Pittsburg Morning Sun
Don Gutteridge, the prototypical baseball lifer, died on Sunday at the age of 96. He had been the last surviving member of the St. Louis Cardinals’ “Gas House Gang” of the 1930s.
Gutteridge was the manager of the White Sox on one of my earliest baseball cards. Typical skipper-like pose: Standing with one foot on the top dugout step, looking out over his domain. He looked old even then, but everybody — even the 25-year-olds — looked that way to a nine-year-old.
Gutteridge wrote an instrucional on the game.
Another appreciation from the Joplin Globe.
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Don Gutteridge is featured in Forbes Field: Essay and Memories of the Pirates’ Historic Ballpark, 1909-1971 (McFarland, 2007), and he shared this delightful memory of his days as a Pirate:
“It was very nice of you to ask me about Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. I was not there very long (about 30 days). The one thing I remember most was Honus Wagner. When I was there he was a coach (mostly honorary), and he got in uniform everyday and came to the bench. Of course, he was always asked questions, and we all carried on a conversation with him. He was most pleasant and always available to us. He usually stayed until about the seventh inning, and then he would quietly leave. We were told he would visit his favorite bartenders on the way home, but he was a joy to be around. He had a great laugh. That is what I remember about Forbes Field.”
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