Jim Hegan

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James Edward Hegan (August 3, 1920 — June 17, 1984) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who spent almost 40 years in a major league uniform. As a catcher, the team he is most identified with is the Cleveland Indians. He played in Cleveland from 1941 to 1957, making the American League All-Star team five times and playing in the 1948 and 1954 World Series. His last year was in 1960 with the Chicago Cubs. His son, Mike, an All-Star first baseman who played in the majors from 1964-77, now is a radio broadcaster for the Indians.

Jim Hegan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. He had a .228 batting average in his career. When his active career ended in July 1960, Hegan became the bullpen coach for the New York Yankees, serving through the 1973 campaign. He then moved with manager Ralph Houk to the Detroit Tigers for five years, through 1978. He finished his career in uniform back with the Yankees as a coach, and was serving as a scout for the Yanks when he died in Swampscott, Massachusetts, of a heart attack at the age of 63.

It should be noted that the great Yankee catcher of years before, Bill Dickey, once said "If I had been able to catch like Hegan I wouldn't have needed to hit." This quote is from either Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract or from Palmer and Thorne's Total Baseball.

Hegan caught more twenty win seasons than any catcher, all-time.

[edit] See also

• List of second generation Major League Baseball players

[edit] Sources

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference

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