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| Pete Reiser - Dodgers |
Born: March 17, 1919 —St. Patrick’s Day—in St. Louis, Missouri.
Position: Outfielder
Team: Brooklyn Dodgers
Height: 5' 11". Weight: 185 lbs
Batted: Left .295 BA
Threw: Right, Could also throw left-handed.
Pete Reiser was a terrific football player, bowler and ice skater, too. On top of everything, he was also ambidextrous. Pete threw and batted right-handed as a boy, but he could swing around and do almost as well left-handed.
Reiser was fearless - and ambidextrous
He had this thing for running into walls after fly balls, and standing his ground against knockdown pitches, so his head kept taking this awful punishment, and when it wasn't his head it was his shoulder, which he broke diving for a ball.
When somebody asked him what he would do if he couldn't throw again when he got back to the Dodgers, he said "I'll just throw left-haned." That's another thing he was, ambidextrous. (Dick Young, New York Daily News)
Switch hitting
At age 20, in his first 11 at-bats, swinging against big league talent in exhibition games, Reiser hit four homers, four singles and drew three walks, batting lefty and righty. He was playing shortstop then.
In 1941, Reiser won the NL batting title with a .343 batting average in his first full season in the majors. In 1946 he stole home, a National League record seven times.
Pete Reiser, Switch Pitcher
Dodger Rook Likes Big Time Hurling
By Whitney Martin
The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 April 1939
Reiser, a switch pitcher who can throw well with either hand, was the sensation of the Grapefruit
league, getting eight hits and three walks before they finally got him out.
He wasn't on the Dodger roster, but Manager Leo Durocher invited him to the Clearwater camp
"because the kid wanted to see Florida and I wanted someone to relieve me at shortstop occasionally."
For a while it looked like the relief might be permanent. However, the law of averages finally caught
up with Reiser, but not before he had shown enough stuff to possibly earn himself a place on the squad.
The boy grew up on the St. Louis sandlots, and as a loyal Cardinal fan picked as a hero a classy shortstop named Durocher. His other hero was an older brother, now dead, and it was an attempt to imitate this brother, a southpaw, that made Pete, a natural right-hander, ambidextrous.
Read more
Pete Reiser Biography
Pete Reiser - When Hustle Was Expected
A tough guy - That was Pistol Pete Reiser, the phenom
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