Peanuts Lowrey
Outfielder
Born: (1917-08-27)August 27, 1917
Culver City, California, U.S.
Died: July 2, 1986(1986-07-02) (aged 68)
Inglewood, California, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 14, 1942, for the Chicago Cubs
Last MLB appearance
August 30, 1955, for the Philadelphia Phillies
MLB statistics
Batting average.273
Home runs37
Runs batted in479
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Harry Lee "Peanuts" Lowrey (August 27, 1917 – July 2, 1986) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs (1942–43; 1945–49), Cincinnati Reds (1949–50), St. Louis Cardinals (1950–54) and Philadelphia Phillies (1955).

He was born in Culver City, California and attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. He was nicknamed as a child by an uncle who, remarking on Lowrey's small size, said, "Why, he's no bigger than a peanut."[1] While Lowrey was growing up in Greater Los Angeles, he worked as a child actor on the Our Gang comedies.[2][3] As a 35-year-old, he was credited for his screen role as a ballplayer, nicknamed "Peanuts," in The Winning Team, a 1952 biography of Grover Cleveland Alexander that starred Ronald Reagan in the title role.[4]

Lowrey the ballplayer stood 5 feet, 8+1⁄2 inches (1.74 m) tall, weighed 170 pounds (77 kg) and threw and batted right-handed. In a 13-season career, Lowrey posted a .273 batting average with 1,177 hits, 37 home runs and 479 RBI in 1,401 games played. In his late career, he became known as one of the top pinch hitters in the Major Leagues. He set an MLB record with seven consecutive pinch hits in 1952, and the following season made 21 pinch hits to fall one shy of the then-MLB all-time record.[5]

He missed the 1944 season while serving in the United States Army with a military police unit. Lowrey was discharged after six months and rejoined the Cubs in 1945.[2]

Lowrey was the starting left fielder for the Cubs in all seven games of the 1945 World Series, batting .310 (nine for 29) with a double, and four runs scored; in Game 7, he was the last Cub to score a run in a World Series until Kris Bryant did so in Game 2 of the 2016 Fall Classic.[6]

After a brief managing career in minor league baseball, Lowrey returned to the Major Leagues as a coach with the Phillies (1960–66), San Francisco Giants (1967–68), Montreal Expos (1969), Cubs (1970–71; 1977–81) and California Angels (1972).

Lowrey died in Inglewood, California, at the age of 68 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

References

  1. ↑ Spink, C.C. Johnson, pub., The 1967 Official Baseball Register. St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1967
  2. 1 2 Bedingfield, Gary. "Peanuts Lowrey". Gary Bedingfield's Baseball in Wartime. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Peanuts Lowery". IMDb.
  4. ↑ IMDb
  5. ↑ The Associated Press, October 12, 1954
  6. ↑ Maldre, Matt. "Game 2 scorecard for 2016 World Series". 57hits. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
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