Joseph Anthony "Bananas" Benes (January 8, 1901 – March 7, 1975) was an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

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), ...

. He played for 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 hav ...

in 1931.

Branch Rickey Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...

added Benes to the Cardinals' roster in May 1931. Given that Benes was 30 years old at the time, Rickey stated that Benes was not regarded as a future prospect but as "reserve strength" to back up

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

Charlie Gelbert Charles Magnus Gelbert (January 26, 1906 – January 13, 1967) was a professional baseball player. He played all or part of ten seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals (1929–32 and 1935–36), Cincinnati Reds (1937), Detroi ...

. By June 17, 1931, however, he was replaced on the roster by infielder Jakie Flowers and returned to the minors.

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1901 births 1975 deaths Major League Baseball infielders St. Louis Cardinals players People from Long Island City, Queens Minor league baseball managers Springfield Ponies players Sportspeople from Queens, New York Baseball players from New York City Albany Senators players Baltimore Orioles (IL) players Columbus Senators players Dallas Steers players Jersey City Skeeters players New Haven Profs players Newark Bears players Pittsfield Hillies players Rochester Colts players Syracuse Chiefs players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players {{baseball-infielder-stub