Pistol Pete Reiser of the 40s Brooklyn Dodgers was the greatest player I ever saw even to this day. His career was cut short in 1942, running full speed into the center field wall in St. Louis in 1942. I’m writing this because I never hear sports writers mention him. But when my son said “Who’s he?” That did it. As a 22 year old rookie in 1941, Pete won the batting title with a 343 average led the league in doubles, triples and stolen bases. In 1942 he stole home 7 times. He served in the military and returned to the Dodgers in 1946. He was never the same. The fractured skull he suffered never really allowed him to rekindle his natural ability. But because of him, there is now padding on outfield walls and a warning track for the players.
I met Pete back in 1947 when I was 14 years old. I was a Brooklyn neighbor of Doc Wendler who was trainer of the Brooklyn Dodgers and frequently had players over for dinner. The first time I saw him play, in 1941, he got 2 or 3 hits, one was a triple and boy could he run, stole a base and threw out the tying run at home plate saving the win. I saw him many times after that (my father was a rabid Dodger fan) but as much as posible, I listened to his exploits as described by Red Barber on the radio. My father taught me long division so I could calculate his batting average daily. The day they carried him off the field in 1942 I was heartbroken. Leo Durocher, manager of the Dodgers and then the Giants said Willie Mays was the only player he ever saw that he could even try to compare with Reiser. In fact, Durocher hired Reiser as a coach who taught Willie how to play center field.
It’s tragic especially for me, a rabid Brooklyn Dodger fan, that his memory is almost lost. Because of his abbreviated career, he never was eligible for the hall of fame and was not remembered like Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams. He definitely should be. Roger Kahn’s book “The Boys of Summer” doesn’t even mention him. The last paragraph about him in the Brooklyn Dodger encyclopedia says “Pete Reiser’s career was snuffed out brutally before he could reach his full potential. But for 727days, from his major league debut on July 23, 1940 until his tragic collision with the outfield wall in St Louis on July 19, 1942, Pistol Pete Reiser was the greatest baseball player who ever lived.”