Walter Charles Post (July 9, 1929 – January 6, 1982) was a
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 ...
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), ...
.
[Wally Post Fielding](_blank)
at fangraphs.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 From 1949 through 1964, Post played for the
Cincinnati Reds & Redlegs (1949, 1951–57, 1960–63),
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 ...
(1958–60),
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 ...
(1963) 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 ...
(1964).
[Wally Post Batting](_blank)
at thebaseballcube.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 He batted and threw right-handed, stood tall and weighed .
[Wally Post Player Page](_blank)
at baseball-reference.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009
In a 15-season career, Post was a .266
hitter
In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, to driv ...
with 210
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 699
RBI in 1,204
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 ...
.
[Wally Post Batting](_blank)
at baseball-reference.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009
Career
Post is a native of
Wendelin, Ohio,
and played baseball for
St. Henry High School.
[Wally Post still huge in tiny town](_blank)
at enquirer.com, URL accessed November 24, 2014 He spent most of his career with Cincinnati teams.
A powerful
slugger in the mid-1950s,
[Wally Post](_blank)
at baseballlibrary.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 he also was respected for his strong and accurate throwing arm.
Post broke into professional baseball as a
minor league
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 ...
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
and was converted to an outfielder in 1949, the year of his majors debut.
[The Obit for Wally Post](_blank)
at thedeadballera.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 Post spent time in both the minor and major leagues for the next two years before finally being permanently called up to Cincinnati in .
His most productive season came in , when he hit .309 with 40 home runs with 109 RBI, all career highs.
In , Post and six of his Redleg teammates—
Ed Bailey
Lonas Edgar Bailey, Jr. (April 15, 1931 – March 23, 2007) was an American professional baseball player and later served on the Knoxville, Tennessee city council. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from through . A six-time All-S ...
,
Johnny Temple
John Ellis Temple (August 8, 1927 – January 9, 1994) was a Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Redlegs/Reds (1952–59; 1964); Cleveland Indians (1960–61), Baltimore Orioles (1962) and Houston Colt .45s (1962–63). Tem ...
,
Roy McMillan
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise t ...
,
Don Hoak
Donald Albert Hoak (February 5, 1928 – October 9, 1969), nicknamed "Tiger", was an American professional baseball third baseman and coach. He played eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (–) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, ...
,
Gus Bell
David Russell "Gus" Bell Jr. (November 15, 1928 – May 7, 1995) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball from 1950 through 1964, who played with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets and Milwaukee Braves. He batted ...
and
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 ...
—were "voted" starters on 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 ...
All-Star team, the result of a
ballot stuffing
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
campaign by Redlegs fans.
Major League Baseball Commissioner
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the associated Minor League Baseball (MiLB) – a constellation of leagues and clubs known as "organized baseball". Under the direction of the Commiss ...
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick (December 19, 1894 – April 8, 1978) was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. After working as a teacher and as a sportswriter for the ''New York American'', he served as public relations director of the Natio ...
intervened, removing Bell and Post from the starting lineup and replacing them with
Hank Aaron
Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. One of the gre ...
and
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...
. Frick allowed Bell to remain on the team as a reserve, while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event.
[1957 All-Star Game](_blank)
at baseball-almanac.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009
On April 14, 1961, Post hit one of the longest recorded home runs in baseball history at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The mammoth blast was estimated at 569 ft.
[ from Jim Brosnan's book "Pennant Race"] Post is also noted as the man who ended Aaron's record-setting stint on the 1950s ''
Home Run Derby'' show.
[Walter Charles "Wally" Post]
at findagrave.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 Post also hit the first home run at
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...
in Los Angeles on April 10, 1962.
[Building O'Malley's Dream Stadium](_blank)
at walteromalley.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009
After playing for the Phillies, Twins, Indians, and in a second stint with the Reds, Post retired in 1963.
He was inducted into the
Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame
The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is an entity established by Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds franchise that pays homage to the team's past through displays, photographs and multimedia. It was instituted in 1958 to recognize th ...
in 1965.
[Hall of Fame & Museum](_blank)
at mlb.com, URL accessed August 20, 2009 Following his baseball career, Post worked in management at his father-in-law's business, the Minster Canning Company of
Minster, Ohio
Minster is a village in Auglaize and Shelby counties, in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 2,805 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Wapakoneta, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is adjacent to the village of New Bremen ...
.
Post died in
St. Henry, Ohio in 1982.
He had been undergoing treatments for cancer.
He was married to Patricia (Beckman) and they had four children together: Sue, John, Mary, and Cynthia. Post has 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
One of his grandchildren is former Ohio State and NFL quarterback
Bobby Hoying
Bobby Hoying (born September 20, 1972) is a former college and professional American football quarterback. He is the grandson of baseball player Wally Post, who played 15 years in the Major Leagues. Post was an outfielder for the Cincinnati Re ...
.
[Wally Post still huge in tiny town](_blank)
at reds.enquirer.com, URL accessed December 11, 2009.
References
External links
Wally Postat SABR (Baseball BioProject)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Post, Wally
1929 births
1982 deaths
Baseball players from Ohio
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Charleston Senators players
Cincinnati Redlegs players
Cincinnati Reds players
Cleveland Indians players
Columbia Reds players
Deaths from cancer in Ohio
Indianapolis Indians players
Major League Baseball right fielders
Middletown Rockets players
Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players
Minnesota Twins players
Muncie Reds players
People from Mercer County, Ohio
People from St. Henry, Ohio
Philadelphia Phillies players
Syracuse Chiefs players
Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players