Former big-leaguer Jerry Lumpe dies at 81
He was not on the list.
Former big-leaguer Jerry Lumpe, a longtime Springfield resident who was a teammate of New York Yankees great Mickey Mantle after aiding then-Southwest Missouri State College win NAIA national basketball titles, has died. He was 81.
He is survived by his wife, Vivian; their three children, Jerry, Jim and Cece Haden; and several grandchildren.
Lumpe graduated from Warsaw, a small community near what is now Truman Lake, and went on to play 12 seasons in the American League. He played three seasons for the Yankees, from 1956 and 1958, when legendary Casey Stengel managed the club.
"We played American Legion ball against each other. We've been good friends, his family and my family," said former Missouri State basketball coach Bill Thomas, a basketball teammate in the 1950s. "I don't know of anyone who didn't like him. I'm going to miss him."
Lumpe, an infielder, reached the major leagues in 1956, two years after putting his minor league days on hold in order to serve in the military. At one point, he was stationed with future St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog at Fort Leonard Wood.
Lumpe's baseball career took off when Stengel ordered Lumpe and Norm Siebern to spring training in 1953, Thomas said. Both players were letterwinners on then-SMS' 1952 and 1953 national championship teams. Lumpe had been signed by legendary Yankees scout Tom Greenwade, the Willard man who also signed Mantle.
"By the time we got to Kansas City to play for the national tournament, coach (Bob) Vanatta called Casey Stengel and said, 'I'd like to keep Jerry awhile,'" Thomas said Saturday. "Casey said, 'You can keep him for a couple of games but we need him down here.'"
The 1953 team beat Indiana State for the championship despite all but four Bears fouling out. A chant "Four Bears cut down five Sycamores" was a popular saying in town, former Missouri State baseball coach and athletic director Bill Rowe said.
Lumpe was the Bears' sixth man on those teams.
"He was a heck of a basketball player. He was as good as anybody on our team," Thomas said. "It's just the way the rotation went that he was on the bench."
Lumpe soon was part of the Yankees' AL pennant winners of 1957 and 1958. The '58 team won the World Series with a roster that included included Yogi Berra, Mantle, Hank Bauer, Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson and Enos Slaughter.
Lumpe split the 1959 season between the Yankees and Kansas City Athletics and played for the A's until 1963. Lumpe finished his career with the Detroit Tigers.
Overall, he batted .268 with 190 doubles, 52 triples, 47 home runs and 454 RBIs. His best season was 1962 in Kansas City, where Lumpe hit .301 and generated 54 extra-base hits and 83 RBIs. He also finished his career with more walks (428) than strikeouts (411).
He made his home for years in Springfield and was a longtime supporter of Bears athletics.
"Tough, tough news," former Missouri State baseball coach and athletic director Bill Rowe said Saturday of Lumpe's death.
Rowe said Lumpe and players from the 1952 and 1953 basketball teams made his job even easier.
"We've had the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of those NAIA teams and I'll never forget the way I got treated. It was like, 'You're a part of us,'" said Rowe, who had watched those teams as a youth from Marionville.
"He's one of the best people we've ever known. He'd do anything for you if wanted it," longtime Springfield resident and former big-leaguer Bill Virdon said of Lumpe on Saturday.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Teams
New York Yankees (1956–1959)
Kansas City Athletics (1959–1963)
Detroit Tigers (1964–1967)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star (1964)
World Series champion (1958)
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