Gino Cimoli: Italian Boy from Frisco

                                        Gino Anichletto Cimoli was born to Abramo and Stella Cimoli on December 18th, 1929, in San Francisco. He would be their only child. Abramo worked for Pacific Gas and Electric as a night supervisor, Stella worked for the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company. Abramo did a bit of everything. He was also a shrimp and crab fisherman and had a sideline making wine. Young Gino would sometimes show up at school with purple feet. When he was young, his middle name was changed to Nicolas. Being an only child, he was the center of his parent’s world.

                                Gino graduated from Galileo High School in January of 1948. He was primarily known for his basketball and track exploits in high school. He did not even play baseball at school until his senior year. His success playing the game was amazing. His one season of high school ball he hit .607. He then appeared in the Hearst Sandlot Classic at the Polo Grounds in New York on August 13, 1947, and played left field for the US All-Stars alongside future MLB players, Moose Skowron, RF, and Dick Groat, 2B. 

                                      The US team defeated the NY team 13-2. Gino went 1-2 stealing a base and scoring a run. On the basketball court, he was named the most valuable player in the California North-South game on February 3, 1948. He led the North team to a 60-44 win and scored 15 points. He was offered a basketball scholarship to the University of San Francisco but passed because he decided at 6’1″ he was too short for a career in basketball. In the summers of 1947-48 he played baseball for the Portola Merchants team in San Francisco.

                                    Late in 1948, Yankee scout, Joe Devine, and Dodger scout, Howie Haak, sought to sign Gino. Devine worked on the mother, Haak, worked on his dad. Haak recounted later that he spent the better part of four days drinking Ancient Age bourbon with Abramo from 8 am to 4 PM. Abramo would then work the late shift until midnight. When he got home there were usually scouts waiting. Finally, Haak went to the house at 3 am in the morning, and asked Abramo. ” Who wears the pants in this family?” Very shortly after, Abramo woke up his wife and Gino. Cimoli signed with Brooklyn for 15,000 dollars. 

                               Gino was assigned to Class B Nashua in the New England League. He took his new bride, Irene Zinn, with him. She was expecting their first child. The New England League began the year with 8 teams. Nashua was in first place in July when because of financial troubles, the league was forced to go to four teams. Cimoli was hitting .370 with 6 triples on July 3rd. Because of the financial troubles, Branch Rickey began assigning his top prospects. Cimoli was sent to AAA Montreal. 

                             In his sixth game with the Royals, he crashed into a wall chasing a ball and injured his knee. He saw limited action after that. mostly pinch hitting and hit .231 in 15 games. The Dodgers exposed him to the annual major league draft, but there were no takers. He played 85 games for the Royals in 1950, hitting .275. He spent most of 1951 at AA Fort Worth. He hit .262 and tied for the league lead in triples with 12. Cimoli was considered a speedster and hit more triples in the minors and majors than home runs. He also threw out two base runners in one inning on May10th. 

                             Cimoli started the 52 season with Montreal. But after six games, he was re-assigned to the Dodgers other AAA affiliate, St. Paul. He played 142 games and hit .319/5/70. He also had 10 triples and 13 stolen bases. He was invited to spring training with the Dodgers in 1953 but was found to be not ready. He returned to St. Paul and his average fell to .262/3/52. In 1954, he started the year in St. Paul but was then sent to Montreal. His BA climbed to .306/7/60.

                            The spring of 1955 was a good one for Gino, but he was sent back to Montreal as the Dodgers decided to go with Sandy Amoros as their left fielder. Snider was locked into center and Furillo was in right. Cimoli by that time had been labeled as the Lackadaisical Latin. 

                          But then something happened that totally changed him. On their way from Montreal to San Francisco, Gino’s wife and two daughters were involved in a bad accident outside of Rawlings, Wyoming, when they collided with a bus. Cimoli left Montreal on May 12th to join his family. When he returned to Montreal on the 20th of May, he was a changed man. 

                        Cimoli returned to the team and ended the season with a .306 average. GM Buzzie Bavasi heaped some high praise on him saying that he was really hustling, and he could almost cover the entire outfield by himself. Cimoli went to spring training in 1956 with high hopes. But once again, he found himself in competition with Sandy Amoros, who had made a game saving catch in game seven of the 1955 series. Cimoli was out of options. But after a good spring, he made the team along with 19-year-old P, Don Drysdale. The season was a disappointment for Gino. He only got into 73 games. Mostly as a defensive replacement. He had 36 at bats, getting 4 hits and a walk. He got his first MLB hit on April 23rd in a 6-1 win over the Phillies. He had replaced Jim Gilliam in left field. In the 9th inning, he singled off of Duane Pillette and drove home Carl Furillo. His first extra-base hit came on May 8th against Cubs pitcher, Warren Hacker when he doubled. Once Furillo returned to the lineup, he was used only defensively. His last hit came on July 4th. In the 56 World Series he got into one game as a defensive replacement, he never got an at bat.

                   After the season, Gino went with the Dodgers on their tour of Japan. He had not played much and when he did, his play was erratic, so Alston decided that Japan was the perfect place to let him play. In one game, he scored from second on a sac-fly. Campy took him aside and told him that he had all the tools, but his attitude needed to change. 

                 When spring training rolled around in 1957, Gino was ready to turn his career around. Jackie Robinson noted that ” last year, he was more interested in bridge than baseball. He was usually the last man on the field. Now, he is the first.” At 27 years old, it seemed he was finally ready to meet the expectations he and the Dodgers had for him. At the time, no one knew it would be the teams last year in Brooklyn. 

                  When the season started, Alston found places for Gino to play. Amoros would start only 60 games. With Jim Gilliam moving to second full time, Cimoli was the starting left fielder. When Snider or Furillo needed a day, Gino would slide into their spot. He hit his first MLB homer on opening day, April 16th, in Philadelphia off of future Hallof Famer, Robin Roberts. 

                   His second homer came in the 14th inning against the Braves on May 6th. It gave Sandy Koufax, who was pitching in relief, his first win of the year. It was also Gino’s best day as a Dodger. He had five hits and scored 3 of the Dodgers 5 runs. Gino was hitting .314 after a July 4th doubleheader and was named to the NL All-Star team by manager, Walter Alston. He pinch hit in the 8th inning and was struck out by Billy Pierce. 

                    The Dodgers began the second half in fifth place. On the 12th of July, they moved into fourth place in a closely bunched race. Gino drove in 2 runs with a triple against the Reds that day for a 3-1 win. By the end of July, the Dodgers were in third place with just 4 games separating the top five teams. Gino’s average had dipped below .300 but he was still making his presence felt. In August, the Braves pulled away from the rest of the pack, and by the middle of September, the Dodgers were eliminated. 

                 When the last home game was played on September 24th, the word was out that the team was moving to Los Angeles. The Dodgers beat the Reds 2-0, and Cimoli scored the last run at Ebbets Field after getting on with an infield single. There were only 6,702 fans at the game. Cimoli finished with a career high, .293/10/57 line. He was third in the league with 7 walk-off hits.

Cimoli;Red Skelton;Don Drysdale 1957-09-30.

                  The Dodgers moved, and it was decided they would play their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The coliseum had been built for the 1932 Olympic games and was at that time used for LA Rams and USC Trojan football games. There were also events like fireworks on the 4th of July and a circus. Wrigley Field, where the AAA PCL Angels had played, was deemed to small to suit Walter O’Malley’s needs attendance wise. 

                So, they put up a 50-foot-high screen down the left field line, just 250 feet away. Right field and right center in 1958 were 440 and 421 feet away. As one of the older Dodgers remarked to Duke Snider, the Dodgers left-handed power source, a good cab ride away. Needless to say, not many balls were hit over the RF fence. They would move both in before the 59 season and it became 420 to center and 390 to right.

             After spring training in Vero Beach, the Dodgers headed west. They stopped to play an exhibition game against the Cubs in Mesa on the 11th of April. In the first inning, Cimoli slid into third base ahead of the throw by the right fielder. A photographer, who had taken a picture of the sliding Cimoli, asked 3rd base coach, Charlie Dressen the players name. Cimoli he replied. The reported asked again, and Dressen yelled, CIMOLI! Well, the signal for a squeeze play was for the coach to yell the player’s name. With Hodges at bat, Cimoli broke for the plate and was tagged out. Whoops! 

           The Dodgers opened the season in San Francisco against the Giants at Seals Stadium, a AAA park for the PCL’s San Francisco team, on April 15th. There was a large contingent from Gino’s North Beach hometown area. Gino led off the game against the Giants, Ruben Gomez. He became the first Dodger hitter in California. He struck out but got a single later. LA lost the game 8-0. In game 2, Gino was beaned by Paul Geil. His dad rushed onto the field and helped carry him into the clubhouse. But the beaning was not serious, and he hit his first homer on the west coast in the third game. 

         Dick Gray and Duke Snider had hit the Dodgers first homers the previous game in a 13-1 win for their first win as the LA Dodgers. Podres pitched a complete game for the win. Gino’s shot came off of Johnny Antonelli in the second inning of a 7-4 loss. But the 1958 Dodgers were old and beset by injuries. Campy was gone because of his tragic car accident in January of 58. Snider played in only 106 games with elbow problems. Carl Furillo was in his last full season at the age of 36. He had a good year batting .290 with 18 homers and 83 driven in. Snider hit .312 but only hit 15 homers. Neal and Hodges led the team with 22 each. Gino played in 109 games. He hit.246/9/27. Jim Gilliam was the starting left fielder most of the time. The team finished 71-83 in seventh place. 

       Gino had never been one of Alston’s favorite players, and that along with injuries in 58 kept him from playing more. The Dodgers meanwhile wanted a more permanent left fielder and traded Cimoli to the Cardinals for 1954 ROY Wally Moon and a pitcher, Paul Paine.

          The trade worked out great for the Dodgers. Moon would become a favorite in LA and famous for his Moon Shots over the left field screen. He would play for the Dodgers for seven seasons and was a part of 3 World Champion teams. Redbird’s manager, Solly Hemus, put Cimoli in center field, and he did not disappoint. He got off to a hot start and by early May he was hitting .349. The Cardinals were in last place at the time. He got fined 100$ for his role in a brawl that was touched off when he charged Don Cardwell of the Phillies after a brushback pitch. Through late June he was hitting .322 and had a league leading 28 doubles. A doubleheader sweep on the 28th of June pulled St. Louis to within four games of .500. On the 24th of July, Gino was leading the league with 35 doubles. But he faded and finished with 40 doubles and .279 BA and 72 driven in. 

         That winter he was traded again, this time to the Pirates with Tom Cheney for P Ron Kline. It had been a long time since the Pirates had been in contention. But Danny Murtaugh’s team had a good pitching staff with Law, Friend and Haddix. Clemente, Virdon and Bob Skinner were the outfielder. The Pirates did not have much power, and the addition of Cimoli did not address that. The A’s had offered them Maris in the winter, but Murtaugh did not want to trade Groat. 

       Gino did well enough in spring, so Murtaugh chose to platoon him and Virdon. The team shot out of the gate with 13 wins in 18 games. They had a nice bench with guys like Rocky Nelson, Hal Smith, Dick Schofield, and Bob Oldis. The team was kept loose with Cimoli and Oldis pulling pranks. In mid-July, Gino was hitting .303, but then he went into a slump and Virdon got hot, so his playing time dwindled. He did play some games in right when Clemente was injured making a great catch on a ball hit by Mays. 

     The Pirates clinched the pennant on the 25th of September. The Pirates had lost to the Braves in Milwaukee. In the clubhouse the mood was pretty somber, even though they had clinched. Cimoli yelled, ” somebody dead? He then took a reporter’s hat, doused it in champagne and wore it inside out, even in the shower, and the celebration was on. 

      The Pirates were heavy underdogs against the Yankees, who were returning to the series after missing 1959’s series. Gino was slated to play against the Yankees lefties with Skinner playing against the RHP. But Skinner jammed his thumb sliding in the Pirates game one win, and Gino got to play more. He scored on of the runs in the 16-3 loss in game 2. Yanks won game 3, 10-0. 

      The Pirates evened the series at 2 apiece with a 3-2 win. Gino scored the tying run in the fifth after singling and being driven in on a double by Law. The Pirates won game 5, 5-2. Gino was hitless but scored a run after reaching on a force play. Game 6 was another Yankee blowout, 10-0 behind Whitey Ford. Gino did not start game 7. Skinner’s thumb was better, and he got the start against the Yankees Bob Turley. The Pirates built up a 4-run lead by the end of the second. The Yankees brought in lefty, Bobby Shantz to pitch in the third. Shantz pitched 5 brilliant innings, keeping the Pirates scoreless and the Yankees built up a 7-4 lead going into the bottom of the 8th. 

        Gino pinch hit for face and singled. Virdon hit what should have been a double-play ball to SS, Tony Kubek. The ball took a bad bounce and hit Kubek in the throat. Kubek would say later that the ball hit a pebble. Groat singled in Cimoli and Coates replaced Shantz. Clemente singled in Virdon. Hal Smith then hit a 3-run homer off of Coates. Ralph Terry came in and got the third out. Elated after the homer by Smith, Ginos’s dad, threw his coat, glasses and hat into the air. all were retrieved. The elation was short lived. The Yankees came back and tied the game with 2 in the top of the 9th. Cimoli, who was not in the game, was so mad he threw a TV against the wall in the clubhouse. That was a little premature since Bill Mazeroski hit the first ever walk off winning World Series home in the bottom of the 9th. The Pirates were the champs. 

       Gino would not be a Pirate much longer. He had a pitch hit him in the ribs in May of 61 in pregame warmups. At the deadline on June 15th, he was traded to the Braves for Johnny Logan. He had a couple of bright spots with the Braves, he hit one of the teams 5 homers in a game on the June 22nd, a game they lost to the Giants, and he hit his 3rd homer of the year to seal Warren Spahn’s 300th win on August 11th, a 2-1 win. He also made a diving catch in the 9th to preserve it. 

      Despite all of that, he hit only .197 for the Braves. So, it was not surprising that he was placed in the player pool for expansion. Neither the Mets nor Colt-45s selected him. The Braves sent him to Vancouver. But in the postseason draft, he was selected by the Kansas City Athletics. He experienced a revival. He hit a 3-run homer on opening day, the key hit in a 4-2 win over the Twins. 

       In a doubleheader sweep on the 22nd of April over the White Sox, he had his best day ever. He drove in 10 runs with a double, triple and two home runs. As May came to a close, Gino was 4th in the league in RBIs with 31, more than he had driven in during the previous 2 seasons. But the A’s faded as they often did in those years and Gino finished with a .275/10/71 line. He also hit 15 triples to lead the league. He was the A’s every day right fielder. 

      In 1963, the A’s started off hot again. But reality set in, and they finished in 8th place. Gino, now 33, had a decent year .263/4/48 with 11 triples, good for 4th in the league. His 26 triples over two seasons was the best in the majors. Gino did not know it, but 1963 would be his last season as a full-time player. The A’s in 64 wanted to get younger, and 34-year-old Cimoli was not part of the plan. He injured a tendon running to first and played only 4 games for the A’s. He was released and caught on with the Orioles. But he hit only .138 in 38 games. In 65 he tried to come back with the Angels but was 0-5 in 4 games. His career line was .265/44/321 in 969 games. he hit .250 with an RBI in his only post-season where he actually hit. 

    Gino had worked in the off seasons as a UPS driver. He became a full-time employee of UPS after he retired from baseball. In 1989 he retired from UPS and was honored for completing all his years of employment without a single accident. He was considered, the Iron Man of UPS. He occasionally got together with old teammates. 

     The Pirates reassembled the 1960 team in July of 1985, minus of course, Clemente who was killed in a plane crash on New Years eve, 1972. The Giants reenacted their opening pitch on their 40th anniversary in 1997. Gino threw out the opening pitch. 

      In 1989, when the earthquake hit San Francisco, Gino had finished his shift at UPS and he and a friend, Ed Silva were having coffee when it struck. Silva and Cimoli ran out and their UPS truck became a makeshift ambulance. They checked the houses on the street and at one house, Gino rescued a woman trapped on the third floor. The helped numerous other people that day.

    Gino spent one term as the president of the San Francisco Italian Athletic club. He could be seen there often playing cards. On February 12, 2011, Cimoli passed away at the age of 81. Two weeks later, Duke Snider passed away. It would seem that even on heaven’s baseball team, Gino would struggle for playing time or go in as a late-inning replacement. This might have prompted him to say one last time, “play me or trade me.”

                                                                                            Minor League Report

                       Great Lakes shut out Lansing 5-0. Bruns went 4 innings allowing 1 hit, 3 walks, no runs and striking out 3. Luna followed with 1 inning, he gave up a walk and nothing else. Ruebeck went 1 inning and ended up getting the win, his first. He gave up a hit and struck out 2. Rodriguez went 3 scoreless allowing 2 hits while striking out 3 for his third save. The Loons scored 1 in the first, 1 in the third, 2 in the seventh and 1 in the eighth. Thompson singled in the first scoring Campbell. Campbell singled and stole second in the third. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sac-fly by DePaula. In the seventh, Quiroz walked and McLain singled. Rodriguez hit into a double play with Quiroz taking third. Biddison singled scoring Quiroz. Vogel was hit by a pitch. Campbell then singled to right and Biddison scored. In the eighth, Quiroz singled with 2 outs and scored when McLain tripled. Campbell had 3 hits and McLain 2. 

                      Tulsa was shut out 2-0 by Arkansas. Ferris got the loss despite going 5.2 innings. He allowed 1 run on 4 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 4. The other run was allowed by Harris, 1.1 innings, on a home run by Polcovich, his second. The Drillers managed just 5 hits, all singles in the loss. 

                      OKC: Walker Buehler started and went 5.1 innings he allowed only 1 hit; it was a homer for the only run he allowed. He walked 3 and struck out 5 in what so far has been his best re-hab showing. It most likely will be his last. Next time he pitches, it will be for the Dodgers. OKC tied the game up in the bottom of the sixth, so Buehler will not get the loss. And right now, it is looking like OKC will lose as they trail 5-2 in the 9th. Brasier had another scoreless outing finishing up for Buehler in the sixth with no runs and a K. Henriquez pitched a scoreless seventh allowing just a hit. Nick Ramirez came in to pitch the eighth and allowed 4 earned runs on 4 hits, one of them a 2-run homer. Petersen is pitching in the 9th with 2 on and two out.  Andrew Knapp, who hit the 2-run shot off of Ramirez, is now the hitter. Knapp doubled driving in 2 more runs. OKC will drop under .500 with this loss. Final 7-2. 

                    Rancho is losing to Fresno 6-0 in the 4th, nuff said. 7-2 Fresno in the top of the 7th.