James Julius Levey (September 13, 1906 – March 14, 1970) was a
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), ...
shortstop who played from 1930 to 1933 for the
St. Louis Browns
The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they ...
.
[Jim Levey Stats , Baseball-Reference.com]
/ref> His professional career began in 1927. He also was a halfback for the Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
of the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
from 1934 to 1936.
He died from cancer at the age of 63 and is interred at Restland Memorial Park
Restland Memorial Park is a cemetery located in an unincorporated area of Dallas County, Texas between Dallas and Richardson. It is the final resting place of many prominent figures in the Dallas area, including politicians and professional athle ...
in Dallas.
Baseball career
He played for the Salisbury Indians
The Salisbury Indians were a United States minor league baseball team which played in Salisbury, Maryland. The team began operation in 1922 as a founding member of the Eastern Shore League, which operated out of cities on the Delmarva Peninsula.
...
in 1927, hitting .252 in 143 at-bats. He served in the United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
in 1928. In 1929, he played for the Tulsa Oilers
The Tulsa Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and play in the ECHL. The Oilers played their home games at the Tulsa Convention Center until 2008 when they moved into the new BOK Center. For many years, the Tuls ...
, hitting .287 in 334 at-bats. For the Wichita Falls Spudders
The Wichita Falls Spudders were a minor league baseball team that formed in 1920 and played its last game in 1957. They were based in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The first Spudders team ran from 1920–1932 and played in the Texas League as an affiliat ...
in 1930, he hit .289 with 16 home runs in 662 at-bats. He made his big league debut that season, on September 17, and with the Browns he hit .243 in 37 at-bats.
Levey was the Browns' starting shortstop from 1931 to 1933. In 1931, he hit .209 with 13 stolen bases (10th in the American League) in 139 games.OPS
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or ''Opis'' (Latin: "Plenty") was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea.
Iconography
In Ops' statues and coins, she is figured sitting down, as Chthon ...
of only .477, and a season WAR
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
of -4.0, the lowest single season performance by a position player since 1901. On October 1, 1933, he appeared in his final big league game.
Although his big league career was done after the 1933 season, he played professionally in the minor leagues until 1945. On December 13, 1933, he was traded with Wally Hebert
Wallace Andrew Hebert (August 21, 1907 – December 8, 1999) was a sidearming left-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher who played from 1931 to 1933 for the St. Louis Browns and in 1943 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His professional caree ...
and Smead Jolley
Smead Powell Jolley (January 14, 1902 – November 17, 1991) was an American outfielder in professional baseball. He played from 1922 to 1941, including four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1930 to 1933. Jolley was considered a good h ...
to the Hollywood Stars
The Hollywood Stars were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League during the early- and mid-20th century. They were the arch-rivals of the other Los Angeles-based PCL team, the Los Angeles Angels.
Hollywood Stars (192 ...
of the Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...
for Alan Strange
Alan Cochrane Strange (November 7, 1906 – June 27, 1994) was an American professional baseball player and manager. A shortstop, he appeared in 314 Major League Baseball games during all or parts of five seasons (1934–35; 1940–42) with th ...
. He played for the Stars in 1934 and 1935, hitting .256 in 718 at-bats in the former year and .278 in 532 at-bats in the latter. In 1936, he played for the Oilers and Dallas Steers
The Dallas Rangers were a high-level minor league baseball team located in Dallas, Texas from 1958 to 1964. The team was known by the Dallas Rangers name in 1958, 1959, and 1964 and as the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers from 1960 to 1963. It played in ...
hitting a combined .252 in 587 at-bats.
From 1937 to 1940, he played for the Dallas Steers and Dallas Rebels
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
. He hit only .226 in 1937, and in limited time in 1938 (93 games) he hit .233. 1939 was an improvement, as he hit .272 with 14 home runs and 33 doubles in 142 games. He hit .253 in 137 games in 1940.
In 1941 and 1942, Levey played for the Buffalo Bisons
The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...
, hitting .194 in 1941 and .251 in 1942. He did not play in 1943 as he served in the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, however in 1944 he was back with Buffalo, hitting .200 in 200 at-bats. 1945 was his final professional season, and arguably one of his best – he hit a career-high .302 in 348 at-bats for the Jamestown Falcons Jamestown often refers to:
* Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas
Jamestown may also refer to
Places
Australia
*Jamestown, South Australia
Barbados
* Holetown, Saint James, Barbados; sometimes called its ...
.
Overall, Levey hit .230 with 11 home runs, 23 stolen bases, 162 runs and 140 RBI in 440 big league games. He walked 85 times, struck out 201 times and posted an on-base percentage of .272, as well as a slugging percentage of .305. According to Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...
, Levey had the lowest career Wins Above Replacement
Wins Above Replacement or Wins Above Replacement Player, commonly abbreviated to WAR or WARP, is a non-standardized sabermetric baseball statistic developed to sum up "a player's total contributions to his team". A player's WAR value is claimed to ...
of any position player in history (-7.2).[Baseball Reference Minors]
/ref>
Managerial career
He managed Dallas in 1938 and Jamestown in 1945, leading the Falcons to a 75–51 records.
Football career
In 1934, he made nine attempts and gained 69 yards, averaging 7.7 yards per attempt. He rushed the ball 42 times in 1935, averaging only 1.5 yards a rush, gaining 61 yards. He did score two touchdowns in 1935, and he scored two more as a receiver, as he caught seven passes for 112 yards. 1936 was his final year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, as he played in four games and rushed the ball four times, gaining three yards for a 0.8 average.
Overall, Levey played in 13 NFL games, rushing the ball 55 times and gaining 133 yards, scoring two touchdowns and averaging 2.4 yards per attempt.
/ref>
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levey, Jim
1906 births
1970 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War II
Baseball players from Pittsburgh
Jewish American baseball players
St. Louis Browns players
United States Marines
Deaths from cancer in Texas
20th-century American Jews