Debs Garms facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Debs Garms |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
Garms with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1940
|
|||
| Outfielder / Third baseman | |||
| Born: June 26, 1907 Bangs, Texas, U.S. |
|||
| Died: December 16, 1984 (aged 77) Glen Rose, Texas, U.S. |
|||
|
|||
| debut | |||
| August 10, 1932, for the St. Louis Browns | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| September 25, 1945, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .293 | ||
| Home runs | 17 | ||
| Runs batted in | 328 | ||
| Teams | |||
|
|||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
|
|||
Debs C. Garms (born June 26, 1907 – died December 16, 1984) was a talented American baseball player. He played for 12 seasons in Major League Baseball. Debs was an outfielder and third baseman. He played for teams like the St. Louis Browns and Pittsburgh Pirates.
One cool moment in his career happened in 1938. Debs Garms was the player who got a hit against Johnny Vander Meer. Vander Meer was famous for pitching many innings without letting anyone get a hit. In 1940, Garms won the National League batting title. This meant he had the best batting average in the league that year. He hit for an amazing .355 average while playing for the Pirates. In 1941, he set a record for getting seven pinch hits in a row. A pinch hit is when a player bats in place of another player. This record stood for many years!
Early Life and Baseball Start
Debs Garms was born in Bangs, Texas. He was one of ten children in his family. His name, Debs, came from a famous American leader, Eugene Debs.
His older sister married Slim Harriss, who was also a baseball player. Slim was a pitcher for teams like the Philadelphia Athletics. Debs went to Howard Payne University. There, he played both track and baseball.
A minor league manager named Carl Williams saw Debs play. Soon after, Debs signed a contract with the St. Louis Browns. He played in the minor leagues for a few years. In 1932, he hit very well, with a .344 batting average. This led to him being called up to play in the major leagues for the Browns.
Major League Baseball Career
In 1936, Debs Garms was chosen by the Boston Bees in the rule 5 draft. This draft allows teams to pick players from other teams' minor league rosters. In 1938, the Bees' manager, Casey Stengel, used a platoon system. This meant Garms would play against certain types of pitchers.
After three seasons with the Bees, the Pittsburgh Pirates bought Garms. In 1940, his first year with the Pirates, he had an amazing season. He won the National League batting title. He hit .355, which was the best in the league. Even though he only played in 103 games, his hitting was outstanding.
Some people debated if he should win the title because he didn't play in as many games as others. But the league president, Ford Frick, said that the batting title was unofficial. He also said that playing in 100 games was enough to qualify.
After the 1940 season, the decision was still talked about. Fans of the Chicago Cubs thought their player, Stan Hack, should have won. In 1941, the St. Louis Cardinals bought Garms. He played his last three seasons in the major leagues with the Cardinals. He had played one season in the minor leagues before joining them.
Over his 12 seasons and 1,010 games, Garms had a career batting average of .293. He scored 438 runs and hit 17 home runs. He also had 328 runs batted in (RBI). He played in the 1943 World Series and 1944 World Series. In the 1943 World Series, he made the last out of Game 5.
Life After Baseball
After Debs Garms stopped playing baseball, he bought a ranch. It was located in Glen Rose, Texas. He lived there until the 1950s. A big drought in Texas made him sell the ranch in 1959.
He then moved into town. He worked as a foreman at a lime quarry. Later, he served on the school board for the Glen Rose Independent School District. Debs Garms passed away on December 16, 1984. In 2004, he was honored by being inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame.
See also
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
