Carl Erskine, one of many final dwelling Brooklyn Dodgers and a mainstay of a pitching rotation that carried the group to 4 World Sequence within the Nineteen Fifties earlier than the group headed to Los Angeles, has died in his hometown of Anderson, Ind.
A considerate man who threw himself into charity work later in life, Erskine died early Tuesday morning after a quick sickness, in keeping with a number of reviews. He was 97.
A part of a virtually legendary group of ball gamers who had been anointed “The Boys of Summer time” by writer Roger Kahn, Erskine performed alongside Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson, who turned his closest buddy on the group. Later in life, Erskine credited Robinson for educating him a few of life’s most vital classes — tolerance, persistence, care and understanding.
Erskine’s mentioned he was shocked on the racial taunts directed at Robinson after he turned the primary Black participant in Main League Baseball. He mentioned Robinson acquired demise threats, was usually barred from staying along with his white teammates in accommodations whereas on the street and had teammates who refused to play with him. In Atlanta, he mentioned, Black followers couldn’t purchase tickets and had been compelled to look at Robinson play from a levee behind the proper subject fence.
Years later, he mentioned, he visited Atlanta and seen a statue of Henry Aaron the place the Black followers as soon as gathered. “That’s a significant step ahead,” he advised Occasions columnist Patt Morrison in 2013.
On the sector, Erskine was recognized for his sturdy overhand curveball and his dependability as a beginning pitcher in 12 seasons with the Dodgers, in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. By the point he retired early within the 1959 season, he had compiled a report of 122 wins and 78 losses and had an earned-run common of 4.00. He threw two no-hitters: in opposition to the Chicago Cubs in 1952, which included an hourlong rain delay, lacking an ideal recreation after strolling a reduction pitcher; and in 1956 in opposition to the group’s dreaded rivals, the New York Giants.
The latter was notably candy, Erskine mentioned, as a result of on the day of the sport, Giants scout Tom Sheehan was quoted in a New York newspaper as saying that the Dodgers had been now not a powerhouse as a result of Robinson and Campanella had been too outdated and that Erskine “couldn’t win with the rubbish he was throwing.”
“After the final out, Jackie rushed over to the Giants dugout the place the scout was sitting and pulled the article out of his again pocket and waved it at him and yelled, ‘How do you want that rubbish?’” Erskine mentioned in a 2012 interview. “That’s how fierce our rivalry was with the Giants in New York.”
The spotlight of Erskine’s profession possible got here in Sport 3 of the 1953 World Sequence in opposition to the Dodgers’ different cross-town nemesis, the New York Yankees. After being shelled and eliminated early in Sport 1, Erskine returned because the Sport 3 starter and struck out a then Sequence report 14 batters — together with future Corridor of Famer Mickey Mantle 4 instances — in a 3-2 victory at Ebbets Area in Brooklyn.
“I didn’t know in regards to the report till I acquired into the clubhouse and the writers got here in and advised me,” Erskine mentioned. “They introduced it over the PA system, however I used to be so oblivious to every part however what I used to be doing on the mound that I didn’t even hear it.”
The Dodgers ultimately misplaced the Sequence, 4 video games to 3. His World Sequence strikeout report stood till 1963, when fellow Dodger Sandy Koufax struck out 15 Yankees in Sport 1 of that World Sequence, which the Dodgers swept.
Listed at 5 toes 10 and 165 kilos, Erskine made his big-league debut on July 25, 1948, in opposition to the Pirates at Forbes Area in Pittsburgh. He entered the sport as a reliever within the backside of the seventh with the Dodgers trailing 5-3 and pitched a scoreless inning, strolling two batters earlier than inducing future Corridor of Famer Ralph Kiner, the Nationwide League’s residence run chief on the time, to line into an inning-ending double play.
Erskine was lifted for a pinch-hitter and the Dodgers scored three runs within the prime of the eighth and went on to win, giving him his first victory.
In his third main league recreation 11 days later in opposition to the Cubs, Erskine pulled a muscle in his proper shoulder, an damage from which he by no means absolutely recovered. He wound up pitching the remainder of his profession in ache.
“I by no means needed to be often known as a sore-arm pitcher, so I didn’t say a lot about it,” Erskine mentioned. “I acquired therapy on the aspect, on my own, as greatest I might. I took lots of cortisone photographs. However I by no means opted out of a begin in my complete profession.”
By the point he retired, he had a successful report in 11 of his 12 main league seasons.
Erskine’s greatest season got here in 1953, when he gained 20 video games whereas shedding solely six, together with pitching a now unheard-of 16 full video games whereas compiling a 3.54 ERA. Thanks in no small half to Erskine, the Dodgers gained the Nationwide League pennant that yr earlier than shedding one other heartbreaker World Sequence to the Yankees, after main the sequence three video games to 2.
Within the 1955 World Sequence, during which the Dodgers lastly beat the Yankees after 5 earlier tries, Erskine began Sport 4. He gave up three runs in three innings and was lifted for a pinch-hitter. The Dodgers went on to win the sport, 8-5.
When the Dodgers gained the Sequence three days later, Erskine remembers the contrasting feelings of a group that had waited so lengthy for that second. When the ultimate out was recorded, the Dodgers mobbed starter Johnny Podres in a rowdy celebration on the mound.
“However on the way in which up the ramp to our clubhouse, after realizing that we had lastly beat the Yankees within the World Sequence, we had been extra reverential than boisterous,” Erskine mentioned. “Earlier than the writers got here in, there was no noise within the clubhouse and there have been tears within the eyes of a couple of participant.”
By the top of the 1957 season, Erskine was contemplating retirement because the group was getting ready to maneuver to Los Angeles. However with Robinson traded to the Giants (he retired somewhat than play for “the enemy”) and Campanella paralyzed in a automobile accident, Dodgers proprietor Walter O’Malley couldn’t afford to lose one other of the group’s large names, and he requested Erskine for another yr.
Erskine agreed, and he was on the mound on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on April 18, 1958, for the Dodgers first regular-season recreation within the group’s new hometown in opposition to the now-San Francisco Giants, whom they beat with Erskine getting credit score for the win. He retired the next yr at 32.
Erskine final appeared on the sector at Dodger Stadium on opening day in 2008, marking the group’s fiftieth anniversary in Los Angeles. With the soundtrack from the baseball film “Area of Desires” enjoying over the loudspeakers, Erskine was certainly one of 50 Dodger greats who strode onto the sector throughout a pregame ceremony. He additionally was certainly one of three Dodgers pitchers — together with Koufax and Don Newcombe — to concurrently throw out the primary pitch that day.
Upfront of the sixtieth anniversary of Robinson breaking of baseball’s so-called colour barrier in 1947, Erskine mentioned he was requested by McGraw Hill Publishing to write down about what it was wish to be a teammate of Robinson.
In “What I Discovered From Jackie Robinson” with co-author Burton Harris, Erskine wrote that his experiences as Robinson’s teammate and shut buddy helped put together him for one more tough problem in life: being the dad or mum of a kid with Down syndrome.
Erskine’s fourth little one, Jimmy, was born with the genetic dysfunction in 1960 — a time when society neither understood the dysfunction nor absolutely accepted the kids troubled by it.
“I typically felt Jackie got here into my life to show me easy methods to channel power and anger towards what was occurring round me with Jimmy and society’s nonacceptance of Down syndrome and different beginning defects,” Erskine advised Morrison.
“Jackie’s influence began a momentum for People to see issues in another way.”
Erskine’s son went on to compete within the Particular Olympics as a swimmer and the chapter on Jimmy from Erskine’s e-book was consolidated right into a pamphlet now distributed by the Particular Olympics. Erskine and his spouse, Betty, later established a nonprofit to boost cash for the Particular Olympics.
Jimmy went on to work at an Applebee’s restaurant in Anderson, Ind., the place Erskine would drop him off and decide him up every day. Jimmy died in 2023 at age 63.
Carl Daniel Erskine was born on Dec. 13, 1926, in Anderson. He performed American Legion baseball as a teen and on the highschool baseball group. He was drafted into the Navy in 1945-46, and joined the Dodgers group when he was discharged. He pitched 4 seasons within the minor leagues earlier than reaching the massive leagues.
After his baseball profession, Erskine returned to Anderson and offered insurance coverage for 4 years earlier than becoming a member of First Nationwide Financial institution of Madison County and later turned its president. He additionally served a time period as chairman of the Indiana Bankers Assn. Erskine retired from banking in 1999.
However Erskine couldn’t get baseball out of his system and he wound up teaching at Anderson College, a small non-public Christian faculty, for 12 seasons, successful 4 convention championships. He additionally was a founding member of the Fellowship for Christian Athletes. In 1971, Erskine Road in Brooklyn, not removed from the previous website of Ebbets Area, was named for the previous pitcher.
In distinction to the high-profile lives of a few of his teammates, Erskine took a sure pleasure in being “bland.”
“I’ve had one hometown, performed for one group, had one spouse, hit one residence run,” he mentioned. “Nothing fancy.”
Stanton is the previous editor of The Occasions.
