Ernie Lombardi

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Ernie Lombardi is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Ernesto Natali (Ernie) Lombardi (born April 6, 1908 in Oakland, California — died September 26, 1977 in Santa Cruz, California), was a Major League Baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Cincinnati Reds, the Boston Braves and the New York Giants during a Hall of Fame career that spanned 17 years, from 1931 to 1947. His nickname was "Schnozz."

Ernie Lombardi played his rookie season for the-then Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931, but was traded to the Cincinnati Reds shortly before the start of spring training for the 1932 season. Lombardi flourished his first year in Cincinnati, batting .303 with 11 home runs and 68 runs-batted-in. However, he became a national star in 1938 when he hit a league-leading .342 with 19 home runs, drove in 95 runs, and won the National League's MVP award. Ernie Lombardi became one of the Reds' most productive and popular players of all time. He also has the distinction of catching both of Reds left-hander Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters, accomplished on June 11 and June 15, 1938. To date, Vander Meer's feat has not been matched.

In 1942, the Boston Braves purchased Lombardi's contract, and despite his leading the league in hitting that season with a .330 batting average (albeit, in only 309 at-bats); the next batting title to be won by a catcher came more than 60 years later when Joe Mauer won the AL batting title in 2006, a testament to how difficult it is for a catcher to win the title. Boston opted to trade him to the New York Giants after the season. He enjoyed three productive if unspectacular seasons with the Giants before seeing his playing time diminish over the next two seasons. He retired after the 1947 season, having compiled a .306 career batting average, 190 home runs, 990 RBI, 601 runs and 430 walks.

The six foot, three inch, 230-pound Ernie Lombardi was legendarily slow-footed, and during the course of his career he grounded into 261 double plays. Aside from being the yearly leader in grounding into double plays on 4 occasions, he holds the record for grounding into one every 25.3 plate appearances. An opposing manager once jokingly said that Lombardi was so slow, he ran like he was carrying a piano — and the man who was tuning it. Defenses would often position all four infielders in the outfield when Lombardi came to the plate. Despite this, he became an outstanding catcher on the basis of his strong, accurate arm and his ability to "call" a game.

Ernie Lombardi was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1958, and posthumously into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

[edit] External links

• Ernie Lombardi's career statistics
• Ernie Lombardi's page at the Baseball Hall of Fame website
• Ernie Lombardi's page at the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame website

Preceded by Joe Medwick	National League Batting Champion 1938	Succeeded by Johnny Mize
Preceded by Joe Medwick	National League Most Valuable Player 1938	Succeeded by Bucky Walters
Preceded by Pete Reiser	National League Batting Champion 1942	Succeeded by Stan Musial