Ted Kluszewski

Full Name: Theodore Bernard Kluszewski	Primary Position: 1B
Height/Weight: 6'2"/225	First Game: April 18, 1947
Birthdate: September 10, 1924	Final Game: October 1, 1961
Birthplace: Argo, Illinois	MLB Experience: 15 years
Died: March 29, 1988
Deathplace: Cincinnati, Ohio
Bat/Throw: Left/Left

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1 Biography
2 Statistics
- 2.1 Batting Stats
- 2.2 Fielding Stats
3 Transactions
4 Trivia
5 Video Gallery
6 Picture Gallery
7 See Also
- 7.1 Recent Ted Kluszewski ArmchairGM Stories
8 Categories

[edit] Biography

Ted Kluszewski (Theodore Bernard Kluszewski) was born in Argo, Illinois on September 10, 1924. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 29, 1988 at the age of 63. His major league debut was April 18, 1947 and his final game was on October 1, 1961.

Big Klu hit 171 of his 279 home runs during the 1953-1956 seasons, hitting 40,49, 47 and 35 during those years. He was one of the few sluggers in baseball history to seldom strike out during his career. He struck out only 365 times in 5929 at bats during his 15 year career.

Kluszewski played for the Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels over the course of his 15 year career.

In 1954, while with the Cincinnati Reds, he led the NL in home runs and runs batted in with 49 home runs and 141 runs batted in. In 1955, he led the league in drawing intentional walks with 25. which Klu was a four time NL All-Star, but mainly because of his power and fielding ability. He was not a speedster, as he had only 20 stolen bases during his career.

He was traded by the Reds to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Dee Fondy in 1957. He hit only 6 home runs for the Pirates before they traded him in August of 1959 to the Chicago White Sox for Harry "Suitcase" Simpson and minor leaguer Bob Sagers. He only hit 2 home runs in the short time he was with the White Sox in 1959, but went on to hit 3 home runs in the 1959 World Series for the White Sox and drove in 10 runs in the six game World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He never struck out during the World Series in 23 at bats and hit .391 and slugged .826.

The White Sox defeated the Dodgers 11-0 in Game 1. Klu homered in that game and Sandy Koufax pitched in relief in the fifth inning. Klu homered twice and drove in five runs in the win. The Dodgers won games 2, 3, and 4. The White Sox came back to win Game 5 by a 1-0 score. Bob Shaw outpitched the Dodgers starter Sandy Koufax when Nellie Fox scored when Sherm Lollar hit into a double play. In Game 6 Klu hit another home run in the 9-3 loss to the Dodgers. Klu hit 3 of the 4 White Sox home runs in the 1959 World Series.

Marty Schwab, the Reds groundskeeper, discovered Kluszewski when he saw him hitting balls further than the Reds on the Major League team had hit. The Reds had been forced to train at Indiana University due to wartime travel restrictions so that is how he was using the same field as the Reds.

Klu cut off the sleeves of his uniform because he said his biceps were so big that it restricted his swing. The Reds weren't happy about it, but let him leave the sleeves off. One of his most notable achievements was when he hit 47 home runs and struck out only 40 times in 1955. As stated before, he was no slouch in the field either, leading the NL first basemen in fielding percentage five straight years.

Kluszewski hit two home runs in the first game ever for the Los Angeles Angels. Other highlights of his career include having his No. 18 retired by the Reds, joining other Reds such as Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson, Frank Robinson, Dave Concepcion, Tony Perez, and Fred Hutchinson. He also has been honored with a statue erected at the Great American Ballpark and can be seen with this link:

http://reds.enquirer.com/2003/03/27/klu.html

Kluszewski doesn't have Hall of Fame numbers, but his memory will live on in the hearts of Reds fans everywhere who will remember the big man with biceps too big to fit into an ordinary uniform.

In closing this is a quote from Kluszewski found at baseball-almanac.com:

"How hard is hitting? You ever walk into a pitch-black room full of furniture that you've never been in before and try to walk through it without bumping into anything? Well, it's harder than that." - Ted Kluszewski (1978)

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Batting Stats

Year	Team		G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP	SLG	2B	3B	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SB	IBB	GDP
1947	CIN	N	9	10	1	1	0	2	.100	.182	.100	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
1948	CIN	N	113	379	49	104	12	57	.274	.307	.451	23	4	18	32	0	0	1	0	14
1949	CIN	N	136	531	63	164	8	68	.309	.333	.411	26	2	19	24	0	0	3	0	10
1950	CIN	N	134	538	76	165	25	111	.307	.348	.515	37	0	33	28	1	0	3	0	20
1951	CIN	N	154	607	74	157	13	77	.259	.301	.387	35	2	35	33	2	0	6	0	16
1952	CIN	N	135	497	62	159	16	86	.320	.383	.509	24	11	47	28	4	1	3	0	13
1953	CIN	N	149	570	97	180	40	108	.316	.380	.570	25	0	55	34	4	0	2	0	13
1954	CIN	N	149	573	104	187	49	141	.326	.407	.642	28	3	78	35	3	0	0	15	12
1955	CIN	N	153	612	116	192	47	113	.314	.382	.585	25	0	66	40	4	0	1	25	10
1956	CIN	N	138	517	91	156	35	102	.302	.362	.536	14	1	49	31	3	0	1	22	11
1957	CIN	N	69	127	12	34	6	21	.268	.301	.465	7	0	5	5	1	0	0	3	2
1958	PIT	N	100	301	29	88	4	37	.292	.348	.402	13	4	26	16	1	1	0	6	8
1959	PIT	N	60	122	11	32	2	17	.262	.291	.410	10	1	5	14	0	0	0	1	3
1959	CHI	A	31	101	11	30	2	10	.297	.351	.396	2	1	9	10	0	1	0	3	4
1959	Total		91	223	22	62	4	27	.278	.319	.404	12	2	14	24	0	1	0	4	7
1960	CHI	A	81	181	20	53	5	39	.293	.364	.425	9	0	22	10	0	0	0	5	3
1961	LA	A	107	263	32	64	15	39	.243	.303	.460	12	0	24	23	0	0	0	5	4
Total	NL		1499	5384	785	1619	257	940	.301	.355	.504	267	28	437	322	23	2	20	72	132
Total	AL		219	545	63	147	22	88	.270	.333	.437	23	1	55	43	0	1	0	13	11
Total			1718	5929	848	1766	279	1028	.298	.353	.498	290	29	492	365	23	3	20	85	143

[edit] Fielding Stats

Year	Team		POS	G	GS	INN	PO	A	ERR	DP	TP	AVG
1947	CIN	N	1B	2	0	0	10	0	0	1	0	1.000
1948	CIN	N	1B	98	0	0	833	65	9	60	0	.990
1949	CIN	N	1B	134	0	0	1140	65	14	109	0	.989
1950	CIN	N	1B	131	0	0	1123	61	15	101	0	.987
1951	CIN	N	1B	154	0	0	1381	88	5	115	0	.997
1952	CIN	N	1B	133	0	0	1121	66	8	116	0	.993
1953	CIN	N	1B	147	0	0	1285	58	7	149	0	.995
1954	CIN	N	1B	149	149	1306.2	1237	101	5	166	1	.996
1955	CIN	N	1B	153	0	0	1388	86	8	153	0	.995
1956	CIN	N	1B	131	0	0	1166	89	13	110	0	.990
1957	CIN	N	1B	23	19	169	161	15	2	11	0	.989
1958	PIT	N	1B	72	72	592	591	36	4	62	0	.994
1959	PIT	N	1B	20	20	164	151	12	0	14	0	1.000
1959	CHI	A	1B	29	29	207	220	10	0	13	1	1.000
1959	Total		1B	49	49	371	371	22	0	27	1	1.000
1960	CHI	A	1B	38	37	329.1	325	19	1	38	0	.997
1961	LA	A	1B	66	59	496.2	520	28	6	51	0	.989
Total			1B	1480	385	3264.2	12652	799	97	1269	2	.993

[edit] Transactions

Signed as an amateur free agent by Cincinnati Reds (1946).
Traded by Cincinnati Reds to Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Dee Fondy (December 28, 1957).
Traded by Pittsburgh Pirates to Chicago White Sox in exchange for Harry Simpson and Bob Sagers (August 25, 1959).
Selected by Los Angeles Angels from Chicago White Sox in the expansion draft (December 14, 1960).
Released by Los Angeles Angels (October 19, 1961).