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We’re Contacted by Daughter of All-Star Catcher and Baseball Lifer, Birdie Tebbetts!

We always enjoy it when we’re contacted by a relative of a former major leaguer. Today is no exception. I recently had an interesting email exchange with Sue Tebbetts Mitchell, the daughter of baseball lifer, Birdie Tebbetts. I’m sure many of our “senior” readers will remember Birdie very well. 

When evaluating ball players from days gone by, we often rely on stark, cold career statistics, leaving us with a one-dimensional view of the player. “He was good, but what kind of man was he?” we ask ourselves. We have no way of knowing. It’s only when a family member or friend contacts us that we can assess intangibles like character and integrity. This gives us a much more rounded, nuanced perspective. After my email exchange with Sue Tebbetts Mitchell, I can assure you there was much more to Birdie Tebbetts than just being an All-Star catcher. He dedicated his life to the game and, in the latter years of his career, was recognized as one of the most hardworking, perceptive scouts of his era. Even more importantly, he was a devoted, loving husband and father.

Sue is understandably proud of her dad and his many accomplishments in baseball. She was kind enough to share some thoughts about what it was like growing up in a baseball family. Sue was born too late to experience her dad’s playing career but shared many stories from his years as a manager and scout.

A native of Burlington, Vermont, George Robert “Birdie” Tebbets was raised in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was a star athlete at Nashua High School, attaining All-Star status as a football quarterback and baseball catcher. I’ve heard different stories about how he got his unusual nickname. According to his daughter Sue, the explanation is simple: 

“Someone watching him play baseball said he doesn’t stop ‘chirping’ behind home plate. I’m not sure who or when though. After that, he was ‘Birdie’.”

Birdie was signed by the Detroit Tigers after they agreed to pay his Providence College tuition. He became an All-American catcher, graduating in 1934 after majoring in philosophy, a rather unusual subject for a ball player. After three years in the minors, he made his major league debut on September 16, 1936, with the Tigers at age 23. Birdie got a chance to play following Mickey Cochrane’s near-fatal beaning in 1937. By 1940, he was the team’s regular catcher. Birdie made his only postseason appearance in the Tigers’ 1940 World Series loss to the Reds, going hitless in eleven at-bats.

Birdie Tebbetts was the quintessential baseball lifer. He spent 60 years in the game as a player, manager, scout, and front-office executive. Over his 14-year playing career (1936-1952, with three years lost to military service) the four-time All-Star played for the Tigers, Red Sox, and Indians. He appeared in 1162 games, hitting .270 with 38 home runs, 469 RBIs, and a .341 on-base percentage.

With a lack of speed and little power, his offensive production seems modest, but his “meal ticket” to a long career in the majors was his defense. He was regarded as the best defensive catcher in the late 1940s, known for his skill in handling pitching staffs. Birdie led American League catchers three times in assists, twice in base runners caught stealing, and once in putouts. He ended his career with a .978 fielding percentage, and a 46.37 caught stealing percentage. 

His reputation as an intelligent ball player with plenty of “baseball smarts” paid off in his years as a manager and later as one of the most respected scouts in the game. Reggie Jackson credited Birdie’s scouting reports for helping him hit three home runs in Game Six of the1977 World Series. (1)

Sue related information about her early life and the vagabond nature of being raised in the family of a baseball lifer.  After her parents married in 1950, they had three daughters — Sue being the oldest — and a son between 1952 and 1958. Each child was born in a different city, so the family was always locating to different cities where Birdie was managing:

“Initially, our home base was Nashua, New Hampshire, where my dad had grown up and supplemented his baseball income working as an insurance broker and banquet speaker in the off-season. As a family, we spent summers in Cincinnati from 1954-1958 when he was the manager of the Reds. In 1959, when he accepted an offer to be the Executive Vice President of the Milwaukee Braves and later as the manager, the family moved to Milwaukee where we lived until 1962.”

“For the next four years, my dad managed the Cleveland Indians. My mother let us leave school for one month each year to travel for spring training. Then when the team left for Cleveland to begin the baseball season, my mother drove us back to our home in Anna Maria Island, Florida to finish the school year. The day after school ended, we met up with my father in Cleveland for the summer.”

“As a family, we went to every home game, watching my dad in the dugout. I remember all the players – Vic Davalillo, Tommy John, Joe Adcock, Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Luis Tiant, Fred Whitfield, Dick Howser. I babysat for Dick Howser and later my brother played baseball at FSU when Dick was the Head Coach.  My memory of those years is that everybody had something to say after a ball game. In the evenings, when the nightly news turned to sporting news, I watched my father watch the reporter’s analysis of the highlights and lowlights and wondered what it must be like to have a job that was critiqued on TV and in newspapers and passionately by fans. But at home, he was a family man with a great sense of humor.”

“In 1962, we moved to Anna Maria. It was a great home base for baseball families. The island put the major leaguers close to spring training, providing great winter weather and peace of mind that their families were safe when they were traveling. Fred Hutchinson’s family, Hoot Evers’ family, and Earl Torgeson’s family were also there permanently.”

“My dad had friends, acquaintances, and coworkers in every baseball city. Going out to dinner with him usually included an introduction to people who walked over to say hi. Memorable to me are meeting George Steinbrenner, Tommy Lasorda, Reggie Jackson, and Joe Garagiola. He remained friends for life with Ted Williams and Dom Dimaggio.”

Sue also informed me that one of the keys to her dad’s success was her mother, Mary, who, as described by her affectionate daughter, was a very special woman: a wonderful wife and mother, with her own set of accomplishments:

“I have to add that my father got to live the life he loved because he picked the right woman to marry. And, as a family, we have wonderful memories growing up because of her. Years before she met my father, she served in the WAVES during WWII as secretary to the Naval Aide to President Truman in the White House. She rode in President Truman’s motorcade to the Army-Navy football game. The same year that Birdie stood on the field for Birdie Tebbetts Day at Fenway Park, my mother was accepting the position as executive secretary to Governor Ernest Gibson in Vermont.”

“A few years before my dad died I asked him what it was that attracted him to my mother. His answer was, ‘She was perfect.’ We have a lot of fun childhood memories related to baseball because she packed four kids into a car and drove us all over the country. We grew up thankful that my mother worked so hard to allow us to experience the baseball life. She gave up a lot to raise her family. “

And this delightful story of how her parents met:

“My mother, Mary Hartnett, met my dad in 1948 when he went on a barnstorming tour through New England on a team he put together, The Birdie Tebbetts Major League All-Stars. They met at a banquet where he was a speaker. Her father asked Birdie if he’d come back to speak again and asked what his fee would be. Birdie said his fee was a date with Mary. Mary told her father: ‘Please tell Birdie Tebbetts that his fee was too high.’ They were engaged seven months later and married in 1950!”

I asked Sue if she received any special perks being the daughter of a major leaguer, and if she had any special memories to share:

“As perks, once a year we got to go into the dugout with autograph books and we got great seats at the ballpark. One spring evening Mickey Mantle hired me as a babysitter. I’m not sure where he was going, but he told me if he won, he’d give me an extra bonus. Hours later, he came back and grossly overpaid me. Not surprisingly, my father made me bring back the overpayment and accept only the normal babysitting rate. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve just asked for his autograph!”

“My dad began his scouting career in 1967. At that point, he was always traveling. In the off-season, he was talking trades. He never stopped. He scouted until his eightieth birthday. Even the scouts get beautiful sparkly World Series rings. He ended up with four — one for the Mets, one for the Marlins, and two for the Yankees when they won while he was scouting for them.”

“I lived in California for twenty years. When I told my dad I met the man I was going to marry, he flew to Los Angeles to scout at Dodger Stadium, as the Yankees were playing the Dodgers in a World Series. He had four tickets for us to pick up at the stadium. They were for seats next to the dugout in a special VIP section set up almost on the field. That’s when I realized he liked my future husband!”

Sue related one sad story from an incident that occurred on April 1, 1964 in Tucson, Arizona:

“We had adjoining rooms with my parents at the team motel and there was a bunch of commotion. Birdie was carried out on a stretcher, having a massive heart attack. He said goodbye to each of us. The rest of the night I listened to the keys of a typewriter. A sports writer sat in my parent’s adjoining room writing a newspaper article about the night. Birdie ended up spending time at the Mayo Clinic. Fortunately, he was back managing in Cleveland on July 4. He won the American Heart Association Heart of the Year Award given to him by Vice President Hubert Humphrey. I don’t think that award was on his bucket list. He just wanted to get back to the dugout.”

Sue is now working on a project to transcribe the many letters and tapes that her dad kept, chronicling his experiences in the game: 

“Throughout the years, my dad did not keep diaries. He had annual calendars filled with his schedule. He sat in hotels at night in baseball cities all over the country and wrote letters to his spread-out family. One of my sisters had moved to New Hampshire, married, and had two daughters. My youngest sister moved back to Florida from California, married, and had one daughter. My brother remained single and lived in Florida until his death a little over a year ago. My family also eventually moved back to Florida. A few times a year, my mother would make copies of all the letters and mail them out. During his scouting years, he recorded cassette tapes mostly about the players he had just seen. As I listen to the tapes, I can hear horns honking at him while he was driving and recording reports that would be transcribed and sent to teams.”

Birdie was appointed to the Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame in February 1979. He received the Judge Emil Fuchs  Award in 1986 for his long and meritorious service in baseball. One story I heard about him perhaps most reveals Birdie’s integrity and exceptional character, which endeared him to his many friends and acquaintances throughout the baseball world:

“One umpire who suffered dizzy spells following his return from the war was afraid of losing his job. He asked Birdie, then the Tigers catcher, to help call balls and strikes. Birdie tipped him off with hand signals following each pitch. ” (2)

Birdie Tebbetts passed away on March 24, 1999, in Bradenton, Florida,  aged 86. He was quoted as saying a month before his passing:

“I’d like to be remembered as a good father and a good citizen, but I am a baseball guy. That’s all I am. That’s all I ever was. That’s all I ever want to be.” (3)

I’d say Birdie fulfilled his life’s mission very well. On May 28, 2009, he was announced as a Local Legend of Nashua, New Hampshire, and commemorated with a plaque in Holman Stadium. 

Many thanks to Sue Tebbetts Mitchell for sharing all this great information about her dad, Birdie Tebbetts, and what it was like growing up as the daughter of a major leaguer lifer. Sue has many cherished memories that I’m sure she’ll keep for the rest of her life.

Gary Livacari 

Information: Excerpts edited from email exchange with Sue Tebbetts Mitchell; Excerpts (1) and (2) from the Birdie Tebbetts Wikipedia page; Quote (3) from the Birdie Tebbetts SABR bioproject essay by Tom Simon.

Photo Credits: From the personal collection of Sue Tebbetts Mitchell; All others from Google search

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