Former Phillies bonus baby and member of the Bill Sharman Society
Tom Casagrande passed away September 4.
A star at Fordham University, the Phillies gave Tom a $40,000 bonus to sign in 1950. Though he was sought as a pitcher by other teams in the bidding, the Phils wanted him as a first baseman. Throughout his 7 year pro career, he did both as teams sought to keep his bat in the lineup when he wasn't pitching. The Phils had Eddie Waitkus teach him first base in the spring of 1951, which worked out well for Eddie (who believed teaching Casagrande made him a sharper player), but Casagrande never showed the power the Phils were hoping to see from the 6'3" 225 pound player.
In 1955, Tom broke camp and headed north with the Phils. This was during the era when the first month of the season had the extra roster room as September does. Tom never got into a game with the Phillies and was sent down after a week or so on the major league roster. But he did get a Topps card for his trouble.
Speaking of trouble, Tom suffered an arm injury that year--which he attributed to the two-way play--and he was out of baseball following the 1957 season. After baseball, Tom worked for Amtrak for 30 years.
The image featuring a pitching pose is from Mainline Autographs while the picture of Tom posing as a first baseman with Eddie Waitkus looking on is a news clipping from 1951 from a completed eBay auction. On the latter, I did a light perspective fix and switched to grayscale.