In the COG’s century ballot, voters took a shine to Dodger great Roy Campanella. The HOF catcher was the foundation of the Dodgers’ perennial pennant-winning teams of the 1950s, earning MVP honors 3 times in 5 seasons. Campanella was a much-heralded star in the Negro Leagues before reaching the majors at age 26, one season after Jackie Robinson‘s historic debut. Campanella’s late start and the horrific automobile accident that ended his playing days combined to limit his career statistical totals. But, for his 10 major league seasons, Campanella had no peer among NL catchers, compiling a career peak as impressive as any catcher before or since.

More on Campanella after the jump.

Campanella might have become the player to break the color barrier in organized baseball, after the Pirates offered him a tryout in 1943. But, fearing a backlash, Pittsburgh reneged on the offer. Instead, Campy would have to wait three more years for the Dodgers to sign him to a minor league deal, taking a massive pay cut to play in the Class B New England League where he batted .290 and slugged .477 in 113 games. That earned him promotion to the International League’s AAA Montreal Royals for 1947 where he turned in another solid season with 13 home runs and 75 RBI in 135 games with a .273/.371/.432 slash.

Invited to Dodger spring training in 1948, Campanella made the big club and appeared on opening day in relief of starting catcher Gil Hodges (filling in for the incumbent Bruce Edwards who was recovering from an off-season injury). After that debut, Campanella would see action in just two more games before being sent back to Montreal. The Dodgers were high on Edwards, who was just 24 and coming off a 1947 season in which he was selected as an All-Star and finished fourth in MVP voting. But, with Campanella tearing up the International League (.325/.432/.715 with 13 home runs in only 35 games), the Dodgers made room for him in July by moving Edwards to third base and Hodges back to first base, a decision Brooklyn would not regret.

Campanella made his first All-Star team in 1949, the first of 8 straight A-S selections and the start of a 5 year run with at least 120 OPS+ from .350 OBP and .450 SLG, a streak of such seasons by a catcher exceeded only by Mickey Cochrane and Mike Piazza. That run culminated in a 1953 season with 41 home runs, 142 RBI, .611 SLG, 1.006 OPS and 7.1 WAR, all career bests. The HR, RBI and WAR totals set new standards for catchers, with the former two marks since eclipsed only by Johnny Bench in 1970. In seasons with fewer than 600 PA, Campanella’s RBI total has been exceeded only by Babe Ruth (1929) and Juan Gonzalez (1996).

Campanella compiled four 30 home run seasons, a mark that stood for forty years as the career standard for catchers, matched by Johnny Bench but surpassed only by Mike Piazza (despite nine 30 home run seasons, Piazza never won the MVP award). In three of those seasons, Campanella compiled 5 WAR with 150 OPS+, a combination only Piazza has also produced more than once. Campanella’s 125 home runs aged 31-35 have similarly been surpassed only by Piazza’s total of 138.

Among catchers, Campanella’s three MVP titles have been matched only by his contemporary and World Series nemesis Yogi Berra. That total also matches the number of catcher NL MVP seasons since – two for Johnny Bench and one (so far) for Buster Posey (similar story in the AL which has had just four MVP seasons by catchers since Berra).

Campanella’s last great season came in 1955 at age 33, with a .318/.395/.583 slash, 32 home runs and 107 RBI in only 522 PA, to claim the third of his MVP titles. He followed up that performance with 3 hits including a home run in both game 3 and game 4 of the World Series, as the Dodgers came back from a 2-0 series hole to beat the Yankees and finally win their first world championship. That was the fourth of five World Series that Campanella would play in, catching every inning of all 32 World Series games the Dodgers would play during his career.

Campanella finished his career with two seasons totaling only 1.2 WAR from a .230/.325/.391 slash. If not for the January 1958 crash that left him paralyzed, he likely would have joined the Dodgers in LA for that season, but it’s doubtful there was much more he would have added to his career totals. Despite his disability and other personal problems (his second wife died of a heart attack aged only 40), Campanella continued for many years to operate his New York business, host a weekly radio program and work in various capacities for the Dodgers. Campanella was honored in 1972, together with Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax, as the first Dodger players to have their uniform numbers retired.

Campanella trivia: While the MLB record books will tell you that the largest crowd* ever to witness a major league game was at the LA Coliseum during the 1959 World Series, that isn’t quite right. In fact, an even larger crowd of 93,103 was in attendance at the same venue on May 7, 1959 for an exhibition game between the Dodgers and Yankees, a benefit for Campanella with proceeds going to help defray his medical expenses (after the game, the Dodgers had to charter to San Francisco to beat the Giants 2-1 that same evening at Seals Stadium – talk about a long distance double-header!).
* a 2008 pre-season game between the Red Sox and Dodgers drew an announced crowd of 115,300 to the LA Coliseum

My thanks, as always, to the indispensable baseball-reference.com for statistical data, and to sabr.org for biographical details.