In 1901, Hyman Solomon, aka Jimmie Reese, was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. After Hyman’s father died, the Solomon family moved to Los Angeles where the youngster worked as a newspaper boy, took his new name and fell in love with baseball. By the time Reese died at age 92, he had spent 77 years in baseball and is the oldest-ever person to have regularly worn a professional team’s uniform.
During nearly eight decades on the diamond, Reese threw batting practice fastballs to Lou Gehrig, roomed with Babe Ruth when the two were New York Yankees teammates, hit fungos to Nolan Ryan and gave fielding tips to Jim Edmonds. Referring to his time spent with Ruth on Yankees road trips, Reese memorably said that he didn’t room with the Babe in the traditional sense; he roomed with his suitcases.
Reese’s baseball life began as a boy when he finagled his way into the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels practices, becoming at age 12 the team’s batboy, a job he gleefully carried out for six years. Chicago Cubs first baseman and Hall of Famer Frank Chance managed the Angels and worked with Reese to develop his skills. Reese was recognized as his high school’s most valuable player.
From high school, Reese moved up to semi-pro where his slick fielding impressed the Oakland Oaks who signed him in 1924 and launched him to the big leagues. In 1928, the Yankees purchased Reese’s contract from the Oaks. The year prior to Reese’s promotion to the star-studded Yankees, Reese hit .337 with one homer, 65 runs batted in, 24 stolen bases, and led all PCL second basemen with a .979 fielding average with 622 putouts in 190 games. Reese’s peers recognized him as one of the smoothest fielding second basemen in the game with near-acrobatic skills at the keystone corner.
In 1932, the Yanks sent Reese to the America Association’s Triple-A St. Paul Saints. The St. Louis Cardinals quickly picked him up to fill in for the injured Frankie Frisch. In 90 games with the Cards, Reese batted .265, hit two homers and drove in 26 runs. And so ended Reese’s three-year major league career; 232 games played with a respectable .278 batting average, eight homers and 70 RBIs.
Litle did Reese realize in 1933 when the Cards sold him to the PCL Angels that his baseball career still had six decades remaining. Reese enjoyed outstanding seasons with the Angels and San Diego Padres. He compiled a PCL career batting average of .289 in 1,673 games and holds the league record for most putouts by a second baseman, 4,771, and most assists, 5,119. In 1937, Reese was chosen as the starting second baseman on the All-Time Pacific Coast League team, and in 2002 was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Between 1938 and 1994, Reese worked for minor and major league teams as a coach, manager and scout. With a one-year baseball hiatus in 1944 when he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, Reese was continuously in baseball’s employ. In 1972, at age 71, Reese asked the Angels for a job and was hired as conditioning coach — a position he held until his death in 1994. Angels’ owner Gene Autry had given Reese a lifetime contract.
After the 25-year old righty Nolan Ryan was traded to the Angels from the New York Mets, he befriended Reese. Years later, Ryan said, “He’s the finest human being I’ve ever met.” Ryan’s second son is named Reese in Jimmie’s honor.
At the time of Reese’s death, he was still on the Angels payroll. A year after Reese passed, the Angels encased his locker in tinted Plexiglas. Inside were his beloved fungo bat and his uniform. His number 50 was retired, joining Ryan, Gene Autry and Rod Carew whose numbers no future Angels player would ever wear. The Angels retired number 26 in Autry’s honor. Baseball rosters had 25 men; Autry became the Angels “26th man.”
Today’s big baseball news is Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million, ten-year contract — “a record” as the headlines blare. But Ohtani’s mark won’t last long. Owners are printing money and, since they can jack up ticket prices at will and indefinitely, have no qualms about laying out cash. Reese’s 77-year baseball longevity record, however, will endure for ages and is a testimony to his love for the national pastime.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at [email protected].
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