Stanley Francis Palys (May 1, 1930 – February 8, 2021) 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 ...

. He was born in

Blakely, Pennsylvania Blakely is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 6,657 at the 2020 census. The Lackawanna River flows through Blakely, and within the borough is the village of Peckville. Histo ...

. He appeared in 138

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

over all or parts of four seasons in the majors, from 1953 through 1956, for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

and

Cincinnati Redlegs Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. He threw and batted right-handed, and was listed as tall and during his playing career.

Early life and education

Of Polish descent, Palys was born in a small town called

on May 1, 1930. His parents, Genevieve and Francis, also gave birth to his three siblings, Mae, Henry, and Walter. Growing up, Palys was your average teenage kid. However, later in his high school career, he would hit a growth spurt that would shoot him up to a height of about and a weight of nearly . As one of the taller and more athletic kids at his school, Palys was interested in playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for th
Blakely Bears
the two-time undefeated champions of

Eastern Pennsylvania The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the nor ...

at the time. However, Palys never ended up playing football in high school as his father, Francis, rejected the idea. Even after the coaches came to his house in desperation With his main sport now

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, Stan practiced every chance he got. As recalled by one of his five children, "Dad used to tell us he would go out to the coal banks and throw up small pieces of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, hitting them with a

broomstick A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

for hours a day." He ended up being "local all-everything."

Professional baseball career

Philadelphia Phillies

Stan Palys would make his

MLB 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), ...

career in 1955 after the parent

brought him up to play with their

professional team A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

. In a April 1963 article by ''Scranton Sports Secrets'', a sports-related

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

located in

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...

. They write, "(Stan Palys) looked like one of the best in the

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 ...

... After 25 games, Stan was batting over

300 __NOTOC__ Year 300 (Roman numerals, CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, ...

and was the talk of the league." Philadelphia Phillies 1953 Team Photo Stan Palys

Cincinnati Redlegs

Of Polish descent, Palys signed with the Phillies before the 1950

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 ...

season and made his MLB debut in September 1953 after an All-Star campaign in the Class A

Western International League The Western International League was a mid- to higher-level minor league baseball circuit in the Pacific Northwest United States and western Canada that operated in 1922, 1937 to 1942 and 1946 to 1954. In 1955, the Western International League ev ...

. After another late-season audition in 1954, he made the majors for the full 1955 and 1956 campaigns. After starting 15 April games as a

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 ...

and

right fielder A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...

for the 1955 Phillies and batting .288 with 15

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

, he was included in a six-player trade to Cincinnati on April 30 and became the Redlegs' semi-regular left fielder. He was plagued by injury, however, and batted only .230 for Cincinnati. The following year, 1956, saw the emergence of eventual

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

Frank Robinson Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935 – February 7, 2019) was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for five teams, from to . The only player to be named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of bot ...

, who took control of the Redlegs' left-field job and was voted

National League Rookie of the Year In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is given annually to two outstanding rookie players, one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL), as voted on by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The aw ...

. Palys played ten games in the outfield, 40 in all, and hit .226 in his last big-league season. He finished his MLB career with 79

, including 17 doubles, ten

home runs 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 ...

and 38

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 ...

, batting .237 lifetime. Palys continued to play 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 Nor ...

through 1963. He put up several seasons in the Double-A

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cl ...

, winning two batting titles (in 1957 and 1960). On July 7, 1963, while playing for the Triple-A

Hawaii Islanders The Hawaii Islanders were a minor league baseball team based in Honolulu, Hawaii, that played in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League for 27 seasons from 1961 through 1987. Originally an affiliate of the Kansas City Athletics, the Islanders played ...

, Palys made the final out in a no-hitter thrown by

Spokane Indians The Spokane Indians are a Minor League Baseball team located in Spokane Valley, the city immediately east of Spokane, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. The Indians are members of the High-A Northwest League (NWL) as an affiliate of the Color ...

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 ...

Bob Radovich. With two out in the ninth inning, an Islander player,

Ron Samford Ronald Edward Samford (February 28, 1930 – January 14, 2021) was a shortstop in Major League Baseball who played from to with the New York Giants (NL), New York Giants, Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators (1901–60), Washington Senators. ...

, drew a walk. Palys came in to

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

for Samford. The next batter hit a grounder to first and Palys danced up and down until the ball hit him in the leg. Under baseball rules, a base hit is recorded for the batter and the baserunner declared out if the latter is struck by a ball in fair territory.

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

president

Dewey Soriano Dewey Soriano (February 8, 1920 – April 6, 1998) was the part-owner of the Seattle Pilots baseball team of the American League in 1969, the franchise's only year in Seattle. Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Soriano moved to Seattle with ...

, who was in attendance that night, notified the press box that the final out was to be credited to the first baseman and that Palys' conduct constituted "unsportsmanlike play". (Apparently, no base hit was credited.) Palys then completed his professional career with four seasons (1964–67) in

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

, belting 66 home runs in 446 total games, including 25 during 1965. He died on February 8, 2021, at the age of 90.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palys, Stan 1930 births 2021 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Japan American people of Polish descent Baseball players from Pennsylvania Birmingham Barons players Carbondale Pioneers players Charleston Senators players Cincinnati Redlegs players Corpus Christi Giants players Hawaii Islanders players Major League Baseball outfielders Nashville Vols players People from Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Phillies players Schenectady Blue Jays players Spokane Indians players Syracuse Chiefs players Terre Haute Phillies players Tokyo Orions players