Carl Erskine Was A True Gentleman Off The Mound

By Dan Schlossberg

Carl Erskine threw two no-hitters during his Dodgers career.Photo byWikimedia

Carl Erskine was a class act.

I knew him not as a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers but as the Indiana bank president who perfected his harmonica-playing skills so well that he led the ship’s band on several of my baseball theme cruises.

Both soft-spoken and well-spoken, Erskine was a Navy veteran who signed with Brooklyn soon after the military demobilization that followed World War II. After two uneventful seasons in Danville and Fort Worth, he brought his big-breaking curveball to the Dodgers.

Despite bouts of shoulder pain that would have disabled a lesser man, the compact pitcher (5’10”and 165 pounds) not only won 14 games in both 1948 and 1949 but pitched twice in the 1949 World Series.

During his 12-year career, he went 122-78 with a pair of no-hitters and just as many World Series wins. A one-time All-Star, he also earned a ring as a member of the 1955 team that won Brooklyn’s only world championship.

A peacemaker in the Dodger clubhouse during the difficult transition years when Jackie Robinson was integrating the majors, Erskine had many memorable moments on the field too.

He fanned 14 Yankees in the third game of the 1953 World Series, the same year he went 20-6 during the regular season, and did it while working with only one day of rest.

His World Series rings came in 1955 and 1959, after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.

Erskine might have changed baseball history in other ways. He was warming up in the bullpen when Brooklyn starter Don Newcombe ran into trouble while pitching the ninth inning of the 1951 National League pennant playoffs.

The Dodgers were up, 4-1, entering the top of the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds but the Giants had Newcombe on the ropes. When Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen came out to change pitchers, he picked Ralph Branca rather than Erskine because the latter had allegedly bounced a curve in the bullpen.

The rest is history.

He never made more than $27,500 per year as a pitcher but made up for that shortfall during his long tenure as president of a bank in his native Anderson, Indiana.

After leaving the game, Erskine was a charter member of the Baseball Assistance Team, helping destitute former players, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He was also active in the Special Olympics, helping such disabled athletes as his son Jimmy, born with Down’s Syndrome. “Oisk” also coached Anderson College for 12 seasons — matching his tenure in the major leagues.

He and his wife Betty also found time to travel, joining former teammates Clem Labine, Clyde King, and Roger Craig on baseball theme cruises I created, coordinated, and hosted. For many of those who were there, his nightly harmonica concerts were the highlight — or at least a close second behind getting his autograph on specially-designed, limited-edition commemorative posters.

The 2003 recipient of the Hall of Fame’s Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, Erskine was 97 when he died on April 16, one day after the baseball world marked Jackie Robinson Day.

Without the quiet intervention of the serious-minded pitcher, it might not have happened.

Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Here’s The Pitch, MLB Report, and many other outlets. He’s now on a book tour promoting his new Hank Aaron biography. His e.mail is ballauthor@gmail.com.