Herb Plews

Herbert Eugene Plews (June 14, 1928 – December 12, 2014) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman. He played four years in the majors, from 1956 to 1959 with the Washington Senators and in 1959 for the Boston Red Sox. In the minor leagues he played for Kansas City, Binghamton, Norfolk, and Denver before reaching the majors in 1956, and Toronto, Birmingham, Hawaii, Tacoma, and Arkansas after his major league career ended. During his playing career he served in the military from 1951 to 1952, during the Korean War. Plews batted left-handed and threw right-handed; he was listed as tall and .

Born in East Helena, Montana, Plews would be (at the time of his death) the only player from the Helena area to reach the major leagues. After four years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he signed with the New York Yankees in 1950. Plews's time in the minor leagues was interrupted by his military service, but he had made it to the Denver Bears (the top affiliate of the Yankees' system) by 1955. After the season, though, he was sent to the Senators in a multi-player trade. Plews debuted with Washington in 1956 and started at second base for them over much of the next three years. Mostly a part-time player in 1959, he was traded to the Red Sox in July, appearing in just 13 more games before being sent to the minors. He played six more years of professional baseball before retiring at the end of 1965. After his baseball career, Plews worked in cement plants, first in Montana and then in the Denver area. He died in 2014.

Early life Plews was born in East Helena, Montana, on June 14, 1928. Plews grew up in East Helena and was a sprinter and broad jumper at Helena High School before his graduation in 1946. Though the high school did not have a baseball team, Plews also batted .400 playing American Legion baseball and was once selected as the Montana representative in a National High School All-Star Game sponsored by Esquire; Ty Cobb coached his team.

Early career On June 17, 1950, Plews played in his first professional baseball game for the Class AAA Kansas City Blues of the American Association. He entered the game as a replacement in the eighth inning and stole a base on his first career attempt. His stint for the Blues was brief, as he appeared in two games but did not record an official at bat. Plews spent more of the year with the Class B Quincy Gems of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League, tallying 13 hits as part of a .298 batting average in 13 games. During a late-afternoon game, as the sun was going down, Plews was hit by a pitch, suffering a fractured skull. He spent about four days in the hospital, then returned to Montana, not playing again for the rest of the year. He stuck with the team until April, when he was assigned to the minor league Class A Binghamton Triplets of the Eastern League before the start of the season. Plews played 28 games for Binghamton but was reassigned to the Class B Norfolk Tars because the Yankees had a double play combination at Binghamton, the Charnofsky twins, that they wanted to play together–with the Charnofskys playing every day, Plews, a second baseman, would have gotten very little playing time. Plews ended the season with a .304 average, good enough for sixth in the league, two home runs, and 111 hits.

During 1954 spring training, Plews and teammate Jim Ludtka accomplished the rare feat of hitting two Inside-the-park home runs in a single game, both coming against pitcher Roger Higgins of the Little Rock Travelers. Plews spent the season with the Class AA Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association. In 129 games, he batted .299 with 157 hits and nine home runs. His strong year at Denver drew the attention of the Washington Senators, who traded Mickey McDermott and Bobby Kline to the Yankees for Plews, Lou Berberet, Dick Tettelbach, Bob Wiesler, and a player to be named later (eventually Whitey Herzog) before the 1956 season began. Plews batted .450 over his next ten games, raising his batting average to .316 with a four-hit (three-double) performance in a 12–2 loss to the Yankees on August 8. Bob Addie of the Washington Post speculated on August 29 that Plews, Bereberet, or Herzog might be contenders for the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award, though Luis Aparicio was the eventual winner. Plews played in 91 games in his rookie season and batted .270 with 24 runs scored, 69 hits, and 25 RBI.

In 1957, Plews began the year as the Senators' starting second baseman. He batted .261 through June 23, then lost the starting role to Rocky Bridges. Plews started at third base from July 11 through 16 and played second base every day from August 13 through 20 but other than that received only occasional spots or was used as a late-inning replacement for the rest of the season. Five times during the year, he had a season-high three hits: May 13, May 18, June 15, July 11, and August 14. After playing the opening three games of 1958, Plews found himself benched in favor of Malkmus. Starting in the second game of a doubleheader on May 18, though, he took over the third base job from Eddie Yost, who was batting .208. Two days later, in the first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers, Plews hit a home run against Hall of Famer Jim Bunning in a 7–2 loss. Yost played third again from May 27 through May 31, but after that, Plews played the position primarily through June 15. After that, Plews was used intermittently as a second baseman, third baseman, and pinch hitter until the end of July, when he became the starting second baseman for most of the rest of the season. In a career-high 111 games, Plews batted .258 with 46 runs scored, 98 hits, and 29 RBI. Plews appeared in a mere 27 games through June 10, batting .225 with nine hits in 40 at bats. Hyde, who was subsequently found to be suffering from an arm injury, was returned to the Senators, and Wall was returned to the Red Sox on June 14. Two days later, Plews and Wall were both sent to the minor leagues so Boston could call up Earl Wilson and Jim Mahoney.