Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American

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), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960–1962 and 1965, and then the full seasons of 1966 through 1969. He threw and batted right-handed and was listed as tall and . Johnson did not establish himself as a big-league regular until he was almost 31 years of age. He had trials with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

(34

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Basebal ...

in 1960),

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

(only one appearance in 1961), and

Milwaukee Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bost ...

(61 games in 1962). Only after he was summoned to the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

from Triple-A

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, when the Dodgers lost regular outfielder Tommy Davis to a broken ankle on May 1, 1965, did Johnson earn a foothold in the major leagues. He became the Dodgers' regular

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

during their 1965 world championship season, started over 60 games in both left and

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

fields in 1966 (during which the Dodgers captured their second straight

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 s ...

pennant), and started another 85 games in the Dodger outfield in 1967. He remained in the majors for two more years as a reserve player, returning to the Cubs (1968) and Angels (1969) to bookend a stint with the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

(1968). He was employed by the Dodgers' Community Relations Department.

Early life

Johnson was born on September 22, 1934 in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

, to Sidney Bell and Shirley Johnson. He had three brothers and one sister. At Dunbar High School in Lexington, he played both

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

as well as baseball. Johnson desired to play basketball at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

under coach

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...

. However, at the time, not only were members of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(of which Kentucky is an affiliate) not recruiting black athletes, most of its universities were segregated.

Early baseball career

Johnson was signed by the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

as an amateur

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 1953. After moving around from team to team in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

for about eight years, he made his major league debut with the

in 1960. The Cubs traded Johnson to the

for

Jim McAnany James McAnany (September 4, 1936 – December 16, 2015) was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a right fielder, he played all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1958 until 1962, for the Chicago White Sox and C ...

on April 1, 1961, and he played in 61 games for the 1962 Milwaukee Braves. However, after that, the Braves traded Johnson to the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

system, which sent him back to the minor leagues for the 1963 and '64 seasons. They then traded him to the

for the pitcher

Larry Sherry Lawrence Sherry (July 25, 1935 – December 17, 2006) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed relief pitcher from 1958 to 1968, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles ...

Los Angeles Dodgers

Johnson made it to the major leagues to stay for a stretch beginning in 1965 with the Dodgers when a broken ankle in early May sidelined Tommy Davis, their regular left fielder, for the remainder of the season. Johnson filled in for Davis, playing in 130 games for the Dodgers that season, recording a .260

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 ...

, 57

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...

, and 58

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 ...

(RBIs). In that season, Johnson also scored the only run for the Dodgers in

Sandy Koufax's perfect game Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched a perfect game in the National League against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, September 9, 1965. The game was not televised. Koufax, by retiring 27 consecutive batters without al ...

victory when he walked in the 5th, went to second base on a sacrifice bunt, stole third base, and then scored on a throwing

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistics ...

by the

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

Chris Krug Everett Ben "Chris" Krug (born December 25, 1939) is a former Major League Baseball catcher. Krug was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent in 1958. Krug played in parts of three major league seasons, two (1965 and 1966) with ...

. Johnson also doubled in the 7th, for the only hit off opposing Cubs pitcher Bob Hendley, making Johnson the only player in MLB history, to be the only player to reach base for either team in a nine-inning game (as Hendley threw a one-hit, one-walk complete game in the 1-0 loss to Koufax and the Dodgers). The Dodgers made it to the

1965 World Series The 1965 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1965 season. The 62nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the Amer ...

versus 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 ...

, and in this Series, Johnson had eight hits, including two

home run 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 ...

s, the second one being the game-winning one in the decisive seventh game. With Tommy Davis back in left field, and Willie Davis in center field, Johnson played mostly in right field in 1966. Frequently batting third in the order, right ahead of the dangerous hitter Tommy Davis, Johnson set career highs by playing in 152 games, getting 526 at-bats, 143 hits, 17 home runs, scoring 71 runs, with 73 RBIs. Johnson's batting average that season was .272, and the Dodgers made it to the World Series once again. This was also Koufax's last year in baseball before retiring because of his damaged and getting-worse left arm. In this World Series, against the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

, the Dodgers' offense hit rock-bottom, with the team getting shut out three times, and only scoring two runs in the four games. Johnson finished the series with four hits in 15 at-bats. He also flew out to Paul Blair for the final out of the Series.

Later baseball years

From this point on, Johnson's major league career rapidly wound down, as he broke his leg sliding into Joe Torre and played in just 104 games for the Dodgers in 1967, a combined 127 for the

and the

in 1968, and just 67 for the California Angels in 1969, with only a .203 batting average. In 1970, at the age of 35, Johnson was out of professional baseball for good. In his approximately eight-year-long Major League career, Johnson posted a .258 overall

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

with 48 home runs and 232 RBI in 677

. Defensively, he recorded a .981

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

playing at all three outfield positions.

Personal life

Johnson and his wife, Sarah, had three children. He died on October 1, 2020.

References

External links

Lou Johnson
- Baseball Biography and Highlights

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