Biographical Encyclopedia a Hit with Baseball Fans

Sandy Amoros is in the book. He’s also on the list. He made what Brooklyn Dodgers remember as “the catch” that beat the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, the only World Series Brooklyn ever won.

The book says Amoros lost his ranch in Cuba when Fidel Castro took over and lived in poverty the last three decades of his life. The book is The Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball, new right now and a treasure trove of stuff.

The list is that of the Baseball Assistance Team, founded in 1986. Amoros was barely surviving in Tampa, Fla., and had lost a leg to diabetes. A car dealer was going to run an auction to buy an artificial limb for Amoros when word got to BAT, which paid for the prosthesis, paid Amoros’ rent and moved him to Miami so he could live near his daughter.

In this era of the classical buck, we forget there are players who came and went when $15,000 was a big salary or who came upon bad times. Nick Willhite, who pitched five seasons through 1967, is not in the book, but he’s on the list.

“He was looking to take a high dive off a bridge,” Ralph Branca, the force behind BAT, said Wednesday. Branca guards the privacy of those who ask for help, particularly since former players are often too embarrassed to ask. Some of them sell a World Series ring to pay medical bills.

Willhite has come forward. His alcohol problem drove away his wife, and his children dropped his name out of shame. He was looking for his parents’ phone number and came upon former teammate Stan Williams. Williams then called Branca, who made arrangements to get Willhite into rehab in 36 hours. “We really saved his life,” Branca said.

Amoros and people such as Willhite are the flesh and blood of this encyclopedia published by Total Baseball. There are 2,000 biographies from Aaron to Zisk, from among the 15,000 men who had played in the big leagues through last season.

Some of my favorites were left out, such as my high school classmate Don Taussig and Archibald Moonlight Graham, who played one inning in the field for the New York Giants in 1905 and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in “Field of Dreams.”

Willhite is still struggling. “Some of these guys came out of high school, and when they finish playing, that’s all they know about life,” Branca said. One player we know signed for five years at $2 million a year and last year asked for help. “Because they make a lot of money doesn’t mean they’re smart,” Branca said.

BAT couldn’t do enough even if it had unlimited funds, which is another story Branca treads lightly upon. Baseball players wax rich on the lore but do little to shake the hand that fed it. Today’s players average $1.9 million in salary, yet only a handful respond to the work of BAT, which doles out about $800,000 a year.

David Cone is active in fund raising. The commissioner’s office picks up considerable administrative cost. Equitable Insurance makes a substantial contribution. The largest player contribution has been $10,000. Perhaps 20 players give anything of any substance.

The player payroll exceeds $1.5 billion; if every player chipped in $5 a day in memory of Curt Flood--well, that’s probably asking for too much conscience.

Branca is in the book, he said, “for throwing a home-run pitch.” Bobby Thomson is in for hitting it. They’re coming onto the 50th anniversary year of Thomson’s home run. Mark Littell, who gave up Chris Chambliss’ home run that sent the Yankees into the 1976 World Series, is not in the book. “He said he didn’t want to be remembered as Ralph Branca,” Branca said.

In 63/4 pounds of book for $49.95--cheap--there are the endless delights of Frankie Baumholtz, who was MVP of the 1941 basketball National Invitation Tournament and later played center field for the Chicago Cubs between statuesque Hank Sauer and Ralph Kiner. Their words of encouragement were, he said: “You take it.”

Steve Dalkowski, who never got in a big-league game, is in for possibly the fastest of fastballs. He hit a batter kneeling in the on-deck circle. He shattered an umpire’s mask and ripped off a piece of a batter’s ear.

Germany Schaefer is on page 1,002 for stealing second, hoping to draw a throw and get Davy Jones home from third. When the catcher refused to throw, Schaefer shouted to Jones, “Let’s try it again,” and stole first. After the ensuing dispute, Schaefer broke for second, the catcher threw and both runners were safe. The rulebook was then amended.

You may have heard this week that Pedro Guerrero, co-MVP of the ’81 World Series, was acquitted of drug trafficking because he wasn’t smart enough to know what he was doing. Guerrero is in the book. Editors Matthew Silverman and David Pietrusza said they’d make the inclusion in the second edition.