Player Profiles: Norm Larker

Today’s profile is former Dodger first baseman Norm Larker. Norman Howard John Larker was born on December 27, 1930, in Beaver Meadows Pennsylvania. A small mining community. His father, Lewis Larker, worked in the mines. His mom was Susan Zalaznock. He was of Slovak-German descent. His dad played second base and pitched in the county semi-pro leagues. His brother, Melvin, was a year older than he, and Lewis was born in 1936. Larker’s dad, like many miners of the era, would die in a mining accident in 1954.

Their house bordered the right field foul line of a local baseball field. Many of the boys Larker played with were as much as three years older than he was. He played RF and 1st base because he was one of the few with his own glove. One of the rules was that a ball hit over the fence was an automatic out since the boys did not want to lose the one ball they had to play with. Accordingly, the lefty-hitting Larker became a line-drive hitter.

An athlete at Hazelton High School, he graduated in 1948 and went on to play for the Hazelton Mountaineers, an unaffiliated team in Class D North Atlantic League. He had a good year at the plate, hitting .300 in 109 games. He was voted the most popular Hazelton player by the local fans. But towards the end of the season, he was struck in the kidney area of his left side. The kidney became infected and he had to be removed.

At the start of the 1950 season, Larker was purchased by the Brooklyn Dodgers and assigned to the Class C, Greenwood Dodgers of the Cotton State League. Each year he moved up a class until 1954 when he started the season with the AAA Montreal Royals. Despite going 5-15 he would not be with the team past the first two weeks. After losing 6 pounds on a trip to Buffalo at the end of April, he was diagnosed with mumps. When he was healthy he was optioned back to AA Mobile, but his father’s death delayed his reporting to the team.

Larker finished the season at Mobile with a .326 avg, he slugged .556. He led the team in both categories, but also had 24 HRs and 29 doubles. His level of play continued to improve over the next 3 seasons with the St. Paul Saints hitting .300 or more each season with double-digit HRs and 30 or more doubles each year.

So strong was his determination to make it to the major leagues that he played winter ball over those years in Columbia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. In 1955 with last place Margallanes, he hit .346 to lead the Venezuelan league.

In 1957 he had a great year at St. Paul hitting .323 with 12 HRs, 12 triples, 33 doubles, and a .901 OPS. He finished second to Norm Siebern for the batting title. He was ready for the show. The aging Gil Hodges was the Dodgers starting 1st baseman, but Larker was not deterred. The team was now in LA and Norm made his major league debut by appearing in 99 games. 43 of those games he was playing the outfield. He put up a decent season hitting .277. 25 of his 70 hits went for extra bases.

In 1959 he appeared in 109 games. His batting average improved to .289. He had 8 HRs and 49 RBIs. He only struck out 25 times in more than 300 at-bats. His good hitting did not carry over to the World Series, but he had a key single in game one of the playoffs against the Braves and another in the 9th inning of game 2 with the Dodgers down to the Braves 5-2 at the time. In game 4 of the World Series, he had a key hit off of Early Wynn leading to the Dodgers’ first run and scored the second on a hit by Hodges.

In 1960 he became the starting first baseman. He had an outstanding year. He would play in 133 games getting over 400 at-bats. He struck out only 24 times all year. As a matter of fact, he struck out more than 26 times only once in his career. He finished .002 points behind the Pirates Dick Groat for the batting title. He lost the title with a slump in September. Larker was never a power hitter. He hit only 22 in his parts of 4 seasons with the Dodgers. If Larker had a weak point, it was his temper. He was known as a hothead on and off of the field.

In 1961, the now 30-year-old Larker played in only 97 games and his stats dipped accordingly. With Ron Fairly showing exceptional skills at age 22, Larker was expendable and was exposed to the draft along with Dodger great, Gil Hodges. Larker was drafted by the Houston Colt 45’s on the 10th of October. Hodges went to the Mets. He played in 147 games for the 45’s. Getting over 500 at-bats for the only time in his career. He hit .263 and struck out 47 times.

On November 30, 1962, he was traded to the Milwaukee Braves for Jim Bolger, Connie Grob, and Don Nottebart. He appeared in 64 games, mostly as a pinch hitter, and was sold to the Giants on August 8, 1963. At the same time, the Giants purchased pitcher Frank Linzy and sent Gaylord Perry and Matty Alou to AAA to make room. Larker got only 14 at-bats with the Giants and at the end of the season, he was sent to their AA team at El Paso. He played at AAA Tacoma in 1964, then went to Japan for two years and played with the Toei Flyers.

Overall Larker had a solid baseball career. Sometimes starting but serving primarily as a foot soldier, maintaining steady employment, and making a little money. Barely beneath the surface though lay a smoldering Mr. Hyde. Larker had two nicknames, either of which could have served as a catalyst: “Dumbo” and “Mad Dog,” and he hated both of them. Dumbo came from his large ears. Mad Dog originated in the minors when a teammate noted that Larker grunted when he swung at a ball.

Nicknames aside, Larker’s temper was his most formidable obstacle. Anything it seemed, could set him off. He got a three-day breather and a 25 dollar fine in 1952 during a playoff game when he was called out by the umpire. After tossing his bat to the ground, he argued the call vehemently and had to be guided back to the dugout after being ejected by his manager.

He and Leo Durocher got into it with Jocko Conlan on a foul ball call. Larker was on first at the time and reportedly got the Dodger bench in on the protest. In 1961, he and Maury Wills had a fight in the clubhouse. Gil Hodges got punched in the nose trying to break it up. In 63 while with the Braves, he and teammate Bob Shaw got into it because Shaw thought Larker was blocking his view of Bob Gibson during the 4th inning of a game. Shaw threw several punches, but Larker bobbed and weaved and covered up.

He destroyed a fan in the Houston dugout one night after grounding out. Teammate and roomie, Bob Lillis asked him why he did it. Norm replied, “I had to kick something“. Lillis sat on the bench sweating and fuming the rest of the game. Larker did buy a new fan. Larker held a lot of anger inside, and as a result, he developed an ulcer. And when the ulcer would flare up, he would go bonkers in the dugout.

Norm had married Evelyn Louise Hanks of Mobile in September of 1954. They had met while he was playing ball there. Once his baseball career ended, Larker calmed down and even may have found some peace. He and his wife raised four sons, Damian, Lewis, Duane, and Collin. He would be remembered as a family man who enjoyed hunting and fly fishing, especially with family members.

He worked for Johns Manville, which manufactured asbestos. He underwent lung surgery in 2002. He and his family lived in Long Beach, and he passed away on March 17, 2007, after a reappearance of cancer. He is buried in All Souls Cemetery in Long Beach.