The .125 Leadoff Hitter

Andy Anderson

The .125 Leadoff Hitter

Imagine my surprise when I realized that Andy Anderson once hit leadoff for the 1949 St. Louis Browns.

It wasn’t just once, either. He did so on multiple occasions:

Anderson wasn’t exactly the best hitter in the world:

But, of course, it turns out that there’s more to the story than just that.

The Browns put Anderson into the lineup in 1949 out of desperation more than anything else.

From The St. Louis Star-Times, June 7, 1949, page 18

I’ve got no idea why Zack Taylor decided to hit him leadoff. Miraculously, it worked:

From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, 1949, page 16

It worked the next day, too:

From The St. Louis Star-Times, June 9, 1949, page 28

Anderson became somewhat popular for a brief time — but then went back to hitting poorly.

And it turns out there was more to this story than just that.

One of the articles above mentions that Anderson was in a German POW camp at the end of World War II. What the article doesn’t mention — and what I don’t think anybody fully realized — was that Anderson’s feet were frostbitten at that time.

Here’s an excellent article about Anderson published in his hometown newspaper not long after he passed away in 1982:

From The Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA), July 21, 1982

The world, sadly, forgot about Andy Anderson after he passed away. But I think it’s a remarkable story. I also find it incredible that he was able to play at all given the extent of his pain.

Never underestimate the .125 hitter.