Gair Allie served as the everyday shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1954, but that ended up being his only major league action. He
passed away on October 4, 2016, just weeks before his 85th birthday.
Gair was born in Statesville, North Carolina and excelled in baseball and football, as well as academically, at Statesville High. In his senior year, he was named "Mr. Statesville", the honor that went to the city's best all-around athlete. He was also playing semi-pro with the Stellarton Albions in 1951, launching 19 home runs for that team. He turned down a football scholarship at UNC, taking a baseball scholarship with Wake Forest instead. In the athletic dorm he lived in at Wake Forest, his "next door neighbor" (the guy in the adjacent dorm room) was Arnold Palmer and the two remained friends through the years.
Gair was being scouted by both the Yankees and Pirates, but signed with Pittsburgh due to a relationship he'd developed with Branch Rickey. He got a signing bonus somewhere in the $30,000 range and was assigned to New Orleans in 1952. He hit just .216, but led the league in walks and had above average range for an infielder and, in spite of his average, he was expected to make the Pirates in 1953. But in the spring of '53, Gair broke his ankle in an intrasquad game. He was expected to miss the entire season, but returned in time to get in 32 games with New Orleans, hitting .242 for the Pelicans.
Dick Groat was serving in the military in 1953 and '54. Eddie O'Brien had taken short in 1953, but he and his brother Johnny were both serving in 1954. That left both second and short open. Dick Cole outplayed Gair that spring, but Allie got the opening day nod anyway. At second base was rookie Curt Roberts, the Pirates' first African-American player.
Gair opened the season in a slump and pretty much stayed there. After 20 games, he was hitting .161 and was benched with Dick Cole taking over short. But, after a couple of weeks, Gair was back at the position and stayed there until he was briefly sidelined in late July/early August. His average at that point was .205. Of greater concern was his fielding. Gair finished the year with the worst fielding percentage at short of anyone in the National League who played at least 70 games at the position. Manager Fred Haney had seen enough and had concluded that Gair was not a major league shortstop. From August 22 forward, Gair played mainly at third. He finished the year in a 2 for 29 slump. In the last game of the season, Gair's final big league at bat was a pop fly for an out that dropped his average to .199, the first time his average had fallen below .200 since early June.
It was back to New Orleans in 1955, as Dick Groat had returned from his military hitch. Ironically, Gair--still just 23--was suddenly hitting well. He finished 1955 with a .275 average and had a career high 15 home runs. He was hitting .292 in 1956 when Uncle Sam said it was his turn to serve. He returned in 1958. Over the next three years he hit .248, .256 and .267, but did not get another look in the majors.
1961 would be his final season of professional baseball. He settled in San Antonio. In the 60s and 70s, he worked for the Falstaff and Lonestar beer distributors, working his way up the ladder to become the Sales Manager and Vice President of the company. In 1987, he opened Raffles restaurant and bar, which he and his family ran until 2015.
The attached image of Gair was posted to Baseball-Birthdays some years ago. There are two versions of the colorization, the second of which is just a color boosted version of the first. I'm kinda undecided on which I prefer. I'd say the unboosted version except that the background I went with, which was a shot from the infield at Forbes, looks a little
too washed out in that one. Regardless...