Cass Michaels

Cass Michaels (Casimir Eugene Kwietniewski; March 4, 1926 – November 12, 1982) was a Major League Baseball infielder.

[1] The Chicago White Sox discovered Kwietniewski playing sandlot ball in Detroit, Michigan,[2] and signed him to a major league contract in 1943 just shy of his seventeenth birthday.

With Skeeter Webb having been dealt to the Detroit Tigers during the off-season, and Luke Appling serving in the U.S. Navy,[7] shortstop belonged to Michaels alone.

However, midway through the season, with the team's record sitting at 27–53, 22.5 games back of the Cleveland Indians, manager Ted Lyons decided that it was time for a change.

In the third inning of the first game of a July 21 doubleheader with the Boston Red Sox, Appling was moved back to short, and Michaels was shifted to second base, with Floyd Baker taking over at third.

At the 1949 All-Star break, however, Michaels was batting .298 with five home runs and 42 RBIs, good enough to be elected the starting American League second baseman.

[14] Michaels appeared in all 154 games in 1949, compiling a .308 batting average with 83 RBIs, 73 runs scored and nine triples, all career bests.

He was batting .312, and well on his way to another career year and All-Star appearance in 1950, when he, Bob Kuzava and Johnny Ostrowski were traded to the Washington Senators on May 31 for Al Kozar, Eddie Robinson and Ray Scarborough.

Pinch-hitting for pitcher Vic Raschi to lead off the third inning, he doubled, and later scored on George Kell's sacrifice fly.

[20] The White Sox were now a ninety-win third-place ballclub, and Michaels was enjoying something of a renaissance playing with a winner for the first time in his career.

On August 27, 1954, the White Sox had already plated five runs in the third inning against Athletics starter Marion Fricano when Michaels stepped into the batter's box.