Carmen Louis Mauro (November 10, 1926 – December 19, 2003) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

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 c ...

. He played all or part of four seasons in

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), ...

between 1948 and 1953.

Biography

Seventeen-year-old Mauro was signed as an amateur free agent by the Chicago Cubs before the 1944 season. The young outfielder was farmed out to the Lockport Cubs of the Class D Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League (PONY League), where he appeared in 89 games and hit .294. Carmen spent his first five seasons in the minors, hitting over .300 twice: first in 1945, in a split season with the class B Hagerstown Owls and the

Portsmouth Cubs Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dense ...

, hitting .305 with 6 homers; secondly in 1947, when he hit .308 for the

Des Moines Bruins Des Moines Bruins were a minor league baseball based in Des Moines, Iowa. The team played in the Western League from 1947 to 1958. Their home ballpark was Pioneer Memorial Stadium, and they were affiliated with the Chicago Cubs (1947–1957) and ...

of the class A Western League. Mauro got about as late a season call-up as a man could get when the parent Chicago Cubs brought him to Wrigley Field on October 1, 1948. He appeared in three games, picking up one hit in five at-bats, his first big league hit being an inside-the-park homer off

Murry Dickson Murry Monroe Dickson (August 21, 1916 – September 21, 1989) was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 1940s and 1950s. He was known for his vast array of pitches and del ...

of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. He spent two full seasons with the Cubs, hitting .227 in 1950 but only .172 in 1951. The Cubbies traded him to the Brooklyn Dodgers for

Toby Atwell Maurice Dailey "Toby" Atwell (March 8, 1924 – January 25, 2003) was an American professional baseball player who was a catcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs (–), Pittsburgh Pirates (–) and Milwaukee Braves (). Atwell, lis ...

in December, who sent the 25-year-old Mauro to the International League for his career year, hitting .327 with eleven homers in 140 games for the

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; p ...

in 1952. Mauro started out 1953 with the Dodgers, getting into only eight games before being taken off waivers by the Washington Senators in May, and then again off waivers by the Philadelphia Athletics in June. He managed to hit an aggregate .255 for the season, his last in the bigs, finishing his four-year big league career with a .231 average and two home runs in 456 plate appearances. He spent five more years in the minors, almost all in the Pacific Coast League with the

Seattle Rainiers The Seattle Rainiers, originally named the Seattle Indians and also known as the Seattle Angels, were a Minor League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 to 1906 and 1919 to 1968. They were initi ...

, ending a 14-year minor league career in 1958 with a .295 average and 84 home runs. When his playing days were over, he earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

and served as the Huskies' head baseball coach from 1961 to 1963. From 1964 until his retirement in 1986 he taught, directed student services and coached baseball at Cuesta Junior College in San Luis Obispo, California. An accomplished pianist, organist and accordionist, he was honored with the establishment of a Carmen Mauro Music Scholarship at Cuesta in 1990. He died at 77 on December 19, 2003 in Carmichael, California.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauro, Carmen 1926 births 2003 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders Brooklyn Dodgers players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Philadelphia Athletics players Chicago Cubs players Washington Huskies baseball coaches Baseball players from Saint Paul, Minnesota Lockport Cubs players Portsmouth Cubs players Hagerstown Owls players Shelby Cubs players Des Moines Bruins players Davenport Cubs players Nashville Vols players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Springfield Cubs players Montreal Royals players Seattle Rainiers players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Sportspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota