Vernie Floyd Speer (January 27, 1913 – March 22, 1969) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

. He was born on January 27, 1913, in

Booneville, Arkansas Booneville is a city in Logan County, Arkansas, United States and the county seat of its southern district. Located in the Arkansas River Valley between the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains, the city is one of the oldest in western Arkansas. The ci ...

. He attended Booneville High School, where he starred in baseball. His twin brother, Bernie Loyd Speer, was often his catcher. Floyd began his professional baseball career in 1938 in the now-defunct

Cotton States League The Cotton States League''Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: The Official Record of Minor League Baseball'' – Lloyd Johnson, Steve McDonald, Miles Wolff (editors). Publisher: Baseball America, 1997. Format: Paperback, 672pp. Language: Englis ...

. He moved to play for

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

in the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

in 1941. At the age of 30, Speer broke into the

big leagues Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

on April 25, 1943, with the Chicago White Sox. He played his last game with the Sox on May 3, 1944. He later played for other minor league teams, including the St. Paul Saints in 1943, the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...

in 1945 and the

Oakland Oaks Oakland Oaks may refer to one of the following sport teams, listed chronologically: * Oakland Oaks (PCL), a minor league baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 to 1955 *Oakland Oaks (ice hockey), a professional ice hockey t ...

in 1946-48. Vernie Floyd Speer married Rosadell McConnell, who was also from

. Speer returned to Arkansas where he died in

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

on March 22, 1969. He was 56 years old. Speers was returned to his hometown of Booneville, where he was buried in the Carolan Community Cemetery, 5 miles outside of town.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speer, Floyd 1913 births 1969 deaths Chicago White Sox players Baseball players from Arkansas Major League Baseball pitchers Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players People from Booneville, Arkansas Dallas Eagles players Hot Springs Bathers players Little Rock Travelers players Monroe White Sox players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Shreveport Sports players St. Paul Saints (AA) players Texarkana Bears players