Charles Landis Shoemaker (August 10, 1939 – May 31, 1990) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. A native of

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, he appeared as a

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

in parts of three

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

seasons (1961–1962; 1964) for the

Kansas City Athletics The Kansas City Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1955 to 1967, having previously played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the Philadelphia Athletics. After moving in 1967, the team became the ...

. He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood tall and weighed . Shoemaker attended high school in

Montebello, California Montebello (Italian language, Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles, California, East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an indepen ...

, where he was a top athlete, and then the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. He led Arizona to second place at the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

in 1959 and third in 1960. He was a three time

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n. In 1961, he attained the rare distinction of earning All-American honors at two different positions (

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

and second base). Over his college career, he led the Wildcats in

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, b ...

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

and

stolen bases In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out a ...

. He was named to the 1950s All-Decade Team and inducted to the University of Arizona Hall of Fame in 1991. At the time of his induction, he still held the team record for triples in a season (12) and in a career (31) and was fifth in strike-out/at-bat ratio for a season, having struck out only six times in 1961. Upon graduation, his coach, Frank Sancet, called him the best college infielder he had ever seen. Shoemaker signed with the Athletics in . After batting .271 in 82

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

for the Class A Portsmouth-Norfolk Tides of the Sally League, he was recalled by the A's that September. He started in six games at second and

pinch hit In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, Am ...

in a seventh, and had four multi-hit games. In his Major League debut, Shoemaker collected ten

in 28

, including two doubles, for a .385 average. However, in his next two MLB trials — in and — he batted .206 (13 for 63), and the final seven years of his career (1965–1971) were spent exclusively in

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

. Charlie Shoemaker died in Mount Penn, Pennsylvania, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 50 on May 31, 1990.

References

External links

Career statistics
from

Baseball Reference Baseball Reference is a baseball statistics database maintained by Sports Reference. The site provides career statistics for Major League Baseball (MLB) players and teams as well as records, MLB draft history, and sabermetrics. History Founder ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoemaker, Charlie 1939 births 1990 deaths Albuquerque Dukes players Arizona Wildcats baseball players Baseball players from Los Angeles Binghamton Triplets players Charlotte Hornets (baseball) players Dallas Rangers players Kansas City Athletics players 20th-century American sportsmen Macon Peaches players Major League Baseball second basemen Nashville Vols players Portland Beavers players Portsmouth-Norfolk Tides players Reading Phillies players Savannah Senators players Sportspeople from Montebello, California Baseball players from Los Angeles County, California Suicides by firearm in Pennsylvania Vancouver Mounties players Waterbury Pirates players York Pirates players 1990 suicides American expatriate baseball players in Canada