Mike Hershberger obit

Baseball great, Tiger standout Mike Hershberger remembered

 

He was not on the list.

When David Schultz moved to Massillon, Ohio some 30 years ago, he didn’t have to be introduced to Mike Hershberger to know who he was.

As one of a handful of Massillon products who went on to experience success as a Major League Baseball player — a group that included Tommy Heinrich and Joe Sparma — Hershberger’s reputation preceded him.

“I certainly knew who he was,” said Schultz, a former publisher of The Independent who now serves as a trustee at the Massillon Museum. “Being a baseball fan, the first names that clicked when I moved to Massillon were Tommy Heinrich and Mike Hershberger.

“Eleven years in the big leagues, that’s a significant career. That’s a major leaguer.”

Indeed it is. Turns out Hershberger didn’t just enjoy a major league career, but also a major league life.

That life came to end when Hershberger, 72, died Sunday evening following a brief illness.

Talk to any number of his friends and acquaintances, of which there were probably too many to list, and one gets an overriding impression of Hershberger’s passion for the game of baseball and life in general.

“I remember how true he was to himself and everyone he met,” said Tom Meldrum, a childhood friend of Hershberger’s who played on many of the same teams when both were young. “He was a man’s man, a guy’s guy and he had a faith that was unshakable. He went to church religiously and he was a big influence in my life.

“He was a great representative for Massillon.”

Longtime friend Jerry Whisler echoed those sentiments.

“He was just a great individual,” Whisler said. “He would do anything for you and he was just a very compassionate man.”

A two-sport standout for the Tigers who graduated in 1957, Hershberger actually headed to the University of Cincinnati on a football scholarship. After one season with the Bearcats, and before he was slated to be the starting tailback on the football team, Hershberger signed as an amateur free agent with the Chicago White Sox.

It didn’t take Hershberger long to work his way to the big leagues, as he spent just three seasons toiling in places such as Lincoln, Nebraska Chiefs, Charleston, South Carolina White Sox., and San Diego, where he hit .310 with the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate in 1961. That earned him a promotion to the majors, where he made his debut on Sept. 5, 1961, against the Minnesota Twins. Hershberger singled off Jack Kralick for his first major league hit. He eventually played for the Tucson Turos as well.

 

MLB statistics

Batting average            .252

Home runs            26

Runs batted in            344

Teams

Chicago White Sox (1961–1964)

Kansas City / Oakland Athletics (1965–1969)

Milwaukee Brewers (1970)

Chicago White Sox (1971)