Second baseman and violinist Eddie Basinski died on Jan. 8th. At the time, he was the second oldest living major league player, having been born on November 4, 1922.
Mr. Basinski, who had taken classical violin lessons since childhood, played with the University of Buffalo’s symphony orchestra before embarking on his major league career in 1944, a time when baseball rosters had lost many players to service in World War II. (He was deferred from military service because he had poor eyesight.) He played in 39 games for the Dodgers in his rookie season, mostly at second base, and in another 108 games in 1945, filling in at shortstop for the future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, who was in the Navy.
Post-Gazette.com
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
In his brief major league career he hit .244/.292/.319. His strength as a hitter looks like his speed, as he hit seven triples in 203 games, although he stole just one base. He had a longer career in the minors, playing twelve seasons in the Pacific Coast League.
The article is full of amusing anecdotes about the intersection of his two interests. He was able to relate them to each other:
Mr. Basinski told the Times that there was a relationship between playing the violin and fielding ground balls. “I had great quickness because of the bowing and the fingering, which just has to be lightning quick,” he said. “There is a great correlation.”
He also gets a mention in this musical number:
Seems he led a life well lived.
The connection between playing music and athleticism is interesting to me as it’s something that dawned on me years ago. When I was in grad school, the church I attended was largely students, many of them grad students in music, so some very talented instrumentalists. Friday night potluck followed by volleyball (very unserious volleyball) was a regular activity for that group. I noticed something about the musicians: for the most part, they were totally uninterested in sports; most had never played on any sort of team in younger years; and in many ways they were pretty awkward athletically. But, when the ball came their way, they displayed remarkable hand-eye coordination and “soft hands” when it came to putting the ball back up in the air.
That made me realize that playing an instrument, particularly the more ‘physical’ instruments like piano, percussion or the stringed instruments, is really an athletic skill. Until now, I’ve never seen anyone make that case before.
Makes you wonder how many great contact hitters are wasting away their talents in symphony orchestras around the world.
Or how many virtuosos are playing centefield!