Frank O'Donnell "Don" Hurst (August 12, 1905 – December 6, 1952) was a

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

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 ...

. He played with the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

from 1928 to 1934. In 1932, he led the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

with 143. Hurst stood at .

Biography

Hurst was born in

Maysville, Kentucky Maysville is a "Home rule in the United States, home rule" class city in Mason County, Kentucky, Mason County, Kentucky, United States, and is the county seat of Mason County. The population was 8,873 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

, and attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. He started his professional baseball career in 1926 in the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

."Don Hurst Minor League Statistics & History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-05. Hurst had two good years in the IL. He was traded to the Phillies on May 11, 1928, and made his major league debut two days later. Playing in Philadelphia's hitter's park, Hurst put up some big numbers from 1928 to 1932. In 1929, he slugged a career-high 31

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and drove in 125 runs. His best season was 1932, when he batted .339 with 24 home runs and led the National League with 143 runs batted in."Don Hurst Biography"
. ''baseballlibrary.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-05. However, he slumped badly in 1933 and 1934. In June 1934, Hurst was traded to the Cubs for first baseman

Dolph Camilli Adolph Louis Camilli (April 23, 1907 – October 21, 1997) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named the National League (baseball), Natio ...

. The deal proved to be a disaster for Chicago because, while Camilli went on to become one of the best sluggers in baseball, Hurst had nothing left in the tank. In 51 games for the Cubs, he batted .199 with only 3 home runs and 12 RBI and never played in the majors again. In a 7-year career, Hurst appeared in 905 games and had a .298 batting average (976-for-3275) with 115 home runs and 610 RBI. His career numbers include 510 runs, 190 doubles, 28 triples, 41 stolen bases, and 391 walks for a .375

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

and .478

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

. He posted a .987

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

as a first baseman. Hurst spent the next few years in the minor leagues. He managed the Hamilton Red Wings in 1939 and then retired from baseball. In his later years, he worked at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

."Don Hurst's Obit"
''thedeadballera.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-05. In 1952, Hurst became ill and died from a pulmonary tumor complicated by metastatic cancer in December, at the age of 47. He was survived by his wife and three sons.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurst, Don 1905 births 1962 deaths Major League Baseball first basemen National League RBI champions Philadelphia Phillies players Chicago Cubs players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players Baseball players from Kentucky Paris Bourbons players 20th-century American sportsmen

Biography

See also

References

External links