Bob Lennon
Robert Albert Lennon
Nickname: Archie
Born: Sept. 15, 1928 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Died: June 14, 2005 in Dix Hills, N.Y.
Debit: 1954 | Pos: OF
Notable Achievements
Won Triple crown in the Southern Association in 1954
Set Southern Association record for homeruns in a season, 1954 (64)
In 1954, he hit two home runs in a game nine times, three in a game twice and four in a doubleheader
[edit] Highlights
Before 1945 Season: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent.
1947: On 20 November he was drafted by the Giants from the Dodgers in the 1947 minor league draft.
1954: Breakout year in Nashville (see above)
1957: On 16 April, he was traded by the Giants with Dick Littlefield to the Cubs for Ray Jablonski and Ray Katt. On 30 April, when he was playing for the Cubs, he hit his only major league home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The pitcher was Sal Maglie. At the end of the Pacific Coast League season, the Detroit Tigers claimed him on waivers but returned him to the Cubs.
Bob Lennon earned his first big league cup of coffee following a Triple Crown winning season in the minors in 1954. That year, he hit .354 with 64 home runs and 161 RBI for the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association.
Bob Lennon was an outfielder for 16 years, four in the Major Leagues (1954-57) and 16 in the minors (1945-1950;1952-1961), losing one year to the military. He served as a corporal in the U. S. Army for one year during the Korean War (1951) (BP). He missed the 1951 season, but was released before his two-year hitch was up because of back trouble. He had four cups of coffee with the New York Giants (1954-1956) and Chicago Cubs (1957). He hit .281 with 278 homerons and 1,067 runs batted in his 16 years in the minors.
Writers described him as blond and powerfully built at six feet and 200 pounds, a speedy centerfielder with a strong arm. While he was hitting all those home runs, he occasionally filled in as a relief pitcher. His Nashville manager, Hugh Poland, praised his hard work and pleasing personality.
During that season, Lennon and his wife, Florence, who had no children, adopted a baby girl with the help of the Montreal team physician's connections. They named her Kathleen. Their son Bobby was born soon afterward, and Billy and Debby came along later.
He said his wife urged him to quit in 1961: "We had our third child that year...and I wasn't going anywhere...I wanted to keep playing, but I'd just bounce around Triple-A or maybe Double-A." When he wasn't playing winter ball, he had worked in the off-seasons as an ironworker. He had his union card (Local 580 in New York) and easily found a job. But he acknowledged that the break from baseball was painful: "I missed it every spring...the first three or four or five years...From, what, [age] 16 to 33, that was my life."
Lennon later did some "bird-dog" scouting for the Yankees. During the 1990s he underwent two open-heart surgeries. In 2001 he said he still got a couple of requests for autographs every week: "Sometimes they want to send you money. Hey, I'm just glad somebody remembers me." Lennon died at age 76 on 14 June 2005, at his home in Dix Hills, NY and was buried at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton NY. His wife, four children and six grandchildren survived him. His only surviving sibling, his sister Mary Reynolds, described him as a gentle, loving man.
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