From the Desk of Phil Hudgins
Jerry Grillo is a self-confessed baseball nerd. Born in New York, he moved South as a young child and was about 12 years old when he started memorizing players’ hitting averages, the teams they played for, the juicy stories about their extra-game activities.
That’s why he became interested in writing a book on Johnny Mize, a player who literally walked softly but carried a big stick. And he used that stick deftly, becoming one of baseball’s great hitters in the sport’s golden age.
At the time, Jerry was editor of The Northeast Georgian, a newspaper in Cornelia, Ga., just down the road from Demorest, where Mize was born and raised. He had met Judi Mize, who talked about her stepdad—Big Cat, as Johnny was known—and piqued Jerry’s interest.
So began Jerry’s book, aptly titled “Big Cat,” a complete biography of Johnny Mize, a deserving slugger who waited 28 years to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Not long after that beginning, though, Jerry’s wife, Jane, gave birth to son Joey three months early, his condition requiring the attention of both parents. The book was put on hold—for more than 20 years. It was finally published last year.
Mize’s career as a first baseman and “gunslinger,” the guy who could hit under pressure, included play for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants and the Yankees from 1936 to 1953. He hit 359 home runs and won five World Series with the Yankees while developing relationships with such legends as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, his cousin.
He deserved to be in the Hall of Fame soon after his retirement, but officials kept changing the rules for induction. It was 1981 when the honor was finally bestowed. Mize died in 1993, back at home in Demorest.
Jerry, an accomplished writer with an engaging style, came up with interesting sidebars about Mize. For example, he is the only major league player who hit a yellow ball for a home run.
Researchers at Columbia University thought the color might be useful for night games, and the Brooklyn Dodgers were asked to try it out. Yellow might have been Mize’s favorite color because, playing for the Cardinals in that 1938 game, he sent that experimental orb sailing out of the Dodgers’ Ebbets Field.
Through his research, Jerry discovered that Mize was an open-minded adventurer, playing in off-season for teams in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. “He probably hadn’t seen many black people or Latino people in his life, coming from where he did,” Jerry said in an interview. ‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ is the sense he had. Is the money good?”
If Mize had been living, he probably wouldn’t have told Jerry Grillo much about his playing days. He didn’t talk much. Jerry called him “a conversational barber. He’s going to cut things off.”
But what he learned about the man 25 years ago and more recently brought him back to life in an interesting, readable book, “Big Cat.” If you like baseball, you’ll love the story.
Phil Hudgins is the senior editor of Community Newspapers Inc. Reach him at phudgins@cninewspapers.com.