Young outfielder/slugger Johnny Rizzo of the Pittsburgh Pirates, taken in 1938 or 1939 by The Sporting News. Rizzo would have one of the best rookie seasons for the franchise in 1938, setting the Pirates record for most HRs in a season at that time, with 23 round-trippers, finishing 6th in NL MVP voting. Alas, he is lesser known today, except for old-time Bucs fans, as he would never again quite reach these lofty heights, and was out of the major leagues by 1942.

Rizzo, a native of Houston, toiled away in the minor leagues since 1931, and in the St. Louis Cardinals system since 1933, Rizzo finally hit his stride by 1936, hitting .307 with 84 RBIs for his hometown Texas League Houston Buffaloes, then tore up the American Association in 1937, hitting .358 for the Columbus Red Birds, with 21 HRs and 123 RBIs, along with 38 doubles and 18 triples, and a 1.034 OPS. Johnny was clearly ready for the bigs, but there was the matter of another outfielder on the Columbus roster, some guy who batted .382 with 26 HRs by the name of Enos Slaughter. With the Cardinals’ outfield set in left (Joe Medwick) and center (Terry Moore), that left one outfield slot – and Cards’ executive Branch Rickey went with Slaughter, deemed the better all-around player (correct in hindsight). With Rizzo expendable, he was traded to Pittsburgh for 3 nondescript players, ready to prove his worth.

Rizzo was hot out of the gate, batting .400 the first week, but slumped in May, a vision of things to come, although he sizzled in June and July, including a big day on June 19 (above) with 3 HRs, 6 hits and 9 RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies at the Baker Bowl. Despite another slump in August, he’d finish at .301 with 31 doubles and 111 RBIs with 140 games in left field for the Pirates, even outpacing Enos Slaughter in his rookie season with the Cardinals (8/58/.276), as Pittsburgh finished only 2 games off the pace for the 1938 NL pennant.

Expectations were high for Rizzo in 1939 (“the biggest gun to man the Pirate ship in years”, beamed the Post-Gazette in April 1939), but he batted only .219 in April and never really got on track; he also lost his power stroke, slumping to .261 with only 6 HRs, and only 1 more after a leg injury suffered in June that would linger throughout the campaign, but not without one of the best games in Pirate history on May 30th, in the second game of a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The one-time Cardinal went 5-6 with 2 HRs and 9 RBIs for a 14-8 Bucs win, the RBI tally a Pirates franchise record that still stands.

If 1939 was disappointing, 1940 started out worse. With his leg still bothering him, Rizzo batted only .150 in April, and by early May he was traded to Cincinnati for Vince DiMaggio. Rizzo rebounded a bit for the Reds but played poorly in the field (hearing boo-birds at Crosley Field according to the Cincinnati Enquirer), and was then traded to the Phillies in mid-June. He would largely return to his old form in Philadelphia, hitting .292 with 20 HRs and 53 RBI’s in 103 games. But, the slumps would return in 1941, as he hit only 4 HRs and batted a paltry .217. Brooklyn would purchase his contract in late 1941, and after a mediocre season as a part-time player, again hitting only 4 HRs, he enlisted in the Navy in December 1942. He returned to the minor leagues after the war, in 1946, but, while some of his power returned, he was now in his mid-30’s, and called it quits after the 1949 season. He would have brief managerial stints in the minor leagues, but soon left baseball for other pursuits, although living back in his native Houston, he did make an appearance at the Astros’ Old-Timer’s Game at the Astrodome in 1965. He passed in December 1977 at the age of 65.

Many major leaguers have quick flashes of greatness before humbled by injuries or ineffectiveness, but Johnny Rizzo still stands as having one of the best rookie campaigns in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates that brought them within 2 games of their first pennant in 11 years (and last second place finish until 1958), and that 9 RBI game, one that no other Pirate has accomplished in their history. Forgotten by most casual fans of the game, there are certainly more than a handful of Pittsburgh baseball fans that will always have fond memories of the “fiery Italian” from those long-ago summers.

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