George Shuba

George Thomas Shuba (December 13, 1924 – September 29, 2014) was an American professional baseball utility outfielder and left-handed pinch hitter in Major League Baseball who played seven seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His seven seasons included three World Series as well as a World Series championship in 1955. He was the first National League player to hit a pinch-hit home run in a World Series game.

Shuba is often remembered for his symbolic role in breaking down Major League Baseball's tenacious "color barrier". While playing for the AAA Montreal Royals in 1946, Shuba offered a congratulatory handshake to teammate Jackie Robinson, who went on to become the first African American to play in a major league game since the late 19th century.

Early life Shuba was born the youngest of 10 children to Slovak immigrants in Youngstown, Ohio, a steel-manufacturing town with a strong tradition of amateur and minor league baseball. As a child, George Shuba attended Holy Name Elementary School, a parochial school on the city's heavily Eastern European west side. In 1943, when he was 17 years old, he participated in a tryout for the Brooklyn Dodgers and eventually signed a contract. As Shuba later recalled, an ear injury sustained while being disciplined by a teacher prevented him from entering the U.S. Army during World War II. He would gain valuable experience playing for minor league clubs throughout the war years. He later recalled that his father opposed the move, because he "thought I should go and work in the mills like him". Shuba pursued his goal, however, developing his "natural" swing by practicing for hours with a rope that was tied to the ceiling. The moment was described as the "first interracial handshake" in North American baseball's recent history.

On December 3, 2019 it was reported that a 7-foot statue of the handshake would be created and placed in Shuba's hometown, Youngstown, Ohio. The statue, entitled A Handshake for the Century, was unveiled on April 18, 2021, the 75th anniversary of the handshake.

Minor Leagues Despite a record that seemed to merit promotion, he spent the 1947 and 1948 baseball seasons with the minor league Mobile Bears. Shuba later told Roger Kahn that in 1947, he hit 21 home runs and knocked in 110 runs. Shuba played his final game on September 25, 1955. He appeared in the seventh and final game of that year's World Series; he pinch-hit for Don Zimmer in the sixth inning and grounded out for the final out. The Dodgers defeated the Yankees on Johnny Podres' 2–0 shutout for what would be the franchise's only World Championship in its Brooklyn history (the Dodgers would move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season).

Personal life Shuba remained single during his professional baseball career. Roger Kahn wrote in The Boys of Summer that the young player spent his years with the Dodgers as "a bachelor living alone and apart from the rest of the players". After retiring from Major League Baseball, Shuba returned to Ohio, where he met his future wife. The couple settled in Austintown, a suburb of Youngstown, where Shuba spent 25 years working in the office of the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Despite the visibility he gained as a professional athlete, Shuba remained deeply connected to his ethnic and religious roots. Kahn recalled that during a visit to the Shuba household in the early 1970s, the ex-ballplayer recited a mealtime prayer in Slovak. Shuba explained to Kahn that his father had recited the prayer before every family meal. In a 2007 reference to Robinson's courage and determination, Shuba credited the other player with imparting "a lesson about life that I have never forgotten".

On September 18, 2007, Youngstown's Borts Ball Field, a west side recreational spot that Shuba frequented as a child, was renamed as the George "Shotgun" Shuba Field at Borts Park.

Shuba died on September 29, 2014, at the age of 89. He was the last living Brooklyn Dodger who appeared in the final game of the 1955 World Series, the only one won by the Dodgers in their Brooklyn history.