Fred "Dixie" Walker (September 24, 1910 - May 17, 1982) was a right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees (1931, 1933-36), Chicago White Sox (1936-37), Detroit Tigers (1938-39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939-47) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1948-49). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
In a 18-season career, Walker posted a .306 batting average with 105 home runs and 1023 RBI in 1905 games.
A native of Villa Rica, Georgia, Walker was a player whose popularity with the Ebbets Field fans in the 1940s brought him the nickname "The People Cherce". A five-consecutive All-Star (1943-47) and a winner of the National League batting crown in 1944, he also was considered five times for the MVP Award.
At 17 age, Walker was obtained by the Yankees in 1930 for a then-record $25,000. Althought he lacked smoothness, Walker was such an outstanding prospect that the organization envisioned him as the Babe Ruth successor after batting .350 in the International League. Basically a pull hitter with some power, he also was a fast runner and a competent outfielder with a fine throwing arm. Nevertheles, in his 1931 rookie season he crashed into a fence and suffered a shoulder injury that impaired his throwing. The injury was corrected through a surgery and he was out in 1932, but the injury recurred a year later after a slide in second base. After the second injury, despite he was hitting .350, and on the arrival of Joe DiMaggio, manager Joe McCarthy traded Walker to the White Sox in the 1936 mid-season. He was able to play for the Yankees only 131 games in a span of six years.
With Chicago, Walker hit .302 and tied for the American League with triples in 1937, but he cracked up the damaged shoulder so badly that he needed surgery again. Finally, the Sox sent him to Detroit before the 1938 season. He continued to hit more than .300 with the Tigers, then he ripped cartilage in a knee in 1939. Although he had been hitting for a high average, his career seemed nearing an end because of the string of injuries. Placed on waivers, Walker was obtained by the Dodgers in the mid-season when they were in need of outfielders.
Since the beginning, Walker became a celebrity in Brooklyn. In his first game for the 1940 Dodgers he singled to right field in the 11th inning to beat the Boston Braves. In that campaign he led his team in batting average (.308) and doubles. He also posted some of his best games against the New York Giants, batting .436 against the hated rivals, and as result, endeared himself to the Brooklyn fans. Nevertheless, manager Leo Durocher opened the 1941 season with the newly acquired Paul Waner in Walker's right field spot. In consequence, Brooklyn fans were outraged. But the veteran Waner faded fast and was sent to the Boston Braves. Walker returned only to became part of an all-.300-hitting outfield (along with CF Pete Reiser and LF Joe Medwick), that led the Dodgers to the 1941 National League pennant.
The following years, Walker continued to produce. He hit .290 in 1942, .302 in 1943, led the NL with a .357 batting average in 1944, ahead of Stan Musial at .347, with the NL MVP award going to fielding wizard shortstop Marty Marion. Walker won the 1945 RBI title with 124 and hit .300. In 1946 he was second in RBI (116) and third in batting average (.319), finishing second in the MVP vote behind Musial.
When the Dodgers broke baseball's color barrier signing Jackie Robinson, Walker became a figure of some controversy. In 1947, during spring training, the club announced that it was bringing up Robinson from the minors. Walker thereupon wrote a letter to Branch Rickey, the club president, asking him to be traded. The letter did not mention Robinson by name, but Walker acknowledge later that he had been under pressure from Alabama people not to play with Robinson. He denied, nevertheless, that he had been in the forefront of a move to block Robinson. He was soon defending him and giving him pointers, and added that he came to respect Robinson for the way he handled the abuse hurled at him, and called him "as outstanding an athlete as I never saw". Walker finished the year with .306 and 94 RBI.
Sent to the Pirates in 1948, Walker led his team with a .318 average (topping the .300 mark for the tenth time in 12 years), and ended his playing career the next season. Following his retirement as a player, he managed several minor league teams for most of the 1950s; served as a batting coach with the St. Louis Cardinals, and coached and scouted both for the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Dixie Walker died in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of 71.
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Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46
