Elmer William Valo (March 5, 1921 – July 19, 1998), born Imrich Valo, was a
Slovak American
Slovak Americans are Americans of Slovak descent. In the 1990 Census, Slovak Americans made up the third-largest portion of Slavic ethnic groups. There are currently about 790,000 people of Slovak descent living in the United States.
History ...
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 baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Mod ...
right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...
,
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 ...
, and
scout 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), ...
(MLB). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
Playing in the major leagues for 20 seasons between and , Valo
batted .282, with 58
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 601
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 bat ...
(RBI), in 1,806
games, with most of his time spent as a member of the
Athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
franchise, which was then located in Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Early years
A native of
Rybník,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, Valo emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of six.
Career
Valo played for Federalsburg of the
Eastern Shore League
The Eastern Shore Baseball League was a class D minor league baseball league that operated on the Delmarva Peninsula for parts of three different decades. The league's first season was in 1922 and the last was in 1949, although the years were no ...
in 1939, and for Wilmington in the
Interstate League
The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that played intermittently from 1896 through 1952.
Early leagues
Earlier versions of the Interstate League, with years active:
*1896–1901: an unclassified ...
in 1940.
Valo's big-league playing career was affected by three franchise relocations. Valo spent his first 13 seasons in the majors with the Philadelphia A's, then accompanied the team to Kansas City when the club moved after the 1954 season. Valo moved with the
Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. And after playing for the
Washington Senators in 1960, the franchise relocated and Valo found himself playing for the
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
.
He was a hustling player and an aggressive line-drive hitter who hit .300 or better five times, with a career-high .364 in 1955. As a right fielder, he was noted for his fearless manner in challenging fences, and occasionally crashed through an outfield wall in pursuit of a ball.
As Valo's career moved into its final phase, he became an outstanding
pinch-hitter
In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, America ...
. He used his strike zone judgment to post an
on-base percentage
In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...
over .400 in eight of the ten seasons (.414 from 1946 to 1955). In 1960, Valo set major-league pinch-hitting season records for games,
walks and
times on base
In baseball statistics, the term times on base (TOB), is the cumulative total number of times a batter has reached base as a result of a hit, base on balls, or hit by pitch. This statistic does not include times reaching base by way of an error, ...
. He also set a major-league career record with 91 walks as a pinch-hitter.
Notable games
Valo stated that he had a plate appearance for Philadelphia on September 30, 1939.
If true, Valo would join
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 ...
,
Mickey Vernon
James Barton "Mickey" Vernon (April 22, 1918 – September 24, 2008) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who played for the Washington Senators (1939–1948, 1950–1955), Cleveland Indians (1949–1950, 1958), Boston Red ...
, and
Early Wynn
Early Wynn Jr. (January 6, 1920 – April 4, 1999), nicknamed "Gus", was an American professional baseball right-handed pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox, dur ...
as the only four-decade players of the 1930s to the 1960s. The box score for the game does not list Valo — he claimed that he was left out by the
official scorer
In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices. In addition to recording the events on the field ...
, as he was not under contract with Philadelphia at the time.
[
On May 1, 1949, Valo became the first major league player to hit two bases-loaded triples in a game. The feat has been matched only by ]Bill Bruton
William Havon Bruton (November 9, 1925 – December 5, 1995) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder who played for the Milwaukee Braves (1953–1960) and Detroit Tigers (1961–1964). Bruton batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
C ...
(1959) and Duane Kuiper
Duane Eugene Kuiper (born June 19, 1950), nicknamed "Kuip", is an American sportscaster and former professional baseball player. As a player, he was a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball ( ...
(1978). Valo added another bases-loaded triple that year, matching the major league record of three in a season, which was originally set by Shano Collins
John Francis "Shano" Collins (December 4, 1885 – September 10, 1955) was an American right fielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox.
Early life
Collins was born on December 4, 1885 in Bost ...
in 1918.
Valo hit for the cycle
In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League B ...
on August 2, 1950.
Later years
Following his retirement as a player, Valo worked with the Indians' organization as a major league 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 ...
and minor league manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
, and served as a scout for the Phillies for 13 years, until his death. He was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame
The Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame is a collection of plaques, mounted on a brick wall next to the Left Field Gate at Citizens Bank Park, the ballpark of the Philadelphia Phillies. From 1978 to 2003, the Phillies inducted one figure from the ...
in 1990. Valo died in Palmerton, Pennsylvania
Palmerton is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 5,414 at the 2010 census.
Palmerton is located northwest of Allentown and northwest of Philadelphia.
...
, at the age of 77 in 1998.
See also
* List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
In baseball, completing the cycle is the accomplishment of hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. In terms of frequency, the cycle is roughly as common as a no-hitter; '' Baseball Digest'' calls it "one of th ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Elmer Valo
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Elmer Valo
at Baseball Almanac
Elmer Valo
at Baseballbiography.com
Elmer Valo
Brooklyn Dodgers Photo
at The Deadball Era
*
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valo, Elmer
1921 births
1998 deaths
American people of Slovak descent
Major League Baseball players from Slovakia
Brooklyn Dodgers players
Cleveland Indians players
Cleveland Indians coaches
Czechoslovak baseball players
Federalsburg A's players
Kansas City Athletics players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball first base coaches
Major League Baseball right fielders
Minnesota Twins players
New York Mets scouts
New York Yankees players
Philadelphia Athletics players
Philadelphia Phillies players
Philadelphia Phillies scouts
Seattle Rainiers players
Washington Senators (1901–1960) players
Wilmington Blue Rocks (1940–1952) players
Minor league baseball managers
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
People from Rybnik