We continue the 25 greatest Dodgers of all time countdown with one of the best first basemen in team history.
Hodges made his debut with the Dodgers in the final game of the 1943 season. And it could have been his final game ever, as he joined the Marines after the season ended and was a gunner for the 16th Anti-Aircraft Battalion. In April 1945, Hodges and his battalion stormed the beaches of Okinawa and was involved in heavy fighting. He was awarded a Bronze Star for heroic service in a combat zone. In a letter to his family, Hodges wrote about the experience.
“We arrived here [Okinawa] the first of April and things really cut loose. We were always having air attacks and the ships were really knocking down the planes. It’s just like being tied down when you’re on board a ship because you can’t do a thing but just stand there and wait for something to happen. One Japanese plane, a Zero, came circling around where we were anchored and when everyone saw it they really cut loose.
In 1952, Hodges went 0 for 21 in the World Series, but even then, the fans remained solidly on his side. Hodges wrote about it in his book “The Game of Baseball,” saying, “The thing that most people hear about that one is that a priest stood in a Brooklyn pulpit that Sunday [during the World Series] and said, ‘It’s too hot for a sermon. Just go home and say a prayer for Gil Hodges.’ Well, I know that I’ll never forget that, but also I won’t forget the hundreds of people who sent me letters, telegrams and postcards during that World Series. There wasn’t a single nasty message. Everybody tried to say something nice.
Hodges died on April 2, 1972. He was managing the Mets at the time , and had just completed a round of golf with his coaches. He was walking to his motel room and collapsed of a massive heart attack. Coachrushed to his side. Hodges was bleeding heavily from the back of his head, which he had hit on the pavement when he fell. “I put my hand under Gil’s head, but before you knew it, the blood stopped. I knew he was dead. He died in my arms.
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