Farewell, Carl Erskine

16/04/2024 21:16

Erskine pitched in five World Series for the Dodgers, pitched two no-hitters in Brooklyn, and set a strikeout record during his 12-year playing career. He was honored by the Hall of Fame in 2023.

Carl Erskine, one of only two pitchers to toss multiple no-hitters with the Dodgers, and considered the last remaining member of the Boys of Summer Brooklyn teams, has died at age 97 in his home city in Anderson, Indiana.

Erskine won 122 games in 12 years for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles from 1948-59, made an All-Star team and pitched in five World Series. He struck out a record 14 batters in Game 3 of the 1955 World Series against the Yankees at Ebbets Field, a mark that held until Sandy Koufax broke it 10 years later.

Signed by the Dodgers in 1946, Erskine reached the majors in 1948 at age 21. He pitched a no-hitter against the Cubs in Brooklyn on June 19, 1952, and then no-hit the Giants on May 12, 1956, also at Ebbets Field. The only other Dodgers pitcher with multiple no-hitters is Koufax.

Erskine before his death was considered living member of the Boys of Summer Brooklyn teams of the 1950s. Of the 32 players who got into a game for the 1955 Dodgers, winners of the first World Series in franchise history, Koufax is now the only living member, and he was a 19-year-old rookie who only pitched in 12 games that year.

Just last year, Erskine earned the Buck O'Neil lifetime achievement award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the sixth winner of the accolade designed "to honor an individual whose efforts broadened the game's appeal and whose character, integrity and dignity is comparable to the late O'Neil."

Erskine was not present in Cooperstown last July during the ceremony to receive the award, instead remaining at his home in Anderson, Indiana. But Erskine did record a video that was played during the ceremony, with his son present.

"I'm just a skinny kid from Anderson, Indiana. It's been quite a journey for me. To be on the big stage, That's a dream a kid has, to play on the same stage with the superstars of the game," Erskine said in the video. "Of course, my roommate was Duke Snider, one of the all-time greats. I played with Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, and all that team. They're all Hall of Famers. I don't know where I fit in there, but I'm sure glad to be there."

Erskine and his wife Betty were lauded for their work with the Special Olympics for several decades, including winning the Spirit of the Special Olympics award for their efforts. Their son Jimmy, who was born with Down syndrome, became a fixture at Dodgers camps and was the impetus for much of the Erskines' charitable works, died in 2023.

Erskine explained his obligation to give back in an interview with Norm Heikens at the Sagamore Institute.

"Well, they're happening all the time, it's almost a moot point. We sometime get the feeling that everybody's selfish, and withdrawn, and taking care of themselves and the heck with the rest of you. But that's not true," Erskine said. "If you start out by knowing that you are actually an heir, a benefactor of what somebody else did that you never met or would never know, you need to do that. I think all of life really should start with thanksgiving and praise because you have life yourself."

Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement, "Carl Erskine was an exemplary Dodger. He was as much a hero off the field as he was on the field – which given the brilliance of his pitching is saying quite a lot."

Related reading

Erskine was named a legend and human rights icon by Dana Hunsinger Benbow at the Indy Star.

Last July ahead of his Hall of Fame honor, Erskine was visited in Indiana by Tyler Kepner at the New York Times, and even played 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' on his harmonica for the piece.

From Mark Langill at Dodgers Insider, here's Erskine talking about Jackie Robinson:

"Jackie and Jimmy — living in different times in history and coming from uniquely different circumstances," Erskine wrote. "The one powerful factor that made them both successful is that they were striving for what was right. In the end, what is right will always prevail. In the parallel journeys of Jackie and Jimmy, there is one major difference. Jackie faced the 'bully' alone. Jimmy merely was a representative individual of all those who weren't accepted in the mainstream of life."

Erskine explained the origin of his nickname "Oisk" in Brooklyn, as relayed by Richard Goldstein in the New York Times: "I got off the subway and I had my duffel bag with me, 'Fort Worth Cats' on the side. Well, as I got near the rotunda of Ebbets Field, people spotted me. My first introduction to Ebbets Field was: 'Hey, there's Oiskine. From Fort Woith.' It was just a natural turn of the tongue in Brooklyn."

From Don Burke in the New York Post:

Whenever Erskine was asked to give a speech as a World Series champ, he would hold up his World Series ring and tell the audience how much it meant to him. But then, he would display one of Jimmy's gold medals from the Special Olympics.

"You tell me which is the greater achievement," Erskine would say. "Which of these means more?"

A shoulder injury ended Erskine's career at age 32. From Russ Stanton at the Los Angeles Times, Erskine said, "I never wanted to be known as a sore-arm pitcher, so I didn't say much about it. ... I got treatment on the side, by myself, as best I could. I took a lot of cortisone shots. But I never opted out of a start in my entire career."