Remembering Hurricane Hazle

Image credits: SABR

You probably don’t remember an outfielder named Bob Hazle. No surprise. He appeared in only 110 major league games way back in the 1950s.

But you may have heard of Hurricane Hazle, a tag pinned on him when he was playing in Venezuela and a hurricane named Hazel blew through his native South Carolina. That label would be revived when he blew through the National League like Halley’s comet in the last two months of the 1957 season before disappearing from view.

A four-sport letterman in high school, Hazle signed with Cincinnati in 1950. After six years in the minors, the Reds brought him up near the end of the 1955 season. He singled in his first at-bat, but showed little in six games. The following spring the Reds traded him to Milwaukee, who sent him down to AAA Wichita.

Hampered by a mid-season knee injury, he hit .285. In 1957, still in Wichita, he was 27 and ready to quit baseball if he didn’t make it to the big leagues by the end of the year. His knee had healed, and by mid-July he was

What happened next began with an injury. On July 11 the Milwaukee Braves were in Pittsburgh. In the bottom of the first inning, Pirates leadoff batter Bill Virdon hit a shallow bloop Texas Leaguer back of second base. Center fielder Bill Bruton raced in. Shortstop Felix Mantilla raced out. 

Bill Bruton

The ball was hit in one of those spots where you did not know if anyone was going to be able to reach it. The standard thing to yell was ‘I’ll take it.’ And the other would say, ‘Take it.”

Neither one of us waved the other off. Looking up at the ball, you don’t see each other. We both reached for it at the same time. My right knee hit his knee. I had torn ligaments.

It soon became clear that Bruton was out for the year. The Braves moved Hank Aaron to center field and the veteran Andy Pafko replaced him in right. 

By the end of July, the National League pennant race was as close as it could be: only 3 games separated the first-place Braves from the fifth-place Cardinals. Looking for help to platoon with the veteran Pafko, the Braves brought up the left-hand-hitting Hazle, who was batting .279 at Wichita.

The Hurricane

Bob Hazle’s Milwaukee debut on July 29 was quiet but successful: as a pinch hitter he put down a sacrifice bunt. Two days later he had his first hit, a double. Then the squalls began. Beginning on August 4, over the next 10 days he had 5 multi-hit games; it was raining doubles and home runs.

After a month he was hitting .507. Teammate Red Schoendienst said, “Right now the kid is Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams all wrapped in one.”

Bob Hazle was hitting .507 after a month in Milwaukee. Image credits: Twitter

The Braves pulled away from the field and won by 8 games. Hazle finished with a .403 batting average in 41 games, with 12 doubles, 7 home runs and 27 RBIs. 

By then the hurricane had blown out to sea. Hazle cooled off in the Braves’ seven-game World Series win over the Yankees; he had two singles in 13 at bats. 

Injured in spring training in 1958, he batted .179 in 20 games and was sold to Detroit, where he hit .241 before finishing his baseball career back in the minor leagues.