Joe Tipton

Joe Hicks Tipton (February 18, 1922 – March 1, 1994) was an American professional baseball player.

Tipton began his playing career in the Textile League with Brighton Mills in Shannon in 1938, and spent the next three years with the Talladega team.

While with Talladega, he was spotted by a scout from the Cleveland Indians organization, who signed Tipton to a professional contract.

After being signed by the Indians, Tipton made his professional debut with the Appleton Papermakers of the Wisconsin State League, where he had a .298 batting average and 11 home runs in 59 games.

He spent most of the year there, and played in ten games with the Flint Arrows of the Michigan State League.

In 1942, Tipton was promoted to the Charleston Senators, the Indians' Class C minor league affiliate.

In one of his first games with the Senators, Tipton hit two triples and a home run to give his team the win by a score of seven to four.

In 81 games with the team, Tipton had a .313 batting average.

Before the 1943 season began, Tipton joined the military to serve in World War II.

He served in the United States Navy and was part of the Pacific Theater of Operations from 1943 to 1945.

During his time in the Pacific, he served on the USS Kadashan Bay.

The ship was hit by kamikaze attack in January 1945; Tipton emerged unscathed from the attack.

After the end of the war, Tipton returned to baseball.

He spent the 1946 season with the Harrisburg Senators, and had a .327 batting average in 104 games.

In 1947, he was promoted to the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Eastern League.

That season, he had a .375 batting average, which led the league.

The following season, Tipton joined the Cleveland Indians for spring training.

By the end of March, he was considered a sure thing to make the major league roster.

He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1948 through 1954 with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, and the Washington Senators.

In 417 career games, Tipton recorded a batting average of .236 and accumulated 29 home runs, and 125 runs batted in (RBI).

Born and raised in Georgia, Tipton played amateur baseball until the Cleveland Indians signed him.

He spent two years in the minor leagues before serving in World War II.

He played two more years in the minor leagues upon his return, then made his MLB debut with the Indians in 1948.

The Cleveland Indians decided to keep only two catchers on the roster for the 1948 Cleveland Indians season, and manager Lou Boudreau chose Tipton to back up Jim Hegan.

He made his major league debut on May 2, and a month later, in a game on June 6, he had five hits in five plate appearances to give Cleveland a win against the Philadelphia Athletics.

Tipton played in 47 games over the course of the season and had a .289 batting average.

He also played in one game during the 1948 World Series, striking out in his only appearance.

After the World Series, Indians owner Bill Veeck wanted to improve the pitching staff.

Despite finding Tipton to be worthy of a starting job and despite Veeck considering trading Hegan instead, Tipton was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Joe Haynes.

Early in the season, White Sox manager Jack Onslow accused Tipton of tipping pitches after a loss to the St. Louis Browns and fined him $500.

The two then fought and Tipton threatened to leave the team, but they buried the hatchet a short time later.

He played in 67 games during the season, and ended the year with a .204 batting average and three triples.

The Indians traded him to the White Sox in 1949, then the White Sox sent him to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1950.

Tipton spent two and a half years with the Athletics before returning to Cleveland.

After spending a season with the Washington Senators, he played and managed in the minor leagues for a few seasons before being banned from the minor leagues.

After the ban, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama where he died in 1994.

Tipton was born and raised in McCaysville, Georgia as the fifth of seven children.

His birthplace was on the Tennessee border, so it was originally registered as Copperhill, Tennessee.

Tipton attended Epworth High School and Copperhill High School in Tennessee, where he played on the high school basketball and football teams.

He moved to Shannon, Georgia at the age of 16 in order to pursue a career in baseball.