1946-1947

Don Gutteridge was born on June 19, 1912 in Pittsburg, Kansas. He began as a mascot on one of the railroad teams in Pittsburg and began playing in 1928, beginning a career that spanned seven decades.

In Pittsburg, he played baseball four times a week in a city league. Sometimes they played teams from Wichita and Kansas City. There was no high-school baseball for him. He played semipro baseball with a team that promoted the local railroad. 

He got his break in 1932 when a scout from the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed him to a contract. He earned a spot at third base for the Lincoln club in the Nebraska State League, a Class-D circuit. In 1933, his second year in the Nebraska State League, he led the league in hitting with a .360 average.

This was during the Great Depression and times were tough. He began at $75 a month and then in 1933 his salary was cut. He was glad to have work, but it was getting financially troublesome for the Nebraska State League. At the close of the 1933 season, the St. Louis Cardinals made an offer for the Nebraska State League. They would give the league $2,000 if they could take eight players. Don was one of them and was on his way to the major leagues as a St. Louis Cardinal.

In September 1936, he came up to the Cardinals, playing in his first game. He’d made his mark and the next year became the regular third baseman for the Cardinals, but he never hit for as high an average again. He was a member of the "Gas House Gang", a bunch of players who combined shabby appearance with playing excellent baseball and a talent for playing jokes on one another.

He was dropped from the major-league roster by the Cardinals after the 1940 season, and it seemed that his run in the big leagues was over. But Pepper Martin became manager of the Sacramento farm club for the Cardinals and he wanted Don to come along as his player-coach. He coached and played 171 games at third base, hitting for a .309 average in the Pacific Coast League.

When World War II broke out, he tried three times to enlist in the military, but he was declared 4-F, not fit for service, each time. As he put it, he would have fallen apart if he had been let into the armed forces. He had a trick knee and a problem with his kidneys and had a child, that kept him down the list for the draft.

In 1942, Don returned to the majors as a member of the St. Louis Browns. With the Browns, he made the transition from third base to second base and had four good seasons. In 1942 he was among the leaders in the league in stolen bases, triples, and runs scored. The next year, his 35 doubles were again among the American League leaders, but 1944 was the year that he remembers the best because he was finally in a World Series. The Browns won first place with an unlikely bunch of players. Many of the other Browns were like Don, 4-F or subject to being called up only in special circumstances. 

The Browns fought hard to win the pennant, while the Cardinals easily won the National League pennant by 14½ games. The Browns took an early lead in the Series, but they lost to the Cardinals four games to two. It was a disappointing experience. Don hit only .143 during the Series, going 3-for-21 without an RBI. He struck out five times and committed three errors.

In 1945, the Browns came in third. Don was the team’s third baseman but hit only .238. He knew that it was probably over for him as a big-league player. He was settling into his position, when the word came that the Boston Red Sox, then running away with the American League race, needing help. He was available, so he returned to the big leagues and was in nine games at second base, playing eight games at third and was in five other games. He stayed with the Red Sox through 1947.

The team made the World Series in ’46, playing the Cardinals. Don got two hits in Game Five, helping give the Red Sox a three-games-to-two lead. He was 2-for-5 in the game, with one RBI, leaving him with a .400 average. 

In 1947, Don hit just .168 in 131 at-bats for the Red Sox. In his opinion, the Red Sox were college types and they didn’t fight unlike the Browns and Cardinals teams he played with. He added that the Red Sox were very professional and businesslike.

He was sold to the Pirates late in spring training in 1948 and concluded his active career with brief appearances in four games that year. 

With his playing career over, Don almost quit baseball, but an opportunity opened up and he reported to Indianapolis to play under Al Lopez. Lopez needed a third baseman to play for the Indians, a Pittsburgh farm club and Don was the man. Indianapolis won the pennant and went on to win the 1949 Little World Series from Montreal. Don worked with Lopez for most of the rest of his career.

From 1949 through 1951, he was a player-coach for Indianapolis. In 1951 Lopez became manager of the Cleveland Indians, and Don took over as Indianapolis skipper. In 1952 he went to manage Colorado Springs of the Class-A Western League. It was a farm club of the Chicago White Sox, and he maintained his affiliation with the White Sox through 1970.

In 1954, he went to Memphis as manager and was promoted back to the big leagues in 1955 ,when he became the first base coach for the White Sox. In 1957, Al Lopez, the new manager of the White Sox, said all of the coaches could come back and he wanted them back. The culmination of Don’s career came in 1959, when the White Sox won their first pennant in 40 years.

In 1967 the White Sox front office appointed Don manager of the Indianapolis Triple-A team. He was set to return the next year, but the team was relocated to Honolulu. Then the Kansas City Royals came calling and he became the head scout for the expansion team that would take the field. Early in the 1969 season, Lopez stepped aside again and the White Sox asked Don to take over as manager. He managed the White Sox until late in the 1970 season.

His teams never contended and he ultimately was fired, but his association with baseball did not end. From 1971 to 1974 he scouted for the New York Yankees and from 1975 to 1992 he scouted for the Dodgers.   

In retirement, he took an interest in youth baseball in Pittsburg. Just before his death, the JL Hutchinson League renamed its intermediate league (ages 13-15) the "Don Gutteridge League". He also taught school, sold cars, worked on the railroad, and refereed football and basketball, 

For someone who was in the right place, Don won plenty of honors. He is in the Kansas, Missouri, and Columbus (Ohio) Halls of Fame and is a member of the St. Louis Browns Hall of Fame. A softball and baseball facility in Pittsburg is named in his honor. 

Don Gutteridge died after contracting pneumonia, on September 7, 2008 in Pittsburg, Kansas.  He was 96 years old.