Buddy Lewis broke into the big leagues at age 19, was a regular by age 20, an All Star by age 21.
When the infielder recorded his 1,000th career hit on June 4, 1941, he was just 24 years old. Only four players in MLB history reached the 1,000-hit plateau at a younger age. All are in the HOF, Ty Cobb, Mel Ott, Al Kaline, Freddie Lindstrom.
Then everything changed. Buddy Lewis enlisted into the army to fight in WWII, flying a C-47 that he named “The Old Fox” in honor of Senators owner Clark Griffith.
Lewis survived more than 350 missions.
When he returned to the game after a 3 1/2 year absence, he was a different man, a different player.
"When I came back from the war, my philosophy of life was completely different. I had changed so much that baseball didn’t mean as much to me, as it did before the war."
Lewis left the game 51 days after his 33rd birthday. Lewis had 1,112 hits, 172 doubles, a .306 average and a .372 on-base percentage, at age 24.
After the war, he totalled 481 hits.
He never regretted his decision to serve his country.
HERO & Legend
Buddy Lewis broke into the big leagues at age 19, was a regular by age 20, an All Star by age 21. When the infielder recorded his 1,000th career hit on June 4, 1941, he was just 24 years old.
Only four players in MLB history reached the 1,000-hit plateau at a younger age. All are in the HOF, Ty Cobb, Mel Ott, Al Kaline, Freddie Lindstrom.
Then everything changed. Lewis enlisted into the army to fight in WWII, flying a C-47 that he named “The Old Fox” in honor of Senators owner Clark Griffith, Lewis survived more than 350 missions. When he returned to the game after a 3 1/2 year absence, he was a different man, a different player.
"When I came back from the war, my philosophy of life was completely different. I had changed so much that baseball didn’t mean as much to me, as it did before the war."
He left the game 51 days after his 33rd birthday. Lewis had 1,112 hits, 172 doubles, a .306 average and a .372 on-base percentage, at age 24.
After the war, he totalled 481 hits.
He never regretted his decision to serve his country.
HERO & Legend
Buddy Lewis was born #OTD in 1916. Through 1941 he had 1109 hits & was just 25 years old. He was hitting .306 with an .808 OPS. Missed 3.5 years to the war. Flew over 500 missions & received the Distinguished Flying Cross. The war may have cost him a HOF career.
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