1938-1939

Bill Lefebvre’s first and final major league game and only major league at-bat came in 1938. He’s in the record books with a 1.000 batting average and a 4.000 slugging average, having hit a home run in his first and only major league at bat.

Bill was born on November 11, 1915, in Natick, Rhode Island and the family later moved to Pawtucket. He first became seriously interested in baseball around the age of 12. Bill played ball on the Pawtucket High School team, pitching and playing first base and in the outfield. He played on a good team. 

He played during the summer in the Cape Cod League, and that led to his first contact with the Boston Red Sox, following his freshman year at Holy Cross. Every year, the Red Sox gave him $400 to pay for his tuition after he signed.

At Holy Cross in the spring of 1938, he played left field. In May, he held Boston College to three runs, but the Eagles shut out the Crusaders. A little over a week later, Lefebvre graduated and the next day he was in uniform at Fenway Park. The day after that he saw action in his first major-league game. He got in the lost cause of a ballgame against the White Sox and pitched. When it came his turn to bat, he went up and hit the first ball Monty Stratton threw to him, over the left-field fence. 

It was but a brief stay in the bigs. He threw the four innings, hit the one homer, and was headed to Minneapolis to play for the American Association Millers. So instead of sitting on the bench in Boston, he joined the Millers and became teammates and friends with Ted Williams.

The following year, 1939, the Red Sox had bought the Louisville ball club, and so he was sent to Louisville. He got another call-up to Boston and worked 26 innings in five games, winning one and losing one.

He spent the next three years toiling in the minors. In January 1940, he was sent on option to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League and the whole of 1941 was at Louisville once more. Minneapolis purchased his contract at the very end of 1941 and he played the ’42 season for the Millers once more.

In 1943, he made it to the majors again. He spent most of the year with Minneapolis but he was brought up to the Washington Senators in mid-August. In 1944, he was with Washington all year long and led the league with 10 pinch hits. He ended his major-league years with five wins, five losses, and a lifetime batting average of .276.

Military service prevented him from playing at all in 1945. He served in an Army unit sent to Japan after the war ended and worked clearing minefields. It was in the Army that he suffered an arm strain that spoiled his prospects for future play – due not to an injury on a minefield.

After the war, he gave it a try and pitched a full season for Minneapolis. His final year of pitching was with Providence and Pawtucket in the New England League in 1947.

At that point, he just quit, and went into teaching in Pawtucket. He stayed at it for 25 years, mostly fifth-and sixth-grade physical education instruction. He coached soccer, basketball, baseball, track, and swimming. While teaching, he also scouted for the Red Sox and got to see his old Minneapolis teammate Ted Williams almost every year at spring training. 

Bill Lefebvre died in Largo, Florida on January 191, 2007, at age 91.