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In 1943 the Los Angeles Angels won a 104 games but finished
second to Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League. Eddie Waitkus led the league
that season with 235 hits and inspired many young boys to play America's
pastime, baseball.
During World War II, he won 4 Battle Stars and was wounded as
an Amphibious Engineer Sergeant in the Pacific (see letter to a friend below).
Eddie Waitkus was a very smart man. He was offered
scholarships to Holy Cross and Harvard, but passed them up so that he could play
the sport he loved, professional baseball.
In 1940 the Chicago chapter of the Baseball Writers
Association of America (BBWAA) established an award recognizing the major
leagues' top rookie. This award continued for six more years before going
national. Eddie Waitkus received this award in 1946.
Waitkus was a top defensive first baseman and left-handed
line-drive hitter. He was one of the toughest men in the league to strike-out.
He spent 11 years wearing a major league uniform. Although his numbers were not
Hall of Fame numbers he did have a lifetime batting average of .285.
On June 23, 1946 back-to-back inside-the-park home runs by
Eddie Waitkus and Marv Rickert were a ML first. Then on August 24, 1947 Eddie
hit an inside-the-park grand slam. Only six players have accomplished
this since 1920.
He was voted as the starting first baseman to the 1948
All-Star team.
Then in December 1948 the Chicago Cubs traded him to the
Philadelphia Phillies for Monk Dubiel and Dutch Leonard.
Letter to a friend.
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