Jim Busby: Major League Baseball Player and Coach (1927–1996)

James Franklin “Jim” Busby, Major League Baseball player and coach, was born on January 8, 1927, in Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas. Busby’s parents were Florence (Smothers) Busby and James Elbert Busby, a traveling salesman. Known more for defensive than offensive prowess, Busby relied on sure-handedness and speed to fashion a thirteen-season major league career (1950–62).

Collegiate and Military Career

After graduating from Corpus Christi High School (now known as Roy Miller High School) in 1944, Busby went to Texas Christian University (TCU) on a track and football scholarship. At a college track meet in 1948, he ran the 100-yard dash in just 9.8 seconds, which placed him a mere .4 seconds behind the world record at that time. On the gridiron he made an appearance for TCU in the 1945 Cotton Bowl Classic game, in which the TCU Horned Frogs were defeated by Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University) 34–0.

In 1945 Busby entered the U.S. Army. He was stationed at Camp Hood and was named the most valuable player on the Camp Hood baseball team. It was reportedly TCU football coach Dutch Meyer, who did double-duty as the baseball coach in 1945, who persuaded Busby to play baseball when he returned to TCU. In 1947 Busby played first base for TCU. The position was not one that made good use of his speed, but Busby had injured his right shoulder, and first base is not a position that demands a strong throwing arm. He recovered and played center field the following year.

Minor League Career

Though the Horned Frogs finished last in the Southwest Conference both years, Busby impressed at the plate; he batted a conference-leading .509 the latter year. He especially impressed the Chicago White Sox, who had been American League also-rans since the notorious 1919 Black Sox scandal—in 1948 they finished in last place with a 51–101 record. The White Sox signed Busby and assigned him to the Waterloo White Hawks of the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (popularly known as the Three-I) League.

Getting his first taste of professional baseball, Busby hit .304 for the White Hawks. He improved to .318 the following year but was hampered by another shoulder injury. Previously a switch-hitter, he thereafter batted exclusively from the right side. This nullified the natural advantage of batting left-handed, which enables fleet-footed hitters to beat out more ground balls. Consequently, the speedy Busby was hobbled by batting right-handed, and his batting average and on-base percentage were negatively affected.

In 1950 Busby was given a brief audition with the White Sox before being sent down to the Sacramento Solons of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. In Sacramento his reputation for speed was good enough to set him up in a match race against a racehorse at the Sacramento County Fair. He lost.

Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators

After he hit .310 at the highest level of minor league ball, the White Sox brought him back to stay in 1951. Paul Richards, who had managed the Seattle Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League in 1950, had seen Jim Busby in action and was impressed. When Richards was named the new manager of the White Sox, he put Busby in the starting lineup. Richards’s philosophy was based on strong pitching complemented by superior defense by catchers, middle infielders (second basemen and shortstops), and center fielders. To that end, Richards installed Busby in center field.

Busby did not disappoint. Both he and the White Sox started the 1951 season strong. Named to the American League All-Star team, Busby entered the game (played in Detroit) as a defensive replacement for Ted Williams in left field. In the second half of the 1951 season Busby and the White Sox tailed off. The team eventually settled in fourth place with a record of 81–73. Busby had his career-best total of stolen bases (26), which placed him second in the American League behind teammate Minnie Miñoso. Their efforts resulted in the birth of the team’s “Go-Go Sox” nickname. Busby was also named to the annual Sporting News rookie all-star team, joining the New York Giants’ Willie Mays and the New York Yankees’ Mickey Mantle in the outfield.

After a slow start in 1952 Busby was traded to the Washington Senators, never a franchise noted for winning. The Senators’ futility was not the fault of Busby, as he enjoyed two of his best seasons in 1953 and 1954; he hit .312 and .298 while driving in eighty-two and eighty runs (his career-best RBI totals), respectively. Busby led the American League center fielders in putouts in 1952 and led in outfield putouts during 1953 and 1954. It helped that he played all but seven of his home games in 1952 at the Senators’ exceptionally roomy home ballpark, Griffith Stadium. Thanks to its ample acreage and high walls, Griffith Stadium hosted the fewest home runs of any major league ballpark for twenty-one consecutive years (1933–53).

Busby had the misfortune to play in the American League at a time when it was dominated by the New York Yankees. During his twelve seasons (1950–61) in the American League, the Yankees won the American League pennant ten times. During Busby’s playing days there were no intra-league playoffs, so he never had the chance to play post-season ball. As a consolation prize, Busby was twice voted the Senators’ most popular player. However, his career went downhill after the 1954 season.

Later Playing Career

What kept Busby in the major leagues in subsequent seasons were his defensive skills. Although his bat was not good enough for the starting lineup every day, his skills as a fly-chaser made him handy as a defensive replacement. Years later famed baseball statistician Bill James came up with the metric of defensive win shares which retroactively rated Jim Busby as one of Major League Baseball’s best center fielders during the 1950s.

After a slow start in 1955, on June 7, Busby was traded back to the White Sox. His results were only marginally better, so he was flipped to the Cleveland Indians in 1956. That season he hit twelve home runs. It was his only foray into double-figures in that statistic. Improbably, two of those home runs were grand slams, and they occurred on consecutive days, July 5 and 6. Otherwise, his season was not notable. The 1956 season was his last year as a full-time player.

After a disappointing start (two months into the 1957 season he was hitting below .200), Busby was traded to the Baltimore Orioles and reunited with Paul Richards, who had taken over as the team’s manager in 1955. Busby’s results were better (a .250 batting average in 319 plate appearances) but still well below his best years with the Senators. Now thirty years old, his total plate appearances for the season fell below 400 for the first time since his brief audition (fifty plate appearances) with the White Sox in 1950.

Busby was a part-timer for the rest of his career with the Orioles, which included a detour with the Boston Red Sox in 1959 and the early part of the 1960 season. After the 1961 season the Orioles released him, and he signed as a player–coach with the Houston Colt .45s, a National League expansion team that first played in 1962. Once again, he was reunited with Paul Richards, who had been named general manager of the newly-minted franchise. Since the Colts were the first major league team in Texas, it was Busby’s first opportunity to play close to his hometown.

Coaching and Managerial Career

At this point, however, Busby was thirty-five years of age, and it was apparent his playing days were numbered. After just fifteen games (and two hits in eleven at bats) he was sent to serve as a player–coach with the Houston-affiliated Oklahoma City 89ers of the Triple-A American Association. In 1963 Busby returned to Houston as a coach. He became the team’s third-base coach late in the 1964 season and remained in this position through the 1967 season, by which time the team had been rebranded the Astros and had moved into the Astrodome.

In 1968 Busby again followed Paul Richards, who had moved on to the Atlanta Braves in 1966, the franchise’s first year in that city after leaving Milwaukee. Busby served as a coach with the Braves through 1975, then returned with Paul Richards (serving as field manager) to the White Sox in 1976. After Richards resigned as manager, Busby moved on to the Seattle Mariners (a 1977 expansion team) for two seasons. In 1979 he managed the Caracas Metropolitanos of the short-lived Inter-American League.

Family, Death, and Accolades

Away from baseball, Busby, his wife (he married Marie Cameron Meyers on January 10, 1953), and four children settled on a citrus farm outside of Leesburg, Florida. When not tending to his orange and grapefruit groves, he coached high school and youth league baseball. After severe weather caused extensive crop damage, Busby sold the property and moved to a farm near Millen, Georgia, about forty-six miles south of Augusta. He died of a heart attack on July 8, 1996, and is buried in Millen Cemetery.

Busby was a distant cousin of major league pitcher and Texas Ranger broadcaster Steve Busby. His son Jim Jr. played college baseball at Florida State University and played four years with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league affiliates. Busby was inducted into TCU’s Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Corpus Christi/Miller High School Buccaneers Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.