Former major leaguer Walker born in Brownsville
It is a little know fact that the patriarch of a well known baseball family was born in Fayette County.
Ewart Gladstone (“Dixie”) Walker was born in Brownsville on June 1, 1888. He was the son of Robert and Mary (Robinson), who were born in England and married there.
Robert was a policeman in England and worked in the coal mines in the United States.
Ewart was named after William Ewart Gladstone, the four-time British prime minister in the late nineteenth century.
Ewart’s two brothers also had names connected with England rather than America. Older brother Alfred was born in August 1886, in Pennsylvania, and younger brother Earnest in September 1890, in Alabama.
Earnest played in the major leagues with the St. Louis Browns from 1913 to 1915.
Both Ewart and Alfred worked in the mines from a very early age.
Ewart’s parents moved to Alabama soon after his birth. He was reared in the South, and except for those early days, he spent his entire life there.
Ewart Walker’s baseball ability gave him the opportunity to escape the difficult life of a coal miner. Ewart was pitching for the Zanesville (Ohio) Infants of the Central League when he was tagged with the nickname “Dixie.”
He explained in the book Dixie Walker: A Life in Baseball by Lyle Spatz.
“I’d been there only a few days and I woke up one morning and saw a big headline that said, ‘Dixie Walker Pitches Today.’ It was as simple as that. I don’t know where the paper got the idea, but I was Dixie from then on.”
The Washington Senators brought Walker to the big leagues in September 1909. He posted a 3-1 record with a 2.50 ERA. His September performance impressed manager Clark Griffith and the Washington newspapers. “With a little more coaching Walker should develop into one of the best pitchers in the league,” predicted the Washington Post.
In his first full season in 1910, Walker finished 11-11 with a 3.30 ERA. He tossed a 1-0 one-hitter against Hall-of-Famer Ed Walsh and the Chicago Sox on June 10.
Walker went 8-13 in 1911 and 3-6 in 1912, and fell out of favor with Griffith who was preparing to ask waivers on him.
“The pitcher has not taken care of himself and given the club his best efforts,” the Post quote Griffith as saying.
Four days later Walker was sold to the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. A few months later in August the Orioles sold Walker to Wilkes-Barre of the New York State League.
The 6-0, 190-pound right-hander finished with a career major league record of 25-31 with a 3.52 ERA. An interesting footnote: Walker roomed with famed pitcher Walter Johnson.
Walker pitched for the St. Paul Saints of the American Association in 1913, where he won 18 games. He matched the 18 wins again in 1914. In 1915 he was 1-2 with Milwaukee in Double A. In 1916, with Albany/Reading and Utica in the Class B New York State League, he was a combined 25-18.
Ewart stayed in baseball playing and managing in the lower minor leagues in Class D and with semi pro teams. After his arm went bad he played the outfield and pitched occasionally. His last official capacity in the game was in 1930, as the manager of the Brantford Red Sox of the Ontario League.
Along the way Walker worked as a machinist at a steel plant and a mine foreman.
In 1910, Walker married Flossie Walker (Vaughn), they had two sons, Fred and Harry, who both played major league baseball.
Fred “Dixie” Walker was a right fielder who played for the New York Yankees (1931, 1933-36), Chicago White Sox (1936-37), Detroit Tigers (1938-39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939-47) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1948-49). In an 18-season career, Walker posted a .306 batting average with 105 home runs and 1,023 RBIs in 1,905 games.
Walker’s popularity with the Ebbets Field fans in the 1940s brought him the nickname “The People’s Cherce” (so-called, and -spelled, because “Choice” in the “Brooklynese” of the mid-20th century frequently was pronounced that way). He was an All-Star in five consecutive years (1943-47) and the 1944 National League batting champion. Walker may be best known for his reluctance to play on the same team as Jackie Robinson in 1947.
Walker was the only Major League Baseball player to have been a teammate of both Babe Ruth and Robinson.
“Harry the Hat” Walker played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1940-1943, 1946-1947, 1950-1951, 1955), Philadelphia Phillies (1947-1948), Chicago Cubs (1949), and Cincinnati Reds (1949).
“Harry the Hat” got his nickname from his habit during at-bats of continually adjusting his cap between pitches — there were no batting helmets in his day. His batting title came in 1947, when he hit .363 in a season during which he was traded from his original team, the St. Louis Cardinals, to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Harry and Dixie are the only brothers in MLB history to win batting titles.
Harry was a major league manager with the St. Louis Cardinals (1955), Pittsburgh Pirates (1965-1967), and Houston Astros (1968-1972).
Ewart Gladstone (“Dixie”) Walker passed on November 14, 1965 in Leeds, Alabama.
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.