Historic Cub, Local Hero
“Andy Pafko couldn’t have asked for a bigger break when the Cubs traded him to the Brooklyn Dodgers in June of 1951,” Mark Potash writes for the Sun-Times.
“Without having to leave Wrigley Field – the Dodgers were in town for a four-game series — he moved from seventh-place in the National League to first.
“But the timely trade also put Mr. Pafko on a collision course with baseball history. As the Dodgers left fielder in the final game of a best-of-three playoff with the New York Giants, Mr. Pafko could only look up and watch as Bobby Thomson’s three-run homer — the ”shot heard ’round the world’ – sailed over his head in the ninth inning to win the pennant in stunning fashion for the Giants, 5-4.”
Pafko died Tuesday in a Stevensville, Michigan, nursing home at the age of 92. He was a a four-time All-Star who played on the Cubs’ last pennant-winning team in 1945 – and his death leaves only one living person, shortstop Lennie Merullo, who has played in a World Series for the Cubs.
Here’s a 2010 tribute to Pafko:
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See also:
* Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wisconsin Native Andy Pafko Was A Local Hit.
* Bleed Cubbie Blue: And Then There Was One.
* Lennie Merullo’s Wikipedia page.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on October 9, 2013