year, when he hit .312/.409/.471 as a Yankee part-timer in 1929. He appeared very briefly in the 1932 World Series, entering the deciding Game 4 in the 9th inning as a defensive replacement for, you guessed it... Earle Combs! (It was actually Babe Ruth, of course).

After baseball, Sammy played on the PGA Tour between 1942 and 1946, with six Tour wins between 1942 and 1945. He had three Top 10 finishes in majors, finishing 3rd and then 4th in back-to-back Masters tournaments (1941 to 1942). In 1945, he was the runner up to Byron Nelson in a match play format for the 1945 PGA Championship.

An inductee of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1974, Byrd died at 74 in 1981.

Notable Achievement

• Won a World Series with the New York Yankees in 1932

Related Sites

• Samuel Byrd at the SABR Bio Project