Ben Paschal

Benjamin Edwin Paschal (October 13, 1895 – November 10, 1974) was an American baseball outfielder who played eight seasons in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929, mostly for the New York Yankees. After two "cup of coffee" stints with the Cleveland Indians in 1915 and the Boston Red Sox in 1920, Paschal spent most of his career as the fourth outfielder and right-handed pinch hitter of the Yankees' Murderers' Row championship teams of the late 1920s. Paschal is best known for hitting .360 in the 1925 season while standing in for Babe Ruth, who missed the first 40 games with a stomach ailment.

During his time in baseball, Paschal was described as a five-tool player who excelled at running, throwing, fielding, hitting for average, and power. However, his playing time with the Yankees was limited because they already had future Baseball Hall of Famers Ruth and Earle Combs, and star Bob Meusel, in the outfield. Paschal was considered one of the best bench players in baseball during his time with the Yankees, and sportswriters wrote how he would have started for most other teams in the American League.

Early life The son of farmers, Paschal was born in Enterprise, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Sanford.

He played collegiate sports at the University of Alabama, before beginning his professional career with Dothan of the Georgia State League, where he played with future Hall of Fame player Bill Terry. Paschal played in 64 games, with a .280 batting average, The Indians declared Paschal too inexperienced, and he was sent to the Muskegon Reds of the Central League. The league disbanded in the middle of the 1917 season, and Paschal became a free agent.

After a two-year break from baseball because of World War I, Paschal moved on to the Charlotte Hornets of the South Atlantic League, where he played from 1920 to 1923. He was hitting .317 at the time of the injury. In 1922, Paschal played in 142 games, hitting .326 with 18 home runs and improved these figures in 1923, achieving 200 hits, 22 triples, and 26 home runs in 141 games for a batting average of .351, the fourth best in the league. Paschal began the 1924 season with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. He scored 136 runs, while batting .341 and stealing 24 bases.

During spring training, Paschal narrowly escaped serious injury while traveling on a bus. The vehicle rolled backwards down a hill and Paschal, along with several other teammates, jumped off before it hit a tree at high speed. The media expected Paschal to be Babe Ruth's understudy prior to the 1925 season, but Ruth collapsed at an Asheville, North Carolina train station just before the regular season's start. Emergency surgery for a "intestinal abscess" left him hospitalized for six weeks. Originally, Paschal was only to be used against left-handed pitchers, but Yankees manager Miller Huggins named him as Ruth's temporary replacement in the outfield. In the first game of the year, Paschal hit a home run in a 5–1 win against the defending World Series-champion Washington Senators. After another game-winning home run against the Senators two weeks later, the New York press noted that he was "making fans forget about Babe Ruth". Paschal's weakness against right-handed pitchers prompted the Yankees to acquire veteran outfielder Bobby Veach, but his declining skills allowed Paschal to retain his position on the team. He hit another game-winning home run against the Cleveland Indians on May 23. At the time, Paschal was fifth in the league in batting average at .403, behind Sammy Hale, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and teammate Earle Combs. His six home runs in May set a Yankee rookie record for a month, later equaled by Joe Gordon, then topped by Shane Spencer's nine in September 1998.

Ruth returned to the lineup on June 1, relegating Paschal to the bench. In July, an injury to Combs allowed Paschal to start several games in center field. He then started the majority of August and all of September when Bob Meusel moved to third base to cover for an injured Joe Dugan. He hit two home runs during a September 8 game against the Red Sox, but his season ended when he was hit on the leg with a pitch on September 12 against the Philadelphia Athletics. In 89 games, Paschal's batting average for the season was .360, 70 points higher than Ruth, with 12 home runs and 56 RBI. the Yankees sent him a new contract which he signed on February 17 for an estimated $7,000 ( today). Paschal started most of July and August, replacing an injured Meusel, who broke a bone in his right foot. Paschal hit an inside-the-park home run in a victory against the Indians on July 9. With the Yankees in a close pennant race in mid-August, Paschal hit a home run in a loss to the Detroit Tigers. Further successes came with a vital pinch-hit double in a win against the Athletics on September 6 and a home run on September 8. The Yankees clinched the pennant on September 15, and Paschal scored the game-winning single. The Yankees faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1926 World Series, and Paschal, pinch hitting for Joe Dugan, singled in Lou Gehrig tying the contest at 2–2 in the ninth inning of Game 5. Tony Lazzeri hit a sacrifice fly in the tenth to win the game for the Yankees, but they lost the next two games and the Series. By that time, the Yankees were forming the nucleus of what became the Murderers' Row teams of the late 1920s. He signed for an estimated $8,000 ($ today), a 13% raise. As the last man ever to pinch-hit for Ruth, Paschal singled. In one of his few starts of the 1927 season, Paschal was a single short of hitting for the cycle, and almost had three home runs. Replacing the injured Bob Meusel, Paschal hit two home runs, a triple that was yards shy of a home run, and a double which bounced off the right field stands during an 11–2 rout of the Indians. Paschal did not play in the Yankees' 1927 World Series victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Overall, he played in 50 games, primarily as a pinch hitter.

Paschal was used heavily as a pinch hitter during the 1928 season. Huggins credited Paschal's timely pinch hitting as part of the Yankees' success that season. One of the few highlights of his season was his RBI pinch-hit double in the 10th inning that helped the Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox on August 4. Paschal played in 65 games that season, having a .316 batting average. He started the first and last games of the series on a platoon situation; Paschal faced left-handed pitchers and Durst faced right-handed pitchers.

Before the 1929 season, Paschal and Durst were mentioned in several trade rumors, and Paschal was rarely used, appearing in only 42 games as a sixth outfielder in the season. On July 2, Paschal hit a pinch-hit home run for Herb Pennock in the seventh inning of a game against the Red Sox to give the Yankees a 3–2 win. He played in 42 games in his final season in the majors, posting a .208 batting average in 81 at-bats.

Later career After the 1929 season, Paschal was traded for Bubbles Hargrave (pictured). alt=Snapshot of a man in a baseball uniform, just finishing swinging his bat during practice.

After the 1929 season, Paschal was, along with Wilcy Moore and Johnny Grabowski, part of a trade for catcher Bubbles Hargrave to the St. Paul Saints of the American Association (AA). In one 1930 game against the Toledo Mud Hens, Paschal had four hits and four RBI in a 23–4 win that broke the AA record for most runs scored in a game. In 144 games, Paschal finished the 1930 season with 204 hits, 10 home runs, and a .350 batting average. His skills declined during the 1933 season; in 130 games he hit just .272 with seven home runs. The St. Petersburg Evening Independent reported a few months later that Paschal was "struggling to keep his job" in the minors. He was released by Knoxville and signed with the Scranton Miners of the New York–Penn League. After a few games with the Miners, Paschal returned home to North Carolina, where he accepted a managerial job for a semi-professional baseball team in Catawba County.