Joe Gordon

Lore & Background

Gordon was born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1915. He attended Jefferson High School in Oregon and the University of Oregon, where he played football, gymnastics, soccer, long jump, and violin in the college orchestra. He played on the Ducks baseball team in 1934 and 1935, hitting .358. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After batting .418 in his sophomore year, he signed with the Yankees in 1936. As a rookie second baseman in 1938, he set a new record for home runs in a season for a second baseman with 25. He won the 1942 American League MVP Award and was named to The Sporting News Major League All-Star Team in nine of his eleven seasons. He led the AL in assists four times and in double plays three times. He was the first AL second baseman to hit 20 home runs in a season, doing so seven times, with a peak of 32 in 1948. His 253 home runs were second all-time among players primarily playing second base when he retired. He played a major role on the 1948 champion Indians, leading the team in homers and runs batted in. He served in the U.S. Army in 1944–45 during World War II.

In Their Own Story

The July night was thick with humidity, the kind that made the pinstripes cling and the chalk on the infield look like it had been painted with wet paint. Comiskey Park was full, the stands a low roar that never quite broke into a cheer because the Sox were trailing by two in the bottom of the eighth. The pitcher, a righty from Cleveland, had just walked two. Then the crack.

Gordon's swing was almost lazy, a compact rip that seemed to take the ball out of the pitcher's hand before it even arrived. The sound it made against the bat was different from the usual *thwack*—it was a *crack*, sharp and final, like a branch snapping in a winter forest. The ball rose over the heads in the bleachers, over the top row, and disappeared into the dark beyond the outfield wall. The park didn't cheer so much as *exhale*, a collective release of tension that turned into a roar a half-second later.

Gordon didn't run the bases with celebration. He jogged, head down, already thinking about the next pitch. But the man three rows back in the bleachers, a dockworker with a beer in his hand, stood up and shouted something about his mother, and the sound carried all the way to the dugout. That was Jiggs. That was the White Sox. And nobody in that park that night would forget the sound of the bat.

Reader's Guide

Joe Gordon was a second baseman for the New York Yankees (1938–1943, 1946) and Cleveland Indians (1947–1950). He was a nine-time All-Star and won the 1942 AL MVP. He held the AL record for home runs by a second baseman until 2001. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Did You Know?

• Gordon's nickname 'Flash' referenced the comic-book character Flash Gordon.
• He hit for the cycle on September 8, 1940.
• In the 1941 World Series, he hit .500 with stellar defense.
• He set still-standing records for a five-game World Series: 20 putouts, 23 assists, 43 total chances, and a 1.000 fielding average in 1943.