James Henry Bloodworth (July 26, 1917 – August 17, 2002) 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 ...
second baseman who played 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) for the
Washington Senators (1937 and 1939–41),
Detroit Tigers (1942–43 and 1946),
Pittsburgh Pirates (1947),
Cincinnati Reds (1949–50), and
Philadelphia Phillies (1950–51).
Early life
Bloodworth was born in
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...
, and he grew up in
Apalachicola. Bloodworth said that he strengthened his upper body as a youth by pulling boats across Apalachicola Bay. He played local baseball with an adult team.
[ He was 17 when he started his minor-league career with affiliates of the Washington Senators.
]
Career
Bloodworth made his major-league debut in 1937 and began to play regularly in 1939. In 1941, Bloodworth led AL second basemen in putouts and assists. That December, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers. He led the American League in grounding into double plays (29) in 1943. He served in the Florida Army National Guard
The Florida Army National Guard is Florida's component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. In the United States, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the federal army's available combat forces ...
."Bloodworth Can Remember When Benton Could Do Justice with a Bat"
''The Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'', Detroit, Michigan, 111th year, number 364, May 3, 1942, part II (sports), page 2. He missed the entire 1944 and 1945 seasons due to his military service, returning to the Tigers in 1946.
Bloodworth was traded to the Pirates in December 1946 and to the Dodgers about a year later. He was traded to the Reds in 1948 before being purchased by the Phillies in 1950. He was on the 1950 Phillies team that won the 1950 NL pennant. He played in one game in the
1950 World Series
The 1950 World Series was the 47th World Series between the American and National Leagues for the championship of Major League Baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies as 1950 champions of the National League and the New York Yankees, as 1950 Amer ...
; as a ninth-inning defensive replacement, he did not get any plate appearances.
Bloodworth's last major-league season was with the 1951 Phillies. In 11 seasons, he played in 1,002 games and had a .248
batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
over 3,519 at bats with 62 home runs and 451 RBI. Bloodworth returned to the minor leagues, where he had stints as a player and player-manager for teams in Cedar Rapids and Spartanburg.
Later life
Bloodworth, who lived in Apalachicola during the baseball offseasons, continued to live there after his baseball career. He began to experience heart failure in the late 1970s.
He died in 2002.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Jimmy Bloodworthat SABR (Baseball BioProject)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloodworth, Jimmy
1917 births
2002 deaths
Baseball players from Tallahassee, Florida
Cedar Rapids Indians players
Charlotte Hornets (baseball) players
Chattanooga Lookouts players
Cincinnati Reds players
Columbia Senators players
Detroit Tigers players
Florida National Guard personnel
Indianapolis Indians players
International League MVP award winners
Major League Baseball second basemen
Minor league baseball managers
Montreal Royals players
Washington Senators (1901–1960) players
Panama City Pilots players
Philadelphia Phillies players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Spartanburg Peaches players
Springfield Nationals players
United States Army personnel of World War II
People from Apalachicola, Florida