Robert Vilarian Borkowski (January 27, 1926 – November 18, 2017) was an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played from 1950 to 1955 with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

and

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

. Listed at 6' 0" , 182 lb. , Borkowski batted and threw right-handed. He was born and died in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

. Borkowski originally signed with the Cubs as a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in 1946. In his first professional season, he posted an 18–9 record with a 3.46

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Compa ...

in the Class-D

Appalachian League The Appalachian League is a collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wood bats, its season runs from ...

. He also played nearly 100 games in the outfield and hit a .384 batting average in 104 games. Borkowski was then converted into a full-time outfielder. In 1949, Borkowski batted .376 with the Nashville Vols to win the Double-A Southern Association batting title, gaining a promotion to the Cubs the following season. Overall, Borkowski hit .273 and slugged .379 in 85 games as a rookie. Nevertheless, in 1951 he slumped badly with the Cubs and was traded to Cincinnati, where he played his only full major league season in 1952. After that, Borkowski was dealt to the Dodgers in 1955 and hit .105 in nine games before being sent down to the minors. He then played three seasons in AAA before retiring from baseball in 1958. In 470 games over six seasons, Borkowski posted a .251 batting average (294-for-1170) with 126 runs, 16

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and 112 RBIs. Defensively, he recorded a .980

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

playing at all three outfield positions and first base. Borkowski died on November 18, 2017, at the age of 91.

References

External links

RetrosheetSABR BioProject BiographyPura Pelota
(Venezuelan Winter League)
1926 births 2017 deaths Baseball players from Dayton, Ohio Brooklyn Dodgers players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Chicago Cubs players Cincinnati Redlegs players Cincinnati Reds players Des Moines Bruins players Elizabethton Betsy Cubs players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Major League Baseball outfielders Nashville Vols players Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Portland Beavers players Springfield Cubs (Massachusetts) players St. Paul Saints (AA) players {{US-baseball-outfielder-1920s-stub