All-Time Indians: Jim Hegan

Eventually the third longest tenured position player in Indians history, Jim Hegan first signed with Cleveland as a 17 year old in 1938, but as was the case with all young men in the late 1930’s, his road would not be easy. Things started off well with two solid minor league seasons leading to a Major League debut in 1941 and a promotion to back-up catcher in 1942 behind Rollie Hemsley, but he was pushed into military service after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1942 and would miss all of the next three seasons as he served his country in the Coast Guard.

Back in Cleveland, the catcher situation was a mess and had been for awhile. After Frankie Pytlak provided a steady presence behind the plate from 1933 through 1938, the Indians used 14 catchers over the next six seasons with only Hemsley playing more than 220 games. For a pitching staff that, other than Bob Feller and Mel Harder (who was near retirement) was just coming together, some consistency at catcher was a must. Once Hegan returned in 1946, the trend towards consistency began.

Named the starting catcher in late June of 1946, Hegan wouldn’t relinquish the role until June of 1957 when Hegan was 36 and Russ Nixon took over as the starter. During his span as a full timer (1947 through 1956), Hegan played 75% of the Indians games behind the plate.

What is most interesting about Hegan’s career was that he was almost exclusively considered a defensive stalwart without a bat and he was still able to hold the starting catcher job for more than a decade. Part of the reason for this may have been that he was an unconventionally good hitter. Despite batting just .249 in 1947, he reached base more in more than 32% of plate appearances and rarely struck out. This was good enough for Hegan to make his first All-Star game in 1947 and even as his offensive numbers decreased over the years, he was still a perennial All-Star from 1949 through 1952.

The one year that Hegan was not an All-Star early in his starting career was in 1948, when he was hitting just .203/.268/.324 on July 6th. Despite this rough start, this would be Hegan’s best offensive season as he helped spur the Indians to the World Series with a .276/.348/.459 line for the rest of the year. During this span, he hit 10 home runs and knocked in 46 in 85 games, numbers that would compare favorably to any other full season in his career.

Hegan’s hot streak continued as he came up big for the Tribe in the post-season. During the play-in game against the Red Sox, Hegan knocked in and scored a run while going 0 for 3 with a walk as the Indians won 8-3 to advance to the World Series. In the Fall Classic itself, Hegan played in all six games, hit a home run and knocked in five, including one in the Indians 4-3 game six clincher. While three of his RBI came in a blow out loss in game five, he would lead all Indians hitters with 5 RBI.

Just coming into his own at 28, 1949 would be nearly as big a year for Hegan as 1948 (without the team accolades). He would play in an incredible 152 games considering his position and the most ever by an Indian who exclusively played catcher. All his offensive stats would drop some as would the team’s as a whole, but the pitching staff maintained consistency, always a huge part of Hegan’s game. The following season, he would sacrifice average for power and hit a career high 14 home runs (tying 1948) and knock in 50+ runs for the final time in his career. While he hit just .219, he slugged .383, the second highest mark in his career.

While his offensive numbers may not seem much now, having since been greatly surpassed by the likes of Sandy Alomar, Jr., Victor Martinez and Carlos Santana, at the time the Indians had never had an offensive threat at catcher. Steve O’Neill, the backstop during Cleveland’s first World Championship and first long term catcher, hit just 11 home runs in over 1,300 games. The Indians career home runs hit by a catcher was 37 by Glenn Myatt who played during the offensive boom from the mid-1920’s on. Hegan broke that record in 1950, then added to it, ultimately reaching 90 by the time he left the team in 1958. This number has since been surpassed only by two hitters who were exclusively catchers, Johnny Romano and Alomar. His record of 14 in a season as a catcher stood until Romano broke it in 1960, then again in ’61, ’62 and ’64.

Pushing into his 30’s, Hegan would make his final two All-Star games in 1951 and 1952 on the merits of his defense and his name as his slugging percentage and walk rates dropped and his strike out rate rose. He continued to play over 100 games per season (he did so from 1947 through 1956), but now it was 112 games instead of more than 130. Through this period during the early 1950’s, the Indians would run through a list of back-up catchers until Hal Naragon proved capable in 1954 and he would maintain that role through 1957, even as Hegan took a back seat to Nixon.

The 1954 season would both be a great success for the Indians (at least during the regular season) and a resurgence of sorts for Hegan. He played in over 130 games again, the last time in his career, and hit 11 home runs. While he missed out on the All-Star game again, he finished 22nd in MVP voting at the end of the season, largely thanks to an incredible performance by the Tribe’s three aces, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia (Lemon finished 5th, Wynn 6th and Garcia 19th in the voting while Larry Doby [2nd], Bobby Avila [3rd] and Al Rosen [15th] also received votes).

The World Series itself would be an embarrassment and Hegan wouldn’t showcase himself well, although by playing in all four games he joined Larry Doby as the only Indians players to start in the field for two World Series. Hegan went just 2 for 13 with a double, walk and run scored as the Indians were swept in four by the Giants. This would be the Indians last post-season appearance until 1995 and the last of Hegan’s career despite a bit of team hopping at the end.

In 1955, he would play only 116 games, then 122 in 1956 as the veteran continued on the downside of his career. He maintained offensive consistency through these years, however, never hitting below .216 or above .250 from 1946 through 1957 with an OBP between .280 and .325. The Indians knew what they could expect from Hegan day in and day out both offensively and defensively and when combined, he has an argument as the greatest catcher in franchise history to this day.

While there are many great story lines from the glory days of the Indians, the parallel careers of Hegan and Bob Feller has to be a cornerstone. Feller signed with the Indians at the age of 17 in 1936, Hegan at the same age two years later. The battery would first to play together in 1941, then both leave for the military during World War II. Feller peaked earlier, but both were integral to the 1948 championship team and, although each had a reduced work load, both were big in 1954. Feller became a reliever in 1955 and retired after the 1956 season, while Hegan (still two years behind), became the back-up catcher in 1957.

At this point, however, the pair separates. While Feller retired at 37, Hegan wanted to continue to play on and in 1958 Hegan became part of Frank Lane’s fire sale when he was traded to the Tigers along with Hank Aguirre for Jay Porter and Hal Woodeschick. Over the next few years, he was traded to Philadelphia, sold to San Francisco, released and signed by the Cubs, then the Yankees. He would play just 70 games in 1958, then 70 total between 1959 and 1960, but would continue on through his age 39 season before retiring.

It’s hard to compare players defensively from so long ago, so to a point we have to just take Feller’s word for it that Hegan was the greatest. Looking at the less an indicative stat of fielding percent, he finished his career at .990, second to Pytlak at the time. Considering base stealers, there has never been one greater as he remains the only catcher in Indians history to catch at least 400 games and nab more than 50% of base stealers.

At the same time, Hegan set records for longevity and offensive prowess at his position. He currently ranks fourth all time in career games played as an Indian at any position and the three players ahead of him were top of the lineup middle infielders. To put this in perspective for his position, Steve O’Neill played over 1,300 games, but since then only Luke Sewell (who played between O’Neill and Hegan) and Sandy Alomar have surpassed 900 games behind the dish. Victor Martinez ranks fifth in Indians history in games played as catcher with less than 700 while Hegan played 1,491 games behind the plate.

Jim died at the age of 63 in 1984 and has since been memorialized in the Indians Hall of Fame. While he died young, he lived long enough to see his son, Mike Hegan, play his entire 12 year MLB career as a first baseman for the Yankees, Pilots/Brewers and Athletics. Incredibly, Mike was signed just one year after his father retired and made his debut in 1964. Possibly not coincidentally, Mike was signed by the Yankees while his father was a coach there, although Jim would stay on with the Yankees long after Mike was sold to Seattle. From 1960 through 1973, then again from 1979 to 1980 Jim coached for the Yankees with the intervening years spent with Detroit. While he didn’t play in Cleveland, Mike would continue his father’s legacy in Ohio by going to St. Ignatius High School, then John Carroll University before coming back to Cleveland after his playing career to announce for the Tribe from 1989 through 2011. Mike died at the age of 71 in 2013.