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Al Rosen

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Baseball Player

The Resume

    (February 29, 1924-March 13, 2015)
    Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina
    Third baseman for the Cleveland Indians (1947-56)
    .285 career batting average
    192 home runs
    717 RBIs
    Four-time All Star (1952-55)
    Twice led the AL in home runs (1950,1953)
    Twice led the AL in RBIs (1952-53)
    American League MVP (1953)
    President/CEO of the New York Yankees (1977-78)
    President and general manager of the Houston Astros (1980-85) and San Francisco Giants (1985-92)
    Nicknamed 'the Hebrew Hammer'

Why he might be annoying:

    His childhood idol was fellow Jewish ballplayer Hank Greenberg, but the two clashed repeatedly when Greenberg was general manager of the Indians.
    He broke his nose 11 times (mostly on bad infield hops, but also a couple of times as an amateur boxer).
    He lost the 1953 AL batting title (and thus the Triple Crown) on his last at bat of the season, when he beat out the throw to third base but failed to touch the bag.
    He started going prematurely grey in his late 20s.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He served with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, including navigating an assault boat during the landings on Okinawa.
    Casey Stengel said of him, 'That feller's a ballplayer. He'll give you the works every time. Gets all the hits, gives you the hard tag in the field. That feller is a real competitor.'
    Bill James said his 1953 season was the best ever for a third baseman.
    He was the first player unanimously elected AL MVP since (rather appropriately) Hank Greenberg in 1935.
    Despite five straight seasons with at least 100 RBIs, the Indians cut his salary from $42,500 to $37,500 in 1955.
    Between leaving baseball as a player and returning as an executive, he had a successful career as a stockbroker.
    After guiding the Giants from the basement to the NL West title, he was named Major League Executive of the Year (1987), the first (and, at the time of his death, the only) former MVP to earn that distinction.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 160 Votes: 60.62% Annoying