Kirby Higbe

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Walter Kirby Higbe (April 8, 1915–May 6, 1985) was an American right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1937 to 1950. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and died there as well.

[edit] Career

Higbe began his career in 1937 with the Chicago Cubs before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in the middle of the 1939 season. A hard thrower and liver, he was selected to the All-Star team in 1940. Following the season, he was traded again, this time to the Brooklyn Dodgers. He enjoyed his most successful season in 1941 when he went 22-9, tying teammate Whit Wyatt for the league lead in wins and finishing seventh in the MVP voting.

After the 1943 season, Higbe joined the United States Army. Initially assigned to the military police, he soon received training as a rifleman and saw combat in Germany. In 1945, Higbe and his fellow soldiers went to the Philippines; however, when they arrived there, they learned that Japan had surrendered. Nonetheless, he stayed in Manila until March 1946, at which point he finally returned to the United States. That year, he posted a 17-8 record and made his second All-Star appearance (where he gave up a home run to Ted Williams), but the Dodgers lost the National League pennant to the eventual World champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Higbe stayed in Brooklyn until just after the start of the 1947 campaign, when he was traded with four other players (one of whom was future Major League manager Gene Mauch) to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Al Gionfriddo. The reason for this trade, notoriously, was his refusal to play alongside Jackie Robinson, an African-American, as a teammate. Before the season, Higbe joined Pee Wee Reese, Bobby Bragan, Dixie Walker, and Carl Furillo in boycotting the inclusion of Robinson on the Dodgers; all except Furillo were Southerners. Higbe, who claimed that he had developed his arm throwing rocks at blacks while growing up in South Carolina, told Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey that he would rather not play with a "negruh." When Rickey threatened to trade anyone who refused to play with Robinson, Bragan and Walker relented, as did Reese, who eventually became Robinson's closest friend on the team. Higbe, however, refused to budge on the issue, resulting in his trade to the Pirates. Still, he was forced to respect Robinson, a fiery competitor much like himself.

While Higbe began the 1947 season with a 2-0 record for the eventual NL champion Dodgers, after his trade to Pirates he collapsed to 11-17. He was traded one last time during the 1949 season, this time to the New York Giants, with whom he finished his career.