Don Hoak

Donald Albert (Don) Hoak (born February 5, 1928 in Roulette, Pennsylvania - died October 9, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was a Major League Baseball player. Nicknamed "Tiger," Hoak was a third baseman who played ten season in the Majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1954-1955), Chicago Cubs (1956), Cincinnati Reds/Redlegs (1957-1958), Pittsburgh Pirates (1959-1962) and Philadelphia Phillies (1963-1964). He played 1263 games and compiled a .265 batting average with 89 home runs and 498 runs batted in. As a youngster, Hoak was a professional boxer, but traded in his boxing gloves for baseball gloves after losing seven straight knockouts. He broke into the Major Leagues in 1954 sharing third base duties with Jackie Robinson and Billy Cox. In 1955, his Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series to win their only championship in Brooklyn, but Hoak was traded to the Chicago Cubs that off-season. In 1956 he batted only .215 with 5 home runs and 37 RBI’s. At the end of the season he was traded again, this time to the Cincinnati Redlegs.

In 1957 Hoak improved his batting average to .293 and set career highs in home runs (19) and RBI’s (89). He also made his only All-Star appearance that year, but it would be shrouded in controversy. At the time, as they do now, fans had the right to vote for the starters (minus the starting pitchers). As a result, a ballot stuffing campaign by Redlegs (during this Cold War era, the name "Reds" drew connotations of Communism) fans resulted in Hoak, Ed Bailey, Roy McMillan, Johnny Temple, Frank Robinson, Wally Post and Gus Bell being voted into the starting lineup. First baseman George Crowe, then 36 and the eventual team home run leader with 31, was the only Red not selected; the fans instead voted for Stan Musial. (Coincidentally, Crowe was selected to the All-Star team the following year.) Commissioner Ford Frick removed Bell and Post from the starting lineup and replaced them with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron; Bell remained on the team as a reserve, but Post was taken off altogether. Frick also stripped the fans of the right to vote for the starters, which they’d held since 1947 and wouldn’t hold again until 1970 (ironically, the Reds’ newly opened Riverfront Stadium would host the All-Star Game that year). Hoak was limited to one plate appearance in the game before being replaced by Eddie Matthews.

Hoak batted .261 during the 1958 season before being traded, along with Harvey Haddix and Smoky Burgess to the Pittsburgh Pirates for four players (one of whom was Frank Thomas) and cash in January of 1959. Hoak batted .294 in 1959 and .282 in 1960 as the Pirates won the World Series; like the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh had defeated the Yankees in seven games. Before Bill Mazeroski’s ninth inning home run won the Series for the Pirates, Hoak had been the last Pirate to bat; he had made the last out in the eighth. During the Pirates’ championship season, Hoak finshed second in National League MVP honors to teammate Dick Groat.

Hoak played two more seasons with the Pirates (in 1961 he batted a career-high .298) before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. After batting .231 during the 1963 season he was released in early 1964.

After his playing career, Hoak was a Pirates' broadcaster for two years, a coach for the Phillies in 1967, and a manager in the Pirates' farm system for the next two years. He died on October 9, 1969, at the age of 41, of a heart attack while chasing his brother-in-law’s stolen car. Earlier that very day, the Pirates had re-hired Danny Murtaugh as their manager—a position for which Hoak had been a leading contender.

Trivia

On May 2, 1956, Hoak set a National League record by striking out six times in the Cubs' 17-inning, 6-5 loss to the New York Giants at Wrigley Field. Several other records were also set in this game:

• 48 players were used, 25 by the Giants and 23 by the Cubs.
• The two teams combined to intentionally walk 11 batters. Willie Mays, Wes Westrum and Hoak's teammate Ernie Banks were intentionally walked twice each.
• The game lasted 5:13—six minutes shy of the record for the longest game, between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves in 1940. That game went 20 innings.

In a game against the Milwaukee Braves on April 21, 1957, Hoak was on second and teammate Gus Bell was on first when Wally Post hit a ground ball to short. Hoak broke up a potential double play by fielding the ball himself and flipping it to Milwaukee shortstop Johnny Logan. Hoak was called out for interference, but Post was given a single on the play. The day before, Johnny Temple let Bell’s ground ball hit him with the same result, Temple being called out for interference and Bell being awarded a single. The two incidents prompted league presidents Warren Giles and Will Harridge to jointly announce a rule change that declared both the runner and batter out if the runner intentionally interfered with a batted ball, with no runners allowed to advance.

On May 26, 1959, in a game against the Milwaukee Braves, Harvey Haddix had pitched a perfect game for 12 innings. In the 13th, Hoak's throwing error on a ground ball by lead-off hitter Félix Mantilla ruined the perfect game bid. Mantilla was sacrificed to second by Eddie Matthews, followed by an intentional walk to Hank Aaron. The following batter, Joe Adcock, hit one over the right-center field wall for an apparent 3-0 victory. Mantilla scored the winning run, but Aaron, thinking the ball was still in play and that the game ended when Mantilla scored the winning run, rounded second and then headed for the dugout. Adcock, running out his home run, passed Aaron on the bases; as a result, the ruling from National League president Warren Giles was that only Mantilla's run counted and that the final score was 1-0.

Hoak was married to singer/actress Jill Corey.

Hoak was mentioned in the 1991 film City Slickers. Bonnie Rayburn (Helen Slater) says she can't understand why men pay so much attention to baseball. "I've been to games," she says, "but I don't memorize who played..." pausing to think of an example, "...third base for... Pittsburgh in... 1960!" Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) says, "Don Hoak!" a fraction of a second before his friends Ed Furillo (Bruno Kirby) and Phil Berquist (Daniel Stern) can get the same answer out, and Mitch says to them, "Beat you."