Harold George "Hal" White, a 5'10" right-hander who pitched twelve seasons in the major leagues, started and relieved for the Detroit Tigers from 1941 until he was traded to the St. Louis Browns on December 4, 1952. Hal's two biggest seasons, 1942 and 1943, came before he served two years in the Navy during World War II.
Like most big leaguers, White experienced his share of up-and-downs. On June 2, 1953, the Browns waived him to the cross-town Cardinals. Now pitching in the National League, Hal came through for the Cards. In 49 games he worked 82 2/3 innings, his most since 1950, and posted a record of 6-5 with 7 saves. But within a year, he was out of the majors.
White first made the majors with the Tigers in the spring of 1941. After working nine innings in four games, he was optioned to Buffalo. Before hanging up his spikes in 1956, Hal compiled lifetime records of 46 wins, 54 losses (23-26 in relief), 25 saves, and a 3.78 ERA.
But on August 2, 1950, White hurled one of his best games ever, blanking the New York Yankees, 4-0, on two singles. So dominant was White that opposing batsmen mustered only three fly balls to the outfield, all hauled in by Hoot Evers. No Yankee made it to third base.
The diminutive right-hander also drove in Detroit's first run with a single to center in the second inning. Hal's whitewash (his only shutout of the season) and his solid winning mark of 9-6 (including 6-3 in relief) helped the Tigers to a second-place finish in 1950.
Reflecting on his career in a 1996 interview, White, who was a starter in 1942 and 1943 but mainly a reliever after World War II, said, "I didn't get my job back, because they needed relief pitching, and I guess they thought I was going to be a relief pitcher. I didn't mind.
"You wanted to be a big leaguer, right? You would have done anything, because you knew damn well that you had to go home and get a job during the winter. So you wanted to stay as long as you could in the big leagues."
About his shutout of New York (and his first-ever start against the Yankees) on August 2, 1950, White recollected that he usually started when someone else couldn't take the mound: "I went out and pitched against the Yankees. And fortunately, I was lucky enough to shut 'em out."
Luck was involved, but it took a good pitcher to shut down the eventual pennant winners, who featured tough hitters like Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer, Joe DiMaggio, Gene Woodling, and Yogi Berra.
Born on March 18, 1919, the son of Bill and Ada White, Hal grew up loving sports, notably baseball and basketball. He played American Legion ball, as did many others of his generation. And like other boys, Hal's first coach was his father.
The difference: Bill White had been a good semipro catcher for years in the Utica area.
Bill taught his son to hurl the curve and the inshoot (slider) at the catcher's right or the left knee or at his right or left shoulder. Hal's goal became to keep his pitches on the edges of the strike zone.
In 1937, after three years at the Utica Free Academy, where he starred in baseball and basketball, "Whitey" turned down an opportunity to go to college:
"I had a chance to go to Clarkson University in North Utica on a four-year scholarship. Well, I turned it down because I had an offer from Bill Buckley, who was the general manager of the Rome Colonels of the Canadian-American League, class C ball.
"I asked my Dad, I says, 'What should I do?'
"He said, 'You do what you want to do.'
"Well, to make a long story short, I signed with Buffalo in 1937, in July, and the season ended in August. They had a short season at that time. I think I won one or two games, but I forget."
The 18-year-old launched his pro career in good fashion: for nine innings in three games, his record was 1-0 with a 3.46 ERA.
"Anyway," Hal recollected, "I got $100 a month to sign with the Rome Colonels, and we got $1.25 for meal money. Well, anyway, after that year in '37, I went back there in '38 and I think I won 14 and lost 11."
In 1938 White hurled 209 innings in 29 games for fifth-place Rome (61-63), going 14-11 with an ERA of 4.09. He also showed good control: he walked 98 hitters but struck out 168.
"Then Buffalo bought me," Hal continued. "Then I went to Buffalo in spring training in Plant City, Florida, in 1939. And I went North with the team, and they sent me to Wilkes-Barre, which was just an option, it wasn't a farm club or nothing."
In Wilkes-Barre of the Eastern League, White pitched well and finished 1939 with a 3.27 ERA and a 10-11 record. During the previous season, George Uhle, a 200-game winner who was then scouting for Buffalo, had seen White pitch a solid game in Cornwall, Ontario. Uhle liked the youngster's stuff and tipped off Steve O'Neill, the manager at Buffalo. O'Neill saw White pitch in 1939, and he wanted Hal for the Bisons.
The result: Buffalo recalled White in 1940, and the righty proved that his diminutive stature had no effect on pitching. He whirled through the International League with a 16-4 mark and a 2.43 ERA. Both figures were the best in the circuit, despite the fact that Buffalo finished sixth at 76-83.
White explained that he learned a great deal from O'Neill, once a fine catcher, in Buffalo. The manager helped Hal perfect his control by improving his mechanics, including his follow-through, so that he released the ball closer to the ground.
"Then Detroit bought me," White recalled, "and I went to spring training with Detroit. I stayed with the club until, I think, May, when we got North, and they shipped me back to
Buffalo."
Manager Del Baker, whose tough-hitting club had averaged a league-best .286 and won the AL pennant in 1940, used his prospect in four games. White was unimpressive. In nine innings he had no record with an ERA of 6.00.
"You know," White recollected, "when myself and Virgil Trucks and us guys, when we were young and we went up in '41, we had some guys to buck up against. It wasn't easy to make the club, which we didn't, for another year or so.
"But, heck, they had Tommy Bridges, Schoolboy Rowe, and Buck Newsom. I mean there's some pretty good competition!"
Reflecting on white, Virgil Trucks observed, "He had the qualifications. He was a good pitcher. I think if he had stayed there and started, I think he would he would have won a lot of ball games for Detroit in 1941."
After returning to Buffalo in 1941, however, Hal produced another stellar season, pitching 230 innings, winning 16 and losing 12, completing 16 games, and producing a 2.74 ERA. Fifty-two years later, on July 25, 1993, White's splendid seasons in Buffalo won him induction into the Bisons' Hall of Fame.
White made the big leagues again in 1942. That year Detroit slipped to 73-81 and repeated the club's fifth-place finish of 1941. But White became one of three double-figure winners. Virgil Trucks topped the starters at 14-8 and 2.74, and White, who was 12-12
and 2.91, matched Dizzy Trout for wins. But he bested "Ol' Diz" (12-18 and 3.43) in percentage and ERA.
Detroit's earned-run figure of 3.13 was second only to the Yankees at 2.91. For instance, Hal Newhouser, who had not yet emerged as a great pitcher, went 8-14 with five saves but a team-best 2.45 ERA, while Al Benton experienced an "off-year" at 7-13 and 2.90.
However, the Tigers' batting average of .246 tied the Chicago White Sox for last in the AL. The Red Sox led the league at .276, and the Yankees ranked second at .269.
Still, the rookie from Utica got off to a terrific major league start: his first two victories were shutouts.
On Saturday, April 18, White started Detroit's fifth game and blanked the St. Louis Browns and Bob Muncrief, 4-0. Hal, who scattered seven hits-one a triple by Vern Stephens, also went 2-for-3 and scored a run. Barney McCosky put Detroit in front with a solo home run. Barney later drove home another runner, while Rudy York clinched White's victory by singling in two runs in the ninth inning.
On Thursday, April 23, White started and shut out Chicago and future Hall of Famer Ted Lyons, 9-0. Allowing five hits, including two each to Don Kolloway and Myril Hoag, White hurled another complete game. Meanwhile, Detroit rapped Lyons for 16 hits, including three each by "Pinky" Higgins and Eric McNair.
Before White's performance, only two rookies in the twentieth century had hurled successive shutout wins in their first two big league starts: "Slow" Joe Doyle in 1906, and Johnny Marcum in 1933.
But in his third start of 1942, White, displaying the inconsistency that marked his career, was hit hard by the Red Sox. He hurled six innings, gave up seven safeties, walked four, and Boston won, 6-1. The big blow was Jimmie Foxx's two-run homer in the third.
By 1942 White's repertoire included a better than average fastball, which often slid (he was "sneaky fast," recalled Virgil Trucks), and a sharp-breaking curve, which he learned from Tommy Bridges. Hal's motion was three-quarters overhand, or overhand, depending on the pitch and the situation. This, his effectiveness was based on good control, not overpowering speed.
Despite his excellent start, for the rest of the '42 season White's pitching proved longer on promise than results. His control was inconsistent. His record wound up being 12-12, although his ERA was a solid 2.90. He whiffed 93 batters, but he walked 82.
White experienced a disappointing season in 1943. Again Detroit took the top spot in the second division, this time with a 78-76 record under manager Steve O'Neill. The Bengal ace was Dizzy Trout, who led the league in wins, posting a 20-12 ledger with a 2.48 ERA.
Other top Tiger moundsmen included Trucks at 16-10 and 2.84, Bridges at 12-7 and 2.39, "Stubby" Overmire at 7-6 and 3.18, and Hal Newhouser, who went 8-17 and 3.04. White's record was 7-12 and his ERA was 3.39, the highest among Detroit's regulars.
But World War II was raging, and White joined the Navy after the 1943 season. Hal spent most of the next two years in the South Pacific. But like many former big leaguers, his baseball experience led him to be appointed recreation director at his base on Guam.
Hal reminisced, "I was assigned on the island with Pee Wee Reese, and he was on the ball team. Mickey Vernon was assigned to Ulithi, which is a little island all by itself. And there's other guys that were assigned to different islands.
"We were lucky. We run baseball leagues, basketball, and refereed in softball. We were fortunate. We didn't see any action."
After the war ended, White was mustered out. Upon rejoining the Tigers for spring training in 1946, he found the club's personnel had changed. The pitching ace was Hal Newhouser, who was coming off two straight American League MVP seasons. In 1944 Newhouser led the majors in victories with a record of 29-9 and a 2.22 ERA. He improved upon those figures in 1945, when he led the majors in wins and ERA, at 25-9 and 1.81.
In 1946, proving that neither season was a fluke, the Detroit southpaw again led the big leagues in wins and ERA, this time with 26-9 and 1.92. His greatest competition came from Bob Feller of the fifth-place Cleveland Indians. Feller was 26-15 and 2.18, and he set a new major league record with 348 strikeouts.
In White's absence, Detroit finished second to the St. Louis in 1944, when the Browns won the team's only pennant. In 1945 the Tigers won the AL flag and also defeated the Chicago Cubs in an exciting seven-game World Series. In 1946 Detroit placed second to Boston, but the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in a dramatic seven-game fall classic.
For his 1946 rotation, Steve O'Neill settled on Newhouser, Trout (17-13, 2.44 in '46), Trucks (14-9, 3.23), Fred Hutchinson (14-11, 3.09), and Al Benton (11-7, 3.65).
Virgil Trucks remembered that White was good enough to start:
"Whitey could have been the fourth pitcher, if they'd wanted to use him. But they wanted to make a relief pitcher out of him.
"But in my estimation, he was as good a starter as anyone else on the ball club."
Trucks said that White's size (5'10" and 160-165 pounds) hurt him:
"They didn't look at him as a strong pitcher, but the strong inside of him was what counted. He had a strong fortitude. And you don't overlook something like that."
Still, O'Neill and, later, Red Rolfe, relegated White to the bullpen.
For example, on May 6, 1947, with the Tigers trailing the Yankees, 2-1, at Detroit, White took over for Trucks in the seventh. With his curveball working, he blanked the Bombers on
two hits over three innings. Detroit won, 3-2, thanks to Pat Mullin's RBI double in the seventh and Eddie Lake's homer in the eighth-which gave Hal his first of four relief wins in 1947.
Hal White's record after World War II looks like this (RW = Relief W, RW = Relief L):
Year W L ERA G GS CG IP BB SO RW RL
1946 1 1 5.60 11 1 1 27.1 15 12 0 1
1947 4 5 3.61 35 5 0 84.2 47 33 4 2
1948 2 1 6.12 27 0 0 42.2 26 17 2 1
1949 1 0 0.00 9 0 0 12 4 4 1 0
In 1946 Detroit had a contending club, but O'Neill's Tigers (92-62) finished second. Boston, led by big hitters like Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, and Rudy York, got off to a hot start and played well all summer. The Red Sox (104-50) and won the pennant by 12 games.
For the next few seasons Detroit fielded good clubs. The Tigers placed second in 1947, fifth in 1948, and fourth in 1949. After challenging the Yankees for the pennant until September of the 1950 season, the Tigers dropped to fifth in 1951 and last in 1952.
White's worst season came in 1949, when Detroit, now managed by Rolfe, optioned him to Toledo in early May. Hal was wild, which was unusual for him, but he revived his career as a starter.
Working 109 innings for Toledo, "Whitey" got back in the groove. He pitched 11 complete games and went 10-8 with a 3.24 ERA. Recalled in August, he won one game in relief and saved two.
In 1950, starting eight times and completing three, he fashioned a nifty 9-6 mark, including his two-hit shutout against New York. In 1951 Hal was 2-1 in relief and picked up four saves.
But in 1952, Hal, showing inconsistent control, experienced his worst big league summer. Although picking up five saves for last-place Detroit, he went 1-8 in relief. Also, his eight relief losses topped the AL.
Traded with Virgil Trucks and Johnny Groth to the St. Louis Browns on December 4, 1952, White failed to last. He was waived to the Cardinals on June 2, 1953. He made another comeback and went 6-5 with a 2.98 ERA while saving seven games for fourth-place St. Louis. But the Redbirds released him after the season.
As indicated earlier, White chose in 1954 to move to the Pacific Coast League:
"I made a mistake. I had a call from Paul Richards, managing the White Sox in '54. He asked me to come out, and I went out, threw batting practice, and Frank Lane called me into the office. They wanted to sign me.
"That was the biggest mistake I ever made in baseball. I didn't sign with the White Sox."
Explaining his decision, White said, "Well, Charlie Dressen managed Oakland, and he offered me $4,000 to come out and sign. He gave me a good contract.
"But I had arm trouble out there. So that was a short '54 season."
During 1955 White sold automobiles in Utica, where he lived and worked in the off-seasons. But the baseball dream dies hard, and White was no exception. The right-hander made a couple of comeback attempts in 1956, with Syracuse of the Eastern League and Louisville of the American Association. But the injury to his right shoulder, suffered at Oakland in 1954, effectively ended his career.
In 1969, however, White signed with the expansion Kansas City Royals. The former big leaguer served for five seasons as the club's minor league pitching instructor. In 1975 he managed Batavia of the class A New York-Penn League in 1975. But Hal's club finished sixth (last) with a 24-43 record, and his contract was not renewed.
Retired for years, Hal and his wife Lenore lived in Venice, Florida. Hal, who battled back from an aneurysm blowout in 1995, used to enjoy golfing, fishing, traveling, and hearing from baseball fans.
He also valued the many friends he made during his baseball career. For example, Harvey Riebe, the former Tiger catcher -- Harv made the big leagues in 1942 and hit .314, served three years in the Army, returned to Detroit as a backup in 1948 and 1949, and first appeared on a baseball card in 1995 -- remembered his first big league game with White.
When Riebe broke in at Philadelphia on August 26, 1942, he caught the right-hander in the second game of a double-header. Hal pitched the distance and Detroit won, 4-2.
Although he slammed two doubles in four trips, Riebe mainly remembered that game because the talented White made a rookie backstop look good.
"Hal knew those hitters as I certainly didn't, and he made me look great back there," Harv recalled. "I could have been sitting in a rocking chair!"
White was proud of being only the fifth big leaguer in baseball history -- and the third in the twentieth century -- to pitch shutout wins in his first two starts. The four preceding hurlers were Al Spalding, Chicago of the NL, 1876; Jim Hughes, Baltimore of the NL, 1898; Joe Doyle, New York Highlanders, 1906; and Johnny Marcum, Philadelphia Athletics, 1933.
Reflecting on the national pastime in 1996, White remarked that the shared experiences, the friendships, and the remembered glory made the ups-and-downs of his baseball career well worthwhile.
Hal White passed away in Venice, Florida, on April 21, 2001.
» Jim Sargent is a Professor American History at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, VA, and a member of SABR.
» More submissions
Posted April 30, 2001.
BALLPLAYERS | TEAMS | CHRONOLOGY | TODAY | BOOKS | NEWSLETTER | ERRATA | FAQ
