Sports Radio Service


		The story of Eddie Mayer By Jerry Feitelberg June 17, 2011

	There are a million stories about baseball. We know the stories about the great legends of the game. Players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggo, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and others. What we don’t know are the stories about the players who struggle through the minor leagues. They play for the love of the game and the belief that they will get their chance to play in the big leagues. There are players who have a lot of potential for stardom but never make it and there are those who utilize every bit of their talent and make it to the Majors but have a very short career. My story today is about a man I met about a week ago. His name is Eddie Mayer. Mr. Mayer is almost 80 years old but he had a very interesting story to tell. He grew up in San Francisco and went to Lowell High School where he starred in baseball. Other Lowell High standouts that starred in the Major Leagues were Jerry Coleman and Mark Koenig. Mayer played college baseball at Cal and left in his junior year to sign with the Class C minor league team the San Jose Red Sox of the California State League. In the 1950’s there were seven grades of minor league teams. Today there just three- A, double A and triple A. Mayer started his climb to the big leagues. He won 17 games for San Jose and his reward was a promotion to the class B Greensboro Patriots of the Carolina League. Again, Mayer won 17 games for his team and he moved up to the class A Montgomery Rebels of the Sally League. At this point in his career, the Saint Louis Cardinals drafted him away from the Red Sox organization and sent him to triple A Omaha. The lefty from San Francisco was getting closer to his dream. During the winter of 1956, Mayer found himself playing winter ball in Havana, Cuba. He played with some of the big stars of baseball while in Cuba. He played with Jim Bunning and Hank Aguirre as well as Minnie Minoso, Pedro Ramos and Camilo Pascual. The Cardinals traded him to the Chicago Cubs along with Bobby Del Greco for Jim King and Eddie found himself pitching for the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League in 1957. It was late in the 1957 season when Eddie got the call to join the Chicago Cubs. His dream of being a big league baseball player had come to fruition. Eddie had some great teammates with the Cubs. Among them were Ernie Banks, Dale Long, Bobby Thomson, Alvin Dark, Bob Rush, Walt Morin and Lee Walls. Some of the players he faced in the National League went on to become Hall of Fame Players. He played against Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews, Gil Hodges, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax. In addition, He played against Willie McCovey both in the minor and major leagues. Who was the toughest hitter Eddie ever faced? Without hesitation, Eddie’s answer was Willie Mays. Sure enough, in the very first Major League game that Eddie played in he faced Giant immortal Willie Mays who greeted him by blasting a home run. So how did this 6’ 2” left-handed sinker pitcher do in the big leagues? Eddie appeared in 22 games and compiled a record of 2-2 with a 4.31 ERA in 31 innings pitched. One of his wins came in relief against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 30,1958. Mayer was the winning pitcher for the Cubs that day. Who was the pitcher that took the loss for the Dodgers? The losing pitcher that night was Sandy Koufax. One of the great trivia questions of all time must be is “ who is the only left-handed Jewish pitcher to beat Sandy Koufax?’ The answer is Eddie Mayer. Eddie’s career ended in 1959. What did Mayer have to say about all of this? “When I put on that Cub uniform and walked on the diamond at Wrigley Field, that was the biggest thrill of my life. It was a wonderful park, wonderful fans, great city.” Eddie’s story is what baseball is all about and why the game is loved by so many.