Frank Octavius Mancuso (May 23, 1918 – August 4, 2007) was an

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professional

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 t ...

player and, served as a Houston City Council member for 30 years after his sports career had ended. He played as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

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from to , most notably as a member of the only St. Louis Browns team to win an American League pennant in . Listed at , 195 lb., Mancuso batted and threw right-handed.

Baseball career

Born in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, Mancuso began playing baseball in 1937 in the

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 No ...

system of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

. After hitting .417 for Fort Smith in 1938, the Giants moved him up to their major league roster for the entire 1939 season as a third string catcher, but he did not get into a single game during the regular season. That disappointment was offset by the opportunity he had to warm up

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 dr ...

Carl Hubbell Carl Owen Hubbell (June 22, 1903 – November 21, 1988), nicknamed "the Meal Ticket" and "King Carl", was an American Major League Baseball player. He was a pitcher for the New York Giants of the National League from 1928 to 1943, and remained o ...

, and sharing the company of other great Giants like OF

Mel Ott Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through . He batted left-handed an ...

and

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Bill Terry William Harold Terry (October 30, 1898 – January 9, 1989) was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants from 1923 to 1936 and managed the Giants from 1932 to 19 ...

. He was sent back to the minors before the 1940 season. After hitting .300 or more in three minor league seasons, Mancuso entered the

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as a paratrooper at

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in December 1942 and was on his way to an accident that forever altered the course of his baseball career. In 1943, he suffered a broken back and leg when his chute opened late and improperly. He almost died from his injuries and was subsequently discharged from the service for medical reasons. A part of his injury was an unfortunate condition for a catcher, where in looking straight up caused him to lose the flow of oxygen to the brain, and he would pass out. As a result, he never regained all of his mobility after the parachute jump and was never responsible for catching pop-ups. Mancuso spent the rest of his life with back and legs pains, but he worked himself back into shape and returned to baseball in 1944 as one of two catchers for the only St. Louis Browns club to ever win an

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pennant. He shared duties with

Red Hayworth Myron Claude "Red" Hayworth (May 14, 1916 – November 2, 2006) was an American professional baseball player, manager, coach and scout. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from to , most notably as a member of the only St. Louis Brow ...

, hitting .205 with a

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 ...

and 24 RBI in 88 games. The Browns lost to the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

in the 1944 World Series in six games, but Mancuso hit .667 (2-for-3) and collected one RBI in injury-limited pinch-hitting duty. His most productive season came in 1945, when he posted career-numbers in games (119), batting average (.268), RBI (38) and runs (39). In 1946 he hit .240 with a career-high three home runs in 87 games. He played his last major-league season with the Washington Senators in 1947 at the age of 29. From 1948 to 1955, Mancuso earned further respect as a catcher for top minor league clubs like Toledo and Beaumont, among others, and with the 1953 Houston Buffs, a minors club that preceded the Colt .45s / Astros. He also played winter baseball in the Venezuelan League during the 1950–51 and 1951–52 seasons. In his first season, he hit .407 with 49 RBI and also became the first player in the league to hit 10 home runs in a 42-game schedule. In a four-year major league career, Mancuso played in 337

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 (suc ...

, accumulating 241

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 s ...

in 1,002

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

for a .241 career batting average along with 5 home runs, 98

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 b ...

and a .314

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

. He posted a .987

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, di ...

as a catcher. In his 17-year minor league career, he played in 1,267 games, accumulating 1,087 hits in 3,936 at bats for a .276 career batting average along with 128 home runs.

Political career

After baseball retirement, Mancuso served for 30 consecutive years (1963–93) on the Houston City Council. In the late 1990s, Harris County built the ''Frank Mancuso Sports Complex'', a facility that strategically reaches out to the needs of inner city kids, in his honor. The Mancuso Neighborhood Library is also named after him. His 2003 induction into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame reunited him with his older brother, Gus Mancuso (1905–1984), as the second member of the family to be inducted. Mancuso died in

Pasadena, Texas Pasadena () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 151,950, making it the twentieth most populous city in the state of Texas, as well as the second-largest cit ...

at the age of 89. His older brother, Gus Mancuso, also played in Major League Baseball as a catcher.

References

Baseball AlmanacFrank Mancuso
- Baseballbiography.com
Baseball ReferenceHouston Press
*Gutiérrez, Daniel. ''Enciclopedia del Béisbol en Venezuela – 1895–2006 ''. Caracas, Venezuela: Impresión Arte, C.A., 2007
Veteran hopeful Elliott challenging Mancuso
– ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...

'' – October 24, 1989 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mancuso, Frank 1918 births 2007 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II American people of Italian descent Ardmore Cardinals players Baltimore Orioles (IL) players Baseball players from Houston Beaumont Roughnecks players Carthage Browns players Fort Smith Giants players Houston Buffaloes players Houston City Council members Major League Baseball catchers Omaha Cardinals players St. Joseph Ponies players St. Joseph Saints players St. Louis Browns players San Antonio Missions players Toledo Mud Hens players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Wichita Falls Spudders players 20th-century American politicians United States Army soldiers Paratroopers