As a rookie in 1938, Joe “Flash” Gordon became the American League’s first power-hitting second baseman and redefined how the position was played. Spending his first six years in Arizona’s mining camps, young Gordon then struck gold on the ballfields of Oregon. He was signed by the New York Yankees and helped the team win four World Series titles in just seven years. Following their 1941 World Series championship, manager Joe McCarthy was quoted saying, “The greatest all-around player I ever saw, and I don’t bar any of them, is Joe Gordon.” The following year, Gordon bested Boston’s Triple Crown winner Ted Williams for the American League Most Valuable Player Award of 1942.

After serving 18 months in the U.S. Army during World War II, Gordon returned to the Yankees in 1946, then was traded to the Cleveland Indians that October, prompting owner Bill Veeck to exclaim, “We just won the pennant!” Befriending the American League’s first African American player Larry Doby in 1947, Gordon helped lead the Indians to the franchise’s last World Series championship in 1948. This nine-time All-Star retired after the 1950 season and went on to manage several minor league and major league teams. This complete biography of Joe “Flash” Gordon tells his entire story, all the way until his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Author Biography

SABR member Judy Gordon is a retired computer programmer, technical editor, and flight instructor. She lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Erik Simpson has worked as a sportswriter, sports editor, reporter, and technical writer, and now is a writer and communications specialist for the Idaho National Laboratory Site. He lives in Rigby, Idaho.

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