Manly Johnston/pagetext

From SABR Encyclopedia

Revision as of 21:43, 19 May 2013

Manly Johnston was a highly-regarded prospect out of Dothan, Alabama and Auburn University who then performed in the Chicago White Sox system from 1958 through 1966. He had the unusual distinction of having been converted from outfielder to pitcher even though he had hit at least 16 homers in each of his first three minor league seasons, and twice produced more than 100 RBI.

The Sox stuck the slugging Johnston in the rotation of their Sally League affiliate (Savannah-Lynchburg) in 1962 and he thus had one of the more productive seasons of any minor leaguer over the decade. He won 13 games and lost 6 (albeit with a 4.12 ERA) while slamming 20 homers in just 189 at bats. The performance earned him an invitation to White Sox Spring Training in 1963 (he'd be back on the spring roster in '65 and '66) and the 1965 White Sox Yearbook's minor league section devotes photos only to Johnston, future White Sox staff regulars Bruce Howard and Bob Locker, and perennial third base prospect Dick Kenworthy.

"Manly Johnston of Lynchburg," the text begins, "was the Southern (League)'s Player of the Year. He posted a 20-7 record, also leading the league in complete games, shutouts, and earned run average. Johnston, who moved up to the White Sox roster this spring, also batted .292, hitting three homers in one game."

There is some evidence that Johnston moved up to more than just the Sox camp in Sarasota. An undated photo shows him in a White Sox uniform complete with name on the back, evidently before a regular season game in Cleveland. The presence of Chicago pitcher Ray Herbert dates the image to 1964 or earlier since Herbert was dealt to the Phillies after that season. Johnston may have been one of the game's most ephemeral characters: the "ghost" who appeared on a big league roster but never in a game.

It is not as if what followed that photograph didn't seem to merit at least a trial. Johnston advanced to Indianapolis of the Pacific Coast League in 1965 and produced an 11-11 record and 129 strikeouts. A year later he went 18-7 with a 3.50 ERA (although it should be noted that in that age of the pitcher, there were thirteen men who started at least 10 PCL games that year with ERAs under 3.00).

And that's where his career ends.

In his new book about integration in minor league ball, Southern League, former pitcher Larry Colton says that even by 1964 as he was tearing through the Southern League, Johnston was contemplating getting out of baseball. "Now, at the age of twenty-five with a wife and kids," Colton writes, "he was at a cross-roads in his career." Johnston had continued his education at Auburn and was within a semester of a degree in business administration. "Seven years of riding crummy buses and scraping by on $5-a-day meal money had grown tiresome."

Notebook

• Source: 1966 Chicago White Sox Organizational Record Book
• Source: 1965 Chicago White Sox Yearbook
• Source: 1963, 1965, 1966 Street & Smith Baseball Yearbook
• Source: Colton, Larry: Southern League, 2013