1938
BYRON HUMPHREY   P

Byron Humphrey was born on June 17, 1911, in Vienna, Missouri. He spent two years at the Iberia Academy in Iberia, Missori.

He began his career in baseball in 1930, signed as a catcher and given a tryout by the St. Louis Browns, who had an affiliate in Joplin, Missouri. He was released before the season opened and came to play semipro ball in Iberia, only returning in 1932 to try out for the Cardinals’ Western Association team there. Once more he failed to make the grade as a catcher.

He knew he had a good arm, so he decided to try to fashion himself into a pitcher and was successful, being signed by the Joplin Miners later in the season. In 1934, he made the team from the start and won 18 games.

The Joplin club had a working agreement with the Boston Red Sox and the big-league team was interested. His first visit to Red Sox spring training was in 1935 and they asked him to play in Charlotte in 1935 for the Class B Piedmont League Hornets. Though the team finished in last place, Byron had a very strong season, going 20-7, with a 4.17 ERA at the higher level of play.

His 1936 season with the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern Association, saw him put up a 4-1 record with a 1.99 ERA. In 1937, he came back stronger and was 16-7 for the Little Rock Travelers with a 3.31 ERA.

In 1938 he made the Red Sox during spring training and threw two innings for the big-league club. After being sent down by Boston in the roster-trimming move, he spent the rest of the season with San Diego.

He spent the next two seasons and part of a third with the Padres. His 1939 season with San Diego had to stop because of a sore arm. He returned in 1940 and his 1941 season was split between the Padres until, finally leaving the Red Sox system, when he was sold to the Los Angeles Angels, a Chicago Cubs affiliate.

In 1941, because of arm trouble, he asked the Cubs to send him to pitch for the Tulsa Oilers in the Texas League. They accommodated him and it was this last season as a player. Traded to Oklahoma City in midseason, he refused to report and retired. 

After his playing career, he was out of baseball from 1942 until 1959, when he began scouting for Baltimore where he worked for the Orioles for ten years. He resigned at the end of the 1968 season, and worked six years as a scouting supervisor for the St. Louis Cardinals, through the end of 1974, when he retired. 

He then took up work with the State Department of Education, working on the state’s school-lunch program out of offices in Jefferson City.

Byron Humphrey passed away after a second massive heart attack, following one he had suffered four days earlier on February 13, 1992, at age 80, in Springfield, Missouri.