Urbane Pickering

Urbane Henry Pickering
(Pick)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut April 18, 1931
• Final Game September 25, 1932
• Born June 3, 1899 in Hoxie, KS USA
• Died May 13, 1970 in Modesto, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Urbane Pickering was a third baseman for 10 years (1924-1933), two in the Majors (1931-1932) and eight in the minors (1924-1930; 1933). Pickering broke into Organized Baseball at age 24 in 1924 with the Springfield Midgets of the Western Association and played for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League (1925-1926), the Quincy Red Birds in the Three-I League (1926), the Decatur Commodores (1927-1928); the Dayton Aviators in the Central League (1928) and the Birmingham Barons in the Southern Association (1929-1930). In 1930, his best year in the minors, he had 9 home runs, 107 RBI and hit .343.

Pick was 31 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 18, 1931, with the Boston Red Sox. He played for Boston that year and in 1932 as well, and played his final major league game on September 25th of that year at age 33. In 1931, he had 86 hits, 48 runs, 13 doubles, 4 triples, 9 home runs, 52 RBI and 3 stolen bases at .252/.318/.393 in 103 games. In 1932, he had 119 hits, 47 runs, 28 doubles, 5 triples, 2 home runs, 40 RBI and 3 stolen bases at .260/.320/.357 in 132 games. Pickering showed little power and led AL third basemen in errors in 1932, his only season as a regular. (JFC) Overall in MLB, he had 205 hits, 95 runs, 41 doubles, 9 triples, 11 home runs, 92 RBI and 6 stolen bases at .257/.319/.372 in 235 games.

He returned to the minors with the Montreal Royals and the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League in 1933, ending his baseball career at age 34. Overall in the minors, he had 79 home runs and ~520 RBI.

Pickering served in the U.S. Army during World War II (BN). He worked for the Modesto, CA police department 20 years, including seven years as Chief of Police (1945-1952). He then spent ten years as a jailer for the Stanislaus County, CA sheriff's department before retiring in 1964. He also served 18 years on the Selective Service Board. He died at age 70 on May 13, 1970 in a hospital in Modesto after a brief illness and is buried at Lakewood Memorial Park in Hughson, CA.

Sources

Principal sources for Urbane Pickering include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) and The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling; The Southern Association in Baseball, 1885-1961 by Marshall D. Wright; and The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Urbane Pickering at the SABR Bio Project
• Urbane Pickering at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• The Baseball Library for Urbane Pickering
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)