Aside from being one of my favorite Lexibell photos found, reading up on 6-time AL all-star George McQuinn was most enlightening.
Blocked in the Yankees farm system by Lou Gehrig, McQuinn was never even invited to spring training. Finally, after a one-season respite with the Cincinnati Reds, at age 28 he was finally librated when the Browns selected him in the Rule V draft in 1938. He responded with 195 hits and a .324 average. He would go on to earn all-star status four of the next six years, including the 1944 World Champs, as he was one of 18 4-Fs on the Browns' roster.
Traded to the Athletics for the 1946 season, he fell to .225 and was released. But irony of ironies, he was picked up by the Yankees at the last minute and would up with the first base job he coveted for the 1947 season when Charlie Keller was hurt, shaking up the lineup. He hirt .390 the first two months of the season, wound up with a .304 mark and 80s RBIs and sixth in the MVP voting as the Yankees won it all. In 1948, he again started hot (.340 at the end of May), was again an all-star, but completely collapsed to a .248 mark and was released.
Beginning in 1950, as minor league player-manager for the Braves' farm club in Quebec, he won four pennants.
