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A Relic From A By-Gone Era: the Team Pinch Hitter

Let’s Remember Smoky Burgess!

Talk about underappreciated! Is there any position from baseball’s days-gone-by more underappreciated than the team pinch hitter? As any pinch hitter who did it for any significant length of time will tell you, coming off the bench cold when the game was on the line and being expected to perform against an ace reliever was no easy task. And yet a very select few of them were actually able to succeed in this difficult but important role over many years in the majors.

Before the era of pitching staff specialization that has increased pitching staffs to 13-14, every team had one or two guys whose primary role was pinch-hitting. Guys like Smoky Burgess, Manny Mota, Jerry Lynch, Dave Philly, and Rusty Staub come easily to mind. In the era before the designated hitter, these were guys who may have slowed down on the field…but man!..they could still hit; and for that reason, they were still useful to the team. In the modern game, the team pinch hitter has become a relic of the past.

In perusing the National Pastime This Day in Baseball History website recently, I came across this interesting tidbit involving the great pinch-hitter Smoky Burgess. It turns out that on July 29, 1955, 67 years ago yesterday, Smoky had what can only be described as a “career day”:

“Smoky Burgess hits three home runs and drives in nine runs in the Reds’ 16-5 rout of Pittsburgh at Crosley Field. In addition to his grand slam and pair of two-run round-trippers, the Cincinnati catcher also collects a run-scoring single.”

Those of us who grew up in the 1950s will remember Forrest Harrell “Smoky” Burgess from the tail end of his career. By the mid-Sixties, he was considered the premier pinch-hitter in the game. He held the major league record for most pinch hits in a career (145) until it was broken by Manny Mota in 1979. Also, his 146 pinch-hit RBIs are 31 more than anyone else.

Smoky Was A Pretty Good Ball Player

Doing a little research on Smoky Burgess, I found that he was a lot more than just an elite pinch hitter. He was actually a darn good ballplayer earlier in his career. Well-traveled, he played in 1691 games over 18 seasons in the majors (1949-’67) for the Cubs, Phillies, Reds, Pirates, and White Sox.  A six-time All-Star, the 5’8”, 188-pound catcher hit .295, with 126 home runs, 673 RBIs, and a .362 on-base percentage. He had 1,318 career hits, with 230 doubles, and 33 triples^.  His .295 career batting average ranked 10th among major league catchers as late as 2009 and is still in the top-15. His career 116 OPS+ mark placed him well above the average of his major league contemporaries. Defensively  Burgess led National League catchers in fielding percentage three times and had a career .988 fielding percentage.

Burgess had his best season in 1954, when he hit .368 for the Phillies, earning his first All-Star Game selection. With the Reds for the 1955 season, he had another good year, hitting .306, with 20 home runs and 77 RBIs, becoming an All-Star for the second consecutive year. 

He began the 1956 season as the Reds’ starting catcher, but when the team faltered out of the gate, manager Birdie Tebbetts, himself a former catcher, replaced Burgess with the younger Ed Bailey.

Career Highlights

Smoky had some significant career highlights. He was the Pirates’ catcher on May 26, 1959, when Harvey Haddix took a perfect game into the 13th inning against the Milwaukee Braves, before losing the game. Burgess also was a member of the 1960 World Series champion Pirates, hitting .333 in the seven-game series. On the humorous side, he was once part of a seven-player deal that included someone I’ve never heard of with the great baseball name of “Whammy” Douglas!

In late 1964, Burgess was acquired by the White Sox, who were in the middle of a heated pennant race. In his first at-bat on September 15, against the Tigers, he hit a game-tying home run. Over the next three years, Burgess was used almost exclusively as a pinch hitter. 

Burgess played his final major league game on October 1, 1967, at the age of 40. When his playing days ended, he spent a number of years in the Braves organization as a scout and minor league batting coach.

Smoky was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1975, and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1978. He died at age 64, in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, on September 15, 1991, survived by his wife, Margaret, and son, Larry.

Today, we’re happy to shine our baseball spotlight on a fine ballplayer, Smoky Burgess, who excelled at a skill that today is considered a lost art: pinch hitting.

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Excerpts edited from Smoky Burgess Wikipedia page; and article from Grueling Truth website: https://thegruelingtruth.com/baseball/top-10-pinch-hitters-mlb-history/