Van Mungo/pagetext

From SABR Encyclopedia

In the mid-1930s Mungo was considered to have the talent of contemporaries Dizzy Dean and Carl Hubbell. However he missed connections, possibly because he landed with the free-wheeling,hard-drinking, fun-loving Brooklyn Dodgers as a 21 year-old. His debut on 9/7/31,was sensational with a three hitter against the Boston Braves and struck out 12 winning the games 2-0 and knocked in both runs with a single and a triple. He won two more games that fall losing 1 and had a 2.32 ERA.

In his first full year he was 13-11 with Brooklyn, then in the next four seasons he won 16 and 18 games twice. All this with a losing Dodger team. What made matters worse he was constantly upset with his teammates ineptitude. He was a wild and mean, high kicking fireballer with a fierce temper. He was known as a drinker and was involved in some bizarre off-the-field incidents.When the Dodgers trained in Havana in the spring of 1941 he had to be smuggled out of Cuba to escape the machete-welding husband of a nightclub dancer with whom he'd been caught in bed. He only pitched two innings with Brooklyn in 1941 and was sent to Montreal. He won three games, lost 1 and played the outfield and pinched hit. Montreal won the International playoffs but en route to the Junior World Series, Van got into a fracas with officials of the Montreal club and was traded to Minneapolis.