1943-1946

George Metkovich was born in Angels Camp, California on October 8, 1920. He graduated from Fremont High School in Los Angeles and planned to go on to college and become a physical education coach, but his talents on the ballfield opened up opportunities in baseball. He also played basketball in high school and was first-team All-City in 1938-39.

George played semipro baseball in 1938 and was just 17 when he was spotted and signed by the Detroit Tigers, who sent him to Beaumont, Texas. He graduated during the winter of 1938-39, went to spring training with Beaumont and was assigned to play for the Fulton (Kentucky) Tigers in the Class-D Kitty (Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee) League. He put in a full 1939 season for Fulton, playing every one of the team’s 126 games.

He played semipro winter baseball in Los Angeles, and the Boston Bees signed him in February in 1940. Another injury robbed him of much of the season. Optioned to Boston’s Evansville Bees in the Class-B Three-I League, he tore a ligament in his knee sliding into second base. He was carried off the field and spent a good part of the season unable to play, coming back in time for 50 more games in the final couple of months. The knee still bothered him the following spring, and Boston had so many outfielders that they worked him out at first base. The Evansville Bees, though, used him as an outfielder in 1941.

Advancing to the Single-A Eastern League with the 1942 Hartford Bees may have been a little too much for the 21-year-old. He started the season well, but after the first month he tailed off sharply, hitting .238 in 90 games and in July, he was returned to Evansville and hit .308.

With the country at war, George was classified 1-A and expected to be called to service at any time. He asked the Braves if they would let him play closer to home. The San Francisco Seals offered to buy his contract, which the Braves accepted in March 1943, a conditional deal that allowed them to bring him back any time until June. The Braves, though, never pulled the trigger to exercise their option and bring him back.

After his first 71 Pacific Coast League games, he was hitting .325, and the Boston Red Sox, themselves decimated by players leaving for the service, purchased his contract. At age 22, he made his major-league debut for the Red Sox in July at Washington. By season’s end, he had played in every game since he’d joined the team, all but two in either right field or center, and batted .246.

In April 1944, the Sox handed him the first-base job. He played 50 games there, though in the end, he played more games in the outfield and finished with a .277 batting average. The Red Sox put up a good fight for the pennant, in second place much of the year, until late August when they finally lost too many key players to the military. 

Opening Day 1945 saw George set a new major-league record for a first baseman, committing three errors in the same inning. He played 97 games at first base in 1945, drove in 62 runs and batted .260. 

With the war over, all the Red Sox stars came back in 1946. The team shot off to 21-3 start, and they never looked back. Rudy York played first base most of the year, George worked exclusively in the outfield, mostly in right, hitting .246. In the World Series, he only got in twice. 

Playing the Cardinals in 1947 spring training, George hit a homer to win the game in March, but he didn’t make the team. In April the Cleveland Indians purchased his contract and he saw a lot of duty, though, almost all in center field. 

He did a roundtrip during the offseason, traded to the St. Louis Browns, but never played for the Browns, however, other than in spring training. His arm, which had bothered him in the latter part of the 1947 season, had still not come around, and since the trade had been conditioned on his arm improving, the Browns returned him to Cleveland in April. Three weeks later, he was traded to the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League and had a great year. The Oaks won  the PCL pennant and the playoffs.

He started 1949 with the Oaks, batting .337 with 14 homers through his first 77 games. When Gus Zernial broke his collarbone, the Chicago White Sox made a move, offering cash and a player to be named later, to bring in George as a replacement. Back in the big leagues, he hit .237.

Oakland reacquired him outright from the White Sox in February of 1950. Playing a much longer season in the PCL, he hit .315 and was voted the Pacific Coast League MVP.

The Pittsburgh Pirates took him in the November 1950 major-league draft and he spent the next 2 1/2 seasons playing for the Pirates. Pittsburgh finished seventh in 1951 and last in 1952, but George was reasonably productive for them each year, hitting .293 and .271. He played April and May 1953 for the Pirates too, but in June, the Pirates sent him to the Cubs. He hit .234 for the Cubs for the remainder of the 1953 season.

In December, the Milwaukee Braves bought his contract from the Cubs, because he gave them the bench protection they likely sought. In 1954, Milwaukee used him in 68 games and he batted .276. They were his last games in the majors. In March 1955, he was released.

He still had two more solid years of playing in him. In 1955, he played for Oakland again and returned to glory, with a league-leading .335. He was one of the three outfielders on the league All-Star team. 

In 1956, he played for last-place Vancouver and his contract was sold to Charleston in February 1957. He indicated he might retire instead so Charleston sold his contract to Louisville, which in turn sold it to the, closer-to-home, San Diego Padres.  In mid-May, he was asked to take over as manager, and managed the Padres for four seasons. In late July 1960, he resigned as manager.

In January 1961, he was hired to scout for the Washington Senators, and did that work from 1961 through 1963. His territory included Southern California, Utah, and Arizona. 

George Metkovich died from complications of Alzheimer’s on May 17, 1995, in Metairie, Louisiana, at age 74. Nearly 20 years after his passing, in 2013, he was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.