1932

John Michaels was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on July 10, 1907. He had a pretty straight shot right to the major leagues, advancing through three years of minor-league baseball and signed by a Boston Red Sox team desperately in need of pitching.

His first years of his professional career were with his hometown team in the Eastern League, the Bridgeport Bears, beginning in 1928 and running through 1930, though he had played very briefly for the Hartford Senators earlier in 1928.

John made his mark in baseball early on, throwing an 8-0 four-hit shutout for Bridgeport against Waterbury in September 1928.

In December 1931, Red Sox owner Bob Quinn announced the signing of Michaels for his perennially last-place ball club. Unfortunate lack of support cost John a number of games. In all, he had an earned run average of 5.13 to go with his 1-6 record in 1932. 

In 1933, before spring training, he was optioned to Montreal. It was one of the last deals Bob Quinn made as owner of the Red Sox before he sold the team to Tom Yawkey. John enjoyed a good full year with the Royals and after the Eastern League season, he played for Hartford’s Savitt Gems semipro team.

From 1934 through 1936, he played three consecutive years with the Rochester Red Wings, though with a declining level of work due to an ailing arm. In December 1936, he was sold to the Atlanta Crackers and played in the Southern Association. The diagnosis of a chipped elbow and a subsequent operation limited him to only three games  for the Macon Peaches in 1937. 

He wound up back in semipro ball pitching for the Bay Parkways and again for the Savitt Gems in 1938. After the season he apparently had another arm operation.

His last season was 1939, and saw him back in the Boston Red Sox system. The year began with him signed to a Little Rock Travelers contract, and appearing in five games, but he was released in May. He then hooked on with the Scranton Miners and pitched and played outfield in late May and June. 

The Miners sent him to the Rocky Mount Red Sox in the Piedmont League. He’d been dropped from Class A-1 to Class A and then to Class B all in the period of a couple of months. 

There was still semipro play which kept John active. He played outfield for the Stratford Sikorskys in 1940 and then managed against the Savitt Gems for the renamed Stratford Flyers in the summer of 1941. The Stratford team won the Connecticut state title and then started playing independent baseball. John was alternating work between first base and the mound. He was found pitching as late as September 1952 for the Singer Sewing Machine team of the Bridgeport Industrial Athletic League.

John Michaels worked as a magnetic particle inspector for Sikorsky Aircraft until 1970 when he retired and moved to Florida, where he passed away on November 10, 1996, at age 89, in a rehabilitation center in Sebring, Florida.