Brooklyn Dodger pitching legend Carl Erskine passes away at 97
by Mark Langill
Carl Erskine, the former Dodger pitching standout who never left his hometown roots while becoming a beloved member of Brooklyn’s “Boys of Summer” era, passed away in his native Anderson, Indiana on Tuesday. He was 97.
Erskine spent his entire MLB career with the Dodger franchise between 1948 and 1959. He was a member of five World Series teams, including the 1955 squad that defeated the New York Yankees for Brooklyn’s first and only championship. The right-hander also started the first home game in Los Angeles Dodgers history, defeating the San Francisco Giants, 6–5, on April 18, 1958, in front of 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Erskine compiled a 122–78 career record and 4.00 ERA in 335 games, including a 20–6 mark in 1953. He pitched no-hitters in 1952 and 1956.
“Carl Erskine was an exemplary Dodger,” said Stan Kasten, President & CEO, Los Angeles Dodgers. “He was as much a hero off the field as he was on the field — which given the brilliance of his pitching is saying quite a lot. His support of the Special Olympics and related causes, inspired by his son Jimmy — who led a life beyond all expectations when he was born with Down syndrome, cemented his legacy. We celebrate the life of ‘Oisk’ as we extend our sympathies to his wife, Betty, and their family.”
During his lifetime, Erskine was inspired by his friend and teammate Jackie Robinson — the Hall of Famer who in 1947 became the first African American of the 20th century to play in the Majors. Erskine’s son, Jimmy, born in 1960, had Down syndrome. Erskine witnessed the discrimination Robinson and Jimmy both faced. Those stories became the subject of his book, “The Parallel,” published to benefit the Special Olympics organization.
Jimmy Erskine passed away on Nov. 25 at age 63.
“Jackie and Jimmy — living in different times in history and coming from uniquely different circumstances,” Erskine wrote. “The one powerful factor that made them both successful is that they were striving for what was right. In the end, what is right will always prevail. In the parallel journeys of Jackie and Jimmy, there is one major difference. Jackie faced the ‘bully’ alone. Jimmy merely was a representative individual of all those who weren’t accepted in the mainstream of life.”
When Robinson was honored as the “best athlete of the quarter century” at Sport Magazine’s 25th-anniversary celebration luncheon in New York, he praised Erskine for his support of the Civil Rights movement.
“In my opinion, no Dodger understood more about what was happening than Carl did,” Robinson said. “And Carl today doesn’t hesitate to express himself publicly.”
Erskine and his wife Betty celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Oct. 5, 2022. They had four children: Danny, Gary, Susan and Jimmy.
For three decades, Erskine was a popular instructor at the Dodger Adult Camps in Vero Beach, Florida, along with such former Brooklyn Dodger players as Duke Snider, Ralph Branca, Clem Labine, Roy Campanella and Don Zimmer.
One of the traditions occurred on the final day of camp when Jimmy Erskine donned a Dodger uniform and stood in the batter’s box while the campers surrounded the infield. When Jimmy hit the ball, he was encouraged by the group to run the bases. Jimmy eventually slid into home plate and cheers erupted when the umpire signaled “safe.” Jimmy then walked over to Betty, who was sitting in a golf cart, and received a hug and kiss.
In 2023, the National Baseball Hall of Fame honored Erskine with the John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to an individual for extraordinary efforts to enhance baseball’s positive impact on society.
The player nicknamed “Oisk” by Brooklyn fans was the subject of a 2022 documentary, “The Best We’ve Got: The Carl Erskine Story.” The Aug. 11 movie premiere was staged at the historic Paramount Theater in downtown Anderson. Erskine and his wife held hands in the front row.
In 1953, Erskine set a single-game World Series record with 14 strikeouts in a 3–2 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the Fall Classic. When that record was broken by Sandy Koufax in 1963, Erskine was on hand in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium to congratulate Koufax, who fanned 15 batters during a 5–2 victory in the series opener.
In 2008, Erskine played the National Anthem on his harmonica before the final Spring Training game in Vero Beach. Erskine started the first game in the history of the Holman Stadium spring ballpark against Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics when it opened on March 11, 1953.
Erskine was a gifted storyteller with amazing memory and attention to detail. He fondly recalled all the circumstances surrounding the Dodgers’ first home game in Los Angeles when the franchise relocated to the West Coast in 1958.
Although Erskine was no longer the ace of the team — he went 5–3 with a 3.55 ERA in 1957 (15 games, seven starts) — manager Walter Alston gave him the starting assignment for the 2 p.m. game because he knew the veteran wouldn’t be nervous in front of a crowd that some predicted could reach 90,000 at the Coliseum.
In a 2008 interview, Erskine said he wanted the first pitch in Los Angeles to be a strike. But manager Walter Alston wanted to throw an inside pitch to San Francisco leadoff hitter Jim Davenport. They compromised: Erskine got his strike and Alston watched Davenport get knocked down on the second pitch. When Davenport singled off the left-field fence on the third pitch, Erskine looked at Alston, who shrugged his shoulders.
Later in the first inning, Erskine realized rookie catcher John Roseboro was nervous because of the velocity of his return throws. “I told John, ‘The catcher isn’t supposed to throw harder than the pitcher,’” Erskine said.
In the early innings, Erskine noticed his teammates weren’t always paying attention to the game. “They were looking over the roof of our dugout, scanning the crowd for movie stars,” Erskine said.
Erskine pitched eight-plus innings and scattered four runs on 10 hits in a 6–5 victory. It was one of his last career highlights as the veteran battled arm and shoulder problems during the Dodgers’ seventh-place campaign.
He retired in June 1959 after starting the season with a 0–3 record and 7.71 ERA in 10 games (three starts). General manager Buzzie Bavasi asked Erskine to reconsider, but the veteran felt he wasn’t helping the team. Erskine later said his decision helped the Dodgers win the 1959 World Series.
The Dodgers were in fifth place with a 31–30 record after Erskine’s final start on June 14, when he allowed four runs on five hits and retired only two batters in the first inning of a 5–2 loss at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. His departure opened the door for Los Angeles to promote right-hander Roger Craig from Triple-A Spokane. Craig went 11–5 with a 2.06 ERA in 29 games (17 starts) with a league-leading four shutouts.
Erskine remained with the team as a special assignment pitching coach during the summer of 1959 because his arm was still strong enough to throw extended batting practice without having to stop between innings. Those sessions helped rookie shortstop Maury Wills, who was in his second year of learning how to bat left-handed and become an effective switch-hitter.
Erskine became a banker, a baseball coach in Anderson, and a community pillar in his hometown after his playing days. Throughout his life, Erskine considered that he was playing different roles in a movie, including one of his biggest starring roles — as a Dodger.
“I started playing baseball when I was 9 years old,” Erskine said in 2023. “I always thought it would be such an honor to have the title ‘Major Leaguer’ someday. I had no idea just how far and how many I would meet in my lifetime because of that little ball.”
Brooklyn legend Carl Erskine passes away at 97 was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.