THE BASEBALL RELIQUARY ANNOUNCES
MANNY MOTA, LEFTY O’DOUL, AND EDDIE
FEIGNER ELECTED TO
THE SHRINE OF THE ETERNALS FOR 2013
The Board of Directors of the Baseball
Reliquary, Inc., a Southern California-based
nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an
appreciation of American art and culture through
the context of baseball history, is pleased to
announce the fifteenth class of electees to the
Shrine of the Eternals.
The Shrine of the Eternals is the
national organization’s equivalent to the
Baseball Hall of Fame.
Manny Mota, Lefty O’Doul, and Eddie
Feigner were elected upon receiving the highest
number of votes in balloting conducted during
the month of April 2013 by the membership of the
Baseball Reliquary.
The three electees will be formally
inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals in a
public ceremony on Sunday, July 21, 2013 at the
Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena
Central Library, Pasadena, California.
Of the fifty eligible candidates on the
2013 ballot, Manny Mota received the highest
voting percentage, being named on 37% of the
ballots returned.
Following Mota were Lefty O’Doul with 35%
and Eddie Feigner with 33.3%.
Runners-up in this year’s election
included Bo Jackson (32.6%), Don Zimmer (32.6%),
Dizzy Dean (31%), Glenn Burke (29%), Sy Berger
(28%), Steve Bilko (27%), Rocky Colavito (24%),
and Charlie Finley (24%).
Voting percentages for all fifty
candidates appear at the end of this
announcement.
Elected to the Shrine of the Eternals in
his sixth year on the ballot,
MANNY
MOTA ranks as one of the greatest pinch
hitters of all time.
Successful pinch hitters are rare, as it
takes a special player to sit on the bench and
wait for the chance – just the chance, by no
means a certainty – to come to bat with the game
on the line.
Mota had the talent and the psychological
makeup to weather the pressure of this
responsibility.
In fact, as a tribute to his exceptional
skills as a pinch hitter, it was said that Mota
could wake up on Christmas morning, step into
the box, and rip a single to right.
Born in the Dominican Republic in 1938,
Mota debuted as an outfielder with the San
Francisco Giants in 1962, playing with and
learning from stars like Willie Mays, Felipe
Alou, and Orlando Cepeda.
The right-handed batter continued his
career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Montreal
Expos, and, most notably, the Los Angeles
Dodgers, primarily as a fourth outfielder and
pinch hitter.
During his time with the Dodgers
(1969-1982), Mota was frequently called upon to
pinch hit, and to coach younger batters.
He appeared in four World Series with Los
Angeles, ultimately retiring with a .304 career
average and the all-time record for pinch hits
(150), a mark since broken by Lenny Harris and
Mark Sweeney.
Between 1980 and 2012, Mota served as a
coach with the Dodgers, the longest-tenured
coach in the team’s history; his 33 consecutive
years as a coach is second in longevity only to
Nick Altrock, who spent 42 years as a coach for
the old Washington Senators.
Now 75 years of age, Mota remains an
active force within the Dodgers organization and
the community.
He serves as a minor league hitting
instructor and lends his expert analysis to the
Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcasts.
Mota and his wife Margarita operate the
Manny Mota International Foundation, a
humanitarian organization that provides
resources and assistance to disadvantaged youth
in both the Dominican Republic and the United
States.
Elected to the Shrine of the Eternals in
only his second year on the ballot,
FRANCIS “LEFTY” O’DOUL
(1897-1969) was born and raised in San
Francisco, and became one of the greatest sports
legends in that city’s history, his fame
eclipsed only by Joe DiMaggio, and that just by
a smidge.
Lionized as one of the greatest managers
in minor league history, and recognized as a key
figure in the development of professional
baseball in Japan, O’Doul was comfortable
wearing many hats, but always favored green
suits.
O’Doul started his baseball career in the
Pacific Coast League with the hometown San
Francisco Seals.
He enjoyed minor success as a relief
pitcher with the New York Yankees and Boston Red
Sox in the early 1920s, but switched to the
outfield after developing a sore arm.
Traded from the New York Giants to the
Philadelphia Phillies in 1929, O’Doul exploded
with one of the lustiest batting seasons in
baseball history, pacing the National League
with a .398 average, 254 hits, 32 homers, 122
RBI, and 152 runs scored.
He won another batting championship with
Brooklyn in 1932, and lucked out a year later
after an early season trade back to the Giants,
who went on to win the World Series in 1933.
Returning to San Francisco, he was hired
to manage the PCL Seals in 1935, just in time to
tutor a young phenom named Joe DiMaggio in the
finer points of the game.
He managed the Seals through 1951,
winning five championships, including an
impressive skein of four-in-a-row from 1943 to
1946.
He continued managing with other
franchises in the PCL through the 1950s,
retiring in 1957.
He visited Japan on goodwill baseball
tours throughout the 1930s, leading
instructional sessions, touring with American
teams, and organizing reciprocal visits to the
U.S. by Japanese players.
In 2002 he was elected to the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame in recognition for his
promotion of the sport.
Shortly after retiring from managing, he
embarked at age 60 on a new career as a
restaurateur, opening and operating Lefty
O’Doul’s, a legendary San Francisco watering
hole and just possibly the very first sports bar
in America.
“The Man in the Green Suit” suffered a
stroke in 1969 and died shortly thereafter at
age 72.
Elected to the Shrine of the Eternals in
his thirteenth year on the ballot,
EDDIE FEIGNER (1925-2007) was born an abandoned baby in Walla Walla,
Washington, and grew up to become the single
greatest ambassador the sports world has ever
known.
“The King” was not only the most
legendary softball player who ever lived, but he
also possessed the greatest right arm in sports
history.
For 60 years, Feigner’s four-man
barnstorming team, “The King and His Court,”
annually toured 400 towns and cities across the
nation, competing against the best full nine and
ten-man squads that could be assembled.
Feigner’s lifetime stats are a testament
to a pitching arm that was a wonder of
anatomical science: he recorded 140,000
strikeouts, while amassing 9,700 wins, 930
no-hitters, and 238 perfect games.
In his prime, Feigner’s fastball was
clocked at 104 mph, and getting a hit off him
was enough to make one a local celebrity.
During Feigner’s heyday in the 1940s and
‘50s, when professional softball was a major
sport, he made more money than any big league
player.
While pitching behind his back, through
his legs, blindfolded, and from second base,
Feigner dazzled more than 200 million fans in
person – including those in every major league
stadium – and uncountable more on national TV
shows.
In the early days of ESPN , footage of
Feigner blowing away batters was regularly shown
during rain-delayed broadcasts of big league
games.
John Bateman, a major league catcher from
1963 to 1972, who caught Sandy Koufax, Bob
Gibson, and Nolan Ryan, and later joined “The
King and His Court,” has said that Feigner
pitched the fastest of the bunch.
Hall of Famer and longtime baseball
broadcaster Joe Morgan called him “the greatest
pitcher of all time.”
Feigner’s most incredible feat took place
at Dodger Stadium in 1967 during a nationally
televised softball exhibition game when he
consecutively struck out All-Stars Maury Wills,
Harmon Killebrew, Brooks Robinson, Willie Mays,
Willie McCovey, and Roberto Clemente.
During the game he also fanned Pete Rose
twice for good measure.
“It was a mismatch,” Feigner recalled.
“A baseball batter has no concept of how
to hit a fastball that rises like mine, or
sliders and curves that break 18 inches.”
A stroke in 2000 ended Feigner’s playing
career at age 75.
He continued to tour with the team,
however, delighting crowds with his wry and
colorful play-by-play announcing.
In the summer of 2006, Feigner sometimes
rose from his wheelchair to throw a pitch or
two, despite dementia and a succession of
strokes and heart attacks.
A master showman who hoped his fans would
remember him “as an honest, sincere performer
who always put on a good show,” Feigner died of
respiratory complications in 2007.
Manny Mota, Lefty O’Doul, and Eddie
Feigner will join 42 other baseball luminaries
who have been inducted into the Shrine of the
Eternals since elections began in 1999,
including, in alphabetical order,
Jim Abbott, Dick Allen, Roger Angell, Emmett
Ashford, Moe Berg, Yogi Berra, Ila Borders, Jim
Bouton, Jim Brosnan, Bill Buckner, Roberto
Clemente, Steve Dalkowski, Rod Dedeaux, Jim
Eisenreich, Dock Ellis, Mark Fidrych, Curt
Flood, Ted Giannoulas, Josh Gibson, Jim “Mudcat”
Grant, Pete Gray, William “Dummy” Hoy, Shoeless
Joe Jackson, Bill James, Dr. Frank Jobe, Bill
“Spaceman” Lee, Roger Maris, Marvin Miller,
Minnie Minoso, Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige, Jimmy
Piersall, Pam Postema, Jackie Robinson, Lester
Rodney, Pete Rose, Casey Stengel, Luis Tiant,
Fernando Valenzuela, Bill Veeck, Jr., Maury
Wills, and Kenichi Zenimura.
In the coming weeks, leading up to the
Shrine of the Eternals Induction Day on Sunday,
July 21, 2013, further details will be
announced, including the recipients of the 2013
Hilda Award (named in memory of Hilda Chester
and honoring a baseball fan’s exceptional
devotion to the game) and the 2013 Tony Salin
Memorial Award (presented annually to an
individual dedicated to the preservation of
baseball history).
Dave Zirin, one of the most original
voices to emerge from the field of sportswriting
in recent years, will be the keynote speaker for
the Shrine of the Eternals 2013 Induction Day.
Named one of
UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,” Zirin
writes about the politics of sports for
The Nation,
and is the first sportswriter in the magazine’s
nearly 150 years of existence.
Special thanks to Steve Fjeldsted and Albert
Kilchesty, the Baseball Reliquary’s Archivist
and Historian, for providing biographical
information above.
THE
SHRINE OF THE ETERNALS:
2013 VOTING PERCENTAGES
(Rounded off to
nearest percentage point)
Manny Mota – 37% Lefty O’Doul – 35% Eddie
Feigner – 33.3% Bo Jackson – 32.6% Don
Zimmer – 32.6% Dizzy Dean – 31% Glenn
Burke – 29% Sy Berger – 28% Steve Bilko –
27% Rocky Colavito – 24% Charlie Finley –
24% Ernie Harwell – 20% Rube Waddell – 20%
Effa Manley – 19% J.R. Richard – 19% Rusty
Staub – 19% Eliot Asinof – 18% Charlie
Brown – 18% Charles M. Conlon – 18% Lisa
Fernandez – 18% Dr. Mike Marshall – 18%
Chet Brewer – 17% Bert Campaneris – 17%
Rube Foster – 17% Joe Pepitone – 16% Annie
Savoy – 16% Fay Vincent – 16% Tug McGraw –
14% Vic Power – 14% Dan Quisenberry – 14%
Pete Reiser – 14% Octavius V. Catto – 13%
Fred Merkle – 13% Hideo Nomo – 13% Jose
Canseco – 12% Annabelle Lee – 12% Phil
Pote – 12% John Montgomery Ward – 12% John
Young – 12% David N. Mullany – 11% Hector
Espino – 7% Fred Hutchinson – 7% Conrado
Marrero – 7% Toni Stone – 7% Carlos
Delgado – 6% Jefferson Burdick – 5% Warren
Cromartie – 4% Christy Walsh – 4% Bill
Lange – 3% Curtis Pride – 3%
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