Ival Richard Goodman (July 23, 1908 – November 25, 1984) was an All-Star

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 ...

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 for the Cincinnati Reds (1935–1942) and Chicago Cubs (1943–1944). Goodman, who batted left-handed and threw right-handed, helped lead the Reds to a

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 ...

pennant in 1939 and a

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 ...

title in 1940, and he was elected to the

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in 1959.

Cincinnati Reds years

The Cincinnati Reds purchased Goodman from 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 ...

on November 3, 1934 for $25,000. The decision paid immediate dividends. In his first season in the majors, Goodman appeared in 148 games, hitting .269 with 12 home runs and 72 runs batted in. Goodman also scored 86 runs and led the league with 18 triples. He led the league again the following season with 14 triples. Goodman remained a fixture in the Reds lineup in the following years. In 1938 he set a since-broken Reds record with 30 home runs, which was second only to

Mel Ott Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through . He batted left-handed an ...

's 36 that season, while scoring 103 runs (fourth in the NL) and driving in 92 (eighth in the NL). He was named to the NL All-Star team that season. In the Reds' pennant-winning 1939 season, Goodman hit a career-high .323 (sixth best in the NL) and was again named to the NL All-Star team. He also hit .333 in the

that year, but the Reds lost to 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 ...

in an eventual four-game sweep. The Reds rebounded in 1940, posting 100 wins for the first time in club history and winning their first World Series title since 1919, in what would be Goodman's final season as an everyday player. He hit .258 that year with 12 home runs and 78 runs scored. He also drove in five runs in the World Series that season.

Chicago Cubs years

Goodman appeared in just 42 games in 1941 and 87 games in 1942, and on November 14, 1942, the Chicago Cubs purchased him from the Reds. He hit .320 in 80 games for the Cubs in 1943, but appeared in just 62 games the following season, which would be his last in the majors. Goodman died on November 25, 1984 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

League leader

* Triples: 1935 (18) and 1936 (14) * Hit by pitch: 1936 (9), 1938 (15) and 1939 (7)

Honors and awards

* NL All-Star: 1938 and 1939 *

Inductee: 1959

Career Statistics

In the 1939 and 1940 World Series, Goodman posted a .295 batting average (13-for-44) with 8 runs scored and 6 RBI.

External links