Born September 22, 1929, Kansas City, Mo., resides in Sacramento, Cal. Ht.: 6-0, Wt.: 190. Bats right, throws right.
Pennsylvania Dutch, married.
Veteran of 12 seasons in minors, last four with AAA Sacramento. In '58 hit .309 in 94 games; previously hit .305, .284, .263.
Led Class C West Texas-New Mexico League with .413 in 95 games in '50. Managed Class D Janesville in '52. Voted outstanding Pacific Coast League third baseman in '56.
Scouting report: "Hits from open stance. Seldom pulls. Below average power. Ordinary range in field. Fair utility man. Twilight zone [sic] major leaguer."
-from Scouting Reports, Baseball Digest, March 1959
IS THIS BRIGHT?
"They tell a funny one on Harry Bright, one-time Pirate utility hand, now playing in the same capacity with Mickey Vernon in Washington.
Bright, a resident of Sacramento, played for that club in the Pacific Coast League. 'It was Opening Day and we had a full house on hand,' our storyteller recalls. 'Harry was playing third base. The other club got a man on first in the opening inning. The next batter hit a grounder to Bright. Harry grabbed the ball and walked over and stepped on third base. He was quite embarrassed and didn't get over that skull for a long while.' "
-Jack Hernon, Pittsburgh Gazette (Baseball Digest, October 1961)
HE MAY BE BRIGHT BUT- IT TOOK HIM 16 YEARS TO FIND FIRST BASE
"On the morning last February when Harry James Bright reported to the Washington Senators' training camp at Pompano Beach, Fla., he walked into the clubhouse and placed three catchers' mitts on the top shelf of his locker. He hadn't caught for ten years, or since he was the boy manager of Janesville in 1952, when he also played shortstop, third base and the outfield.
'Not even one finger mitt this year?' a baseball writer asked, because when Harry first came to the Senators in 1961 it was as a third baseman.
'Not one,' Bright smiled. 'I either make it this way,' pointing to his catcher's tools, 'or I'm out of the big leagues- again.'
'I told Mickey Vernon that I never wanted to see Harry wearing a finger mitt again,' President Pete Quesada explained. 'He was one of the worst third basemen I ever saw. I liked his bat, and so did Mickey, but he made me shudder at third base.'
If the pun will be pardoned (it seems almost unavoidable, anyway), things didn't look too bright for Harry Bright in spring training. The Senators had picked up Ken Retzer and Bob Schmidt and still had Pete Daley. It was up to a rusty 32-year-old jack-of-all-trades to beat out one of them.
As the days rolled by and Dale Long held out it seemed as if manager Vernon himself might have to play first base during the exhibition games. Bud Zipfel, the only other first baseman, was still in the Marine Corps. Mickey announced that Chuck Hinton, an outfielder, would play first base in the interim.
'You're not going to do much catching,' a baseball scribe said to Bright. 'Why don't you declare your eligibility as a first baseman? You've done everything else during a weird career, including taking tickets and getting released by the Yankees, Tigers, Cubs and Pirates, some of these clubs after more than one look.'
The Cubs, ten years ago, told Harry that Class A was as high as he could go and he would do well to play and manage in the Wisconsin State League, which he did at age of 22 ... after, at the age of 18, 'retiring' from pro ball in favor of the furniture business as a salesman.
'I can't very well ask Mickey to play at first base,' Harry replied, 'but I'd appreciate it if you'd put a bug in his ear some day. You know, casual-like.'
'I've been thinking about it,' Vernon said, when the matter was duly brought up, and so Bright appeared with a first baseman's mitt (possibly hidden in his locker all the time). When Long ended his holdout Hinton returned to the outfield.
Now, until Zipfel was sprung from the Marines, Bright was the No. 2 first baseman. But his status was as precarious as when he was considered a catching candidate.
This is all leading up to something, so be patient. Long was finally signed and was a fireball during spring training. Zipfel reported and was deemed not ready for the majors. Then Dale tailed off badly and, suddenly, the Senators' first baseman was Harry James Bright, who during all of his 16 years in pro ball had never paid any attention to first base, except to tag it.
'Frankly, I don't think I played first more than ten games in my life,' Harry said recently. 'But I think it agrees with me, don't you?'
To that president Quesada and Vernon would have to say yes. Indeed, Quesada put it this way: 'I'm tempted to use the phrase 'star of the team,' except that we really don't have a star at the moment. But Harry Bright has been the consistent plugger ... the spark of the ball club. It's amazing to me the way he's learned to use the first baseman's mitt. He makes the plays on the opposite side of the infield that he couldn't make at third base. If Harry had started at first base ten years ago he would have made himself a lot of money.'
Quesada is the first to admit that the Senators were blindly lucky to have landed Bright, who not only was one of their leading hitters but also the top man in every department that Hinton wasn't heading up. And Hinton had played in 20 more games than Bright.
'As soon as we returned to Washington after the American League expansion draft in Boston,' Pete was saying, 'we got an offer from Pittsburgh for Bobby Shantz, whom we drafted for $75,000.
'I guess we sort of had the Pirates over a barrel. They had just won the World Series in 1960 and wanted a relief pitcher to insure a second pennant. We wanted Bennie Daniels because of his potential. Next, we wanted R.C. Stevens, a right-handed hitting first baseman. We got both but I think it was Mickey (Vernon) who insisted on a throw-in.
'The throw-in was Harry Bright. I'd never heard of him. I don't think that Ed Doherty had ever heard of him, either. But Vernon had been a coach for the Pirates and he must have seen Bright swing a bat somewhere along the line. Well, I guess Mickey must have insisted on a three-for-one trade for Shantz, and the low man on the totem pole, Bright, wound up on top.'
Harry, even in a minor key, is what Stymie and Seabiscuit and Carry Back were in horse racing. He epitomizes what Rafer Johnson, a one-time cripple, was to track and field. They were all once regarded as losers.
Harry Bright, once regarded as a loser, has become a winner. For how long, nobody knows."
-Francis Stann, Washington Starr (Baseball Digest, October-November 1962)
"Perhaps Harry has changed the minds of those who tabbed him for the big league ash pile. Power and concentration are his most admirable factors, and his .273 and 17 homers for Washington in 1962 are worthy credentials.
Born in Kansas City, Bright played for 14 teams in the minors over 13 years and spent time in Pittsburgh in 1959. He can play first or third base and will be a helpful utility figure in Cincy."
-Don Schiffer, 1963 Major League Baseball Handbook
"Last year Harry Bright had a remarkably good season with the Washington Senators for whom he hit 17 homers as a part-time first baseman. During the off-season he was traded to Cincinnati and was purchased by the Yankees from the Reds on April 21. The Bombers felt the need for more right-handed bench power and an occasional right-handed replacement for Joe Pepitone at first.
That Harry would get into 27 games in his first two months as a Yankee was not anticipated. Neither was his .316 batting average and 12 RBIs in that brief span of time.
Harry has been a productive jack-of-all-trades to date. He's played first acceptably, filled at third base when Clete Boyer was forced to move to shortstop for a spell, has served ably as a pinch hitter and will catch or play the outfield if he's asked to do so.
Originally signed by the Yankee organization in 1946, Bright has wandered the baseball trail, playing for 17 different clubs in his 17 pro seasons. He smiles at being a Yankee now and most certainly making the most of it!"
-The New York Yankees Official 1963 Yearbook
Harry James Bright (1B-OF) #14
Born September 22, 1929, in Kansas City, Mo., resides in Sacramento, Cal. Ht.: 6-0, Wt.: 195. Bats right, throws right.
Married and father of one girl, Linda (11).
-The New York Yankees Official 1963 Yearbook
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