Andy Pafko, 1921-2013

Post date: Nov 5, 2013 11:14:56 PM

Andy Pafko, 1921-2013

I first met Andy Pafko in the autumn of 2004. He had agreed to write the forward for my book on the 1945 Cubs, and invited me to come out and discuss it. Pafko’s home was a spacious ranch on a golf course in a suburb northwest of Chicago. I rang the doorbell several times and nobody answered. Finally I heard a voice, coming from above me on my right. “Oh good, you’re here”, he said with a thick Wisconsin accent. “I’ll be right down!” He quickly climbed down a ladder. At the age of 83 he was cleaning his gutters, twelve feet off the ground. He was in better physical condition than most men 30 years younger. After decades of working in senior care I had never encountered someone that age that was so well-preserved. Yet, when the life of an Andy Pafko is considered in its entirety, it’s probably what you would expect. His 92 years were pretty exceptional.

Pafko was one of six sons of Czech immigrants in Boyceville, Wisconsin. The Pafkos were dairy farmers. A gifted natural athlete, he excelled at football and baseball and created quite a stir when he hurled a baseball out of a minor league stadium, beyond the outfield stands, to win a throwing contest. The Chicago Cubs signed him out of a tryout camp, and he rose quickly through the minors, winning the Pacific Coast League batting title in 1943.

The Cubs called him up and his debut was September 24, 1943, on a rainy day at Wrigley Field with about 400 fans in attendance. He quickly became a fan favorite on the north side, throwing out 22 runners from his centerfield perch in 1944 and leading the team in runs batted in for their last World Series appearance in 1945. Pafko described himself as a “milk and cookies guy,” and mentioned that the crusty Cub manager Charlie Grimm would often say to him, “Hey Pafko, why don’t when are you gonna give me something to worry about?” In 1950, when he hit 36 home runs for the Cubs, he struck out only 32 times. Of 40 the players in baseball history that hit over 30 home runs in one season up to that time, only nine others ever struck out fewer times than they have homered; only two players ever attained such hitting artistry since. When the Cubs traded him to the Brooklyn Dodgers on June 15, 1951, The Sporting News called it the worst trade since the Boston Red Sox sent Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

Playing left field in Brooklyn, he became a key member of the legendary “Brooklyn Rifles”, the nickname given to the trio of Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, and Pafko for both their hitting and throwing ability. Pafko started on the pennant-winning Dodgers in 1952. Later on he was lucky enough to be traded to the Boston Braves right before they moved to Milwaukee, where he starred as a favorite son/native Wisconsite until he left the game in 1959, winning a World Series in 1957 and a National League pennant in 1958.

Pafko was a five-time All-Star who played on four National League pennant winners, and was the first player in history to start for three different World Series teams. In nine of his fourteen seasons he had more extra base hits than strikeouts. He always said that the toughest pitcher he ever faced was Ewell Blackwell, with Robin Roberts not far behind. Pafko was named to the Cubs’ All-Century Team in 2000, has a plaque outside Wrigley Field on their Walk of Fame, and his banner hangs proudly in Wrigley Field’s main concourse as their All-Time Centerfielder. Pafko was as beloved in Milwaukee as he was in Chicago, and his significance of his years with the Brooklyn Dodgers was movingly chronicled in a half-page obituary by Richard Goldstein in the New York Times’ October 10 edition.

About 250 people came to the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norridge, Illinois on Monday, October 14 for his memorial service. A table in the narthex had a fascinating display of artifacts and pictures from his life and his playing days. Yet of all old, rare photos of him, his family, and his teammates on display, perhaps the most striking picture of all was a faded color photograph of the Pafko family barn on the rolling landscape in Boyceville. It looked the same as it did probably eighty years ago, solid, dignified, extremely well-preserved…..much like the beloved ball player who grew up milking cows there.

Rest in Peace, Andy; you’ll not be forgotten.