Player Profile:
Pee Wee Reese

Player notes: When Pee Wee Reese died yesterday (August 15, 1999), baseball lost one of its true gentlemen and great ambassadors. Reese was a fine player, who was a strong fielder and a productive hitter on a team that dominated the National League for most of his tenure there. He was a very steady, consistent player. He never won an MVP award, but placed in the top ten in MVP voting eight different times. He played in seven World Series, turning in perhaps his best performance in the '52 series, batting .345 hitting a home run and driving in four runs while playing shortstop all seven games in a losing cause against the Yankees.

Despite these accomplishments as a player, perhaps his greatest contributions came through his leadership qualities in the clubhouse and off the field. Reese was the captain of the fine Dodger clubs of the Forties and Fifties, and he was highly regarded by teammates and opponents alike. During the difficult times of Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier, Reese's public acceptance of Jackie as his teammate went a long way toward overcoming resistance on the part of other ballplayers. He also enjoyed a career as a broadcaster after his playing days were over, and was know to a generation of young fans as Dizzy Dean's "podner" on Saturday afternoon Game of the Week telecasts.