Vic Aldridge

Victor Aldridge (October 25, 1893 – April 17, 1973), nicknamed "the Hoosier Schoolmaster", was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants, and was known to be an excellent curveball pitcher.

After his retirement from baseball, he served as a state senator in the Indiana General Assembly.

In 1918 he played only three games, pitching only twelve innings, before joining the United States Navy during the final year of World War I.

During this time his son Vic Aldridge, Jr. served unofficially as the Cubs batboy and even had a uniform donated by Mordecai Brown so he would look the part.

[7] Vic Aldridge was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1924 season on October 27, 1924, along with George Grantham and Al Niehaus, for Wilbur Cooper, Charlie Grimm and Rabbit Maranville.

His finest moments were in the postseason that year when he pitched two complete game victories against the Washington Senators as the Pirates won the World Series.

Aldridge used the money from the World Series to buy a home in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The weather for the seventh was even worse, and the game was played in thick pea soup fog and drizzle, with a very wet pitching mound.

Although noted for his consistency, in this game Aldridge was very wild; he had had only two days rest and he kept slipping on the slick pitcher's plate.

In total, Aldridge gave up three walks, two hits and two wild pitches, resulting in the Senators having a 4–0 lead in the first inning.

He won fifteen games, losing only ten, with a 4.25 earned run average.

[15] After winning 15 games again in 1927, Aldridge expected a raise, but instead Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss traded him to the New York Giants on February 11, 1928, for Burleigh Grimes, citing Aldridge's 4.25 ERA in 1927 as a reason not to give him a raise.

After the season, in which Aldridge's record was four wins and seven losses with a 4.83 earned run average after 119 innings pitched, he was sent to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He was inducted into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame on January 19, 2007, as its 131st member; his granddaughter, Mary Turner, and grandson, Vic Aldridge III, accepted the award on his behalf.