Walt Dropo is one of the most interesting cases in baseball lore: after his dominant rookie season, he showed merely flashes of his young brilliant self on his way to becoming one of the biggest could-have-beens in Major League history.
Before Baseball
Walter Dropo was born January 30, 1923 in Moosup, Connecticut to Savo and Mary Dropo, Serbian immigrants and owners of a fireworks company. By the time he was 18, he was a giant at 6'5" and 220 pounds. He went to the University of Connectictut and excelled at baseball, basketball (he is third in all-time scoring at the school), and football, so much so that he was signed by the Boston Red Sox, the New York Knicks, and the Chicago Bears! He asked his father which one he should do, and his dad told him to play baseball - he'd live longer.
The Man Who Almost Was
Dropo came up quickly through the minor leagues, and joined the Red Sox team in the heart of their celebrated 1949 pennant race against the New York Yankees. He struggled, batting only .146, but it was only a matter of time before he would hit the big time.
1950 proved to be "Moose"'s (his nickname, both for his birthplace and his size) banner year. He batted .322, clubbing 34 home runs and leading the league with 144 RBIs. He was named to the All-Star team as a starter and was named the American League Rookie of the Year. A white-hot start to a Hall of Fame career! Sadly, Walt was beaned on August 15, putting him out for almost 8 games. He never seemed to recover from this bad luck - three days before Opening Day 1951, Walt broke his wrist, and his injuries bogged him down the rest of the season. In early 1952, still struggling to hit for power, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. The move must've given Walt some perspective - he hit 23 home runs for the Tigers, batting .279 in the process. His average was helped by a spectacular feat in July of that year. Leading off against the Yankees on the fourteenth, Walt proceeded to go 5-for-5, all singles. The next day during a doubleheader with the Washington Senators, Dropo opens the series by going 3-for-3 with a home run. Several hours later, he punched out four more hits, giving him 12 in a row, still the modern-day major league record for consecutive hits (tied with Pinky Higgins).
Perhaps as a summary of Walt Dropo's sympathetic career, one fine spring day in 1953, the Tigers held an exhibition in Hartford, Connecticut, where the name Dropo was king. The town immediately declared the game day Walt Dropo Day, even giving Walt a brand new car. Walt promptly went out and went 0-for-6 with three strikeouts. At least they let him keep the car.
Walt continued to be a reliable player for the Tigers (though he was something of an alcoholic), until he was traded in the 1954 offseason to the Chicago White Sox. By now, Walt's lack of speed and wrist problems had severely limited him as a player. After his 1955 season where he hit 19 home runs, he only topped ten one more time in his career. He was sold to the Cincinnati Reds in 1958 - possibly due to an on-the-field scuffle with Enos Slaughter - and later traded to the Baltimore Orioles, where at the age of 37, he batted .268 in 79 games. After a lackluster 1961 start, Moose retired.
After Baseball
Upon retiring, Walt made the rounds working for his father and later his brother Milt at the million-dollar pyrotechnics company. Tragedy struck Dropo in 1994 when his younger brother George, another former star athlete at UConn and successful high school coach, committed suicide. Today, Walt goes around Connecticut raising funds to help fight Parkinson's disease and depression, both of which his brother suffered through.
Odds and Ends
- While in the minors in 1948 with the Birmingham Barons, Dropo committed three errors in one day. While that's pretty much a blooper reel right there, I mention this because the next day, he repeated his goof-a-thon!
- Dropo's single All-Star season makes him part of a select dozen who also share the feat. They are featured in the book One Shining Season, by Michael Fredo.
- On June 8, 1950, Dropo had a heavy hand in what was at the time the largest margin of victory in major league history. He and the Red Sox pummeled the st. Louis Browns 29-4. Dropo had two home runs and 7 RBIs - which placed him tied with Ted Williams for second for the day, behind Bobby Doerr.
Career Statistics
YEAR TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA
1949 BOS AL 11 41 3 6 2 0 0 1 0 0 3 7 .146
1950 BOS AL 136 559 101 180 28 8 34 144 0 0 45 75 .322
1951 BOS AL 99 360 37 86 14 0 11 57 0 0 38 52 .239
1952 BOS AL 37 132 13 35 7 1 6 27 0 0 11 22 .265
DET AL 115 459 56 128 17 3 23 70 2 2 26 63 .279
1953 DET AL 152 606 61 150 30 3 13 96 2 0 29 69 .248
1954 DET AL 107 320 27 90 14 2 4 44 0 1 24 41 .281
1955 CHW AL 141 453 55 127 15 2 19 79 0 1 42 71 .280
1956 CHW AL 125 361 42 96 13 1 8 52 1 0 37 51 .266
1957 CHW AL 93 223 24 57 2 0 13 49 0 1 16 40 .256
1958 CHW AL 28 52 3 10 1 0 2 8 0 0 5 11 .192
CIN NL 63 162 18 47 7 2 7 31 0 0 12 31 .290
1959 CIN NL 26 39 4 4 1 0 1 2 0 0 4 7 .103
BAL AL 62 151 17 42 9 0 6 21 0 0 12 20 .278
1960 BAL AL 79 179 16 48 8 0 4 21 0 1 20 19 .268
1961 BAL AL 14 27 1 7 0 0 1 2 0 0 4 3 .259
CAREER 1288 4124 478 1113 168 22 152 704 5 6 328 582 .270
Sources
- http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dropowa01.shtml
- http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/D/Dropo_Walt.stm
- http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest1999/writing/100-250.hartford8.html
- http://members.tripod.com/~cmt97/bloopers/unbreak.html