Marasco Ran for Campanella

By David Marasco

I didn't notice it the first time I saw it. Your own name is a funny thing, it's so familiar that you'll often miss it when you see it. I was looking through microfilm from 1954 in an effort to piece together the Giants-Indians Spring Training tour. From the mid-30's to the Giants' departure for the West Coast the two teams had returned East from Arizona in a long but usually interesting series of matches. Given the fact that the Giants swept the supposedly superior Indians that year in the World Series made me wonder what their Spring record was like. So I was focussed on other matters when I first saw the headline. But a person's brain works on many levels. Although I consciously didn't see it, at another level I knew that something was out of place. I rolled back the microfilm to the page of interest. And there it was: "Zimmer and Marasco Ticketed For Dodger Farm; Hoak Stays."

I quickly devoured the article. Most of it pertained to Zimmer, who had been beaned the year before. We do learn that "little" Vic Marasco from Los Angeles was 25 in 1954 and had a decent (.306/89/14) year in AA Ft. Worth in 1953. Despite going 3 for 10 in the Spring (or perhaps because he could only get those ten at bats), he along with Zimmer was being cut from the big squad.

A few days later I returned to get the rest of the story. The first mention of Vic was in a March 5 article in the New York Times. In an intra-squad game he had doubled to plate a pair of runners. He also bat out of order while accomplishing this feat, confirming that he was in fact a Marasco.

Vic Marasco is not mentioned in the next day's article. He is in the box score, with a little note: ran for Campanella. Reading that I got all choked up. People who are old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers no doubt think of home runs and great plays at the plate when the name Campanella is mentioned. Those of us too young to remember his playing days form an image from a few newsreel clips, some lines in books, and the wheelchair. My image of Campy has always been the old man rolling around Dodger events, dispensing sound advice to the next generations of players. When he died a long-time Dodger reminisced all the positives of Campy's life, but at the end of the interview trailed off and said "at least he's out of that damn wheelchair." The thought of a Marasco running for Campy never registered to me on the rational level of Alston pinch-running for his catcher, it went straight to the gut, Campy would spend 40 years without the use of his legs, but others would run for him.

With that going on inside me this turned from a simple "look who fell out of the family tree" to a quest to learn all I could about Vic Marasco. I went through Spring Training accounts from the mid-50's, discovering that he was with the Dodgers in early 1953 and 1954, but then disappeared from the landscape.

Exhausting the newspapers I then called up every Vic Marasco listed in the United States. I went 0-for-3. Each time a woman would answer the phone and reply along long the lines of "Vic play baseball, are you nuts?" I then went after other sources. The Dodgers didn't pan out, I'm guessing that the intern that answered the letter didn't have access to the Dodgers' minor league archives. Knowing that Vic had played at Ft. Worth, I inquired at the Texas League. President Tom Kayser was kind enough to reply with Vic's 1954 statistics. He also pointed out that Vic was a teammate of Danny Ozark, Norm Sherry, Karl Spooner and Jimmy Bragan. Kayser supplied Bragan's address, which would pay off later.

The jackpot came from the Archivists at the Sporting News. They supplied several articles, and stats that were current through 1957. The first article was from 1953, and was the 14th and last in a series about promising Brooklyn farmhands. On top of a photo of the now less-mysterious Vic, we learn that he spent 1951 and 1952 in the army at Ft. Ord, but before that he was rocketing up the Dodgers' massive farm system. We also learn a little bit about his play, "Marasco can bat, sure, and he can throw. But he's inclined on the chunky side and not a whirlwind on the base paths. You can't have everything and the Dodgers are perfectly willing to settle on hitting and throwing."

The next article is from the 1954 Dodgers Yearbook, and Vic is listed at 5' 7" and 175. That popped out at me because I'm 5' 7", although a bit less than Vic's "stubby" 175. Here we also learn that Vic is married. Looking for a copy of the 1954 yearbook was first suggested by my friend Ivan Weiss, who laments that his copies have been lost to the sands of time. Ed Epstein sent along a photocopy of the proper page, identifying this TSN treasure's source.

Finally piece from 1955 details why Vic no longer was in Dodgertown. "Stocky" Vic Marasco was now a member of the independent Richmond Virginians of the International League. He had been traded out of the Dodgers system for Jack Mayo. Marasco was happy about his change of scene, "I think I have a better opportunity playing with an independent club... If I have a good year I've got a chance that any of the major teams might pick me up. With Brooklyn the best I could hope for was to sit on the bench."

On business I was sent to Colorado, and I took some time off in the library. The height of Vic's career may have been in 1949 when he lead the Western League in hitting, RBI's and total bases. I had access to a Colorado Springs paper, which gave scant attention to Vic's Pueblo team, but we do learn that he was a feared slugger who may have been helped a little bit by the thin Colorado air. In an article titled "Pueblo Ball Park Claiming Title of Home Run Heaven" we read of some of Vic's exploits: "Vic Marasco, the loop's leading hitter. clouted two of the round-trippers to spark Pueblo's win. He got a three-run homer in the first and a two-run circuit smash in the eighth." These numbers need to be taken with a bit of salt as at the time the ballpark was yielding four homers a game. One of the on-going controversies was who had a better outfield, Pueblo with Marasco, Jim Williams and Bob Wakefield or Denver with Pete Tedaschi, Gus Jaderland and Chuck Tanner. Pueblo won the Western League crown that year, an Vic did have an interesting moment in the playoffs, "Vic Marasco, Pueblo's brilliant outfielder, was hit on the head with a thrown ball in the first and was removed from the game. His condition was believed to be not serious. He was struck by the relay on his temple." A Marasco indeed.

Information kept rolling in. From Bill Weiss I got his career statistics, along with the knowledge that Vic had been the player/manager for Salinas of the California League in 1958. Also included were a pair of questionnaires filled out by Vic in 1947 (his first year in the minors) and 1958 (his last). The first contains little of interest, perhaps reflecting that he was but a 19 year old kid. The second tells more. He graduated Fremont High in 1946. He has a pair of children, Vicki and Stevie. He now works as a grip in the movie industry during the off-season. And after decade in the minors his ambition in baseball has changed from "to get to the major leagues" to "Major League Manager." Sadly, the Minor League Encyclopedia reports that Vic was fired from his Salinas job partway through his first season and replace by Al Forthmann.

Somewhere along the way I was sent a photocopy from a book that lists the results of the 1956 Tulsa Oilers. They finished at exactly .500 despite Vic's .219 batting average in 59 games. Included is the team photo, with Vic smiling away in the front row.

Both the Hall of Fame and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues sent along Vic's player record card. This is basically a tracking system that lists the player's status. He we find trips to the DL, trades, outright sales and any other notes on the player's career. It's a somewhat sad record, a man bouncing around the minors in hopes of a shot at the Bigs. An almost Boy of Summer who never quite panned out. Yet what can an assignment card really tell us about a man? He is listed as suspended and disqualified by New Orleans in 1957. Surely there's a story there that can't be told simply by a checkmark in the "suspended" column of his player record.

Jimmy Bragan did answer my letter. The two were teammates on the 1953 version of the Ft. Worth Cats. Unlike the press of the time, Jimmy remembers Vic as being "A medium-sized built player" who could hit for power. His arms was good enough that baserunners wouldn't cheat on his throws from left. Somewhat a loner at home, he would share meals with his teammate on the road. "Vic was a handsome fellow with dark hair and fair complexion and was married to a pretty lady... Vic was a good ballplayer and you would have been proud of him and his brand of play."

In early 2000 Baseball America ran Vic's obituary. It read as follows:

Vic Marasco, an outfielder who dominated 
the Western League with Pueblo in 1949, 
died Oct. 30 in Encino, Calif.  He was 
70.

Marasco batted more than .300 in four full 
seasons of a 10-year minor league career, 
including the '49 season when he won the 
batting title and hit .330-16-121.  He also
lead the league in RBIs, doubles (37), 
triples (21) and total bases (296).

Marasco was a player-manager for Salinas 
(California) in his last professional 
season in 1958.