1940-1941

Herb Hash was born on February 13, 1911 in Woolwine, Virginia. He seems to have started school late, still playing for Fredericksburg High School in 1932.

After graduating with a major in business administration from the University of Richmond in June 1935, where he was also a star center on the school’s undefeated basketball team, he was signed by the Boston Red Sox farm system. He finished out the summer playing semipro ball for Wytheville and then for Culpeper in the Valley League.

He began pro ball in 1936 with the Canton Terriers in the Class C Middle Atlantic League. He found himself advanced to the Piedmont League’s Rocky Mount Red Sox for the 1937 and 1938 seasons. 

He put up stats that caught the eye of the Red Sox. With Double-A Minneapolis in 1939, he had a 22-6 season with a 3.27 earned-run average, and his 144 strikeouts tied him for the league lead. He was the only pitcher in the American Association to win 20 or more games in 1939 and finished second in the American Association’s MVP voting. The Red Sox didn’t wait until after the season to make their move, finalizing the arrangements in late July by buying  him from the Millers. 

He spent the full 1940 season with Boston. The first 12 appearances of his career were all in relief, beginning in April, the fourth game of the season.

In 1941, he appeared in just four games, all in April, but the Red Sox didn’t think they needed him, and to get the roster down to the 25-man player limit the team ticketed him to Louisville on option. In early July, it was announced that he would miss at least the rest of the season due to a general physical breakdown. In fact, he had a serious back injury requiring a spinal fusion and 145 stitches in his lower back.

He signed a contract for the ’42 season, but right at the end of spring training, the Red Sox cut him loose, selling him outright to Minneapolis. For the Millers, he won one more game, but lost three, throwing only 59 innings in nine games, before his career came to its conclusion.

Hash took a position as high-school principal in Boston, Virginia, and served there in 1943 and 1944. In May 1945 he was named director of athletics and head coach at Hargrave Military Academy. There was an interlude in 1946 when he turned pro again, pitching in the Carolina League for the Danville Leafs. By 1948 he was back as a school principal in Culpeper County. His main job was working in the public schools, and he served as either a teacher or a principal for 33 years.

Herb Hash was an inductee in the University of Richmond’s Hall of Fame and died of a stroke on May 20, 2008 in Culpeper. He was 97 years old.