Not Tolstoy, Not Trotsky, But Harold "Hal" Trosky: The Rise and Fall of Hal Trosky

Long-distance travel by automobile in America during the 1930s was uncommon, especially to attend Major League baseball games. Blue-collar factory workers averaged approximately $30 a week take-home wages (for those who had a job). Gas was 10 cents a gallon; a loaf of bread, 8 cents; a new car, $700; and a new home, $4,000. ¹ In the summer of 1940, with the Great Depression finally over, a blue-collar family of four journeyed from Mansfield, Ohio, to Cleveland so that a twelve-year-old, baseball-crazed son might see his favorite team compete in what was then reverently called the national pastime. The distance was eighty miles over narrow, undulating road. This family traveled northeast in a 1934 Plymouth Sedan to quaint League Park, on Lexington Avenue and 66th Street on the east side of the Forest City. The game, scheduled for 3:00 P.M., with reserved seats costing $1.50 each, matched the Cleveland Indians against the defending world champion New York Yankees, seeking their fifth straight title. The date was June25, twelve days after the famous Indians' "Cry Baby" rebellion.

The first baseman for the local team, picked by many to win the American League pennant, was Harold Arthur "Hal" Trosky, a six-foot-two-inch, 205-pound Iowa farm boy now in his eighth season for the Cleveland Indians. In the first inning, 7,000 fans cheered wildly as the left-handed Trosky ripped his league-leading 16th home run off Monte Pearson, former Indian twirler, over the famous and infamous right-field wall, only 297 feet from home plate but with a combined concrete wall and wire fence 40 feet high.

The Yankees, led by arguably the most famous Italian-American in the United States, retaliated with 3 runs in the third inning, but the Indian first baseman responded in the bottom of the third inning with a second solo blast. ² The rains came at the end of the fifth inning, the game was called, the Indians were victorious 5-3, and the happy Mansfield family returned home.

Hal Trosky was one of many sons of European immigrant families who made their mark in the Major Leagues. Reduced quotas of immigrants in the 1920s inhibited the potential for additional foreign-born talent to compete on Major League diamonds, but already established immigrant families contributed their share of baseball talent. Twenty-seven nationalities were represented in the American League by 1936. ³ The Sporting Newson March25, 1937, proclaimed in a headline: "League of All Nations! No, It's the Majors—America's Melting Pot." ⁴

Trosky's birthplace, Norway, Iowa, produced more than its share of immigrant sons in the Major Leagues. The blonde Bohemian was the bellwether of a threesome of big league performers who gained their athletic skills in this small farming community of 400 inhabitants, located fifteen miles west of Cedar Rapids, where old Route 30 and the Chicago Northwestern railroad passed on either side of the grain elevators. Mike Boddicker, Trosky's cousin, won 134 games for four teams. Catcher Bruce Kimm spent a short time in the Major Leagues, serving primarily as catcher for Mark "The Bird" Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers. Kimm was later appointed coach for several Major League teams and currently manages the Chicago Cubs triple-A farm team, the Iowa Cubbies, in Des Moines.

Trosky's parents, John and Mary Ann Troyovesky (their son shortened the name prior to his entry into the Major Leagues by eliminating four middle letters) were immigrants from Bohemia. The family lineage included French, German, and Polish backgrounds. In the early 1900s, the couple migrated to Norway, Iowa, home for numerous Czech families. Born November11, 1912, Trosky gained his strength and athletic skills on his father's 420-acre farm. During...