Baseball trivia: May 1, 1949 - battery both named Dixie Howell
I picked this up from one of my Facebook groups. The starting Cincinnati pitcher and catcher that day were both named Dixie Howell. They batted 8th and 9th.
Dixie Howell the pitcher was in the minor leagues over a span of 23 years (1937-1959). That's a lot of bus rides. He appeared in the majors in six different seasons, but started only two games, which makes it quite astounding that in one of them he was throwing to an eponymous catcher!
He was an excellent hitter for a pitcher, and was often used to fill in as a pinch hitter or outfielder. During WW2, when teams were desperate for players, he spent one entire year (1942) as a pitcher-outfielder in the Eastern league. He hit a respectable .263. His lifetime major league OPS was .782 thanks to an excellent .500 slugging average (5 homers in 74 AB). Oddly enough, he was a better hitter than Dixie Howell the catcher, whose lifetime OPS was only .651.
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