Freddie Lindstrom

Frederick Charles Lindstrom (November 21, 1905 – October 4, 1981) was an American professional baseball third baseman and outfielder.

He was devastated when his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and other teammates were banned from baseball for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series.

A million-dollar infield," said writer Arnold Hano of the late-1920s Giants quartet. "Fans would come early just to watch their fielding-practice magic." In an essay on Willie Mays’ famous 1954 back-to-the-plate catch off Cleveland's Vic Wertz, Hano claimed that an even more sensational play was Lindstrom's full-length, leaping grab before crashing into the outfield wall in a 1932 Giants-Pirates game that the New York Herald Tribune later called "the greatest catch ever made in the Polo Grounds." During his nine seasons with the Giants, Lindstrom batted .318 (fourth on the team's all-time list in the 20th century), while demonstrating his ability to come through in the clutch with pennant-chasing hitting streaks in September 1928 that raised his average from .342 to .358 and in 1930 from .354 to .379. As late as 1935 while playing center field for the Chicago Cubs, his .427 batting average during a stretch of 21 consecutive victories was credited by such Chicago newsmen as John P. Carmichael and Warren Brown as the main factor in the Cubs’ drive for the NL championship.

Lindstrom attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, and was in his sophomore year when he tried out for the Chicago Cubs in 1922.

He instead signed with the New York Giants, who assigned him to the Toledo Mud Hens.

He played for Toledo for two years with such future Giants teammates as Travis Jackson and Bill Terry.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1924 until 1936.

Lindstrom debuted in MLB for the Giants in 1924.

The Giants promoted Lindstrom to the major leagues for the 1924 season.

The 18-year-old Lindstrom batted .333 in the 1924 World Series, including four hits in one game against Washington's Walter Johnson while playing errorless baseball in the field.

The youngest player ever in a post-season game, he was described by Johnson after the fifth game as "a wonder, easily the brightest star in this series."

Modern-day statistics guru Bill James, who rates Lindstrom No. 43 on his all-time third basemen list, placed him among the top three under-21 players at that position and called the 1927 Giants infield of Lindstrom, Hornsby, Travis Jackson and Bill Terry the decade's best.

He also topped the league in assists in 1928, finishing second with 34 double plays and 506 total chances.

All while posting 231 hits in both 1928 and 1930 including nine hits in a double header, a record never surpassed to this day.

In 1930, Giants manager John McGraw ranked Lindstrom ninth among the top 20 players of the previous quarter century.

In 1931, injuries - including a chronic bad back and broken leg - brought about his switch to the outfield.

Often referred to as "the last of the great place hitters" on McGraw teams that emphasized advancing runners into scoring position rather than relying on the long ball, Lindstrom in 1931 was led to believe that he would succeed the long-time Giants manager.

"We’re making that change we spoke about next year," Lindstrom, recuperating from a broken leg, said he was told by Giants’ club secretary Jim Tierney.

"McGraw is going out and we want to make you manager."

Instead, for reasons that some traced to Lindstrom's leadership role in a player revolt against their often dictatorial manager (a charge he consistently denied, although admitting that he often spoke out against the feisty skipper nicknamed Little Napoleon), club owner Horace Stoneham chose first baseman Bill Terry to replace McGraw.

Babe Ruth picked him as his NL all-star third baseman over Traynor for the decade leading up to the first inter-league All Star game in 1933.

The Giants traded him to the Pirates before the 1933 season.

Although the two remained friends, Lindstrom demanded a trade, which took him to Pittsburgh in 1933.

To the press, Terry said, "Fred no longer has that burst of speed he used to have."

Several years later, Lindstrom conceded "It was the worst mistake I ever made. If I could have just accepted that setback, it would have worked out in time. But I fouled the whole thing up -- forever."

Playing in the outfield between Lloyd and Paul Waner, Lindstrom finished second on the Pirates to shortstop Arky Vaughan by four percentage points with a .310 batting average (eighth highest in the National League), hitting 39 doubles and leading the league's center fielders with a .986 fielding average.

But after one outstanding season, Lindstrom again found himself involved with a team expected to contend for a pennant struggling with controversy.

First, George Gibson was fired as manager 51 games into the season with the Pirates mired in fourth place.

His replacement, Pie Traynor, moved Lindstrom to left field and then to the bench after breaking his finger in a fungo game.

At season's end, despite fielding .990 and again outhitting Lloyd Waner while playing in 43 fewer games, Lindstrom was traded to the Chicago Cubs where he quickly became what Cubs manager Charley Grimm later called "a vital asset" in the team's 1935 league championship.

He also played for the Cubs and Dodgers before he retired after 13 seasons in 1936.

Lindstrom was born on Chicago's South Side, near Comiskey Park.

Lindstrom as a youngster was an ardent Chicago White Sox fan, often playing hooky from school to watch their games.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.

But a bad-hop bouncer over his head in the 12th inning of the seventh game gave the series to the Senators and became an enduring moment in baseball lore.

A number of later accounts of the Series called Lindstrom "the goat for his 12th-inning error."

Actually, there was no error on the play, and Groh was later quoted as saying: "It wasn't Freddie's fault. It could have happened to anyone. He never had a chance to get the ball."

"So they won it," Lindstrom later recalled.

"(Giants pitcher) Jack Bentley, who was something of a philosopher, I think summed it up after the game. ‘Walter Johnson,’ Bentley said, ‘is such a loveable character that the good Lord didn't want to see him get beat again.’"

Playing in an era when fielders’ gloves were little more than padded strips of leather with a baseball-sized pocket in the palm, Lindstrom for three of the next four seasons led National League third basemen in fielding percentage.