Elmer Ralph Hodgin (February 10, 1915 – October 4, 2011) was an

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 c ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

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), ...

between and . He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was born in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

. Listed at 5' 10", 170 lb., Hodgin reached the majors in 1939 with the

Boston Bees The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During ...

, splitting the season between them and the Hartford Bees of the Eastern League. The next two seasons were spent with Hartford, and in 1942, Hodgin played for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. In 1943 he joined the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

and hit a career-high .314. Hodgin had another strong season in 1944 and hit .295, but the 1945 season was spent in the military. Afterwards, he rejoined the White Sox in 1946. Then, in 1947 he suffered a concussion after he was hit on the skull by a pitch from future Hall of Fame pitcher

Hal Newhouser Harold Newhouser (May 20, 1921 – November 10, 1998), nicknamed "Prince Hal," was an American professional baseball player. In Major League Baseball (MLB), he pitched 17 seasons on the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, from 1939 through 19 ...

. After that Hodgin lost some of his aggressiveness at the plate, hitting .266 in 114 games for the Sox in 1948, his last major league season. He continued to play for several more seasons in the Pacific Coast League and then the

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

. In a six-season big-league career, Hodgin was a .285 hitter (481-for-1,689) with four

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 and 188 RBI in 530 games, including 198 runs, 79 doubles, 24 triples, and seven stolen bases. A hard-to-strike-out hitter, he posted a solid 1.54 BB/K (97-to-63). He died on October 4, 2011, in Burlington, North Carolina.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgin, Ralph Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball third basemen Boston Bees players Chicago White Sox players Charleston Senators players Charlotte Hornets (baseball) players Evansville Bees players Fieldale Towlers players Hartford Bees players High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms players Palatka Tigers players Reidsville Luckies players Sacramento Solons players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players Scranton Miners players Winston-Salem Twins players United States Army personnel of World War II Baseball players from North Carolina 1915 births 2011 deaths