Jack Lohrke

Jack "Lucky" Lohrke
Third baseman
Born: (1924-02-25)February 25, 1924 Los Angeles
Died: April 29, 2009(2009-04-29) (aged 85) San Jose, California
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 18, 1947, for the New York Giants
Last MLB appearance
June 10, 1953, for the Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics
Batting average	.242
Home runs	22
Runs batted in	96
Teams
New York Giants (1947–51) Philadelphia Phillies (1952–53)

Jack Wayne Lohrke (February 25, 1924 – April 29, 2009) was a third baseman in Major League Baseball. During his playing career, he stood 6' (183 cm) tall, weighed 180 pounds (81.7 kg) and threw and batted right-handed.

"Lucky Lohrke"

Lohrke earned the nickname "Lucky" not only because it sounded similar to his last name, but because he repeatedly escaped death by sheer good luck during his life.

As a US soldier in World War II, he survived a troop train crash that killed three and injured dozens more, as well as the Normandy landings, the Battle of the Bulge and extensive combat throughout Europe, including having the soldier next to him killed on four occasions.^[1][2][3]

Lohrke's good fortune continued when he returned from the war to the United States. Having to concede his plane seat to higher-ranked military personnel, he was bumped at the last moment from the passenger list of a military transport plane scheduled to fly from Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to his home in Los Angeles – the plane crashed, killing everyone on board.^[1]

After the war and following his transition back to civilian life, Lohrke resumed his baseball career. The summer of 1946 found him playing for the Class B Spokane Indians of the Western International League. On June 24, 1946, Lohrke was a passenger on the team bus carrying the team as it traveled toward Bremerton, Washington, to begin a road trip. At the time, Lohrke was the team's third baseman and was batting .345 in 229 at bats. His performance had earned him a promotion to the AAA Pacific Coast League's San Diego Padres but the team was unable to contact him as he was in transit between cities. The Indians’ business manager contacted the police along the route and asked that they relay the message to Lohrke, which they did when the team stopped for dinner. Lohrke, under orders to report immediately to the Padres, removed his gear from the bus, said goodbye to his teammates, and hitched rides back to Spokane. Later that evening, the team bus broke through a guard rail on a mountain pass, plunged down a hill, and crashed. Of the 15 players on it, nine were killed, including player/manager Mel Cole. The six survivors were badly injured.^[1][4]

Major league career

Lohrke reached the major leagues the following year. He appeared in 354 games over seven seasons (1947–53) for the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, primarily as a third baseman. He hit .242 in 914 at bats with 22 home runs.

Retirement and legacy

From the time he joined the Padres after the accident, Lohrke was called, for obvious reasons, "Lucky"-Lucky Lohrke, the ballplayer who got off the bus in the nick of time, the soldier bumped from the plane that crashed. The name stuck. Who else, after all, had more right to be called Lucky? He's in the Baseball Encyclopedia that way: Lucky Lohrke. An amiable man, he lived with the nickname, but he never liked it, never wanted to be reminded of how close he had come to riding that bus into oblivion. But what could he do about it?^[4]

In a 1994 interview with Sports Illustrated, Lohrke looked back on the tragic bus accident and said, "When you're the age I was back then, you haven't got a worry in the world. You're playing ball because you want to play-and they're giving you money to do it. And then...well, sometimes those names spring back at me. I'll tell you this: Nobody outside of baseball calls me Lucky Lohrke these days. I may have been lucky, but the name is Jack. Jack Lohrke." ^[4]

After Lohrke left baseball, he worked for the Lockheed Corporation in California and eventually retired as the firm's head of security. Lohrke died at a hospital in San Jose, California in 2009, two days after suffering a stroke.^[5]

'Lucky Lohrke' is mentioned in Paul Auster's 2010 novel Sunset Park.

References

Bibliography

• Spink, J. G. Taylor, ed., The 1952 Baseball Register. St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1952.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Retrosheet
• Venezuelan Baseball League statistics
• Jack Lohrke at Find a Grave