Charlie Maxwell obit

 

Detroit Tigers All-Star Charlie Maxwell, 'The Sabbath Smasher,' dies at age 97

He was not on the list.

Charlie Maxwell, the popular slugging left fielder for the Detroit Tigers from 1955-62, died Friday evening at age 97 in Paw Paw, Michigan after a short illness.

Maxwell, a two-time All-Star, was the oldest living former Tiger, as well as the oldest living alumnus of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox and the 7th-oldest living MLB player (according to Baseball Reference).

Although he was often called “Paw Paw,” for his hometown in southwestern Michigan, Charles Richard Maxwell also earned the nicknames “Sunday Charlie” and “The Sabbath Smasher” after hitting home runs in four successive at-bats in a Sunday doubleheader against the New York Yankees on May 3, 1959, at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium). At the time, he was only the fifth modern player to accomplish the feat.

During the 1959 season, Maxwell belted twelve of his 31 homers on Sundays. It was the most homers ever hit in a season by a Tiger left-handed batter until the mark was surpassed two years later by Norm Cash.

Forty of Maxwell’s 148 career homers were hit on Sunday.

“There are unusual things that happen in baseball and I guess my Sunday homers are one of them but I can’t explain it,” Maxwell told the Free Press in 2019.

Over 14 big-league seasons, Maxwell hit .264 while driving in 532 runs. He also walked 484 times in 3,245 plate appearances, for a .360 on-base percentage. His numbers were even better as a Tiger, as he posted a .268/.363/.465 slash line.

“Charlie was an excellent hitter and clutch situations never bothered him because he usually produced,” former teammate Rocky Colavito told the Free Press in 2019.

“Charlie Maxwell always terrorized us,” said former Yankee star and broadcaster Tony Kubek. “He was a very smart dead-pull hitter who studied the pitchers and used Briggs Stadium and Yankee Stadium to his advantage.”

Born in Lawton, Michigan, on April 8, 1927, Maxwell went on to star on the Western Michigan University baseball team in 1945. That year, he was drafted into the Army, serving two years before beginning his pro career in 1947 in the Red Sox minor league system.

He made the majors with the Red Sox on April 26, 1950, at age 23. He played in three games that year, and picked up his first MLB hit on May 5, 1951, in his sixth career game. In all, he spent three seasons with the Sox, serving as a backup outfielder and pinch hitter in 1950-52 and 1954.

His clutch skills first showed on the first three homers of his MLB career in 1951, the only ones he hit that season. All three came in pinch-hitting at-bats against future Hall of Famers: Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Satchel Paige.

His contract was sold to the Orioles in November 1954, but he played just four games for that franchise in its second season in Baltimore, with the Tigers purchasing his contract in May 1955. In Detroit, he competed for playing time with outfielder Jim Delsing as he had seven doubles, a triple and seven homers in 55 games with the Tigers.

Finally, in 1956, for the first time in his MLB career, Maxwell became an everyday player. He batted .326, led the Tigers in home runs (28) — the first of three seasons he did so — and was selected to the American League All-Star team for the first of two consecutive appearances. That season, he finished third in slugging percentage (.524) behind only Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. Maxwell manned left field through 1960 and led AL outfielders in fielding percentage in 1957 and 1960, committing only one error in each of those seasons.

Maxwell was revered by fans for his all-out hustle, friendliness, and his pregame entertainment, especially for the “knothole gang” of kids who arrived in busloads on Saturday to sit in the lower left field grandstands. He would often catch batting-practice flyballs behind his back and between his legs before flipping the ball into the stands.

“The coaches didn’t really like it, but I enjoyed entertaining the kids because they were our future fans and I wanted to keep them coming back,” said Maxwell in 2019.  “I do a lot of card shows and often folks come up and remember me more for putting on a show for the kids then what I did as a ballplayer.”

Tiger fans always appreciated Maxwell for his approach.

“I was kind of like Pete Rose, in a way, because I hustled all the time," Maxwell said. “If I struck out, I even ran back to the dugout because I didn’t do what the fans wanted me to do”.

With the acquisition of fleet-footed centerfielder Billy Bruton following the 1960 season, franchise icon Al Kaline moved back to his natural position in right field, Colavito moved to left, and Maxwell became a reserve outfielder and pinch-hitter before being traded to the White Sox on June 25, 1962. After playing part-time for Chicago in 1963-64, Maxwell retired at age 37 and became an executive with a die casting company.

Maxwell was an admired treasure in the town of Paw Paw — about 20 miles west of Kalamazoo — where his home phone number remained listed in the phone book. A ballpark was named after him and a monument bearing his image was placed at Lake Front Park. 

“A week doesn’t go by without someone asking about Charlie or where he lives” said the village’s long-time mayor, Roman Planczak, in 2019. “He is so accommodating and friendly to everyone.”

Always humble, Maxwell remained proud of his Michigan roots.

“I came from a small town of a 1,000 people (nearby Lawton) and for me to be one of 400 major leaguers when I played, and then for two years be recognized as one of the 50 best ballplayers, it shows that everyone has an opportunity to produce great results if they are determined and work hard,” he said.

Maxwell was married 70 years to his wife, Ann, before her death in 2021. He is survived by sons Charles Richard Jr. and Jeffrey, daughters Cindy and Kelle, 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A visitation and service will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at the Adams Funeral Home, 502 W. Michigan Avenue in Paw Paw. The visitation is from 11 a.m. to noon with the services starting immediately after.

Before making his major-league debut, Maxwell spent several years in the Boston Red Sox farm system. He made his professional debut in 1947 with Class-D Wellsville of the PONY League, compiling a .354 batting average with a .455 on-base percentage, 52 bases on balls, 17 home runs and 79 RBIs in 92 games.

Maxwell was promoted to Class-B Roanoke late in the 1947 season and condintued to play there in 1948 and 1949. During the 1949 season, he won the Piedmont League Triple crown with a .345 batting average, 29 home runs, and 112 RBIs. On May 25, 1949, Maxwell capped a comeback from 13–4 deficit with a two-out, three-run homer in the ninth inning. He was called up to Class-A Scranton of the Eastern League for seven games late in the 1949 season.

Maxwell spent the bulk of the 1950 season with the Double-A Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association. He compiled a .320 batting average (.422 on-base percentage, .604 slugging) with 25 home runs in 192 games. After hitting four home runs in the post-season for Birmingham, Maxwell was called up by the Red Sox for the last week of the 1950 season. He also played for the Louisville Colonels.

Five of Maxwell's 24 home runs in 1960 came in extra innings, making him the first player in major league history with five extra-inning home runs in a season. (Nelson Cruz later tied Maxwell's record in 2010.

Maxwell became known as "Sunday Charlie", sometimes the "Sabbath Slugger", due to his propensity for hitting home runs on Sundays. The nickname was bestowed in 1959 when Maxwell hit 12 of his 31 home runs (38.7%) on Sundays. The peak of Maxwell's Sunday slugging success came on May 3, 1949, in a doubleheader sweep of the New York Yankees, before a crowd of 43,438. After missing 10 days with a broken finger, Maxwell returned to the lineup and hit four home runs in consecutive at bats: a solo home run into the upper deck of right field against Don Larsen in the seventh inning of the first game; a two-run shot against Duke Maas in the first inning of the second game; a 400-foot three-run shot off the facing of the centerfield bleachers against Johnny Kucks in the fourth inning of the second game; and a 415-foot solo home run into the lower centerfield bleachers against Zach Monroe in the seventh inning of the second game. After Maxwell's fourth shot, the crowd reaction was described as "pandemonium." He joined Ted Williams Bill Nicholson, Hank Greenberg, Jimmy Foxx, and Lou Gehrig as the only modern major leaguers to hit home runs in four consecutive official at bats.

After a less than stellar performance in 1958 (13 home runs and 65 RBIs), the Tigers acquired Larry Doby to replace Maxwell for the 1959 season. Doby fizzled with the Tigers (.218 in 18 games), however, and was traded on May 13, leaving the left field spot open for Maxwell to reclaim. Maxwell posted career-highs in 1959 with 31 home runs (4th in the AL) and 95 RBIs (5th in the AL).

Maxwell's other nicknames included "The South Paw From Paw Paw," (given by the Detroit Tigers announcer Van Patrick because of Maxwell's unusually-named hometown of Paw Paw, Michigan) and "Smokey." He was also sometimes known as "The People's Choice" due to his friendliness with fans and his pregame entertaining of busloads of kids (known as the Knothole Gang) seated in the leftfield stands on Saturdays, including "catch[ing] fly balls behind his back, or between his legs, and then toss[ing] them to the youngsters.

 

Teams

Boston Red Sox (1950–1952, 1954)

Baltimore Orioles (1955)

Detroit Tigers (1955–1962)

Chicago White Sox (1962–1964)

Career highlights and awards

2× All-Star (1956, 1957)