Former major league OF Gus Zernial dies at age 87 - ESPN

Former major league OF Gus Zernial dies at age 87

Gus wasn't a great player overall, but he was one of the most powerful sluggers of the early 1950s. From 1950-1953 he averaged 33 homers and 108 RBI per year. That may not sound spectacular to you, but it came in an era when a total in the high teens could make the league's top ten. Neither Joe DiMaggio (retired) nor Ted Williams (Korea) played in 1952 or 1953, so Zernial was actually the AL homer leader for the 1950-53 period, when his annual finishes in the league's leader boards were 5-1-4-2. Zernial hit 133 homers in that period, compared to 132 for Al Rosen. Both Williams and DiMaggio played in 1951, but Zernial nonetheless led the league in both homers and RBI. Williams finished second in both categories. And that was the same year when the White Sox dumped Zernial after four games!

That 1951 trade was a famous one. While it sounds ridiculous to dump a guy with more homers and RBI than Ted Williams, the White Sox actually improved their team in the three-way trade. They gave up their slow slugger to acquire a truly great overall ballplayer in Minnie Minoso. In fact, the As also did well in the trade, since they picked up the league's HR and RBI leader for nothing. It was the Indians who really got screwed in that deal, losing Minoso and getting virtually nothing in the exchange. They give up Minoso to acquire Lou Brissie, a dead-armed starting pitcher whom they converted into a reliever with minimal success. Brissie would be retired just two years after the trade, while Minoso would remain one of the league's best players for the next decade, finishing in the top four in the MVP balloting in 1951, '53, '54 and '60. Meanwhile, ol' Gus Zernial would end his career with six finishes in the league's top five homer hitters. (In addition to the period discussed above, Zernial would also make the league's top five in homers in 1955 and 1957.)

Oh, those Indians! They sure knew how to strike a deal. After the 1959 season they traded Rocky Colavito, perhaps their most popular player and a guy who had finished 3-4 in the league in the MVP balloting in 1958-59, for Harvey Kuenn, a banjo hitter who had won the 1959 batting championship. They kept Kuenn only a year before shipping him to the Giants for Wille Kirkland, a slugger who was kinda like Colavito, except nowhere near as good.

Gus Zernial trivia:

For nearly 50 years, Zernial held the distinction of having slugged the most homers of any player whose last name starts with Z, but Todd Zeile slid past him in 2003.

Zernial played only four games for the White Sox in 1951 before being traded, but that was enough to get him in the line-up with Al Zarilla, making the '51 Pale Hose the only team where both corner outfielders had names starting with "Z." LF Zernial batted clean-up and RF Zarilla third and they had four RBI apiece in the Sox' opening day 17-3 shellacking of the Brownies. (Box score here.)