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Gilbert James McDougald (born May 19, 1928) was a Major League Baseball player.
He was born in San Francisco, California.
He played his first major league game on April 20, 1951. On May 6 of that year, he tied a major league record by batting in 6 runs in one inning. Later in the year, in the World Series, he became the first rookie to hit a grand slam home run in the Series. He narrowly beat out Minnie Miñoso in the voting for the 1951 American League Rookie of the Year. His entire major league career was spent on the New York Yankees, wearing uniform number 12. He was a versatile player, playing all the infield positions except first base: 599 games at second base, 508 games at third, and 284 at shortstop. He played in five All-Star Games: in 1952, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959.
On May 7, 1957, McDougald, batting against Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians, hit a line drive that hit Score in the eye. It caused Score to miss the rest of the 1957 and much of the 1958 season, and Score was never again the outstanding pitcher he had been up to that event. McDougald reportedly vowed at the time of the incident to retire if Score was blinded.
In 1958, McDougald was given the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, which is awarded annually by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity (to which Gehrig belonged) at Columbia University.
In 1961 he was selected by the Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers) in the expansion draft. Rather than play for that team, he retired.
External references
- Gil McDougald's statistics on the Baseball Almanac (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=mcdougi01) site
- Gil McDougald's biography on the Baseball Library (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/M/McDougald_Gil.stm) site
- Gil McDougald's statistics on the Baseball Reference (http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mcdougi01.shtml) site
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