Tom Jordan

Thomas Jefferson Jordan

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1½", Weight 195 lb.

• Debut September 4, 1944
• Final Game April 28, 1948
• Born September 5, 1919 in Lawton, OK USA
• Died August 26, 2019 in Roswell, NM USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Oklahoma native Tom Jordan was in professional baseball for eighteen seasons from 1938 to 1957. The Oklahoman played six seasons in the minors as a catcher-outfielder, hitting over the .300 mark in four of these seasons, before getting his first chance in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox, late in the 1944 season. He appeared in 14 games and hit at a .267 average.

He was back in the big leagues in the 1946 season, this time in a split-season affair, again with the White Sox and also the Cleveland Indians. He appeared in 24 games and hit at a .220 clip. Jordan had one more quick look with the St. Louis Browns in 1948, pinch-hitting on April 28th, didn't deliver, and this was the extent of Jordan's time in the show.

Tom had eleven seasons left in the minor leagues (1947-1957) and hit over .300 in nine of these years. He spent most of his career in high-offense, low-quality southern leagues, where people often put up gaudy statistics. He hit at a .407 clip with 28 homers in 136 games for the Artesia Numexers of the class C Longhorn League in 1955. He also had nine double-digit home run seasons during his total minor league time, with a high of 44 in 1950. Jordan became a player-manager for the last seven years (1950-1956) of his minor league run. (See chart below).

Jordan played and/or managed in 1,751 minor league contests with an estimated 267 home runs and a .336 batting average.

On November 30, 2018, he became the Oldest Living MLB Player when Fred Caligiuri passed away at the age of 100 and held the title until his own passing on August 26, 2019, a couple of weeks shy of his 100th birthday.

Jordan was 37 years old when he left the game.

Year-by-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs	Notes
1950	Roswell Rockets	Longhorn League	89-62	1st	none	Lost in 1st round
1951	Austin Pioneers	Big State League	75-72	4th	none	Lost in 1st round
1952	Austin Pioneers	Big State League	81-66	4th	none	Lost League Finals
1953	Albuquerque Dukes	West Texas-New Mexico League	87-55	1st	Oakland Oaks	League Champs
1954	Albuquerque Dukes	West Texas-New Mexico League	62-74	5th	none
1955	Artesia Numexers	Longhorn League	80-57	3rd	Dallas Eagles	Lost in 1st round
1956	Roswell Rockets	Southwestern League	35-49	--	none	--	replaced by Halbert Simpson (18-41) on July 14

Further Reading

• Nick Diunte: "Tom Jordan, Oldest Living Ex-MLB Player, Dies At 99", Forbes.com, August 26, 2019. [1]