Harry Byrd Marquee

b. February 3, 1925 · Philadelphia Athletics 1950, 1952–1953, New York Yankees 1954, Baltimore Orioles 1955, Chicago White Sox 1955–1956, Detroit Tigers 1957

Harry Byrd won fifteen games for a seventh-place Philadelphia Athletics club in 1952 and took American League Rookie of the Year, at twenty-seven, having pitched four games in the majors before that.

It did not hold. He lost twenty games the following season, was traded to the Yankees that winter in a seventeen-player deal — among the largest ever made between two clubs — and pitched for Baltimore, the White Sox and Detroit across four more years before finishing at thirty-two.

Born in Darlington, South Carolina in 1925, Byrd finished 46-54 with 33 complete games and eight shutouts. He was sixty when he died, in May 1985.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Rookie of the Year	1	1952

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1950	PHA	6	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
1952	PHA	37	75	4	10	2	2	3	21	0	.133
1953	PHA	40	81	9	18	0	6	1	13	0	.222
1954	NYY	25	46	1	9	0	5	4	10	0	.196
1955	BAL/CHW	39	49	2	5	0	1	1	13	1	.102
1956	CHW	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1957	DET	37	8	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.000
Career	—	187	262	16	42	2	14	9	60	1	.160

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1950	PHA	0	0	6	0	0	10.2	25	20	9	2	16.88
1952	PHA	15	15	37	28	2	228.1	244	84	98	116	3.31
1953	PHA	11	20	40	37	0	236.2	279	145	115	122	5.51
1954	NYY	9	7	25	21	0	132.1	131	44	43	52	2.99
1955	BAL/CHW	7	8	39	20	2	156.1	149	80	58	69	4.61
1956	CHW	0	1	3	1	0	4.1	9	5	4	0	10.38
1957	DET	4	3	37	1	5	59.0	53	22	28	20	3.36
Career	—	46	54	187	108	9	827.2	890	400	355	381	4.35

On this day & linked events

1925

Born February 3, 1925

Darlington, SC, USA

1985

Died May 14, 1985

Image: Bowman Gum, public domain