Pittsburg Outfielders

by Ray Faustich
(Seymour, Connecticut USA)

Two of the three Pittsburg outfielders depicted in Rockwell's illustrated cover for the April 23, 1949 Saturday Evening Post were not actually Major League baseball players.

Although Johnny Hopp and Ralph Kiner did play in the outfield for the Pittsburg team that year, the artist used "generic" faces for those two players.

The other outfielder is "Dixie" Walker; who was a great hitter and ironically came to the Pirates from the Dodgers. That trade was of historic significance because Walker (an Alabama native) refused to play alongside Jackie Robinson in 1947; circulated a petition to have Robinson excluded and finally asked to be traded. Brooklyn General Manager Branch Rickey obliged and Walker finished his career with Pittsburg after 18 major league seasons and a.306 batting average.