Jeff Heath - What happened?

[Brownieand45sfan]

I have a similar question to the one that the Ox posted. In 1947, LF Jeff Heath leads the team in RBIs and belts 27 homers (highest Brownie total since Ken Williams maybe?) ... and gets *sold* the next year???

I know the Browns were hard up for cash, but .. what was the knock there? I know he had turned 32 in September, but .... hit .319 the next year for the Braves and helps them win a "surprise" pennant. Does anybody know how much cash the Brownies got?

Jack Kramer, Vern Stephens, Babe Martin, Billy Hitchcock, Ellis Kinder, Denny Galehouse, Al Zarilla, and Heath ... could have had a dandy old Brownies reunion at Sam Adams' pub in 1949.

[westsidegrounds]

I have a similar question to the one that the Ox posted. In 1947, LF Jeff Heath leads the team in RBIs and belts 27 homers (highest Brownie total since Ken Williams maybe?) ... and gets *sold* the next year???

Heath's 27 tied him with Chet Laabs (27 HR in '42) for most SLA HR since Harlond Clift's 34 in '38.

[dave_heller]

The Dec. 17, 1947 edition of The Sporting News provides insight as to why the Browns sold Heath:

- In the last game of the season, the Browns trailed 5-0, but rallied in the ninth, scoring twice and having the bases loaded with two out and Heath's turn at bat. But Heath couldn't be found. He was in the clubhouse showering. "It was his last bath in the American League. Even if the Browns had not adopted the curious strategy of unloading the only ball players around whom an improved team might have been built, Heath would have been disposed of this winter." (The box score of that game confirms the story: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1...280SLA1947.htm)
- He went into spells where "he just couldn't hit."
- He didn't exactly seem like a good teammate. Johnny Berardino popped out one day and Heath said "nice hitting, John" when he came back to the dugout - so Berardino hit him on the chin.
- Heath was described as having an "incomprehensible temperament."

[feldgrau1418]

I have heard also that Heath had temperament issues. He was one of the big whiners on the "Cry Baby" Indians of 1940, also known as "Ossie's
Half Vitts". Imagine a team with Ben Chapman, Johnny Allen, Roy (Stormy) Weatherly, a newly sober Rollie Hemsley, Beau Bell, Hal Troskey, Frank Pytlak and add Heath hitting .219 and you have quite a recipe for disaster. Ken Keltner and Mel Harder were the only stabilizing influences on the team. Larry Rosenthal told me this about Heath, also. Larry joined the Indians in 1941 as a part time outfielder and late innings defensive replacement for Heath or Bell.

[metrotheme]

Wasn't Jeff Heath the one who broke the bat after Willard Brown hit his only homerun in the Major Leagues basically a black man used his bat?

[dave_heller]

Yes, he did. In that Sporting News article I referenced, it was claimed that Heath thought there were only X number of hits in each bat, so when Brown hit that home run, it cost that bat one of the home runs it was allotted.

[westsidegrounds]

Very interesting story on the guy at the baseball biography project.