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| Buster Maynard | |
|---|---|
| Outfielder | |
| Born:(1913-03-25)March 25, 1913 Henderson, North Carolina, U.S. | |
| Died: September 7, 1977(1977-09-07) (aged 64) Durham, North Carolina, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 17, 1940, for the New York Giants | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| April 26, 1946, for the New York Giants | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .221 |
| Home runs | 14 |
| Runs batted in | 66 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| |
James Walter "Buster" Maynard (March 25, 1913 – September 7, 1977) was an American professionalbaseball player whose 14-year career included 224games inMajor League Baseball for theNew York Giants during all or portions of four seasons between1940 and1946. Theoutfielder andthird baseman, a native ofHenderson, North Carolina, threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg). He was aUnited States Army veteran ofWorld War II who spent all of the 1944 and 1945 seasons in military service.[1]
Maynard's career began in 1937 in the lowminors. In 1940, at age 27, he had a stellar year for theRichmond Colts of the Class BPiedmont League, clubbing 30home runs andhitting .337.[2] His success earned Maynard a late-season call-up from the Colts' parent team, the New York Giants. His first taste of the majors lasted for seven games and was bookended by two notable games. In his MLB début, Maynard led off and playedcenter field for the Giants in their game against theChicago Cubs at thePolo Grounds. He singled in his first MLBat bat against the Cubs'Vern Olsen, then came around to score the Giants' firstrun of the game. Aftergrounding out in his second at bat, Maynard came to the plate for a third time against Olsen in thefourth inning; this time, he slammed atriple and was thrown out at home plate for trying to stretch his hit into aninside-the-park home run.[3] Then, in Maynard's final 1940 appearance, he collected fourhits in fourat bats, including another triple, and scored three runs against theBoston Bees in a 14–0 Giant rout.[4]
Maynard batted .276 during that initial stint with the Giants, but he spent 1941 and the first month of1942 with minor-leagueJersey City. He was recalled to the majors in May 1942, and played in 210 total games for the Giants during the 1942 and1943 seasons. However, he batted only .247 and .206 respectively, with 13 total home runs. Then, after the 1943 campaign ended, he entered the military. After the war, Maynard got a final, seven-game audition with the1946 Giants as a pinch runner and backup outfielder. He was sent back to Jersey City and finished his pro career in the minor leagues in 1952 at age 39. As a big leaguer, he batted .221 with 136 career hits (14doubles, five triples and 14 home runs). He died inDurham, North Carolina, at age 64 in 1977.
Years after he left baseball, however, Maynard would be remembered in a story often told byTommy Lasorda, theBaseball Hall of Famemanager of theLos Angeles Dodgers, to his players at spring training.
Lasorda recalled that, as a teenager in the early 1940s, he had attended his first major league game atShibe Park inPhiladelphia, a contest between thePhillies and Maynard's Giants. As the game ended, the young Lasorda and his friends gathered in the runway between the teams' dugouts and their clubhouses in search of autographs from the big-league players. When Lasorda asked a Giant player to sign his scorecard, he was shoved out of the way.Roger Angell, Hall of Fame baseball writer and former fiction editor ofThe New Yorker, described what happened next:
"'I couldn't believe it,' [Lasorda said.] 'Here was the first big-league player I'd ever seen up close — the first one I ever dared speak to — and what he did was shove me up against the wall ... I watched the guy as he went away toward the clubhouse and I noticed the number on his back — you know, like taking the number of a hit-and-run car. Later on, I looked at my program and got his name. It was Buster Maynard, who was an outfielder for the Giants then. I never forgot it.'"[5]
By 1949, Lasorda was 21 and a left-handed pitcher in theBrooklyn Dodgers' minor-league system. One day, as he was on the mound for theGreenville Spinners in the Class ASally League against theAugusta Tigers, he heard the public address announcer introduce the rival batter he was about to face: Buster Maynard, then a 36-year-old minor league veteran. Angell writes: "Lasorda was transfixed. 'I looked in,' he [said], 'and it was the same man!'"[5] Lasorda proceeded to throw threebrushback pitches at Maynard; after the third, Maynard charged the mound and a full-scale brawl nearly ensued. After the game, as Lasorda was getting into his street clothes in his team's clubhouse, there was a knock at the door. It was Maynard, who (according to Angell) wore a "peaceable but puzzled expression."[5]
"'Listen, kid,' he said to Lasorda, 'did I ever meet you before?' 'Not exactly,' Tom said. 'Did I bat against you someplace, maybe?' 'Nope.' 'Well, why were you tryin' to take my head off out there?' Lasorda spread his hands wide. 'You didn't give me your autograph,' he said."[5]
During his 20 years as manager of the Dodgers, Lasorda regularly told that story to his young players, advising them, "Always give an autograph when somebody asks you ... You can never tell. In baseball, anything can happen."[5]
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