1955
EDDIE JOOST   SS

Eddie Joost was a two-time All-Star and earned some distinction as the last manager in Philadelphia Athletics history, and only the third one the team had in its 54 years before the franchise moved west to Kansas City. He was born on June 5, 1916, in San Francisco. 

Eddie attended Bryant Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High, and then graduated from Mission High School, all in San Francisco. He started playing professional baseball early, signing with the Mission Reds of the Pacific Coast League at the age of 16, while still in high school, for $150 a month.

The team played at Seals Stadium in San Francisco and Eddie’s first season was in 1933. He played with the Mission Reds for four seasons, through 1936 and was the team’s principal third baseman in 1935 and 1936.

His contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds near the end of the 1936 season, and he was a September call-up to the majors. He played for Cincinnati’s Syracuse Chiefs affiliate in the International League in 1937, hitting .269 in what was then Double-A ball, and then coming back to the majors in September.

From 1939 through 1943, he was back in the majors, and with the Reds for the first four of those years. He had never been on a pennant-winning team in the minors, but won back-to-back pennants with Cincinnati in 1939 and 1940, the Reds’ world championship season. Eddie didn’t play in the 1939 World Series, and in 1940 he played in all seven games as the team’s second baseman. It was his only postseason action. 

Joost had what was described as a prickly personality, an aggressive style and strong opinions that often didn’t sit too well with the martinets who ran big-league teams at the time. There had been some thought that he was too slight and lacked the stamina for regular play.

He played almost every game in both 1941 and 1942, and tied a major-league record in the May 7, 1941, game, successfully handling 19 chances at shortstop. The team finished in third place, then fourth place, and in December 1942 the club traded him to the Braves to acquire shortstop Eddie Miller, who was coming off three All-Star seasons and would go on to four more. 

Joost was a “sparkplug” early in the season, bringing some fresh competitive fire to the Braves, but cooled off soon. He played in 124 games for the Braves, but hit only .185. Eddie missed all of 1944 due to World War II, although he didn’t serve in the war. Though initially rejected by the Army, he passed the second time around and was told by the draft board that he had to do defense work in a meat-packing plant as part of the war effort, or be inducted. He played some industrial league ball on Sundays.

He excelled in spring training and played for the Braves again in 1945, hitting .248 through July, but suffered a broken wrist. He thought he had permission to return home after the injury, but may have left the Braves without the proper formalities, and he was declared AWOL and suspended. Commissioner Happy Chandler got involved in the dispute and in February 1946 Boston made a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals, giving him his outright release to Rochester, the Triple-A International League club of the Cardinals. Eddie hit 19 homers—more than all his prior years in the minors combined—and batted .276, driving in 101 runs.

The Philadelphia Athletics were interested and invested $10,000 (and three players) to purchase his contract at the end of September. It proved a good investment for Philadelphia, though his first year with the A’s, 1947, was not that successful. He did have his home-run stroke going, though, with 13 in 1947 and his 24 sacrifice hits led the league. 

Joost spent eight seasons in Philadelphia and was the team’s starting shortstop for the first six of those years, 1947 through 1952. He was solid in the field, and during one stretch from late 1947 into June 1948, he played 42 straight error-free games at shortstop, and handled 225 consecutive errorless chances, both records at the time. He hit .249 over his eight Athletics seasons but was so patient at the plate that he recorded an on-base percentage of .392. He drew an average of 118 walks per season in the six full seasons he played for the A’s and was named to the All-Star squad and came in 13th in MVP voting. 

In five seasons from 1947 through 1952, excepting only 1950, he placed in the top 15 in the voting for American League MVP. Though he never ranked higher than tenth place (1948).

Eddie had an appendectomy in February 1953 and a serious injury to his right knee brought his 1953 season to an end after a game in June. He didn’t play as much in 1954, because in November 1953 he was named player-manager of the team. They gave him added duties without giving him added salary because the A's were financially down. He didn’t want to be the manager, he had to be the manager.

In 1955 the franchise moved to Kansas City and Lou Boudreau became the manager. Eddie was not part of the sale and was released in November, 1954. 

He tried out with Cleveland during spring training, and was offered a contract but he had kept in touch with old friend Joe Cronin, the GM of the Boston Red Sox. At the end of March in 1955, the Red Sox signed Joost to fill in for the injured Milt Bolling. He played well in spring training, hitting .340, and made the team, but it was an engagement that lasted just the one season as he was released in October. He suffered two broken bones when he was hit on the left hand in late April and lost playing time. He played shortstop and second base, appearing in 55 games over the course of the year, batting .193.

In December Cronin asked Joost (both of them native San Franciscans) to manage and play for the Red Sox-affiliated San Francisco Seals in 1956. It was his final year as either player or manager in organized baseball. 

Though he’d said he wanted to stay in the game, he did not. Instead he took up work as an automobile salesman in San Francisco, and later opened a sportswear shop in nearby Burlingame. He remained very popular with A’s fans from Philly days and attended Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society events as late as 2009.

Eddie Joost died during his sleep on April 12, 2011 in Shingle Springs, near Fair Oaks, California, at the age of 94.