Don Gutteridge Sculpture Underway

Pittsburg, Kansas baseball legend Don Gutteridge would have celebrated his 100th birthday June 19. The Gutteridge Foundation had dreamed of unveiling a lifesize bronze sculpture of Gutteridge (1912-2008) inside the entrance at JayCee Ballpark, nominal home of the Don Gutteridge League and youth baseball in Pittsburg, on his birthday.

The Gutteridge Foundation chose three sculpture options for donors: 1) Gutteridge, bat in his right hand, kneeling on his first day as a St. Louis Cardinal; 2) Gutteridge swinging later in his career; 3) fan-submitted photos.

The 5-foot-10, 165-pound infielder made his Major League debut Sept. 7, 1936 and his 12-year career at second base, third base and shortstop ended on May 9, 1948.

Gutteridge made stops with the St. Louis Browns (1942-1945), the St. Louis Cardinals (1936-1940), the Boston Red Sox (1946-1947) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1948) — finishing his career with a .256 batting average, 200 doubles, 64 triples, 39 home runs, 391 RBI and 95 stolen bases.

Three times over his 12-year career, Gutteridge finished in the Top 20 of the American League MVP race — 17th in 1942, 18th in 1943 and 19th in 1944, all years he played on the Browns.

He played in the 1944 and 1946 World Series, 1944 with the Browns and 1946 with the Red Sox, both against his former team of the St. Louis Cardinals. Gutteridge batted .192 (5-for-26) with one double and one RBI and was the first batter in the all-St. Louis World Series of 1944.

Gutteridge played alongside 12 Hall-of-Famers during his career: Walter Alston, Dizzy Dean, Bobby Doerr, Leo Durocher, Rick Ferrell, Frankie Frisch, Jesse Haines, Ralph Kiner, Joe Medwick, Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter and Ted Williams.

He later managed the Chicago White Sox during the 1969 and 1970 seasons after coaching in the White Sox organization for nearly 20 years. Gutteridge worked as a scout for the Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, finishing his baseball career with six World Series rings.

Through it all, he never forgot his true home was Pittsburg, Kansas. For more information, please check out http://www.gutteridgefoundation.org.

Don Gutteridge Dies

Don Gutteridge, who managed the Chicago White Sox in 1969-70, died Sunday, September 7, 2008 at his home. He was 96.

Gutteridge took over as manager of the White Sox in May 1969 and posted a 109-172 record in his one-plus seasons. He had a 12-year playing career as an infielder with the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates, then spent another 12 years as Chicago's first base coach (1955-66).

As a second baseman with the Browns in 1944, Gutteridge took part in a then-record five double plays in one game during the team's only World Series appearance.

A member of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, Gutteridge was the oldest living former manager or coach in Major League Baseball at the time of his death.

After managing the White Sox, he served as scout for the Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers before finally retiring from baseball in 1992.

Intermediate baseball league named after Brown's Don Gutteridge

For several years, 13- to-15-year-old baseball players have been playing in a league simply known as the Intermediate League inside the JL Hutchinson League in Pittsburg.

Now, JL Hutchinson board members voted to change the name to the Don Gutteridge League beginning for the 2009 season.“Todd Biggs and I were talking and he thought that it would be a good way to honor him in the closing years of his life,” said JL Hutchinson League president Jack Bache.

Biggs, who co-authored a book with Gutteridge called “Getting To Know Baseball” that was published in the spring and handed out to each player in the JL Hutchinson League, said that he got the idea while he and Gutteridge were working on the book.

“Don and I worked a great deal together on the book and through the process it just donned on me about how appropriate it would be to do that,” Biggs said. “Originally, my thought would be that we would rename the Machine Pitch league.

“Just sitting there with Don when we were handing out books, it seemed like a perfect idea,” Biggs said. “I think that he will be tickled to hear about it.”

The board elected to rename the older league after Gutteridge.

“We thought that, since we have four leagues, and some of the board thought that the older league would be a better fit for him,” Bache said. “Mainly because of his Major League Baseball experience.”

Gutteridge, who turned 96 in June, played for the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1936 to 1948.

After retiring as a player, Gutteridge was a coach for the Chicago White Sox from 1951-66 then again from 1968-69.“It was really easy (to change the name of the league),” Bache said. “It was unanimous and I think we may have wondered just why we did not do this earlier.”

Both Biggs and Bache said that players in the new Don Gutteridge League should benefit on the name change alone.

“I firmly believe that the ball players in Pittsburg will benefit from this simple name change,” Biggs said. “It gives them a success story to identify with and they will learn more about him when they play in the Don Gutteridge League.”

It can even be something that players can remember after their time playing.

“I think that it gives them something to hang their hat on,” Bache said. “Years from now, people can say that they played in the Don Gutteridge League and I think that will have a big impact on them.

Bache said that the board had discussed the name change earlier in the year but nothing materialized.

“I think we just don’t think about those things and we get busy with our day-to-day operations and it was something that we just did not think about,” Bache said. “We had talked about it earlier but we had never really gotten around to it.”

Bache and Biggs said that, if nothing else, the name change is a tribute to Gutteridge and what he has done for Pittsburg.