Date of game:September 19, 1953 vs. Cubs in St. Louis Age: 24 Line score: 1.0 IP, 0 AB, 0 Ch, 0 A, 0 PO, 0 E
Fritz Marolewski (also referred to as Fred in contemporary articles) was born in Chicago on October 6, 1928, the fourth child of five for parents Steve, an immigrant form Poland, and Euginia. He attended high school at Bowen High School on the south side of Chicago, where he was in the ROTC program. (At least six other graduates of Bowen High School have appeared in the majors - Phil Collins, Eli Grba, Roy Henshaw, Billy Holm, Tony Piet and Ed Winceniak.) During the summers of 1946 and 1947 he played with an amateur club based in Beloit, Wisconsin. Prior to the summer of 1948, he was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, and at the age of 19 he was sent to Albany in the Class D Georgia-Florida league. He played in 140 games, hitting .271 with 43 doubles, 8 triples and 6 home runs. The following season he started the year at St. Joseph (Class C), where he hit .364 with a .564 slugging in 15 games before being moved up to Omaha (Class A) for the rest of the season. At Omaha he slugged .440 (22 doubles, 12 triples and 10 home runs) in 120 games, while hitting .254. The next season, spent mostly at Allentown (Class B) was his best yet, as he hit .271 with 25 doubles, 3 triples and 24 home runs in 137 games. He seemed poised to break through to the majors, but instead the army called during the off-season and he spent the next two years in Korea.
In 1953, Marolewski returned from Korea and started the season at Columbus in the American Association. He only appeared in six games with Columbus before being sent to Houston in the Texas League. In 123 games at Houston, he hit .253/.325/.474, driving in 65 runs with 23 home runs, 22 doubles, 4 triples and 104 strikeouts. The performance earned him a callup to St. Louis at the end of the season. When he joined the club on September 9, 1953, the team was holding around 20 games behind Brooklyn (Brooklyn would win the division by 13 games over Milwaukee), but in tight race with Philadelphia for third place in the National League. The starting first baseman for the Cardinals was Steve Bilko, who started 154 of the Cardinals 157 games that year.
Bilko played in 154 games at first base. The only other players credited with an appearance at first base that season were Marolewski, with his one game, and Dick Sisler. Sisler appeared in 10 games at first base, starting in 4 of those, and played a total of 47 innings at first base during the season, his final in the majors.
Bilko hit .251/.334/.746 with 21 home runs, 23 doubles, 3 triples and 125 strikeouts (which lead the NL that season). In other words, Bilko was pretty much Marolewski, except he was doing it in the majors. Marolewski sat on the bench until September 19, when the Cardinals went into extra innings against the Cubs. In the eleventh inning, Bilko walked and Dick Schoefield was put in as a pinch runner. Schoefield was stranded at third base and Marolewski went into the game at first base in the twelfth. The Cubs scored three runs and the game was over at the end of the inning.
According to the game article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the game was the tenth in a row in which the Cards were scored upon in the final inning, or basically since Marolewski joined the club. They were 4-6 in those 10 games.
Marolewski had no at-bats and no fielding chances. The St. Louis papers the next day didn't even mention his name, aside from the box scores. The big news on the sports page was that Mizzou lost its season opener to Maryland by a score of 20-6.
In 1954, Marolewski came to spring training fighting for a bench spot behind Bilko and Tom Alston. Alston was acquired from San Diego that January for $100,000 and two players (Eddie Erautt and Dick Sisler), and on April 13, 1954 he would become the first African American to play for the Cardinals. Predictably, Marolewski was sent back to Houston. For the first time, he played a position other than first base, appearing in approximately 30 games in the outfield. His playing time dropped, but his hitting stayed the same: .255/.331/.448 with 18 home runs, 14 doubles, 2 triples and 72 strikeouts in 119 games. His manager at Houston, Dixie Walker described his hitting this way.
"He won't hit you for a high average, I don't think. But I do think he'll hit your 25 home runs or better. He should drive in a hundred runs or better if there's somebody on ahead of him.
Like all home run hitters, he'll come to those streaks where you wonder if he'll ever get another hit. But then he comes, bang, bang, hitting the ball all over the place."
Marolewski spent virtually all of 1954, 1955 and 1956 in Double A. Over those three seasons, he hit:
1954 .255/.331/.448 with 18 home runs, 14 doubles, 2 triples and 72 strikeouts in 119 games.
1955: .278/.342/.474 with 17 home runs, 24 doubles, 7 triples and 101 strikeouts in 140 games.
1956: .261/.334/.506, a career high of 31 home runs, 28 doubles, 2 triples and 92 strikeouts, also in 140 games.
In other words, he kept hitting exactly like Walker described, low average with power.
Marolewski didn't get a call-up in 1954; it is not clear if he was still on the roster for the Cardinals that season. In February 1955, Houston sold him to Birmingham (AA), who was looking for some depth while waiting to see who the Yankees would assign to the club. He played 3 games in Birmingham before they sent him back to Houston, who promptly sold him to Oklahoma City (an independent club in the Texas League). He split 1956 between Oklahoma City (now affiliated with Boston) and San Antonio (a Baltimore affiliate in the Texas League). He also started playing 3B during these two seasons.
In 1957, Marolewski went to spring training with Vancouver, the PCL club affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles, but was sent back to San Antonio right before the season started. In July he was sold to Columbus, GA, a Cardinals Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League. He finished the season with Columbus and retired after the season ended. He moved back to Chicago, where we worked in the insurance business. According to Baseball Reference, he is still alive.
Fritz Marolewski (also referred to as Fred in contemporary articles) was born in Chicago on October 6, 1928, the fourth child of five for parents Steve, an immigrant form Poland, and Euginia. He attended high school at Bowen High School on the south side of Chicago, where he was in the ROTC program. (At least six other graduates of Bowen High School have appeared in the majors - Phil Collins, Eli Grba, Roy Henshaw, Billy Holm, Tony Piet and Ed Winceniak.) During the summers of 1946 and 1947 he played with an amateur club based in Beloit, Wisconsin. Prior to the summer of 1948, he was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, and at the age of 19 he was sent to Albany in the Class D Georgia-Florida league. He played in 140 games, hitting .271 with 43 doubles, 8 triples and 6 home runs. The following season he started the year at St. Joseph (Class C), where he hit .364 with a .564 slugging in 15 games before being moved up to Omaha (Class A) for the rest of the season. At Omaha he slugged .440 (22 doubles, 12 triples and 10 home runs) in 120 games, while hitting .254. The next season, spent mostly at Allentown (Class B) was his best yet, as he hit .271 with 25 doubles, 3 triples and 24 home runs in 137 games. He seemed poised to break through to the majors, but instead the army called during the off-season and he spent the next two years in Korea.