Dixie Walker

This article is about the baseball right fielder. For his father, a baseball pitcher, see Dixie Walker (pitcher). For the American ambassador and scholar also known as Dixie Walker, see Richard L. Walker.

Dixie Walker
Outfielder
Born: (1910-09-24)September 24, 1910
Villa Rica, Georgia, U.S.
Died: May 17, 1982(1982-05-17) (aged 71)
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Batted: Left
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 28, 1931, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
September 22, 1949, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
MLB statistics
Batting average.306
Hits2,064
Home runs105
Runs batted in1,023
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Fred E. "Dixie" Walker (September 24, 1910 – May 17, 1982) was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout and minor league manager. He played as a right fielder in Major League Baseball from 1931 to 1949. Although Walker was a five-time All-Star selection, and won a National League batting championship (1944) as well as an RBI championship (1945) as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers, his accomplishments as a player were overshadowed by his attempt to keep Jackie Robinson from joining the Dodgers in 1947.[1] He also played for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates.[2]

In 11 years in the National League, Walker posted a .310 batting average (in nine seasons in the American League, an average of .295),[2] with 105 total home runs and 1,023 RBIs in 1,905 games.[2] Walker's popularity with the Ebbets Field fans in the 1940s brought him the nickname "the People's Cherce" (so-called, and spelled, because "Choice" in the "Brooklynese" of the mid-20th century frequently was pronounced that way).[3]

  1. ^ Dixie Walker at the SABR Baseball Biography Project , by Lyle Spatz, Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Dixie Walker Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference sheknew was invoked but never defined (see the help page).