Lefty O'Doul

Lefty O'Doul Left fielderBorn: March 4, 1897Died: December 7, 1969(aged 72) Batted: Left Threw: Left MLB debut April 29, 1919
for the New York YankeesFinal game September 30, 1934
for the New York GiantsCareer statistics Batting average .349 Home runs 113 Runs batted in 542 Teams

Career highlights and awards

4th highest career batting average in Major League history
National League batting champion: 1929, 1932
All-Star (NL): 1933
National League pennant: 1933
World Series champion: 1933

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul (March 4, 1897–December 7, 1969) was an American Major League Baseball player who went on to become an extraordinarily successful manager in the minor leagues, and also a vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan.

Born in San Francisco, California, O'Doul began his professional career as a left-handed pitcher with the minor-league San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. After some major-league success with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from 1919 to 1923, he developed a sore arm which relegated him to relief duties. Returning to the Pacific Coast League, he converted himself to a power-hitting outfielder. The New York Giants brought him back to the major leagues in 1928, where he batted .319 as a platoon player.

O'Doul was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1929 and, teaming up with Chuck Klein, had one of the best offensive years in baseball history, leading the League in batting at .398 with 254 hits (still the league single-season record), 32 home runs, 122 runs batted in, and 152 runs scored. He continued to play well for Philadelphia but was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932, where he batted .368 to win another league batting title before ending his career back with New York in 1934.

O'Doul then returned to the Pacific Coast League as manager of the San Francisco Seals from 1937 to 1951, later managing several other teams in the circuit and becoming the most successful manager in PCL history. One of his outstanding accomplishments while managing the Seals was developing the young Joe DiMaggio, who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees. O'Doul refused to take credit for DiMaggio's success, saying "I was just smart enough to leave him alone."[1]

O'Doul's fame and popularity live on in his hometown of San Francisco: the popular restaurant and bar he founded still operates as Lefty O'Doul's Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Geary Boulevard, and a bridge over McCovey Cove, near the Giants' home field of AT&T Park, is named the Lefty O'Doul Bridge in his honor.

O'Doul was also instrumental in spreading baseball's popularity in Japan, serving as the sport's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II. The Tokyo Giants, sometimes considered "Japan's Baseball Team," were named by him in 1935 in honor of his longtime association with the New York Giants.

O'Doul was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.