Did you know? Hailed by the Dodger brass as "the best young player since [Mickey] Mantle," after winning the Big State League MVP award in 1957, while playing for the Victoria Rosebuds ... two years later, the promising young outfielder married Louise O'Connor, the daughter of Tom O'Connor Jr., a multi-millionaire oilman, rancher, banker and philanthropist from Victoria, Texas, who also just happened to own the local baseball team ... during the spring of 1960, the player's contract was purchased outright for $40,000 by the Rosebuds' owner (and the player's future ex-father-in-law).
Post-game: Retired at the close of the 1960 season to help his then father-in-law (who had suffered a heart attack) run his business affairs; pro baseball comeback attempts in 1965 and 1968 did not materialize; owned and operated a restaurant near the Dodgers' spring training home in Vero Beach, Florida in the late 1960s ... marriage to Louise ended in divorce as would his marriages to three subsequent women ... owned a successful oilfield pipe business in Texas ... died on April 26, 2011 at the age of 75.
Sources: Baseball Reference; findagrave.com, accessed 5/29/2022; Los Angeles Times, 2/15/1958, 3/3/1958, 5/24/1968; Kokomo Tribune, 4/14/1956, 4/28/1956, 4/20/1957, 1/14/1959, 6/5/1968; Victoria Advocate, 11/15/1959, 3/30/1960, 9/3/1960, 9/15/1960, 2/8/1996; Austin American-Statesman, 5/5/1961, 5/12/1961, 4/18/1965; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4/13/1965, 6/12/1965; Orlando Sentinel, 4/18/1968, 7/2/1968.
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