Baseball trivia: Who caught games with Ted Williams and Babe Ruth on the mound?

Baseball trivia: Who caught games with Ted Williams and Babe Ruth on the mound?

I'm a huge baseball nerd, but I did not know this.

21-year-old Ted Williams mopped up the last two innings of a 12-1 loss to the Tigers in the first game of a twin bill on August 24th, 1940. It was the first and last time he ever took the mound in the majors.

Babe Ruth pitched his final game on October 1, 1933 - a complete game victory over the Red Sox.

The same man, Joe Glenn, was the catcher for both Ruth and Williams, who are considered the two greatest non-steroid hitters of all time.

Glenn wasn't a great player, and as Bill Dickey's back-up, he rarely played, but he had the best seat in the house to watch one of the great Yankee dynasties play from 1936-38. From his perch on the bench, he got to collect a decent paycheck while his teammates won three consecutive World Series. (Although he played in more than 100 games in those three seasons, Glenn never got to make a post-season appearance.) Those were some impressive teammates, including Hall of Famers Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Tony Lazzeri, Red Ruffing and Goofy Gomez.

I did not remember ever hearing or reading about Joe Glenn before today, but there was an equivalent player in my own youth named Charlie Silvera. He was Yogi's back up from 1948 until 1956. His Yankees won the pennant in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956, and won the World Series every one of those years except 1955, but Silvera got only two World Series at-bats, both in game two of the 1949 series. In fact, 1949 was the only year he got more than 100 at-bats in the regular season, but he made the most of his opportunities that year by batting .315. In fact, his lifetime major league batting average was a very respectable .282. He batted .301 with 36 doubles in his best year in the minors, but he had about as much chance of becoming a Yankee regular as I have of winning Scarlett Johansson from her husband.