Dick Adams (baseball)

Richard Leroy Adams (born April 8, 1920) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Philadelphia Athletics during the 1947 season. Born in Tuolumne County, California, he batted right handed and threw left handed.

Coming from a baseball family, Adams is the older brother of second baseman Bobby Adams and uncle of outfielder Mike Adams. He started his professional career in 1939, spending three seasons in the minor leagues seasons before enlisting in the US Air Force in 1941. Discharged out of the service at the end of 1945, he played and managed the Santa Ana, California Army Air Base team, in which played Joe DiMaggio.

Philadelphia Athletics (1947)

In 1946, Adams hit a .330 batting average with 155 RBI in the minors, then was drafted by the Philadelphia Athletics. He remained with the Athletics for the 1947 season, appearing in 37 games. Adams posted a .202 average (18-for-89) with two home runs and 11 RBI, including nine runs, two doubles, and three triples. His first hit in the Majors was a Home Run, Dick still has the ball from that game. Following his Major League career, Adams returned to the minors where he continued playing until 1953.

Life After the Majors

Dick is a professional musician and led his own group during the off season of baseball.

Dick still continues to play. He has played with Harvy James, Al Donahue, and Bob Crosby. In 1989 Dick traveled with Bob Crosby to play the piano in Brazil. Dick has told a story of his first "Dance job" when he was thirteen years old, in a Chinese joint for $3 a night plus all the Chinese food he could eat. He would play 9pm - 2am and then go to school in the morning.^[1]

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Retrosheet