Joeseph Benjamin Pignatano was born in Brooklyn NY on August 4, 1929. He would end up spending 38 years with baseball as his profession, 27 of those as a player or a coach in the Major Leagues. He was a member of two World Series Champions, the 1959 Dodgers as a player, and the 1969 Miracle Mets as a coach on Gil Hodge’s staff. Never a star, he was to most of us in LA when the Dodgers came west, John Roseboro’s back up. He did not play much, but he played hard when he did.
Born in Brooklyn, Piggy as he was called, always kept the borough as his home. Growing up in New York in the ’30s and 40s only three games he played on the streets, baseball, softball, and stickball. He became a catcher because no one else wanted to. When he was signed by the Dodgers he was ecstatic. That was the pinnacle every Brooklyn boy dreamed of.
He was almost out of baseball within a month of his debut. He signed with the Dodgers after a tryout with 50 other players. They signed two of them. Pignatano was sent to Sheboygan where he did not play at all and then was sent to Cairo, Ill. He played in 3 Class-C games for Cairo, hitting .375, scoring a run, and driving in two. He got a standing ovation for catching a foul pop. No catcher had ever done that there! As a reward, he was released a few days later and sent back to Brooklyn with a check for 127 dollars and no cash.
He traveled 27 hours without food since he had no cash and could not cash the check. He was sleeping in a train station in Chicago when a cop woke him and said he could not sleep there. He explained he had no money and had to catch a train in the morning. The cop then took Pignatano to a hotel, paid for the room, and made sure he was woken up in time to catch his train.
Once home in Brooklyn, he explained what had happened to his mother, Lucy. Mrs. Pignatano could not believe the way her boy had been treated. She immediately called the Dodgers offices and spoke with Fresco Thompson, who was the Dodgers minor league chief. When she identified herself, Thompson congratulated her on how well Joe was doing. She replied, “Well he couldn’t be doing very well, he is sitting here right next to me“. She related Joe’s story to Thompson who asked Joe to come to Ebbets Field immediately.
Once at Ebbets Field, he worked out for some local scouts, including head scout and Hall of Famer, George Sisler. After the workout, Sisler asked his staff to explain how they could have released him. None could. Soon Pignatano was on his way to seven teams in seven leagues. Cambridge, Valdosta, Asheville, Elmira, Ft. Worth, St. Paul, Montreal, and eventually Brooklyn.
After his hiccup at Cairo, his ascent up the chain was relatively a straight line. His stop at Ft. Worth in the Texas League is notable as he hit only .199 but was promoted to AAA anyway. He hit .295 for St. Paul and followed that up with .299 at Montreal in 70 games and was called up to Brooklyn in 1957. The Texas League was a pitchers league back then he explained. Not many hitters hit .300. Maury Wills had been his teammate in Texas and he only hit .202 with 12 steals. Not exactly eye-opening stats.
The highlight of Pignatano’s time in Brooklyn was catching the last 5 innings of a Danny McDevitt shutout in the last game played at Ebbets Field. Nobody thought they were leaving Brooklyn until the last week. Everybody blamed O’Malley, but it was really Robert Moses’ fault. He thought O’Malley was bluffing and wouldn’t arrange for him to be able to purchase the land where he wanted to build the new stadium. Moses also did not like O’Malley. He disliked Catholics.
When the Dodgers moved to LA in 1958, Campy was gone after his tragic accident. So Johnny Roseboro and Pignatano were both in line for the starting job. But Roseboro hit left-handed. So he got a majority of the starts and had a pretty good season the first year in LA. Pignatano started against lefties. Roseboro ended up playing about twice as many games as Joe and would be the team’s starting catcher into the mid ’60s. Joe said he never really got a shot at being the starter. He never caught six or more games in a row. But even he had to admit that between the two of them they did a pretty good job in 1959.
Pignatano got a key hit in the 12th inning of the second playoff game moving Hodges into scoring position. Gil was then knocked in when Furillo’s shot up the middle was not handled cleanly. Joe did not have many opportunities to shine in LA. He continued as Rosey’s caddy in 1960, but in January of 1961, with Koufax preferring to pitch to Norm Sherry, and O’Malley needing cash for his ballpark, Bavasi sold him to Kansas City.
The A’s catching duties were split between Haywood Sullivan and Joe. It was the only time in his career he would play 90 games and have more than 200 at-bats. In 1962, he split time between the Giants and the Mets. With the Giants, he got into just seven games. He said Alvin Dark never really cared for him. He was the third catcher behind Ed Bailey and Tom Haller. He was sold to the Mets on July 13th. In New York, he played out the string and hit into a triple play in his last major league at-bat.
He played AAA ball the next two seasons. He was invited back for 1965, but his aches and pains were catching up with him. So he retired as an active player. Pignatano always worked in the off-season. Fans today should realize that unless you were a star player, you were not making a lot of money. He worked as a plumbers helper and at the local A&S department store during Christmas and the January white sale.
He got into coaching when he and former teammate Gil Hodges were having a night out and Gil asked him if he would come to Washington with him and be his first base coach. He gladly accepted. When Hodges moved to the Mets in 1968, Joe went with him. Yogi Berra was the first base coach, so Joe became the bullpen coach. He would work with the relievers, make sure they were ready and advise Hodges.
In 1969 he discovered a wild tomato plant and nurtured it. They did get some tomatoes off of it, but they also won the World Series. For as long as he was in New York, Pignatano kept the plant going as a good luck charm. Pignatano continued coaching with the Mets until 1981. He was with the team when Gil Hodges passed, but said it really did not affect the team. We lost a good man he said, Life went on and Baseball went on. The most he ever made as a coach was $43,000 dollars. It was more than he made in six years as a player. After he left the Mets, he coached 3 more seasons with Joe Torre in Atlanta. He has made appearances at Mets and Dodgers fantasy camps. He worked hard and said his employers always got their money’s worth.
He gave all of his memorabilia to his grandson. His name is also Joe Pignatano and he is from Brooklyn.
Jackie Robinson was on SNL last night:
Great skit. Isn’t this a great country when you compare what baseball players make to Supreme Court Justices. And then there’s the Kardashians!
Have never watched the Kardashians and I never will. Pure tripe TV. I would rather endure a root canal. SNL is ok, but not as good as it once was. I miss most the old variety shows like Skelton, Carol Burnett and the Jackie Gleason show. But today, there are not a lot of entertainers like those guys. Skelton’s skits were classic. One he did with John Wayne where Wayne was in his Rooster Cogburn persona was a riot. Red was Deadeye.
There’s nothing that’s more instinctively cringe inducing than comedy that tries to preach or lecture.
Stephen Colbert is unwatchable.
I concur, ever since he got that show, he has gotten worse. Where is John Stewart when you need him?
Apple TV
Allow me some off topic if you will.
Last kid will leave the house this summer to go to college. As some of you know we currently live in Germany, between Munich and Augsburg. Due to the political and economical developments here in Europe we are thinking hard about going back to the USA. We have narrowed our preferences down to South Carolina and Florida.
Yesterday in the previous blog I read some of you actually are living in SC and like it very much.
A few questions maybe some of you could answer:
Are there as severe storm and hurricanes in SC as there are in FL ?
We would prefer to live by the sea but a lake would be perfectly fine too, are there some lakes to recommend ?
How low do the temperatures in the winter go ?
Are the real estate prices in SC lower than in FL ?
Thanx in advance .
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey DodgerRam. I have a good buddy that lives in SC, real close to Charlotte, which is in NC so he drive across the border for work. Anyways, he loves it there. Here’s what I know.
He’s says the big storms dump a lot of rain, but he’s not in the path of hurricanes. When the hurricanes come in, he says the edge of the storm dumps the rain but it’s not severe like a hurricane. I have another buddy in Florida near Coco beach and he’s had to evacuate a few times over the years.
As far as low temps go, snow is maybe a couple of days a year with a light dusting. Whenever I call him it seems the weather is really close to what it is in So Cal where I live (Huntington Beach).
Real estate prices are similar to each other. I hope this helps.
I have a friend who lives in Aiken. She loves it there. I retired to Colorado in 2010 and have never regretted the move. Cheaper than California, less populated, and plenty of recreation. Lots of lakes and high country.
Anther great bio Bear. Of course he was a catcher with a nickname of “piggy”. Us catchers get NO respect! Your mention of him being released with no cash and getting stranded was so typical. Being a minor league player has never been a good life. I had 2 buddies play minor league baseball. The living conditions and the forever bus rides were brutal. Both developed drinking issues and one was killed in a drunk driving accident soon after his career ended!
Thank you Cassidy. They don’t call them the tools of ignorance for no reason! Just kidding. I played a little catcher, even though I am a lefty, in softball games. I even had a left handed catchers mitt. Courtesy of the U.S. Army. Only time I have ever seen one.
And Dodgerram, come join the team here in South Carolina! When we left Ca. We wanted to live close to the ocean and we don’t do snow so it kind of narrowed in down to SC and Florida. And we just fell in love with Charleston!We live in the Charleston area having moved last year from California. There’s water everywhere, that’s why it’s called the low country. So finding a home by the water should be doable. As far as home prices coming from Ca everything seems cheap to us but I thing Florida and SC are pretty comparable depending upon where you want to live. This winter low temps got into low30’s high 20’s a few times at night. Daytime temps around 50’s and 60’s but lots of days in 70’s and we spent several days at the beach this winter. I think hurricanes are more common in Florida. The last big one in SC was Hugo back in 89. But again we traded earthquakes for storms.
Unless you are on the coast in either state, you may get wet but won’t get tore up by a hurricane. I am in Celebration, FL today and it is an amazing community – we are looking for a winter home… either here or SC. I’d like to say Glendale too but I can’t sell my wife on that.
Southern California isn’t bad if you plan to never leave the city you live in. I had to leave at 5:30PM to make a 7:00PM dinner that was 18 miles away. 2 hours to get to Dodger Stadium, but I can make it home in 35 minutes (if you’re lucky enough that caltrans isn’t blocking half the freeway to do night work. And that’s once you leave the stadium of course. If you don’t leave early, it will take you 35 minutes just to get out of the parking lot.
There’s no way I’ll still be here when I retire. I’m thinking Carolinas, Florida or Nashville. Possibly Preston AZ or Reno Nevada. I just need to decide whether I’m willing to watch Dodger games on game night or the morning after.
Huntington Beach is a nice community, but it’s hard to get to a major freeway. It takes you 20 minutes down Beach to even get to the 405.
I was talking to someone yesterday about Nashville and the possibility of moving out of CA someday. Just don’t take your California mindset with you.
Love Los Angeles.
Just bought a place up in Ventura to vacation to and rent out. It’s quite lovely up there too.
Saxfan3, you hit the nail on the head with your that last post yesterday and I notice the same things for the most part. It looks like the Dodgers are trying to be less reliant on the homer with Lux, Betts, TT and Freddie in the lineup, but most of the other guys are very boom or bust with the long ball. Where I agree most is about Trea Turner.
It absolutely drives me crazy that TT bats 3rd and Freddie bats second. It should be the other way around. I also hate the reluctance for Mookie to bat anywhere but leadoff. The thing about Trea is that a lot of his hits come from legging out and ground out, and a lot of his extra bases are from turning singles into doubles. That isn’t the kind of player you want driving in runs in the three spot. You want a guy that hits liners and and gappers that make a lot of contact and that is Freddie and Mookie.
Unfortunately, the Dodgers are way too focused on the lefty righty thing and not wanting to have lefties back to back in their lineup.
OldBear also hit the nail on the head yesterday. Sloppy defense. If Muncy fields that ground ball at second cleanly and gets the lead runner, or a DP like most second basemen and if Barnes holds onto that ball at the plate, we’re 2-0 instead of 1-1.
Gonsolin has a hard time being efficient. He throws too many pitches, but it’s a good time to let him try to figure it out and see if he can fix it. That and the shoulder is the difference between him becoming a legitimate starter and a swing man. I have no problems with him as the fifth starter and I’m willing to let him see if he can improve while we’re in rotation limbo.
Sean Manaea is a solid pitcher who had a great first start of the season. Go through his stats and tell me that he was someone we absolutely had to have and I will disagree. Overall, Gonsolin gives you better outings when he’s out there. He’s also 30 years old and probably isn’t going to get considerably better. I think Tony gives you a little more upside.
Yesterday’s game was a weird one. Belli and Freeman both just missed homers and the power supply came from Austin Barnes for the Dodgers and Conner Joe for the Rockies. Who woulda thunk it? Treinen looked unhittable and made one bad pitch to Joe.
All in all it was a game we should have won. I hate to call out Muncy, but that botched play at second and that bases loaded popup on a ball up and out of the zone with a 1-0 count and bases loaded with 2 outs were our downfall. He know it too. I think I heard him yell F*ck all the way in California. He’ll have much better games, so you take the bad with the good I guess.
I sure hope Julio is on his game today.
It’s Coors, just keep the ball down.
Well TT did hit 28 homers last year with an OPS over .900. So if he’s our biggest problem hitting third then we’re in for a great year! That being said I think I too would rather have him batting 2nd and Freeman third. But FF and company may know a little bit more about the club than I do.
Outlier or norm? He never hit 20 homers before last year.
We shall see! At this rate maybe I should get a real estate license for all the lDodgertalkers coming to South Carolina! Talk about traffic, it was a ten minute bike ride to see the Charleston Open tennis yesterday. And they complain about traffic here. I’ve waited on the 405 on a Friday night longer than I have here in 6!months!
Betts has done most of his work in the majors as a leadoff hitter, so has Turner. Freeman’s main workload has come in the 3-hole. Batting second is relatively new to Freeman, he has done it in 121 games, a far cry from the 1020 in the three spot. Betts has hit leadoff in 711 games, hitting .298 in that spot with 144 HR’s, He has not played more than 91 games in any other spot in the order. His highest BA come in the 2 spot and hitting 4th. In both, he is over 300. Those are career stats. Turner has had 449 games leading off hitting .301 with 65 dingers, he has hit 2nd in 160 games with a .312 BA. Hitting 3rd he has hit .349, but he has only had 34 games at that spot in the lineup. Freeman has a BA of .314 hitting 2nd, .296 hitting 3rd and .297 batting cleanup. They are all solid hitters at any spot at the top of the lineup. I expect them all to start playing up to their capabilities sooner rather than later. And the long balls will start coming when the weather heats up. A minor note on something posted yesterday. As to an extension for Turner. The Dodgers did not come flat out and say they were not going to offer him an extension, what they said was, there would be no extension before the start of the season. That was reported on MLBTR and confirmed by Turner. He also said, he has agents to take care of the money side of the game and he is concentrating on helping the team win. Now the chances of a player of his stature being offered a deal in season are slim. Rarely has a high profile player signed an extension in season. But that does not mean his representatives and the Dodgers will not have some discussions on a deal.
Patch was being sarcastic yesterday in case some of you are not sure.
No, Vin really is a monster.
The Dodgers traded for Betts and immediately signed him to a huge extension. They really wanted Betts. No such urgency with ensuring that Short Timer Trea stay long term with the Dodgers. I think that sends a message. They at least made an offer to Seager last year.
Once a player hits FA all bets are off. My hunch is the Dodgers are still high on Lux and want to see if he can possibly be a long term solution at SS. He’s cheap and controllable until 2027. If Lux”s stock drops and Short Timer Trea excels, there’s still a chance he comes back, but if I were to make a wager I’d say he doesn’t.
SPJulio Urias L
0-0 .00 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
SS Trea Turner R
DH Max Muncy L
3B J. Turner R
C Will Smith R
CF C. Bellinger L
LF Chris Taylor R
2B Gavin Lux L
Friday Night, during a Rockies pitching change, Mookie was on 2nd after his double, near Jose Iglesias. Mookie went over to Jose and embraced him. Apparently, Jose’s dad had passed away several weeks ago and Mookie took the down time to express his thoughts.
Jose and Mookie go way back. Both were infielders in the Red Sox organization years ago. Jose was a big leaguer down on a rehab assignmnet in A Ball where Mookie was a 5th rounder, starting out at 2nd base. Mookie has never forgotten how great Jose was to him during their 5 games together, never big-timing anybody, and how he treated him with the upmost respect. A great learning experience. Iglesias made a lasting impression on Mookie. Mookie never forgot.
Baseball is a close faternity on a grand scale and acts like this usually go unnoticed. But beyond the competitiveness, these are real people with real emotions – They are not robots. There are good people and there are A-holes. Just like your neighborhood or workplace.
Now do we need to discuss the target practic between the Cubs and Brewers?
They put up a great stat yesterday during the game. In Dodger wins Mookie OPS over 1.000. Dodger losses .600. Should we nickname him “the straw”?
Let’s see how this works. Using 2021 stats…
CT3 898 in wins / 620 in losses
Will Smith 998 vs 628
Muncy 1.014 vs 658
JT 836 vs 676
Betts 964 vs 645
Seager 993 vs 756
Freddie Freeman 1.014 vs 746
Make your own conclusions.
Smart aleck! Ha ha. See it’s still Bellingers fault. When he hits we lose. Can you check that one too BP? Everybody is worried about Buehler’s loss of velocity but Julio at 90-91? Hopefully that’s just due to lack of spring training work!
C. Joe steals second base, advances to third on deep fly ball, scores on SF to CF.
Very rarely will you see that with the Dodgers.
Incorporate base stealing into your arsenal!!!
They don’t even let the league leader in sb’s last year try! It’s an institutional philosophy especially in the regular season.
You got it all wrong. He doesn’t hit much, so we win.
I’m more concerned with Julio at 90-91 than I am with Bueller at 95-96, eh?
It’s funny that Julio used to touch 98-99 in relief and is more like 94-95 as a starter.
Lots of innings on his arm from last year. More than he has ever thrown.
Not today
Greatest lineup in baseball history still in spring training mode. When I told patch that Dodgers would have 92 wins by early September I didn’t say what year!
Well three games in they look like the Diamondbacks and not a team coming off of 106 wins. But it will get better.
The positive:
1. Cody got two hits today.
2. Lux got one hit today and looks good to go.
3. Mitch White pitched well in a tough environment.
4. Graterol looks like a closer.
The negative:
1. The base stealing game is not in Doc’s playbook.
2. Mookie might be the most overpaid superstar if he doesn’t return to 2020 form. Maybe I’m expecting too much but his play seems so lackadaisical and rote.
3. Dino Ebel needs to perhaps get a little more aggressive in the scoring game. I think he held two runners this series that should have scored from my TV to Denver.
4. Offense needs to work a count. Way too many easy AB’s with a couple of 6 or 7 pitch innings by Rockies pitchers.
5. After three games in the bandbox that is Coors Field our lone HR is from Austin Barnes. Ouch!
6. Urias at 91 MPH. Concerned?
On to Minnesota where we’ll see the Heaney reclamation project and a resurgent Clayton Kershaw.
TB’s administrative leave ends in 5 days. Will it be extended, will he be suspended or will he be released from purgatory? If so, does he report to CBR to ramp up, or do the Dodgers do the absurd and release him?
I am not concerned about anything… yet.
Can’t see TB being released. If the Dodgers did that, I think Bauer would sue them.
If the DA did not charge him and if MLB does not suspend him, the Dodgers would be making a very absurd statement by releasing him.
So LA native Hunter Greene, age 22, throws 20 pitches at 100 mph in his debut for the Reds.
How many will Bobby Miller, age 23, throw when he makes his debut for the Dodgers?
Not that I’m in favor of rushing Miller…. but still….
Alas, Julio’s velocity is concerning. We’ll get a small sample soon of Kershaw and Heaney…
Will we ever see Bauer again?
Maddux Bruns struck out four over two innings of work today in his first Low-A start, allowing just an infield single. Got swings and misses with his fastball and big breaking ball:
Today was a weird game. We consistently hit the ball hard, right at ’em, or not enough loft to clear a wall. I agree that Belli getting two hits was a bright spot, but still a work in progress. That dribbler looks like a liner in the box score.
Max Muncy is making Belli look like Babe Ruth. Play through it or IL him?
The pitchers weren’t ready coming out of Spring Training except for CK who had twice as many starts as the Bueller and Urias, who they’re more concerned with innings at the end of the season than at the beginning.
Freddie is hitting the ball right at the defense and Mookie is chasing wildly out of the zone. That isn’t a hip issue.
I guess those that want to worry will. This just looks like a team that isn’t ready out of Spring Training which is a management strategy more so than talent on the field.
It sucks to lose two sloppy played games in Colorado, but the real bright side is that we came out of there healthy.
This team will not look or play like this once they get their feet under them.
Rather disappointing start to the season. Losing 2 out of 3 at Coors in the fashion the Dodgers did -not hitting, big concerns about two of our starters- is not encouraging.
The TB saga has to be ended by MLB and the commisioner this week. This is ridicoulous. Guy basically has been suspended from baseball for almost a full year now.
Thanks for the valuable input concerning our move to Florida or SC. Very much appreciated here.Though I would love to live near to the coast the hurricanes are making this a very tough call in both states . There is a house in Indian River County near Sebastian that would fit our criterias like a glove but it is only a half mile from the beach but we have no desire having to ecacuate or even lose the house and having to start all over again. It more and more looks like somewhere in the inland of SC , maybe a lake like Lake Keoowe or Lake Marion.