Tarheel Boys of Summer

May 21, 2020August 4, 2022

Brittain, Gus

Primary Position: Catcher
Birthplace: Wilmington

First, Middle Names: August Schuster Nicknames: Shuny

Date of Birth: Nov. 29, 1909 Date and Place of Death: Feb. 16, 1974
Burial: Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington

High School: New Hanover High School, Wilmington

Bats: R Throws: R Height and Weight: 5-10, 192
Debut Year: 1937 Final Year: 1937 Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Cincinnati Reds, 1937

Career Summary
G AB H R RBI HR BA. OBP. SLG. WAR
3 6 1 0 0 0 .167 .167 .167 -0.1

Gus Brittain was undeniably one tough SOB. A baseball player who knew him well was once riding on a train that hit a car. This is how he described the awful grinding and crunching of metal: “Sounds like Gus Brittain is under the train.”^[I]

Though he spent only two months in the major leagues, Brittain, like so many players of his era, had a long career in the minors as a player, coach or manager. From the Piedmont League to the Sally League, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Trenton, New Jersey, Brittain left a trail of suspensions and fines for feuding with umpires and fighting with players, even those on his own team. His reputation was such that a newspaper in Maryland in 1940 felt it necessary to warn players with “pugilistic tendencies” in the Eastern Shore League when Brittain was hired to manage the team in Salisbury. “Brittain is a swash-buckling, rugged fellow, a great jockey who can give and take and pretty handy man with his dookies,” the newspaper noted.^[II]

It’s likely that Gus Brittain is the only player from North Carolina promoted to the majors solely for those fighting skills. He’s certainly the only one who was ever banned from baseball.

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May 21, 2020August 4, 2022

Bradshaw, George

Primary Position: Catcher
Birthplace: Salisbury

First, Middle Nams: George Thomas

Date of Birth: Sept. 12, 1924 Date and Place of Death: Nov. 4, 1994, Hendersonville
Burial: Western Carolina Veteran’s Cemetery, Black Mountain, NC

High School: China Grove High School, China Grove, NC

Bats: R Throws: R Height and Weight: 6-2, 185
Debut Year: 1952 Final Year: 1952 Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Washington Senators, 1952

Career Summary
G AB H R RBI HR BA. OBP. SLG. WAR
10 23 5 3 6 0 .217 .280 304 -0.2

George Bradshaw was considered a solid, minor-league catcher when he finally got the call in 1952. He had spent almost six years in the low minors. At his last two stops – in Statesville and Morganton in North Carolina – he had smashed more than 30 homer runs and had hit close to .330.

That attracted the attention of the Washington Senators. When his time came, though, Bradshaw lasted about a month in Washington. He appeared in 10 games and hit just over .200. He finished his baseball career as, once again, a solid minor-league catcher.

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May 21, 2020August 4, 2022

Bowens, Sam

Primary Positions: Right field, left field
Birthplace: Wilmington

First, Middle Names: Samuel Edward Jr.

Date of Birth: March 23, 1938 Date and Place of Death: March 28, 2003, Wilmington
Burial: Greenlawn Memorial Park, Wilmington

High School: Williston High School, Wilmington
College: Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn.

Bats: R Throws: R Height and Weight: 6-1, 195
Debut Year: 1963 Final Year: 1969 Years Played: 7
Teams and Years: Baltimore Orioles, 1963-67; Washington Senators, 1968-69

Career Summary
G AB H R RBI HR BA. OBP. SLG. WAR
479 1287 287 141 143 45 .223 .283 .375 0.0

Much was expected of Sam Bowens when he joined the Baltimore Orioles at their spring training camp in Miami, Florida, in 1964. He had been a star athlete in high school and college and had hit .346 in the minors the previous year before pulling a groin muscle in July and struggling through the rest of season. He hit with power and played the outfield with grace. His throwing arm was a weapon that base runners respected. Bowens would team with Boog Powell, another powerful youngster, to give the Orioles a potent, lasting tandem.

“You don’t give up on a guy like that,” manager Hank Bauer said that spring, “not at least until the day after tomorrow.”^[I]

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May 21, 2020August 4, 2022

Booe, Everett

Primary Position: Outfield
Birthplace: Mocksville

First, last Names: Everett Little
Date of Birth: Sept. 28, 1891 Date and Place of Death: June 21, 1969. Kenedy, Texas
Burial: Kenedy City Cemetery, Kenedy, Texas

High School: Undetermined
College: Davidson College, Davidson, NC

Bats: L Throws: R Height and Weight: 5-8, 165
Debut Year: 1913 Final Year: 1914 Years Played: 2
Teams and Years: Pittsburgh Pirates, 1913; Indianapolis Hoosiers, Buffalo Buffeds, 1914

Career Summary
G AB H R RBI HR BA. OBP. SLG. WAR
125 352 77 43 22 0 219 .289 .210 -2.0

The “e” in Everett Booe’s last name is silent, and he played baseball in a time before public-address equipment and names printed on the back of jerseys. To introduce players to fans, umpires bellowed out their names when they stepped to home plate for the first time.

Those were the circumstances under which Everett Booe met Bill Klem. The year was 1913. Booe was a 21-year-old rookie who was warming the bench for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had been born in Mocksville, but his family had moved to Davidson, North Carolina, where his father owned a market and his mother ran a boarding house.

Klem was about a quarter of the way through an almost 40-year career that would make him one of the most-respected umpires of all time and one of the first inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He would introduce several innovations, such as hand signals that allowed fans even out in the bleachers to know the umpires’ decisions. Calling balls and strikes was a serious matter to Klem and he instructed other umpires how to position themselves to best judge the strike zone. They still stand in Klem’s “slot” between the batter and catcher to get the best view of home plate. Most importantly, Klem injected much-needed professionalism into a job that had known more than its share of drunks and rowdies.

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May 20, 2020August 4, 2022

Bolton, Cliff

Primary Position: Catcher
Birthplace: High Point

First, Last Names: William Clifton

Date of Birth: April 10, 1907 Date and Place of Death: April 21, 1979, Lexington
Burial: Holly Hill Memorial Park Cemetery, Thomasville, NC

High School: Undetermined
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: L Throws: R Height and Weight: 5-9, 160
Debut Year: 1931 Final Year: 1941 Years Played: 7
Teams and Years: Washington Senators, 1931, 1933-36; Detroit Tigers, 1937; Senators, 1941

Career Summary
G AB H R RBI HR BA. OBP. SLG. WAR
335 962 280 113 143 6 .291 .366 .398 +4.5

Awards/Honors: Boys of Summer Top 100

Carl Hubbell had been masterful as he took the mound for the 11^th inning of the pivotal fourth game of the 1933 World Series. He had limited the Washington Senators to an unearned run and just six hits. His New York Giants had scored in the top of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Three more outs and they would have a commanding 3-1 advantage in the series, making the final outcome all but certain.

But baseball is rarely so well scripted. The Senators’ first batter, Fred Shulte, singled to left. Joe Kuhel then caught the Giants’ infield napping with a near perfect bunt down the first base line that eluded everyone. After a sacrifice moved the runners to second and third, Hubbell intentionally walked Luke Sewell, who already had two hits in the game. The pitcher Jack Russell was up next, but no one expected him to hit.

Instead, out of the Senators’ dugout stepped an unfamiliar figure. A kid. A rookie.

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