Gil Hodges Gets His Due

We’re thrilled that Gil Hodges has finally been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Hodges was one of the famed “Boys of Summer,” but he started life as a son of the Midwest. Born in Princeton, Indiana in 1924 he excelled at high school baseball, basketball, track, and football. After attending Rensselaer’s Saint Joseph’s College he was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he played as third baseman for one game before joining the Marine Corps. Hodges returned to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 as a catcher and later played as the first baseman.  

Hodges was a fan favorite and was on the field for the Dodgers’ historic 1955 World Series win against the New York Yankees. In the last game of the series, Hodges caught the ball that delivered the final out of the game, giving Brooklynites a win they would still be talking about over sixty years later. When the Dodgers were moved to Los Angeles, Hodges followed, returning to New York in 1962 after being signed to the Mets. After only one season he was traded to the Washington Senators, where he retired from playing to serve as the team manager. In 1968 Hodges returned to New York to manage the Mets, leading them to a World Series victory only one year later. Unfortunately, Hodges’ life was soon cut short. In 1971 he suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 47. His funeral was held at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Midwood, with an estimated 100,000 people in attendance, including Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, and Carl Furillo.

“ Not getting booed at Ebbets Field was an amazing thing. Those fans knew their baseball and Gil was the only player I can remember whom the fans never, I mean never booed.” 
— Clem Labine

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.