Paul O'Dea (July 3, 1920 – December 11, 1978) was an American

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 baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

. He saw Major League service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

for the and

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 ...

. He threw and batted left-handed, stood tall and weighed . A native of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

and alumnus of

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

, O'Dea began his professional career with the

Fargo-Moorhead Twins The Fargo-Moorhead Twins were a minor league baseball team that existed from 1933 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1960, representing the neighboring cities of Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. The Twins won six league championships during th ...

in 1938. He played in 62 games for the Twins and had a .362

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 ...

. The following season he played for the

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existen ...

, hitting .342 in 122 games, and due to his hitting the Indians brought him to

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

in 1940. During that time, he was hit in the right eye by a foul ball, causing blindness. Despite the injury, he remained in the Indians organization the next four years, and made his major league debut on April 19, 1944. O'Dea spent the two full seasons with the 1944–1945 Indians; he was exempt from reporting to service for

due to his earlier eye injury. He was primarily an outfielder, but also played

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and was a

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. In 163 Major League games, O'Dea's career

was .272; in his four games on the mound, he did not earn a decision, with an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

was 5.68 in 6

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. O'Dea had a .318 batting average in 1944 in 76 games. He hit his only big-league

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 ...

off Don Black of the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

on May 19, 1945, in a 2–1 Cleveland victory at

League Park League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street (now known as East 66th Street) and Lexington Avenue in the Hough, Cleveland, Hough neighborhood. It was built ...

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores from every major ...

br>box score (19 May 1945): "Cleveland Indians 2, Philadelphia Athletics 1"
/ref> After the 1945 season ended, he was sent back to the minors, which ended his major league career. O'Dea returned to the minor leagues and played for five more seasons, from 1946 to 1948 and from 1950 to 1951. He then served as a manager of various Indians' Class C and Class D

farm system In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

teams between 1947 and 1960. He then spent the rest of his life as a scout for the Indians, until his death at the age of 58.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odea, Paul 1920 births 1978 deaths Baseball players from Cleveland Burlington Indians players (1947–1949) Case Western Spartans baseball players Cedar Rapids Raiders players Charleston Senators players Cleveland Indians players Cleveland Indians scouts Enterprise Boll Weevils players Fargo-Moorhead Twins players Flint Arrows players Flint Gems players Fort Smith Indians players Major League Baseball outfielders Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Minor league baseball managers Portsmouth Cubs players Rockford Rox players Springfield Indians (baseball) players Toledo Mud Hens players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players