August 27 – Happy Birthday Ed Herrmann
Ed Herrmann had been the pretty-good hitting starting catcher for the Chicago White Sox for six seasons when the Yankees picked him up in a trade one week before Opening Day in 1975 for four minor leaguers. I couldn’t understand why the Yankees made the deal at the time. They already had Thurman Munson and Rick Dempsey on that team. As it turned out, Herrmann, a San Diego native who was born on this date in 1946 ended up DH-ing more games (35) than he caught (24) that year.
He had some pop in his left handed bat, having reached double-figures in home runs during his previous five seasons in the Windy City. He ended up hitting a half-dozen round-trippers during his one and only year in pinstripes. He was sold to California in the off-season. None of the four minor leaguers the Yankees gave up for Herrmann ever appeared in a big league game. Ed spent part of just one season in California before getting traded to Houston. He retired after the 1978 season with a .240 lifetime average and 80 homeruns during an eleven-year big league career.
Hermann is one of quite a few players who saw time with both the Yankees and White Sox during their big league playing careers. Here’s my all-time line-up of Yankee/White Sox:
1b – Moose Skowren
2b – Steve Sax
3b – Robin Ventura
ss – Bucky Dent
c – Sherm Lollar
of – Tim Raines
of – Dan Pasqua
of – Claudell Washington
dh – Carlos May
p – Tommy John
rp – Goose Gossage
mgr – Bob Lemon
Pinstripe Birthdays 