1947
TOMMY FINE   P

Tommy Fine was born on October 10, 1914, in Cleburne, Texas. He attended Liberty Chapel elementary school in Cleburne and then Cleburne High and went on to Baylor and graduated there as well. A farmer’s son, he was fortunate to have been able to attend Baylor.

He turned down a reported bonus offered by the Red Sox and elected to play semipro ball over the summer for the Mount Pleasant Cubs and return to Baylor where he was a unanimous choice for the All-Southwest Conference team. Ultimately, he signed with the Red Sox.

After signing with the Red Sox, hee had put in a partial season of work with the Class-B Piedmont League Rocky Mount Red Sox in 1939. He was shipped out to Little Rock and was even wilder and was sent to Class-C ball at Oneonta, New York in 1940.

In 1941, Tommy showed better. His 22 wins led the league, and so did his 185 strikeouts. He was due for a promotion for the 1942 season, but just before heading off to spring training, he suffered a ruptured appendix. He skirted death, recovered, and returned to Oneonta.

And then the army called. He enlisted in October 1942, in Abilene, became a radio technician and a sergeant in the Signal Corps, and didn’t get out until after the season was over in 1945. He did have the opportunity to keep sharp while in the service and won 32 games for the Orlando Army Air Force Base team, runner-up at the annual tournament in Wichita.

Once mustered out of the army, Tommy showed he hadn’t lost a thing during his three years out of pro ball. While the 1946 the Red Sox were winning the pennant, he was working in the Eastern League, pitching for the Scranton Red Sox. He was 23-3 with a 2.08 ERA and was a unanimous choices for the Eastern League All-Star team. He was unanimously voted league MVP.

Tommy made his major-league debut in April 1947. He started the game against the visiting Philadelphia Athletics, facing the minimum nine batters in the first three innings. In May, in St. Louis, he pitched a complete game for the Red Sox, a five-hitter, beating the Browns. In June, not having worked for 18 days, he was optioned to Toronto. He had appeared in seven games, worked 30 2/3 innings with a 4.11 earned run average, and held a 1-2 record. 

He fared poorly in Triple A with Toronto, suffering a groin injury five days after arriving and was traded to San Francisco in October. In 1948, he pitched for the San Francisco Seals while hampered by a sore arm, and in 1949 for the Double-A San Antonio Missions in the Texas League, a club with which the St. Louis Browns had a working agreement. 

Over the wintertime he pitched for Cienfuegos in the Cuban League, led the league in wins with 16. He pitched winters in Cuba for several more years.

Tommy made the Browns in 1950 and worked in 14 games, strictly in relief, but his ERA pretty much just got worse and worse as the first couple of months of the season unfolded. He was sold to the Baltimore Orioles in June, joining them in the Little World Series, which the Orioles lost to Columbus. 

He was back with San Antonio in 1951, where he threw a seven-inning 2-0 no-hitter against Tulsa, in the first game of a doubleheader in June. In February 1952, he pitched the only no-hit, no-run game in the history of the Caribbean Series. In his next start, against Panama, he threw hitless ball for the first seven innings. In 1998, Fine was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame by members of the exile community in Miami.

Tommy pitched five more seasons in minor-league ball, mostly as a starter. In 1952 he trained with the Browns but was released to San Antonio, moving on to Memphis during the season. He spent all of 1953 with Memphis, and was named to the Southern Association All-Star team.

Richmond bought his contract in February 1954 and he spent 1954 and 1955 with Richmond. The Virginians placed him on the inactive list in mid-June, to open up a roster spot, and sold him to Birmingham. His final year was 1956, when he with Shreveport.

Tommy had worked as a barber during the off-seasons. He cut the hair of other children and most of the players, too. He also worked for his brother-in-law in an implement and grain storage in Brownwood, Texas. He later moved to Burbank, California, where he operated a garage.

Tommy Fine died in Little Elm, Texas on January 10, 2005, at age 90.