Tony Lazzeri

Minor league career

Lazzeri began his professional baseball career in 1922 with the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League after a friend convinced manager Duffy Lewis to give him a tryout. He earned $250 per month as a utility infielder but batted only .192 in 45 games, leading to a demotion to the Peoria Tractors of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League in 1923. There he hit .248 with 14 home runs in 135 games before being recalled to Salt Lake City. Starting at shortstop in 1924, he batted .285 with 16 home runs, but Lewis gave the starting role to Pinky Pittenger, sending Lazzeri to the Lincoln Links of the Western League, where he hit .329 with 28 home runs in 82 games.

Returning to Salt Lake City under new manager Oscar Vitt in 1925, Lazzeri batted .355 with 60 home runs and 222 RBIs, the most RBIs in professional baseball history. That season he became one of four Pacific Coast League hitters to achieve a 30 home run, 30 stolen bases season. Although the Chicago Cubs had a working agreement with Salt Lake City, they passed on Lazzeri due to his epilepsy, as did the Cincinnati Reds. Yankees scout Bill Essick convinced general manager Ed Barrow to sign him after receiving confirmatory reports from other scouts and ensuring Lazzeri's insurance policy covered his illness.

New York Yankees

After the 1925 season, the Yankees acquired Tony Lazzeri from Salt Lake City, sending the rights to Frank Zoeller and Mack Hillis along with $50,000 to the Pacific Coast League club. Lazzeri then signed a contract with New York for $5,000. He made his major league debut in 1926, and manager Miller Huggins shifted him from shortstop to second base, forming a double play partnership with fellow rookie Mark Koenig.

Playing in all 155 games that season, Lazzeri hit 18 home runs and drove in 114 runs, placing third in the American League in homers behind Babe Ruth and Al Simmons, and tying for third in RBIs. The Yankees reached the 1926 World Series but fell to the St. Louis Cardinals; in the decisive game, Grover Cleveland Alexander struck out Lazzeri with the bases loaded to seal the series. As part of the 1927 "Murderer's Row" lineup, Lazzeri batted .309 with 18 home runs and 102 RBIs, finishing third in the league in homers behind teammates Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The Yankees went 110-44 and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.

Baseball experts polled by Billy Evans named Lazzeri the consensus top second baseman in the AL. A muscle injury nearly ended his season, but he returned to hit a key double off Alexander in the 1928 World Series, which the Yankees won. Despite missing games, he tied for third in MVP voting.

In 1929, he posted a career-high .354 batting average. He hit two home runs in the 1932 World Series victory. In 1933, he was selected for the first MLB All-Star Game. A knee injury slowed him in 1934.

On May 24, 1936, Lazzeri set an AL single-game record with 11 RBIs, and that month he also set marks for most homers in three consecutive games (6) and four consecutive games (7). He hit a grand slam in the 1936 World Series, only the second in Series history. In the 1937 World Series, he scored the deciding run as the Yankees defeated the New York Giants.

Later career

After the 1937 season, the Yankees let Lazzeri go. He joined the Chicago Cubs as a player-coach in 1938, seeing limited action on the field, but the Cubs won the National League pennant and met the Yankees in the World Series, where the Yankees took the title. The Cubs released him that winter, and he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939.

The Dodgers let him go on May 13 after he hit .282 in 14 games. The very next day, Lazzeri signed with the New York Giants to fill in for George Myatt and Lou Chiozza at third base, but the Giants released him on June 7. He then went back to the minors, managing the Class-AA Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League for the rest of 1939 and all of 1940.

In 1941 he played for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League and was released after the season. The following year, he played for and managed the Portsmouth Cubs of the Piedmont League. In 1943, he was player-manager for the Wilkes-Barre Barons in the Class-AA Eastern League, batting .271 over 58 games, but was asked to resign once the season ended.

Legacy

Although his offensive production was overshadowed by teammates such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio, Lazzeri is considered one of the top hitting second basemen of his era. Koenig considered Lazzeri the team's most valuable player. He finished his career with a .292 batting average, 986 runs, 178 home runs, 1,191 RBIs, and 148 stolen bases.

Despite hitting 60 home runs in an extended Pacific Coast League season in 1925, he never hit more than 18 home runs in a major league season, a mark he reached four times. Lazzeri holds the American League record for most RBIs in a game with 11, set on May 24, 1936, when he also became the first major league player to hit two grand slams in one game. He holds the major league record of 15 RBIs in consecutive games.

He set major league records of six home runs in three consecutive games and seven in four consecutive games, though those marks were later surpassed. Lazzeri is the only player in major league baseball to hit a natural cycle with the final home run being a grand slam, accomplished on June 3, 1932. The Veterans Committee elected him to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

Did You Know?

• Lazzeri was expelled from school at age 15 and began working with his father as a boilermaker, earning $4.50 a day.
• He also trained to become a prizefighter while playing semi-professional baseball.
• His death at age 42 was ruled a heart attack by the coroner, but many believe it was caused by an epileptic seizure.