Woodie Held Marquee

b. March 25, 1932 · New York Yankees 1954, 1957, Kansas City Athletics 1957–1958, Cleveland Indians 1958–1964, Washington Senators 1965, Baltimore Orioles 1966–1967, California Angels 1967–1968, Chicago White Sox 1968–1969

Woodie Held hit 179 home runs, most of them as a shortstop, at a time when the position was not expected to produce any. He hit twenty or more in four seasons for Cleveland, and struck out a great deal doing it, which was the trade the Indians accepted.

He came up through the Yankees system as an outfielder and was moved around constantly afterwards — shortstop, second, third and all three outfield positions across seven clubs. Cleveland gave him the only settled stretch, seven seasons from 1958.

Born in Sacramento in 1932, Held batted .240 with 963 hits and 508 walks across 1,390 games, and was seventy-seven when he died in June 2009.

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1954	NYY	4	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	.000
1957	KCA/NYY	93	327	48	78	14	3	20	50	37	81	4	.239
1958	CLE/KCA	114	275	25	56	6	1	7	33	25	64	1	.204
1959	CLE	143	525	82	132	19	3	29	71	46	118	1	.251
1960	CLE	109	376	45	97	15	1	21	67	44	73	0	.258
1961	CLE	146	509	67	136	23	5	23	78	69	111	0	.267
1962	CLE	139	466	55	116	12	2	19	58	73	107	5	.249
1963	CLE	133	416	61	103	19	4	17	61	61	96	2	.248
1964	CLE	118	364	50	86	13	0	18	49	43	88	1	.236
1965	WSA	122	332	46	82	16	2	16	54	49	74	0	.247
1966	BAL	56	82	6	17	3	1	1	7	12	30	0	.207
1967	BAL/CAL	84	182	19	37	6	0	5	23	24	53	0	.203
1968	CAL/CHW	73	99	9	14	2	0	0	2	10	29	0	.141
1969	CHW	56	63	9	9	2	0	3	6	13	19	0	.143
Career	—	1390	4019	524	963	150	22	179	559	508	944	14	.240

On this day & linked events

1932

Born March 25, 1932

Sacramento, CA, USA

2009

Died June 11, 2009

1954

Major-league debut: Woodie Held

Woodie Held made a major-league debut on September 5, 1954.

1969

Final major-league game: Woodie Held

Woodie Held played a final major-league game on September 28, 1969.

Image: Unknown author Unknown, public domain