Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, the youngest player ever to play in a regular season game for the N.L. Philadelphia franchise, passed away
Thursday (12/9/16) at the age of 89.
Ralph was signed by Philadelphia in 1944. At the time, he was just 16. Less than a week after signing, he was with the major league team. In both 1944 and 1945, the Phillies were being marketed as the Philadelphia Blue Jays--an attempt to distance themselves from a Phillies losing tradition that stretched back some 16 years. A contest was held to choose the new identity and Blue Jays was the winner. While the contest was popular, the new nickname was not. There was mild outrage in some quarters but, mostly, fans were either confused or indifferent. The Blue Jays moniker was dropped after the two seasons. As they would learn a few years later, the best marketing strategy is to win. Putsy was the last living player to have played with the Philadelphia Blue Jays.
Ralph played parts of 8 major league seasons--all with Philadelphia. He played second and third base and showed good fielding skills. Though his batting average was never all that great, he wasn't that far off of the team average through 1948. The Phillies would turn the corner, with players like Richie Ashburn leading the way and The Whiz Kids reached the Series in 1950, losing to the Yankees. Ralph appeared in 3 Series games, going 0 for 1 at the plate. Ralph hit just one home run in his major league career, that coming in 1951.
Though he continued through 1955 in the minor leagues (still in the Phillies organization), Putsy got his last major league action in 1952. At that time, he was still just 24.
After baseball, Ralph ran a pest-control business in New Orleans. He lost his home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and had to go on food stamps and other assistance programs at the time.
I've seen several good B&W pictures of Putsy. Accompanying his obituary is a small
color photo which has previously been posted
here by krantzbucks. I don't suppose anybody has a larger or complete version (the thumbnail, as they sometimes do, shows more of the picture than the image presents--down to his feet). Lacking that, perhaps someone has a larger or better scan of Putsy's 1949 Eureka Sportstamp--also color (attached...from eBay).