George "Shotgun" Shuba
(born December 13, 1924) is a former utility outfielder
and left-handed pinch hitter
in Major League Baseball
who played seven seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers
. His seven seasons included three World Series
as well as a World Series championship in 1955. He was the first National League
player to hit a pinch-hit home run in a World Series game.
Shuba is often remembered for his symbolic role in breaking down Major League Baseball's tenacious "color barrier
". While playing for a farm team in the 1940s, Shuba offered a congratulatory handshake to rival team player Jackie Robinson
, who went on to become the first African American
to play in a major league since the late 19th century.
In the early 1970s, Shuba's major league career was featured in a chapter of Roger Kahn
's The Boys of Summer
, a tribute to the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers. Kahn observed in his book that Shuba earned his nickname, "Shotgun", by "spraying line drives
with a swing so compact that it appeared as natural as a smile".
Shuba was born the youngest of 10 children to Slovak
immigrants in Youngstown, Ohio
, a... Read More