Cribbed from THIS article on SABR Bio by Joseph Wancho.
Most big-league ballplayers spend their career – if not indeed their life – dreaming about playing in the World Series and winning awards without ever actually getting to do either. Tom Tresh, on the other hand, not only got to play in the Fall Classic in his 1962 debut year but play a starring role in it, then win the Rookie of the Year. Little wonder then perhaps, despite him putting together some more good seasons before his career was cut short prematurely by injury that the rest of his playing time seems somewhat anticlimactic in comparison.
Thomas Michael Tresh was born September 20, 1938 in Detroit with, as they say, baseball in his blood. His father
Mike was a catcher for the White Sox in the late 1930s and most of the following decade, finishing his career with a short stint at Cleveland in 1949, by dint of which young Tom had from an early age an understanding of the lifestyle of a major league ballplayer.
After a storied career at Allen Park HS that saw him letter nine times in three sports, Tom moved on to Central Michigan University. A number of clubs showed interest in him from the start, but it was the Yankees who signed him with a $30,000 bonus in 1957. (Keeping a promise to his parents that he would see his studies through to completion, Tom went back to CMU every off-season until he had indeed earned his bachelor’s degree in phys ed. “It took me only four terms to graduate,” he said later. “Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.”)
Tom steadily worked his way through the Yankees farm system – including winning RotY honours at Richmond of the International League in 1961, where he hit .315, drove in 42 runs and led the team in hits (176) and doubles (23) – before making his big-league debut as a pinch-runner for Johnny Blanchard on September 3, 1961.
When incumbent shortstop Tony Kubek’s National Guard unit was called up to active duty just before the start of the 1962 season, Tresh and Phil Linz competed for the starting role at that position, before manager Ralph Houk finally settled on Tom, it is thought because of his prowess as a switch hitter. He quickly formed a strong combination with second-baseman Bobby Richardson, who had taken the rookie under his wing, and was eventually named in the All-Star squad for that season, splitting duties with Luis Aparicio and doubling in a run on the big night.
When Kubek returned to the club earlier than expected, Tresh was moved to LF playing next to his boyhood idol Mickey Mantle, who rated his abilities highly. The Yankees won the AL pennant that year as Tom hit .286 with 20 homers and 93 RBI, and was named American League Rookie of the Year by both the Sporting News and the Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA).
If Tom was overawed by his quick ascension to the very top of his trade, he certainly didn’t show it. In Game 5, with the Yankees and Giants tied at two games apiece and the score tied at 2 in the bottom of the 8th, Tresh came to the plate with two on and one out to face Jack Sanford. He proceeded to knock one out of the park to give the Yanks a 5-2 lead, and they went on to win the key game by 5 to 3.
He wasn’t finished playing a crucial role in the series.
The Giants tied the series with a win in Game 6 to send it to a decider at Candlestick Park. In that game, the Yankees were clinging to a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning when Willie Mays sent a low liner to left field that Tom caught with a fingertip grab. The catch proved costly to the Giants, as the next batter, Willie McCovey, tripled with the bases empty.
The Yankees went on to win the game 1-0 and capture the World Championship. It would be the last one for 15 years. For the Series, Tresh’s .321 batting average, 5 runs and 9 hits all led the team.
The following season, Tresh once again showed his versatility when Mantle was hurt and Tom filled in at CF for two months, committing only four errors and fielding the position at .981 while bashing 25 homers and driving in 71 runs. That year, the Bronx Bombers once again won the AL pennant, but were swept in 4 games by Koufax and co, who allowed them to score just four runs the entire series. They lost it again in 1964 to St. Louis in seven, but that would be the last time for some time the pinstripes would be seen in the Fall Classic.
Tom played all three outfield spots during 1965, winning a Gold Glove on top of a .279 / 26 HR / 74 RBI offensive line that saw him finish 9th in the AL MVP voting. Still, that didn’t earn him the solidity you might expect. When a neck injury forced Kubek’s retirement at the end of the 1965 season, the club brought in Ruben Amaro to replace him. But in the season’s fifth game, in the process of trying to make a defensive play, Tom slammed into Amaro, wrecking the shortstop’s knee and ending his season. Then they tried rookie Bobby Murcer at short, only for him to make three errors in his first game. Next, they moved third baseman Clete Boyer over to shortstop and put Tom at third base in order to give sophomore Roy White some playing time in the outfield. No wonder then that, despite a career-high 28 home runs, Tom’s production was well down on previous years, with him hitting just .233 and driving in 68 runs.
Then injury struck, with Tom being diagnosed with loose cartilage in his knee after a fielding mishap during 1967 spring training. The club insisted he was OK to play through it, but at the end of the season the knee required surgery. He was never the same ballplayer again.
In 1968 he hit just .195 / .305 / .308 with 11 homers and 52 RBI and started just as poorly the following year before requesting, and being given, a trade to Detroit to be closer to his family. He found some form there, clubbing 13 homers in 377 plate appearances, but when the club insisted he report to the minors at the start of the 1970 season to rehabilitate his still-troublesome knee, Tom was done. He finished his career with a .245 average while hitting 153 round-trippers and knocking in 530 runs.
Tom Tresh never fully left the world of baseball, however. In addition to serving ats the assistant coach at his alma mater CMU, he was a regular fixture at card shows and Yankee fantasy camps. Tom passed away in 2008, aged 70.
In the FL at the time of writing, Tom is a Chicago Cub—and a pretty handy one at that. Since being drafted as the 6th overall pick in 1904, Tom has a .275 / .353 / .359 slash. He’s hit 2 homers, driven in 55 runs and scored 45, and amassed 2.5 WAR. At just 21, he looks to have a long Footnote League career ahead of him, and – as with all Spotlight Players – I’ll keep you updated along the way as to how he is progressing.
Tempus effulgeo, Tom, shine as brightly and as long as you can.
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