George Dockins

George Dockins was born in Clyde in 1917 and pitched in the Ban Johnson League in nearby Concordia.

In 1939, St. Louis’s Branch Rickey signed Dockins, who had arm troubles throughout his career.  He retired for the 1944 season, but managed to make the Cardinals in 1945, starting twelve games and appeared in another nineteen.  He compiled an 8-6 record, with a 3.21 earned run average.

Just prior to the 1946 season, Rickey acquired Dockins again, this time for Brooklyn.  Dockins’ arm problems, however, landed him in Class AA Fort Worth, where he pitched in a limited capacity.

In 1947, he again retired because of arm troubles and went home to Clyde to work in the lumber business.  During the summer, however, he replied for reinstatement, pitched in some minor league games and landed with the Dodgers in June.  In his first game, Dockins surrendered back-to-back home runs to the Giants’ Johnny Mize and Willard Marshall.  He would pitch in only three more games for Brooklyn.

In 1948, Dockins again pitched in Fort Worth and was the starting pitcher when the Cats played the Texas League All-Stars.  He went 10-0 as Fort Worth’s interim manager.  He pitched a final season for Fort Worth in 1949 and retired from baseball.

Dockins returned to Clyde.  He retired from the Hutchinson Manufacturing Company in 1980.  He died in 1997 at the age of 79 and is buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Clyde.

For more, read George Dockins’ Society for American Baseball Research bio.