Ralph Hodgin

Who was Ralph Hodgin?

Elmer Ralph Hodgin was an outfielder/third baseman who played in Major League Baseball between 1939 and 1948. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Listed at 5' 10", 170 lb., Hodgin reached the majors in 1939 with the Boston Bees, spending part of the season with them before serving three years during World War II. After being discharged, he joined the Chicago White Sox in 1943 and hit a career-high .314 as a rookie. Great things were expected from him, but he never repeated the feat. Then, in 1947 he suffered a concussion after he was hit on the skull by a pitch from future Hall of Fame pitcher Hal Newhouser. After that he lost his aggressiveness at the plate, hitting .266 in 114 games for the Sox in 1948, his last major league season.

In a six-season career, Hodgin was a .285 hitter with four home runs and 188 RBI in 530 games, including 198 runs, 79 doubles, 24 triples, and seven stolen bases. A hard-to-strike-out hitter, he posted a solid 1.54 BB/K. He died on October 4, 2011, in Burlington, North Carolina.