THE INVISIBLE MAN

For those of us old enough to remember the 1959 World Series – it conjures up memories of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jim Gilliam, and John Roseboro.  We remember the WS MVP, Larry Sherry with his remarkable 2 wins and 2 saves (By the way there was nothing in the 1959 season that would have indicated that he would have done what he did).  We remember Chuck Essegian’s two majestic pinch-hit home runs.   I would hazard a guess, however, that few if any of us, will remember (without looking it up) who the offensive catalyst was for the Dodgers in that series.   It was none other than Charlie Neal – the Dodgers’ invisible man.   He hit .370 for the series going 10-27, with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and 6 RBI.  His OPS for the series was 1.037 (surpassed only by Johnny Podres and Chuck Essegian, who 4 and 3 at-bats, respectively).  In most any other World Series, he would have been the MVP and his name would still be celebrated in Dodger lore.  Instead, he was second fiddle to Larry Sherry (deservedly the MVP) and truly was and has remained an invisible man. 

I shared in my last post that I collected baseball cards in my youth.  In my collection, I had more Charlie Neal cards than any other Dodger.   Whenever I put my dime down for a pack of cards, I would open the pack, place the stale, cardboard-like gum, covered with powdered sugar and corn starch, in my mouth, and eagerly begin searching for my Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Willy Mays, Duke Snider or Mickey Mantle card.   But alas, more often than not, there was Charlie Neal, with the distinctive gap between his front teeth, looking back at me.  Because I had so many duplicates of Charlie Neal cards, his cards were, more often than not, used on my bicycle spokes or to trade with my buddies.  Actually, one of my most distinctive memories of Charlie Neal came from a televised Dodger vs Giant game (that’s all we got back then).  The camera zoomed in for a close-up of Charlie just at the moment that he spit between his two front teeth.  I thought that was so cool.  I always wanted to be able to do that, but, because my front teeth were much to close together, all my efforts to spit like him would only produce dribble down my chin and onto my T-shirt.   

Notwithstanding the familiarity of his cards, and his ability to spit, Charlie Neal was a very good player for the Dodgers and he is worthy of being remembered.  Let me share a little bit about him.  I want to preface this by sharing with you that most of what I have written came from an article written by Warren Corbett for the Society for American Baseball Research.  Being the invisible man that he was, there has been very little written about Charlie Neal.  

Neal began with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 and spent eight years in the major leagues, compiling a career batting average of .259 with 113 doubles, 38 triples, 87 home runs and 391 runs batted in.  He recorded the first hit in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers and he later had the first RBI for the New York Mets.

His best year was 1959, when he batted .287 with 19 home runs and 83 rbi (second only to Duke Snider).  He also shared the National League lead in triples at 11 with his teammate Wally Moon.

Charlie Neal was born in Longview, Texas on January 30, 1931.  Charles Lenard Neal came from a baseball family.  His father, Houston, organized a sandlot team.  Charlie’s older brother Jim played for his father, but Charlie was scared of a hardball.  Charlie joined his dad’s team when he was 13.  It is told that in his first game he was hit by a pitch and cried afterward.   He attended Longview Colored High School which did not have a baseball team.  Instead, he excelled at basketball and in football. 

Charlie was 16 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in MLB.  It was then that Charlie began playing on black semipro teams.  In later years, Neal said he also played for the Atlanta Black Crackers of the Negro Southern League.  After graduating from high school, Neal got married and began driving a truck for a meat‑packing company.  He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers before the 1950 season.  His bonus was a train ticket to spring training in Vero Beach, Florida.

When he started playing for the Dodgers in Class D, Neal played shortstop and second base. He hit .301 and added 11 HR.  However, shortstop was a position at which the Dodgers had a lot of depth.  He played alongside Don Zimmer, Bobby Lillis, and Chico Fernandez among others.   In 1951 he had a very strong season in Class‑B, hitting .323, a .955 OPS, 24 triples, 12 home runs, and 22 stolen bases. He led the league in runs, total bases, triples, and steals.

In 1953 Neal and outfielder John Glenn became the first black players at Newport News, Virginia, in the Class‑B Piedmont League. That year Neal and Lillis turned a league‑record 199 double plays.  In 1954 in AAA, Neal enjoyed another strong season hitting .272, with 18 HR and 20 stolen bases.  Unfortunately, he was behind Don Zimmer on the depth chart and it was Zimmer who was called up to the majors to be the designated successor to shortstop Pee Wee Reese.

In 1955, Neal and Chico Fernandez were sent back down to AAA, where Neal had another great season.  Not only was he good offensively, but he was also a standout on defense.  His AAA manager, Greg Mulleavy, said that Neal was “a better fielder right now than Jackie Robinson was when he broke in with the Royals.”   But, it was the younger, quicker, Jim Gilliam that pushed Jackie Robinson off of second base.  The following year, a younger, quicker Neal would push Gilliam to third base.  

In 1956, Charlie Neal started at 2^nd base for the first time defending world champion Dodgers, pushing Jim Gilliam to 3^rd base.  The Sporting News and Associated Press pegged him as the leading candidate for National League Rookie of the Year.  After 15 games Neal was batting .269 but only had 2 extra‑base hits.  The impatient Walter Alston benched him because the Dodgers were having trouble scoring runs.  He was a part-time player for the rest of the season, hitting .287/.353/.382 in 62 games.  He only had 4 at-bats in the World Series that year, with no hits. 

In 1957, Jackie Robinson retired.  Pee Wee Reese was about to turn 39.  The Dodgers had hoped to use Randy Jackson (who they had acquired from the Cubs) as Robinson’s replacement at 3^rd.  Unfortunately, he got hurt at the beginning of the season.  After several failed experiments with other players, Charlie Neal settled in at shortstop and Pee Wee Reese was moved to third.   In his first year of playing full‑time play, Neal hit .270/.356/.411 with 12 homers.  He did struggle defensively, with 24 errors in just a 100 games.  Because of his bat, he was shifted back to second base.  In 1958 Al Campanis was quoted as having said that, “I say our Charlie Neal is the best ballplayer in either league, pound for pound.”   Neal’s game was speed. He was the fastest man but had surprising power for his size.  Dripping wet, Charlie Neal was 5’10 and weighed 165 pounds. Despite the accolades he was starting to receive, he was still invisible as Topps baseball cards printed his name as “Charley.”

In 1958, the Dodgers first year in Los Angeles, Charlie Neal took to his new home in the oddly shaped LA Memorial Coliseum, matching Gil Hodges for the most home runs at home with 14 apiece.  He hit 22 homeruns on the year.  He also set an NL record that year by turning 198 double plays.   In 1959, Neal was a key man in the Dodgers’ run to a pennant and World Series championship.  He, Jim Gilliam, and Wally Moon were the only everyday players on a team that included the aging stars Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, and also several up and coming younger players like Don Demeter and John Roseboro.   The Dodgers came from several games back to catch and pass the hated Giants in the standings.  On the season’s final day, Neal hit a two‑run homer, tripled and scored another run as the Dodgers beat the Cubs, 7‑1, to finish in a tie for first place with Milwaukee.  The Dodgers won two straight against the Braves in the playoff series.  Neal went 3‑for‑5 in the first game and hit a HR in the second.  That year Neal hit .287 with 19 homers, a .802 OPS, 83 RBIs, and 17 stolen bases.  Neal ranked in the top 10 in runs, hits, doubles, steals, and extra‑base hits. Defensively, he led all second basemen in putouts, double plays, and fielding percentage.  He won a Gold Glove and made the All‑Star team as a reserve.   That was followed up by his heroics in the World Series.  

In game one of the series, the Dodgers were embarrassed by the Whitesox 11-0.  They fell behind 2-0 in the second game, until Neal, who had been feeling ulcer-like symptoms that day, hit a home-run to give the Dodgers their first run of the series.  Later Chuck Essegian hit one of his famous pinch-hit home runs to tie the game.  But it was Neal, in the same inning, that hit a 2 run home run to provide the victory the Dodgers needed.  He did it again in the Dodgers’ first game at home before the 92,000 fans that packed the Coliseum when he scored the first run after a single off-the screen.  He would later drive in a run to secure the 3-1 victory.  In the 6th and deciding game, Neal had three hits and two RBIs.   But once again, he was the invisible man, as Larry Sherry walked away with all the accolades.  In the off-season, Chicago’s second baseman, Nellie Fox, won the MVP in the American League that year.  But it was said of him, “Fox was only the second‑best second baseman in the game: Neal has more speed, more range, and vastly more power.”

Things started to turn dramatically south for Charlie Neal in 1960.  His power was missing and he lost a step or two in the field, and no explanation could be found for his decline.  In 1961, he battled through injury and illness.  An April knee injury became infected, putting him in a hospital, and an adverse reaction to penicillin was misdiagnosed as chickenpox.  Neal came back from the injury too soon, and his play suffered all the more.  As was more common back then, Neal became the object of Walter Alston and Leo Durocher’s constant berating for his declining performance. 

Despite his decline, the Mets took a chance on him.  The Mets acquired him from the Dodgers for $100,000, plus outfielder Lee Walls, who had cost them $125,000.00 in the expansion draft. The Opening Day lineup for the first game in Mets’ history included Dodgers alumni Neal, Gil Hodges, Don Zimmer, and Roger Craig.  Neal, playing second base and batting third, drove in the first run in Mets’ history with a single in the third.  That inning, Hodges would hit the first home run in Mets history.  In his next at-bat, Neal would hit the second.  So there he was, three years after helping Los Angeles earn its first World Series title, playing in the opening‑day lineup for a Mets team that would go on to lose 120 games and finish 40 games out of first place.  Playing second base, third base, and shortstop, Neal appeared in 136 games and batted .260.  Off the field was also a challenge.  Sadly, even though it had been 15 years since Jackie Robinson’s debut, all of the Mets stayed together at the Colonial Inn motel in St. Petersburg, Florida for spring training, but black players were still not allowed in the restaurant or the pool. The team had to make special arrangements for everyone to eat in a private dining room.  The following year, Neal was traded to Cincinnati in a trade deadline deal.   Neal did not perform well in his short time with the Reds and he ended his career after the 1963 season. 

After he retired, Neal returned to Longview, Texas and played semipro ball for several years. Neal managed a sporting goods store in Dallas. He later owned a security business there. In 1971, Neal played in the Dodger’s first old‑timers game at Dodger Stadium.   In the 1980s and 1990s, Neal attended autograph shows to earn extra income.   There were certainly a lot of his baseball cards to sign.  Charlie Neal died of heart failure on November 16, 1996.   He was 65 years old.  Even in death, Neal was invisible to the end.  The Dodgers announced his death on November 18^th and newspapers mistakenly reported that his death occurred two days later than it did.

Charlie Neal was not a hall of fame performer by any means.  But he was a good player.  You could always pencil his name in the #2 spot in the lineup behind Gilliam.  He was a grinder and a battler.  Invisible or not, every successful team, needs a Charlie Neal!   

Some additional quick random thoughts:

Additional Quick Random Thoughts

• I’m not a huge professional football fan.  I don’t think that I have watched a complete pro game since the Rams left LA.  That said, I praise Andrew Luck for the decision he made.  In one of the articles on the Athletic he was quoted as saying: “if my worth as a human was going to be tied into how I did – the result of a performance in a football game – then I was going to have, pardon my French, a real shitty life.”   I think that says it all for me.
• Saturday’s 2-1 victory had an amazing playoff feel to it.  I couldn’t watch it because I was working, but following it on Gameday was enough to fill me with excitement.  I have to admit though if we get to the World Series, I want us to sweep and win every game 12-0. 
• On Saturday, our bullpen looked no different than the Yankees’ bullpen.  Both did well.

Minor League Report

OKC Dodgers lost to the San Antonio Missions:   4-0

Tyler Thornburg pitched a scoreless inning with 2K.  Not much else to talk about.

Tulsa Drillers beat the Corpus Christi Hooks:   6-2

Jeter Downs: 2-2, 2 runs, 2BB and 1 RRI.

Conner Wong: 3-4.

Drew Avens: 1-3 with HR.

Jo Jo Gray: 5 innings, 4h, 1 run, 2BB and 9K.

Michael Boyle: 1 inning, 0h, 0 run, 0BB and 3K.

RC Quakes beat the I. E. 66ers:   8-2

Jeren Kendall:  2-4, 1 run, 1hhr and 3 RRI.

Miguel Vargas: 3-5, 1RBI

Dillon Paulson: 1-3 with triple and 3RBI. 

John Rooney:  5 innings, 4h, 2 runs, 3BB and 2K.

Conner Strain: 2 innings, 0 h, 0 run, 0BB and 2K.

Austin Drury: 2 innings, 1 h, 0 run, 1BB and 2K.

Great Lake Loons lost to the Lansing Lugnuts:   3-2 

James Outman: 2-4.

Brandon Lewis: 1-4 with a double. 

Ryan Pepiot: 2.2 innings, 1h, 1 run, 1BB and 4K.