Given Name: Robert Albert
NickName(s): Archie
DOB: 9/15/1928
Lennon died on June 14, 2005, at his home. He was 76. His wife, four children and six grandchildren survived. His only surviving sibling, his sister Mary Reynolds, described him as “a gentle, loving man.”
Bob Lennon hit 64 home runs for the Southern Association Nashville Vols in 1954, but his most memorable homer came on April 30, 1957, when he was playing for the Chicago Cubs. "It was what I had dreamed about," he recalled in a 1993 interview. He hit it in Ebbets Field, where he had rooted for the Dodgers as a boy. It was his only major league home run.
Assigned to Daytona Beach of the Class D Florida State League, he played in an exhibition against the Dodgers' AAA Montreal farm club and Jackie Robinson.
Some of his teammates began calling him "Archie" because his Brooklyn accent reminded them of a character on a popular radio comedy, "Duffy's Tavern." The nickname stayed with him throughout his career.
When the season was over, he joined a barnstorming team headlined by the recently retired slugger Jimmie Foxx. He was promised $15 a game, but sometimes got only half that when the crowd was small.
In 1947 he moved up to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the Class B Mid-Atlantic League. After 106 games he hurt his knee - the first of many injuries. "When I look back on it...a lot of things went wrong," he said years later. In his 17-year career, Lennon played as many as 130 games only five times.
The Giants drafted him off the roster of the Newport News, Virginia, Dodgers in the Class B Piedmont League and sent him to Sioux City of the Class A Western League in 1948. In his fourth professional season he was making about $280 a month.
The Sioux City club was playing in Denver on August 16, the day Babe Ruth died. They observed a moment of silence in the ballpark in the Babe's memory. Standing in left field with his cap over his heart, Lennon recalled, "I said, 'Please, lord, let his strength, his home runs... come into my body. The next time up, I hit a home run. I said 'Oh, my god.'"
He moved to Jacksonville of the South Atlantic League in 1949, where he hit just 13 home runs in 553 at-bats. The 1950 season was split between Jacksonville and the Giants' top farm club at Minneapolis in the American Association.
Like many other young ballplayers, Lennon was drafted into the Army when the Korean War began. He missed the 1951 season, but was released before his two-year hitch was up because of back trouble.
In May 1952 he rejoined Minneapolis. He got off to a good start with eight homers and a .295 average in 50 games. But when the Giants called up outfielder Dusty Rhodes from Nashville in July, Lennon was sent down to AA to replace him in the Vols' lineup. With the two teams, he totaled 23 homers in 428 at-bats. He returned to Nashville the following year, hitting 24 homers in 399 at-bats.
In 1954 Vols owner Larry Gilbert changed his batting stance: "I was pretty much a stand-up hitter, with my bat [held high], you know, and I had trouble with the high pitch." Gilbert put him in a deep crouch, "way down with my bat almost right in the catcher's face. I was protected from the high pitch. If I was standing, it would be here [letter-high]. If I was down, I'd be lower and I could come up and hit it good." When he sprang out of the crouch, a letter-high pitch would be waist-high.
He "hit it good" 64 times in 1954. That set a Southern Association record, but did not lead organized baseball.
The same year, Roswell, New Mexico, where a UFO either did or did not land seven years before, was visited by identified flying objects: 72 homers hit by a gas station owner named Joe Bauman for the Rockets of the Class C Longhorn League. Bauman's record for the most home runs in organized ball stood until Barry Bonds hit 73 for the Giants in 2001.
He won the Southern Association Triple Crown and posted an OPS of 1.145. His league-leading totals included 139 runs, 210 hits, 64 homers, 161 RBI, .345 batting average, .734 slugging percentage and 447 total bases. He hit two home runs in a game nine times, three in a game twice and four in a doubleheader, but, in his recollection, no grand slam. He homered once in every 9.5 at-bats. He struck out 97 times in an era when few players fanned 100 times in a season. Despite his dominating performance, he drew only 65 walks.
As he approached Ruth's 60-homer mark, a local television station aired several of the Vols' games. He recalled photographers crowding behind home plate popping flashbulbs every time he batted; they were allowed on the field in those days.
On the season's final day, with his car packed and waiting outside the ballpark, he clubbed three homers in a Labor Day doubleheader. Then he and his wife started driving to New York to join the big club. When he arrived at the Polo Grounds, manager Leo Durocher was annoyed that he hadn't taken a plane.
He was not the rowdy manager's favorite, nor vice versa: "Leo, to me, was a big loudmouth...A lot of the players, they wouldn't say so, but they didn't like him." It probably didn't help their relationship when Durocher introduced the rookie as "Bob Lemon" at a banquet the following spring.
He is buried in Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, New York
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