Dutch McCall

Robert Leonard McCall, Jr.

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 184 lb.
• Debut April 27, 1948
• Final Game October 3, 1948
• Born December 27, 1920 in Columbia, TN USA
• Died January 7, 1996 in Little Rock, AR USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Dutch McCall started as an outfielder but was converted to a pitcher that played 14 years (1939-1954), one in the Majors (1948) and 13 in the minors (1939-1943;1946-1947;1949-1954), losing two years to the Military. McCall was born on Monday, December 27, 1920, in Columbia, TN. He broke into Organized Baseball at age 18 as an outfielder with DeLand in the Florida State League; Bowling Green in the Kitty League (1940); and Hot Springs in the Cotton States League (1941), where he pitched 13 games out of 99 overall. In 1942, he pitched 36 games out of 73 overall for Nashville in the Southern Association and 20 games out of 52 for Nashville in 1943, completing his conversion to pitching.

He was a corporal in the U.S. Army during World War II (1944-1945) (BN) on the roster of the Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific Coast League and, after the war, married Valma V. Ala on January 13, 1946 and returned to Nashville for the 1946 season, moving up to Los Angeles in 1947. McCall was 27 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 27, 1948, with the Chicago Cubs, where he played his final MLB game on October 3, 1948 at age 27. He returned to the minors with Los Angeles in 1950; Shreveport in the Texas League (1950); the Little Rock Travelers in the Southern Association (1950-1953); and Augusta in the South Atlantic League (1954); ending his baseball career at age 33.

In 1948, his only year in MLB, he had 9 Hits, 3 Runs, 2 Doubles, 0 Triples, 0 Home Runs, 6 RBI and 0 Stolen Bases at (.170/.228/.208) in 30 Games and was (4-13) (Losses 6th in League) with 5 Complete Games, 89 Strikeouts, 85 Walks (9th in League) and 0 Shutouts in 151⅓ Innings Pitched with an ERA of 4.82 and a WHIP of 1.606 in 30 Games on the mound. In 1940, his best year in the minors as a batter, he had 147 Hits, 114 Runs, 25 Doubles, 7 Triples, 3 Home Runs and 63 RBI at (.277) in 125 Games and in 1951, his best year as a pitcher, he was (16-19) with an ERA of 3.15.

Overall in the minors, he had 307 Hits, 210 Runs, 58 Doubles, 11 Triples, 10 Home Runs and 151 RBI as an outfielder, and, as a pitcher was (68-72).

After baseball, he was a salesman at a number of mens clothing stores in Little Rock, AR. He had brown hair and blue eyes, his ancestry was Dutch-Irish and his principal hobbies were fishing and hunting. He died at age 75 in a VA Hospital in Little Rock AR after a year-long bout with cancer. on January 7, 1996 and is buried at Little Rock National Cemetery in Little Rock.

Records Held

• Tied Southern Association for strikeouts in a game (17) on April 30, 1946.

Notable Achievements

• Led Southern Association in Strikeouts (179) and Bases on Balls (128), 1946.

National Cemetery Burial Information

MCCALL, ROBERT L JR CORPORAL US ARMY WORLD WAR II DATE OF BIRTH: 12/27/1920 DATE OF DEATH: 01/08/1996 BURIED AT: SECTION 24 SITE 484 LITTLE ROCK NATIONAL CEMETERY 2523 CONFEDERATE BOULEVARD LITTLE ROCK, AR 72206 (501) 324-6401

Sources

Principal sources for Dutch McCall include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (1949) (WW), old Baseball Registers (1949) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) and The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling, The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright, The Southern Association in Baseball, 1885-1961 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Dutch McCall at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)