Pete Reiser has not been a Dodger for 70 years yet he remains part of Dodger lore and thoughts of what might have been. His name is often brought up when Bryce Harper and especially Yasiel Piug are running into walls going all out to track down a long fly ball.
Harold Patrick Reiser was born on March 17 in 1919 in St. Louis, Missouri, only months before the end of World War I in November. Born on St. Patrick’s Day, he gained his middle name. As a youngster, he loved westerns and was often seen packing his pair of toy six-shooters in their holsters. In time he gained his nickname -” Pistol Pete”. Perhaps the twin pistols had something to do with his later ability to use either hand equally well.
His father, George Reiser, had been a pitcher in the Trolley League in St. Louis with a reputation of being a good semipro pitcher. At an early age, he began to throw to Pete and took no mercy on him. It turns out Pete, even as a youngster, didn’t need any mercy from his father, He could send them back so he already had a start in hitting well above his age class. As good as he turned out to be, he credits his brother Mike as being the true athlete in the family. Mike was signed by the New York Yankees but sadly for his family, he contracted Scarlet Fever and died from his illness.
Growing up, Pete Reiser excelled at any sport he tried. Besides baseball, he earned $50 a game playing soccer against professional players and was a talented football player with a dream of becoming a star player with Notre Dame. He was a skillful bowler and proficient at ice skating. Perhaps his greatest strength was that he was truly ambidextrous.
As a 15-year-old Pistol Pete, uninvited, made his way into a St. Louis Cardinal tryout. Needless to say, he drew considerable attention and also presented a major problem for Branch Rickey, the Cardinals’ general manager. He out threw and outran more than 800 other boys at the tryout, all older than him. That was the problem. He was too young to sign to a contract. Rickey did everything he could to keep the young Reiser away from the attention of the cross-town St. Louis Browns.
His plans to keep him out of sight worked, and in 1937 Rickey was able to sign the 18-year-old Reiser as a shortstop. He was not a big player at 5’ 11” but simply had it all – a powerful arm, a live bat, a discerning eye at the plate, the best speed in the game, and he was unrelenting on defense. Pistol Pete Reiser truly believed there was no ball to which he could not get. That later turned out to be a major challenge for him when he became an outfielder with the playing area confined by high, hard walls.
Only one year later Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis, who did not approve of Branch Rickey’s farm system, simply declared 73 St. Louis farm players free agents. Pete Reiser was among that group and the Dodgers signed him for a $100 bonus after Rickey asked a favor of Dodgers president Larry MacPhail. The favor – sign Reiser, hide him in the lower minors and in due course trade him back to the Cardinals.
Once the Dodgers saw Reiser in only eleven at-bats in the spring of 1939 that plan was scrapped. Reiser reached base in all eleven trips to the plate. Larry McPhail and Branch Rickey were no longer on such friendly terms as McPhail didn’t honor the deal which was illegal in any event.
The Dodgers assigned Reiser to Elmira in the Eastern League. Unfortunately, bone chips in his throwing arm required surgery to correct and he missed most of the season. Even more unfortunate perhaps, the surgery necessitated a change in position from shortstop to the outfield.
Reiser was no longer a hidden gem. Before he had played a game in the majors, the Yankees offered $100,000 and five players for him. Larry MacPhail rejected the offer and returned Reiser to Elmira in 1940. On July 23, 1940, he was called up from the Class D Elmira team and played 58 games with the Dodgers enjoying moderate success.
By 1941 the fans had already fallen in love with Pete Reiser and his style of all-out play. The 1941 season was to become one of the best seasons ever by a 22 year. Reiser finished the year with a .343 average to win the batting crown by a wide margin. He led the National League with thirty-nine doubles, seventeen triples, 117 runs scored, and a .558 slugging percentage, and finished second to teammate Dolph Camilli in voting for the Most Valuable Player award. His OBP was .406.
The Brooklyn faithful knew that Reiser was a special player but what happened next they could not have imagined. Mark Stewart from the Society For American Baseball Research describes that fateful day in the lives of the Dodger fans and in the life of Pistol Pete Reiser.
“On July 18, 1942, he raced toward the center-field wall, narrowly avoiding the flagpole that rose from the playing field, and caught Enos Slaughter’s hit in full stride—and then hit the concrete wall an instant later. The ball fell from his glove and, although dazed, he threw the ball to cut off man and future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese. By the time Reese fired the ball home, Slaughter had circled the bases to win the game.
Pete Reiser lay on the field motionless, facing the sky, his shoulder separated and blood trickling from his ears. When Durocher reached him, the manager started to cry. Pete was carried off on a stretcher and woke up the next morning in the hospital with a fractured skull and a brain injury. The Cardinals’ team doctor examined him and recommended that he not return to the field that season. In the era before the effects of a concussion were fully understood, Reiser did what gamers do—he returned to the diamond as soon as he could walk. He was dizzy, had a hard time focusing, and felt weak, but there was no keeping him out of the lineup.”
Reiser served in the military from 1943 through 1945. He was unable to pass the physical for active duty but was able to enlist because he could play baseball. It was during this time that Reiser first saw his future teammate Jackie Robinson.
“One day a Negro lieutenant came out for the ball team,” he explained to Donald Honig. “An officer told him he couldn’t play. ‘You have to play with the colored team,’ the officer said. That was a joke. There was no colored team. The lieutenant didn’t say anything. He stood there for a while, watching us work out. Then he turned and walked away. I didn’t know who he was then, but that was the first time I saw Jackie Robinson. I can still remember him walking away by himself.”
After serving in the military, Reiser returned to major league baseball playing three years with the Dodgers, two with the Boston Braves, one with the Pittsburgh Pirates and his last with the Cleveland Indians. However following his accident in 1942 he would never be even close to the same player that he had been before that day. He played only four full seasons of major league baseball with his performance statistics and games played declining each year. His career statistics: .295 BA in 861 games, 473 runs scored, .380 OBP and 87 stolen bases. He set an NL record in 1946 that still stands today for stealing home base 7 times in one season. Ty Cobb set the AL record and MLB record with 8 steals of home way back in 1912.
One report is that among his numerous injuries Reiser was carried off the field on a stretcher eleven times during his career. He did stay in the game as a minor league manager with the Dodgers for some time and in 1957 was coaching with Kokomo of the Class D Midwest League. While there he took a homesick Tommy Davis under his wing encouraging him to be aggressive at the plate and on the bases. “Pete Reiser made a man of me,” said Davis.
How good was Pistol Pete Reiser or how good could he have become? Leo Durocher said this in his autobiography “Nice Guys Finish Last”.
“There will never be a ballplayer as good as Willie Mays, but Reiser was every bit as good, and he might have been better. Pete Reiser might have been the best ballplayer I ever saw. He had more power than Willie. And he could throw at least as good as Willie [Mays] right-handed and left-handed. Mays was fast, but Reiser was faster. Name whoever you want to, and Pete Reiser was faster. Willie Mays had everything. Pete Reiser had everything but luck.”
The above picture includes Brooklyn Dodgers Pete Reiser shaking hands with Manager Leo Durocher, Gene Hermanski, Dixie Walker, Pee Wee Reese, and Hugh Carey. Pee Wee and Reiser were very close friends. Pete and his wife Pat served as best man and maid of honor at the wedding of his roommate, Pee Wee Reese, on March 29, 1942.
Pete Reiser’s is a story of what might have been. However, he never regretted the way he played declaring it had to be.
“If I hadn’t played that way I wouldn’t even have been whatever I was. God gave me those legs and the speed, and when they took me into the walls that’s the way it had to be.”
Pistol Pete Reiser passed away on October 25, 1981, in Palm Springs, California, following a long respiratory illness. He was just 62. His burial site is at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.
His wife, Pat, said from their home in Palm Springs that he was aware of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory over the Yankees in the fifth game of the World Series that Sunday, but that he had not been well enough to follow the series closely.
This concludes the Brooklyn Dodgers rifle brigade – George “Shotgun” Shuba, Chuck Connors – the Rifleman, Carl Furillo – the Reading Rifle and now “Pistol Pete” Reiser. Machine Gun Kelly has to wait 60 years for his remembrance on LADT. I might not make that.
Great article DC! I think you should do a piece on Branch Rickey who in 1943 came to the Dodgers from the Cards. Rickey was a good friend of Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail enlisted in the army to serve in World War II after the 1942 season, and the Dodgers hired Branch Rickey to replace him as President and GM, ending a tenure of over two decades with the Cardinals. In 1945, the Dodger ownership reorganized, with Rickey acquiring 25 percent of Dodger stock to become an equal partner with three other owners.
He is a fascinating figure!
What could have been. Outstanding article DC. I always wished I could have seen him play. If you were to just look at his stats, one would think, wow, he lost his skills so fast. But when you know the history, and especially about his crashing into a wall, and coming back so quickly, it makes so much more sense. I love the history of the game. It is what makes it so special. Some players who were so gifted had those gifts taken away by injury or accidents. Others battled back as best they could. I remember Tony Conigliaro. What a talented ballplayer he was. Destined for a great career. Then he got hit in the face by a fastball from Jack Hamilton of the Angels. Even though he made a comeback he never was the same player. As of 2019 he still was the quickest player to 100 homers in AL history. Conigliaro suffered a heart attack at 37, and then a debilitating stroke. He died 8 years later from Pneumonia and kidney failure.
Herb Score is another. He was struck in the face on a line drive off the bat of Yankee Gil MacDougal in 1957. He was an outstanding young pitcher who never really recovered his brilliance and retired a few years later.
I was going to mention Score. He was 36-19 over those first 2 seasons and never won in double figures again. Mantle said he was the toughest LH pitcher in the league. Pretty high praise.
Very nice article DC.
MiLB Toolshed just released their age-20 best prospect list. No Dodger prospects on it The Cardinals have 3 of the 11 players listed.
Thank you DC for informative article today. Pete Reiser played before my time but with more than 65 years as a Dodgers fan I’m embarrassed to say how little I knew about him. My knowledge about him was that he was a good player who ran into walls a lot….lol. I am not a big reader and apparently never read much about him. I am really surprised at how good he was and how good he could have been. Being compared to Willie Mays is really something. I learned a lot today about Reiser. Thank you again for your article.
hodges54 – glad you found it informative. Being compared to Willie is almost unbelievable.
We are about the same vintage as Dodger fans. I am now in my 68th year.
I’m in my 75th year. Where did all those years go?
My 68th year is as a Dodger fan. I became a fan at age 11.
Sorry, I now understand old timer….lol.
Who knows? They sure have passed quickly, especially the last 10 since I retired. But the memory’s are still there. I remember the first time I went to Dodger Stadium. Dodgers-Pirates game in 62. Since I had been to the coliseum many times, seeing a real ball park, other than old Wrigley Field, was really something. Bought a lineup card, and a pack of 20 Dodger photos. Sandy was in there as were the Duke, Big D, Gilliam, T.Davis and Wally Moon. Don’t remember the score, but we won and I was happy as a clam…if there is really such a thing. Been a quiet week, but I have managed to add some cards to my collection, all Dodgers of course. Something I noticed and had not thought much about until today. In the old days, a lot of the cards showed the players autograph. Duke Snider always signed those with his full name. Edwin D. Snider. D was for Donald. But when he signed in person, it was always Duke Snider. That is how he signed my 8X10. I found that pretty interesting. Another thing I remembered that on almost all of his cards, Clemente is referred to as Roberto. But I distinctly remember having one card, cannot remember the year, but it said Bob Clemente. Weird. I was glad I was lucky enough to see Willie play many times. Clemente too.
Thank you DC for the article on Pistol Pete. Love that name. It was such a sad thing that he was so injured in that game in the outfield. The description of his manager wanting to cry when he saw him made me want to cry also. You mentioned Dolph Camilli. Ironically my eye doctor, a Giants fan whom I trade comments back and forth with during the season, knew his son, Doug Camilli who also played for the Dodgers as a catcher. My dentist had a high regard for Doug. I do not know what kind of player he was.
I really admired Pistol Pete for his grit and determination to stay in baseball after a season-ending, let alone life threatening injury.
Dolph was a 5’10” first baseman. He came to the Dodgers from the Phillies and played six years with the Dodgers ending in 1943. His triple slash was .277/.388/.492 with an .880 OPS. He walked as often as he struck out. He was the National League MVP in 1941 and was in the top four home run hitters in the National League for eight years in a row. Twice selected as an all-star.
He was inducted into the Dodgers Hall of Fame in 1984, and recalled of his fans, “All they cared about was their family, their job and the Dodgers. And I don’t know which one was the most important.”
His stats compare very favorably with those of Gil Hodges.
Doug spent 5 years with the Dodgers, and 3 with the Senators. Never anything more than a backup catcher. Never played more than 75 games in a year. Had a decent caught stealing average of 40%. His dad was a good ballplayer. In spite of what DC said, he does not come close to Hodges. They have close to the same WAR, but Gil hit 131 more homers and played 7 more years in the majors than Camilli did. Of course the teams Gil played on were a lot better than those Camilli was on, at least more successful.
Thank you DC and Bear.
Bear – I was looking at the 162 game average on Baseball Reference. I am not a fan of WAR so never look at it.
Baseball Reference 162 game average.
Gil Hodges: .273/.359/.487 OPS .846, Hits 150, HR 29, RBI 100, K 87, BB 74, TB 268
Dolph Camilli: .277/.388/.492 OPS .880, Hits 161, HR 26, RBI 103, K 104, BB 103, TB 286
I did not intend to diminish the status of Gil Hodges, of whom I am still a big fan and strongly believe he should be in the HOF. It was just that seasonally Camilli did produce stats comparable to Gil’s. He really started his career at age 27 with only 63 plate appearances at age 26. He missed one year during WWII, Gil missed two years. Dolph played until 38, Gil to 39.
They are difficult to compare because as you say Gil played on much better teams surrounded by the Boys of Summer but Dolph had three good years during the war when many MLB players were in the service. Dolph made it to post-season once, Gil seven times.
Gil was a marvelous fielder. .992 Fld% Dolph .990 Fld%
I get that. I think since they played a majority of their careers in 154 game seasons, that is the way they should be compared. Gil played parts of 2 seasons where the Mets played 162 games and was not an everyday players anymore. Gil, despite having a series where he went 0-21, hit .267 in the post season. Playing in the coliseum did not hurt Hodges as bad as it did Snider. He did have 2 season’s of 20 homers there. His last 2 years as a Dodger were pretty pedestrian. he hit .198 in 1960, and .242 in 61. I also agree that it is shameful that Gil is not in the Hall. His stats are extremely close to Tony Perez who is in the hall. Perez played 5 years longer, but hit only 9 more homers.
You’re right about Perez Bear. The last time Hodges was on the “Golden Age” Committee ballot I Checked his stats against Other 1stbase men in the HOF. Most of them had better stats than Gil. But Tony Perez and Gil were very close. Unfortunately, Gil didn’t come close in the voting. I read that there was going to be another “Golden Age” vote this year but I don’t know if he will even be on the ballot. Anyway, in my book, Gilbert Raymond Hodges is a Hall of Famer.
Oops, not my dentist, lol, my eye doctor. I am losing it.
Both Jackson is another player we didn’t get to see enough of.
did you mean Bo?
Maybe it was Reggie and Bo. Both Jacksons!
There have only been 64 Jacksons in MLB.
Well I am pretty sure you were not referring to Ron Jackson who played for the Dodgers in Brooklyn in the 50’s. TCM playing some baseball movies today. The Winning Team, about Grover Alexander starring Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the Babe Ruth Story starring William Bendix, the Jackie Robinson Story, staring Jackie himself, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. A Sinatra-Kelly musical which is actually pretty entertaining. I always wondered why in the 2 movies they made about Ruth, that he was played by the least athletic actors they could possible find. Bendix and John Goodman. I also remember Mathew Modine playing Honus Wagner in a fantasy baseball movie called The Winning Season. 42 with Chadwick Boseman as Jackie, Harrison Ford as a very believable Branch Rickey, and Lucas Black playing Pee Wee was one of the better baseball movies I have seen.
I did mean Bo. I didn’t notice Bo was autocorrected to both
Good post DC! Wasn’t near as familiar with this “Pistol” Pete, as I am with Pistol Pete Maravich.
Reiser seems like the poster child for a player that gave it his all. Seems like a later version would have been Bobby Valentine. Do you think they’re comparable DC?
Hodges54. Last time Gil was on the golden age ballot, he was 3 votes short. Problem is, most of those guys, save Aaron maybe, never saw Gil play. He should have been in simply years ago. He got the Mets their first world series win too. The 69 miracle Mets. Beat a far superior Orioles team. I remember hearing Clendenons homer. I am hoping he makes it one of these days. If a guy like Mazeroski is in there, Gil definitely belongs.
Maybe?
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Good old fashioned capitalism is going to solve this.