Career: Played in the big leagues for parts of 13 seasons with four different teams, including the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (1956, 1960-61) at the beginning of his career.
Did you know? Graduated from famed Lafayette High School in June 1956, signed with his hometown team in July, and made his major league debut two months later, striking out in what turned out to be his lone at-bat with Brooklyn ... was selected by the Houston Colt .45s with the third pick of the 1961 expansion draft ... collected the first hit and scored the first run for the expansion Houston franchise on April 10, 1962 ... Hit 60 career home runs, including three round-trippers over a two-year period at the request of a young Houston fan named Billy Bradley, who had temporarily lost his eyesight after being struck by lightning ... was the last active Brooklyn Dodger to compete in a major league contest, when he went 0-for-3 with an RBI, on September 28, 1971 ... his eldest brother Charles played baseball in college and the minor leagues, while brother Ken played and later managed in the big leagues.
Post-game: Owned and operated a successful Houston beer distributorship business along with his brothers for more than a quarter of a century, retiring in 2000 ... was inducted into the Texas Baseball HOF in 2005 and the National Italian Sports HOF in 2011.
Sources: Baseball Reference; SABR Bio; Retrosheet; Houston Chronicle, 2/14/2001; niaf.org, accessed 5/29/2022.
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