Charles Anthony Ryan Silvera (October 13, 1924 – September 7, 2019) was an American

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), ...

player and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. Nicknamed Swede, he was part of six

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

championships with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

Early years

Silvera was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

He signed with the Yankees in 1942, and played the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball a ...

for the Wellsville Yankees at just seventeen years old. He missed the 1943–1945 seasons serving in World War II. When he returned for the 1946 season, he was converted to

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

with the triple A Kansas City Blues.

New York Yankees

After three more seasons in the minors, Silvera debuted with the Yankees on September 29, 1948, and went three-for-four with a

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

in his major league debut. He followed that up with a three-for-five performance the next day. His hot bat earned him the backup

job behind

Yogi Berra Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher who later took on the roles of manager and coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1946–1963, 1965), all but ...

for the 1949 season. A thumb injury to Berra moved him into the starting job for the month of August. He batted .329 with eight

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

while filling in for the future Hall of Famer. For the season, he posted career highs in games played (58), at-bats (130) and RBIs (13). The Yankees faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the

1949 World Series The 1949 World Series featured the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games for their second defeat of the Dodgers in three years, and the 12th championship in team history. This victory would start a record ...

. Silvera's only appearance came in game two, and he was held hitless in two at-bats by

Preacher Roe A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a ...

. Despite having been part of six World championship teams, this was the only World Series appearance he would ever make.

Chicago Cubs

Having only been used a total of 21 times in the 1955 and 1956 seasons, Silvera was dealt by the Yankees to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for fellow catcher

Harry Chiti Harry Dominic Chiti Jr. (pronounced ) (November 16, 1932 – January 31, 2002) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball. He appeared in 502 games over all or parts of ten seasons between and for the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Athletic ...

before the 1957 season. Cubs equipment manager Yosh Kawano decided to issue him Yogi Berra's number 8 upon his arrival in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, as he had served as Berra's back up for eight seasons with the Yankees. His only season in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

was interrupted by an ankle sprain in late May that caused him to miss three weeks of the season. He was released by the Cubs after just one season in which he batted .208 with two RBIs in 26 games.

Post playing career

Upon his release from the Cubs, Silvera returned to the Yankees as a player/manager for their

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cla ...

double A affiliate, the New Orleans Pelicans. With his team mired in last place, he was replaced at the helm in the middle of the 1958 season by fellow player/manager,

Ray Yochim Raymond Austin Aloysius Yochim (July 19, 1922 – January 26, 2002) was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in four games over parts of two seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals—one game in 1948 and thr ...

. He repeated the player manager role with the

Binghamton Triplets The Binghamton Triplets were a minor league baseball team based in Binghamton, New York between 1923 and 1963. The franchise played as members of the New York–Penn League (1923–1937), Eastern League (1938–1963), New York–Penn League (19 ...

in 1959, guiding them to a 71-68 record. Following his playing career, Silvera scouted for the Washington Senators. When

Billy Martin Alfred Manuel Martin Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989), commonly called "Billy", was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yan ...

got his first managing job with the Minnesota Twins in 1969 he named Silvera his bullpen coach and he rejoined Martin with the Detroit Tigers from 1971 to 1973 and the Texas Rangers in 1974 and 1975. In later years he scouted for a number of teams, including the Cubs and the Marlins. He received his seventh World Championship ring as a scout for the Marlins in 1997. Silvera died at age 94 on September 7, 2019. He was the last survivor among the 12 players who appeared with all five Yankee World Series-winning teams from 1949 to 1953.

References

External links

: {{DEFAULTSORT:Silvera, Charlie 1924 births 2019 deaths Atlanta Braves scouts Baseball players from San Francisco Binghamton Triplets managers Binghamton Triplets players Chicago Cubs players Chicago Cubs scouts Detroit Tigers coaches Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Major League Baseball catchers Miami Marlins scouts Military personnel from California Minnesota Twins coaches New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players New York Yankees players New York Yankees scouts People from Millbrae, California Sportspeople from San Mateo County, California Portland Beavers players Salt Lake City Bees players Texas Rangers coaches Washington Senators (1961–1971) scouts Wellsville Yankees players American military personnel of World War II