Robert Houston Hale (November 7, 1933 – September 8, 2012) was an American professional baseball player and a former Major League Baseball first baseman.
Born in Sarasota, Florida, Hale attended Lake View High School in Chicago, Illinois, and was signed as an amateur free agent by the St. Louis Browns before the 1952 season. In the minor leagues, Hale showed promise in 1953 when he batted .332 with 30 doubles and had 100 RBI at Aberdeen of the Northern League. The following season, 1954, Hale starred as a member of the York White Roses, leading the Piedmont League in doubles with 35. He also managed to hit 10 triples, 12 home runs, and drove in 101 runs in 142 games. Bob continued his offensive tear in the league with York in 1955, hitting .355 with 12 triples and 65 RBI in just 61 games before being called up to the majors by the Baltimore Orioles.
Bob made his Major League debut with the Orioles on July 4, 1955 and would go on to have a very successful first year, batting .357 in 67 games. He would play his final game with the New York Yankees on October 1, 1961.
Famous quotes containing the words bob and/or hale:
“You know, it’s a savage country, really. That’s the second one they shot in twenty years. It’s uncivilized—shooting people of substance.”
—David Webb Peoples, screenwriter. English Bob (Richard Harris)
“It is useless to check the vain dunce who has caught the mania of scribbling, whether prose or poetry, canzonets or criticisms,—let such a one go on till the disease exhausts itself. Opposition like water, thrown on burning oil, but increases the evil, because a person of weak judgment will seldom listen to reason, but become obstinate under reproof.”
—Sarah Josepha Buell Hale 1788–1879, U.S. novelist, poet and women’s magazine editor. American Ladies Magazine, pp. 36-40 (December 1828)