183 - Len Koenecke's Sad and Tragic Trip Home w/ Bill Lamb

Hooks & Runs

Bill Lamb is our guest this week to discuss the sad and tragic Len Koenecke. Koenecke played three seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers during the Great Depression. The Dodgers released Koenicke in September, 1935 while the team was in St. Louis and sent him home to New York by plane with two other players. Koenecke never made it home in a story filled with both mystery and tragedy.
Bill Lamb, an award-winning researcher and writer with the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and Koenecke's biographer on the SABR to relive Koenecke's life, baseball career and fateful journey on that September day and night in 1935.
Bill Lamb's biographical essay about Len Koenecke.
Errata: Len Koenecke set a fielding percentage record for National League outfielders in 1935. That record was broken by Harry Craft in 1940. The first qualifying National League center fielder to field 1.000 in a season was Curt Flood in 1966 -- the most recent was Brandon Nimmo in 2022.
Episodes referenced:
142 - The 1919 Black Sox w/ Jacob Pomrenke
159 - Hidden Histories: Baseball's Deadball Era Photographs w/ Jim Chapman
178 - Called Up to the Major Leagues w/ Zak Ford
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Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)
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