Lou Limmer was a power-hitting first baseman for the Philadelphia As in the early 1950s. In 1954 — his only full season, he hit 14 home runs. That may not sound like much, but it was good enough for a second-place tie on a stinko team that finished in the basement, 60 games behind the pennant-winning Cleveland Indians (by comparison, the 1962 Mets finished 60.5 games out of first).
Mr. and Mrs. Lou Limmer
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Limmer for my paper in 2006. unfortunately, he died about six months later. He was kind enough to sign a card from the Jewish Major Leaguer set that depicted shots of him and Mickey Rutner as the two oldest living Jewish players. I interviewed Mr. Rutner, too, but by phone, since he lived in Texas. Mr. Rutner also played for the As, but seven years before Mr. Limmer made his 1951 debut. Although he only had 12 hits in 48 at bats (including one home run), Rutner achieved immortality of a sort by serving as the muse for the career minor leaguer in Eliot Asinof’s novel, Man on Spikes (which was also a teleplay on the Goodyear Television Playhouse in 1955). After our chat, I mailed the card Limmer had signed, asking for Mr. Rutner to do the same. Unfortunately he died the day before it arrived. I had a nice note from his widow thanking me for the article.
After speaking with Sean Forman of Baseball-Reference.com, I decided to sponsor Mr. Limmer’s page. I would have done the same for Mr. Rutner, but he was already “taken.”
Timing is everything.
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