Monday After: Remembering when Canton's Charley Stanceu made the majors

Major League pitcher Charley Stanceu of Canton might be less recognized than other Stark County baseball players who grew up to be New York Yankees.

Thurman Munson of Canton and Tommy Henrich of Massillon certainly amassed stronger statistics over longer careers with the Bronx Bombers. Both were World Series champions.

Still, Stanceu also was on a Yankees team – along with Henrich – that won a World Series in 1941. And he was "first" in other notable categories.

Meet Charley Stanceu: Army veteran, Yankees pitcher was Canton native

Stanceu is credited with being the first player of Romanian descent to play in the Major Leagues when he pitched 39 games for the Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies between 1941 and 1946.

The pitcher was one of the first free agents, changing Major League team affiliation via an infant system of free agency. Originally signed by Cleveland, Stanceu was signed by the New York Yankees for $2,500 late in the 1930s – one of 90 players set free by then-Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The year before, Henrich similarly had been granted free agency and had signed with the Yankees for $20,000.

And Stanceu was among the first of numerous professional ball players who left baseball behind to serve in the military during World War II. The archives of The Canton Repository show he joined the Army in January 1942. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and earned a Bronze Star.

Stanceu was discharged in 1946. He signed an $800 a month contract to return to the Yankees but played for only three games that year before New York placed him on waivers. Stanceu was picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies, but was let go by the National League team at the end of the season and was out of professional baseball a few years later.

It's difficult to guess how much better Stanceu could have pitched, and how long his career could have been prolonged, had he not lost those four prime seasons to the war effort.

"Those four years really hurt," he admitted in a Repository interview in 1953. "I went into the Army as a young man ... and when I was discharged in 1946, I was an old man as far as a pro baseball is concerned."

Charley's early days in pro baseball

Stanceu was a rough prospect with plenty of talent. Despite playing professional baseball, he never was a member of a high school or college baseball team.

Born to Lucretia and Charles (some sources say his saloonkeeper father's name really was Vasile) Stanceu in 1916, a teen-age Charley Stanceu attended McKinley High School, which didn't have a baseball team at the time. Stanceu didn't graduate from the school, so he had no chance to play the sport at a university, either.

Instead, Stanceu learned his skills on city sandlots and in regional leagues, according to an article written by Chris Rainey at the website for the Society for American Baseball Research.

Rainey wrote that the "17-year-old Charley used his lanky frame" to propel Cities Service Oil to the Class B Canton city title in 1933.

"Charley caught the eye of Cleveland scout Harry Layne, who was manager of the Zanesville Greys, with his performance in the city league that included a no-hitter. Charley was signed to play in 1934 and found himself assigned to Monessen in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association. He was joined on the team by fellow Stark County resident Tommy Henrich. Stanceu’s first pro appearance was on May 18 when he relieved against Jeannette. He worked four and two-thirds innings, giving up three runs and striking out seven."

Stanceu made many stops through the 1930s in lower levels of professional baseball -- among them the New York-Penn League, the Western and Eastern leagues, and the International League -- while keeping in shape during the off-season by playing basketball and bowling back in Canton.

Stanceu was pitching in the American Association – Repository records show he had a 15-7 record for the Kansas City Blues in 1940 – when he got notified by the Yankees that he was being called up to the Major Leagues.

Learned from Yankees' stars

"He was very, very good when he was at Kansas City, which was a farm team for the New York Yankees," once recalled his widow, Marion "Mitzi" Stanceu Mewhinney, who had married Richard Mewhinney of North Canton after Stanceu died at 53 in 1969.

Statistics show that Stanceu struck out 126 batters in 214 innings for the Blues in 1940, recording an earned-run average of only 2.69.

"Phil Rizzuto was playing in Kansas City at the same time," Mewhinney told the Repository in 1995. "They both got called up to the Yankees at the same time so they knew each other real well."

Rizzuto and Stanceu were roommates on road trips with both the Blues and the Yankees. When the latter got to New York he found another familiar face on the team, an outfielder with a Stark County heritage, Tommy Henrich.

Stars abounded on a team that would win 101 games in a 154-game season. Stanceu's catcher was Bill Dickey. Infielders included Rizzuto, Joe Gordon and Frankie Crosetti. Roaming the outfield were Henrich, Joe DiMaggio and Charlie Keller.

"We had Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Spud Chandler, Atley Donald and Marius Russo on the (pitching) staff, and those guys were terrific," he recalled in 1956. "I sat in the bullpen for 21 straight games and watched each pitcher take his turn, and never got off the bench."

All the while, Stanceu learned finer points of his game. During the rest of the season, he pitched often enough and well enough to earn a 3-3 record, and thus contributed to the Yankees championship. During the World Series he pitched only batting practice as the Yankees beat the Brooklyn in five games.

"It was a thrill even though I knew I didn't stand much of a chance of pitching in the Series," he said in the interview for the 1956 article. "Our pitchers didn't need help. Three of the starters went the distance."

Stanceu and teammates go to war

The years that followed that championship could have sent Stanceu on the road to stardom. Instead, they were filled with valor on the battlefield.

The first issue of "Yank," an official Yankees newsletter published in 1946, re-introduced fans to Yankees who had returned that season from World War II fighting. It made special note of the wartime accomplishments of Stanceu.

"A year ago, most of the Yannkees you are watching at the Stadium these spring days were distributed all over the globe in Uncle Sam's varied uniforms," the newsletter recalled. "Perhaps the outstanding war achievement by a Yankee was accomplished by burly Charlie (sic) Stanceu, the big right-handed pitcher, laughingly known as Phil Rizzuto's bodyguard. Big Charlie was a lieutenant in the infantry and was cited on the field of battle for a courageous bit of reorganization at the Rhine-Rhone Canal in the face of a Nazi night attack."

The valor in battle was to be respected and the tribute that followed it no doubt was nice to hear, but neither helped Stanceu make a roster that was filled with returning stars, including Ruffing, Chandler and Russo, who had worn Stanceu's Army khaki during WWII.

Stanceu later recalled something he said just before getting into Henrich's car for their trip to spring training in 1946.

"I'm going to have a tough job earning a position."

Stanceu's words were prophetic. His time in the major leagues were almost over. The chronology of the end of the pitcher's career can be traced in the items in a shoebox that his widow kept stored for years in the back of a closet.

Piled in the box at one time were Stanceu's 1946 contract, a letter from a Yankees official welcoming Stanceu to spring training that year, and a card indicating the player was "authorized to enter" the Yankees spring training complex in Florida. But, the box also contained a 1946 Philadelphia Phillies schedule and a "Notice of Player Release or Transfer" from that National League team.

"From there he went to the Columbus Red Birds, but that was no longer the big leagues," recalled Mewhinney, who had married Stanceu before he left for World War II. "But, that was no longer the big leagues. I think that's when he decided to retire. The players seemed younger. He just thought it was time."

Following three seasons with Columbus, Stanceau came to work in the personnel department of Monarch Rubber Co. of Hartville. He raised three children – two sons and a daughter – and years later explained why he left baseball behind.

"Do not stay in the minor leagues forever," he said. "If you can't make the grade in three or four years, get out of baseball."

Stanceu died of an apparent heart attack at age 53 while at home on April 3, 1969.

An obituary in the Repository was specific about the passion and ability with which Stanceu played baseball.

"A righthander with a blazing fastball, he had one of the better sliders of his day."

His briefer obituary by the wire service United Press International pinpointed – beyond his family – what was the highlight of his life.

"Stanceu once said that his biggest thrill in professional baseball was pitching for the Yanks."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com . On "X" (formerly Twitter: @gbrownREP .

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Monday After: Remembering when Canton's Charley Stanceu made the majors