Herb Plews

Herbert Eugene Plews (June 14, 1928 – December 12, 2014) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman.

Plews was born in East Helena, Montana, on June 14, 1928.

His father, also named Herbert (though his middle name was different), was a stereotyper for the Montana Herald-Record.

The older Plews was also a pitcher for the local town baseball team, and he taught his son the game.

Plews grew up in East Helena and was a sprinter and broad jumper at Helena High School before his graduation in 1946.

Though the high school did not have a baseball team, Plews also batted .400 playing American Legion baseball and was once selected as the Montana representative in a National High School All-Star Game sponsored by Esquire; Ty Cobb coached his team.

It was Plews's dream to attend a Big Nine Conference university.

A Helena resident told him that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had a very good baseball program, and Plews contacted Wally Roettger, the coach, who informed him he could play on the team as a freshman as a result of World War II just ending (most years, freshmen were not allowed to play).

In his sophomore year, 1948, Plews was voted the Illini baseball Most Valuable Player.

One year, Plews led the Big Nine with a .404 batting average.

He batted .412 against Big Nine Conference opponents.

Following his senior year (in which he served as the team captain), he signed with the New York Yankees, his favorite team growing up.

"I had always favored the Yankees because we heard them every weekend, it seemed like," Plews said.

"The Yankees were always one of the teams that played on the radio. I just grew to like them and was always excited about them."

Lou Maguolo was the scout who signed him.

After four years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he signed with the New York Yankees in 1950.

On June 17, 1950, Plews played in his first professional baseball game for the Class AAA Kansas City Blues of the American Association.

He entered the game as a replacement in the eighth inning and stole a base on his first career attempt.

His stint for the Blues was brief, as he appeared in two games but did not record an official at bat.

Plews spent more of the year with the Class B Quincy Gems of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League, tallying 13 hits as part of a .298 batting average in 13 games.

During a late-afternoon game, as the sun was going down, Plews was hit by a pitch, suffering a fractured skull.

He spent about four days in the hospital, then returned to Montana, not playing again for the rest of the year.

Plews's career was put on hold for the next two years as the Korean War broke out; he was drafted by the United States Army and sent to Camp Drake, located northwest of Tokyo in Japan.

Part of the infantry, he might have seen front line service, except that the colonel in charge of Camp Drake, upon learning he was a baseball player, assigned him to stay at the camp and play on the baseball team.

During his playing career he served in the military from 1951 to 1952, during the Korean War.

Plews batted left-handed and threw right-handed; he was listed as 5 ft tall and 160 lb.

Born in East Helena, Montana, Plews would be (at the time of his death) the only player from the Helena area to reach the major leagues.

Completing his service in 1953, Plews returned to the states without ever having to serve in combat.

In January 1953, Plews was invited to attend spring training with the Yankees.

He stuck with the team until April, when he was assigned to the minor league Class A Binghamton Triplets of the Eastern League before the start of the season.

Plews played 28 games for Binghamton but was reassigned to the Class B Norfolk Tars because the Yankees had a double play combination at Binghamton, the Charnofsky twins, that they wanted to play together–with the Charnofskys playing every day, Plews, a second baseman, would have gotten very little playing time.

Plews's time in the minor leagues was interrupted by his military service, but he had made it to the Denver Bears (the top affiliate of the Yankees' system) by 1955.

After the season, though, he was sent to the Senators in a multi-player trade.

He played four years in the majors, from 1956 to 1959 with the Washington Senators and in 1959 for the Boston Red Sox.

In the minor leagues he played for Kansas City, Binghamton, Norfolk, and Denver before reaching the majors in 1956, and Toronto, Birmingham, Hawaii, Tacoma, and Arkansas after his major league career ended.

Plews debuted with Washington in 1956 and started at second base for them over much of the next three years.

Mostly a part-time player in 1959, he was traded to the Red Sox in July, appearing in just 13 more games before being sent to the minors.

He played six more years of professional baseball before retiring at the end of 1965.

After his baseball career, Plews worked in cement plants, first in Montana and then in the Denver area.

He died in 2014.