1957

Russ Meyer was born in Peru, Illinois on October 25, 1923. A product of an excellent youth baseball program in his hometown, he pitched Peru to the finals of the 1941 National Baseball Congress tournament, and drew attention from scouts for the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, and the New York Yankees. The White Sox won out, signing him in 1942, and he spent that year at their Superior (Wisconsin) Blues farm club in the Class-C Northern League.

Drafted into the Army after that season, he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and pitched for the camp team. Then while pitching in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Browns, he collapsed on the mound with a burst appendix. He contracted peritonitis and a heart murmur and because of the heart murmur, he was given a medical discharge. Army physicians told him he shouldn’t play baseball for at least two years.

After gaining back a good measure of his weight, he was eager to get back in the game. Because of the wartime demise of the Northern League, he became a free agent, and signed with his favorite boyhood team, the Cubs. They sent him to Nashville of the Southern Association, and there he learned the screwball.

Russ pitched at Nashville for three years, and made the Cubs as a reliever in 1947, pitching well until a broken ankle ended his season. In 1948 he was moved into the starting rotation and after the season he was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies. After a couple of so-so seasons with the Phillies, Russ was traded to the Dodgers before the 1953 season as part of a four-team deal also involving the Boston Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. The trade to the Dodgers rejuvenated him and in his first season, he won 15 games and lost 5 while the Dodgers won the pennant.

After the 1955 season he was traded to the Cubs, and was sent on waivers to Cincinnati in September. Just before the start of the 1957 season, the Redlegs sent him to the Boston Red Sox on waivers. He pitched in only two games for the Red Sox and spent the rest of the season with Nashville and Seattle. He was out of baseball in 1958, but signed with the Kansas City Athletics in April 1959 and pitched in 18 games before being released in July.

Several years after his active career ended, he became a  minor league pitching coach in the Yankees' organization, and served one season on the MLB staff of the Yankees' under Buck Showalter.

On May 6, 1961, Russ served as a television color commentator alongside Bob Finnegan for a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox.

Russ Meyer died on November 16, 1997, at age 74, in Oglesby, Illinois.