Reds Hall of Fame 3B Billy Werber Passes Away

[Cyclone792]

Billy Werber was only a Red for three seasons, but he made one heck of an impact as the team's starting starting third baseman during the 1939 and 1940 seasons. Werber was also a star during the 1940 World Series, hitting .370/.452/.519 with 4 doubles, 5 runs scored, 10 hits and 4 walks.

woy may know for sure, but Werber may have been the last surviving member on the 1939 and/or 1940 Reds teams. I'm not sure if anybody else from those teams is still alive or not.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/423/story/489924.html


Bill Werber, the oldest living former major league baseball player and the first-ever basketball All-American at Duke, died Thursday morning in Charlotte.

He was 100.

Werber had lived in Charlotte since 1998 in The Carriage Club retirement community in order to be closer to his daughter Pat Bryant, who closely supervised his day-to-day care.

Even into his late 90s, Werber would stay up well past his normal 9 p.m. bedtime to watch Duke basketball games on TV. He usually kept a Duke blanket wrapped around his legs.

“For the past few weeks, though,” Bryant said Thursday, “Daddy said he was too tired to watch the Duke games. That’s when we knew it was time.”

Werber died of natural causes and will be cremated, Bryant said.

A superb athlete, Werber played alongside Babe Ruth for part of his 11-year career in the majors, which ended in 1942. He was a solid third baseman who won a World Series in 1940 with the Cincinnati Reds. Werber batted .370 in that World Series and had 10 hits.

As a 5-foot-10 guard in basketball, Werber was an All-American for Duke in 1930, playing for a Blue Devil squad coached by Eddie Cameron that went 18-2.

Werber grew up in what is now College Park, Md. As a pro baseball player, he never made more than $13,500 in any one season. But he became a successful businessman in Maryland, earning more than $100,000 in his first year selling insurance.

Werber said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer in June 2008, just before his 100th birthday, that his secret to longevity was this: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I married a lovely girl who never got mad.”

Kathryn “Tat” Werber died in 2000, after she and Bill Werber had been married 70 years.

Werber is survived by the couple's three children: William Werber, Pat Bryant and Susie Hill, as well as eight grand-children and six great grand-children. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.


BILL WERBER

GIVEN NAME: William Murray Werber
BORN: 6/20/1908 Berwyn, Maryland
BAT: R THROW: R HEIGHT: 5'10" WEIGHT: 170 MLB DEBUT: 6/25/1930
CAREER GAMES BY POSITION: 2B: 3 SS: 96 3B: 1143 LF: 39 CF: 2 RF: 7

YEAR TEAM AGE G AB R H 2B 3B HR HR% RBI BB SO SB CS AVG SLG OBA OPS
1930 Yankees 22 4 14 5 4 0 0 0 0.00 2 3 1 0 0 .286 .286 .412 .697
1933 Yankees 25 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000
Red Sox 25 108 425 64 110 30 6 3 0.71 39 33 39 15 5 .259 .379 .312 .691
TOTALS 111 427 64 110 30 6 3 0.70 39 33 39 15 5 .258 .377 .311 .688
1934 Red Sox 26 152 623 129 200 41 10 11 1.77 67 77 37 40 15 .321 .472 .397 .868
1935 Red Sox 27 124 462 84 118 30 3 14 3.03 61 69 41 29 7 .255 .424 .357 .781
1936 Red Sox 28 145 535 89 147 29 6 10 1.87 67 89 37 23 13 .275 .407 .382 .790
1937 A's 29 128 493 85 144 31 4 7 1.42 70 74 39 35 13 .292 .414 .386 .799
1938 A's 30 134 499 92 129 22 7 11 2.20 69 93 37 19 15 .259 .397 .377 .774
1939 Reds 31 147 599 115 173 35 5 5 0.83 57 91 46 15 0 .289 .389 .388 .777
1940 Reds 32 143 584 105 162 35 5 12 2.05 48 68 40 16 0 .277 .416 .361 .777
1941 Reds 33 109 418 56 100 9 2 4 0.96 46 53 24 14 0 .239 .299 .328 .627
1942 Giants 34 98 370 51 76 9 2 1 0.27 13 51 22 9 0 .205 .249 .308 .557
TOTALS 1295 5024 875 1363 271 50 78 1.55 539 701 363 215 68 .271 .392 .364 .756
LG AVERAGE 5167 753 1457 265 60 89 1.72 698 555 443 64 27 .282 .408 .354 .762
POS AVERAGE 5144 771 1438 255 55 73 1.42 628 568 431 83 29 .280 .393 .354 .747

YEAR TEAM RC RCAA RCAP OWP RC/G TB EBH ISO SEC BPA IBB HBP SAC SF GIDP OUTS PA POS
1930 Yankees 2 0 0 .505 5.20 4 0 .000 .214 .412 0 0 0 0 0 10 17 SS
1933 Yankees 0 0 0 .000 0.00 0 0 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 3B
Red Sox 53 -16 -6 .381 4.14 161 39 .120 .233 .445 0 0 13 0 0 333 471 SS
TOTALS 53 -16 -6 .379 4.11 161 39 .119 .232 .443 0 0 13 0 0 335 473
1934 Red Sox 124 19 21 .575 7.12 294 62 .151 .339 .566 0 1 15 0 0 453 716 3B
1935 Red Sox 78 -7 -5 .458 5.56 196 47 .169 .381 .544 0 4 14 0 0 365 549 3B
1936 Red Sox 90 -16 -12 .428 5.68 218 45 .133 .342 .511 0 4 11 0 0 412 639 3B
1937 A's 86 5 11 .526 6.04 204 42 .122 .343 .530 0 1 8 0 0 370 576 3B
1938 A's 80 -15 -8 .423 5.33 198 40 .138 .363 .500 0 2 5 0 0 390 599 3B
1939 Reds 96 13 20 .566 5.77 233 45 .100 .277 .478 0 6 11 0 12 449 707 3B
1940 Reds 94 19 16 .600 5.88 243 52 .139 .283 .497 0 8 3 0 7 432 663 3B
1941 Reds 44 -11 -12 .401 3.59 125 15 .060 .220 .391 0 2 4 0 9 331 477 3B
1942 Giants 31 -19 -21 .292 2.71 92 12 .043 .205 .341 0 4 4 0 11 309 429 3B
TOTALS 778 -28 4 .483 5.32 1968 399 .120 .303 .488 0 32 88 0 39 3856 5845
LG AVERAGE 791 0 0 .500 5.41 2109 414 .126 .246 .466 0 22 76 0 43 3856 5820
POS AVERAGE 759 -36 0 .479 5.19 2021 382 .113 .240 .458 0 25 82 0 38 3856 5820

[Crosley68]

What a life! Played with The Babe, won a World Series, and All-American hoopster at Duke. He also had a grand family it seems.........RIP Billy

[M2]

Werber was one of the class acts in the game. From everything I've ever read about him, he not only played the game the right way, he played life the right way.

[BoydsOfSummer]

Werber said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer in June 2008, just before his 100th birthday, that his secret to longevity was this: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I married a lovely girl who never got mad.”


There you have it, folks.

So long Mr. Werber.

[cumberlandreds]

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I married a lovely girl who never got mad.”

I need to point that out to my wife. ;) Thanks for posting this. He had a great life that's for sure. Billy Werber's name became familiar to me as a result of the Strat-O-Matic baseball game. I got the Reds teams from the past and the 1940 team was one of them. I had never heard of many of those guys before I got it but they all became familiar to me as I played them against other great teams from the past. RIP Mr. Werber.

[redsmetz]

From the 1939 and 1940 Reds, Lonnie Frey is still alive. He'll be 99 this August. I don't know if he is now the oldest living baseball player. I'm sure he's the oldest living Red.

[IowaRed]

From the 1939 and 1940 Reds, Lonnie Frey is still alive. He'll be 99 this August. I don't know if he is now the oldest living baseball player. I'm sure he's the oldest living Red.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_living_Major_League_Baseball_player s

[redsmetz]

Thanks for the list, IowaRed. I see Eddie Joost is still alive too. That leaves two members of those two championship seasons.

[RedsBaron]

I still think that in 2000, when the Reds took notice of the 25th and 10th anniveraries of their 1975 and 1990 World Series champions, mention should have also been made of the 60th anniversary of the 1940 World Champions.

[OnBaseMachine]

Oldest living player had plenty of stories

By Kyle Nagel

Staff Writer

Sunday, January 25, 2009

I was warned before calling Bill Werber that the conversation would be short, as carpal tunnel syndrome ravaged his wrists. It had to be at a certain time, because his naps were frequent.

The stories were worth the limitations.

Werber, the oldest living ex-major-leaguer, died last week at age 100. He was Duke's first All-American basketball player, played with Babe Ruth, got to know Ted Williams. But the intent of my phone call in September 2007 was to learn more about the 1940 World Series, during which Werber was the sturdy Cincinnati Reds third baseman. Or, as one newspaper called him on the eve of the series, a "rifle-armed third sacker."

Stories like his helped baseball fans relive a time when baseball was king. Unfortunately, that's a time that might not return.

He described the scene after the Reds beat the Detroit Tigers 2-1 in Game 7 in Cincinnati.

"The celebration was like nothing baseball had yet seen," Werber said. "Policemen were sent to not let cars into downtown so the people could really get things going, especially in Fountain Square. We later heard some folks had pulled a streetcar off of its tracks."

But Werber was just a former Duke law student who originally had no intention of playing baseball. His reaction was more muted.

"Me? I went home, and Mrs. Werber fixed a nice dinner," he said. "The next morning I loaded up the two children and Mrs. Werber, and we went on vacation. I tried to act as if I wasn't paying any attention, but that game was a great thrill of my life."

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/pro/reds/2009/01/25/ddn012509spaudible.html

[Chip R]

What a life! Played with The Babe, won a World Series, and All-American hoopster at Duke.


Somewhere, Dick Vitale is sad.