Retirement
Before he retired from professional baseball, Heath appeared in 57 games for the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. He was later fired from the team. In 1951, he was given a trial basis with the Rainiers but was never signed.
Sportswriter Franklin Lewis interviewed Heath and asked if he would do anything differently in his career if he was given the chance. Heath responded, "I wouldn't gag around as much. I shouldn't have popped off. It's all right for little guys to talk loud, but not a big ox like me."
In his 14-season major league career, Heath posted a .293 batting average and a .509 slugging average, with 194 home runs, 1,447 hits, 887 RBIs, 777 runs, 279 doubles, 102 triples and 56 stolen bases in 1,383 games played. Bobby Thomson surpassed him in 1955 to become the major leagues' home run leader among foreign-born players. Heath was the first player to hit a home run in all AL and NL ballparks. He was named as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Indians." In 1988 he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
He worked briefly as a scout for the Cleveland Indians. He later worked as a color commentator with the Rainiers and did advertising work in the Seattle area. During one game while Heath provided commentary, he cursed into the microphone on-air and later apologized. A station manager later approached him regarding the incident and Heath responded by throwing the manager down a flight of stairs.
Heath died of a heart attack in Seattle at age 60. He had suffered a heart attack in 1957 at the age of 43. He was survived by two daughters and one son.
Read more about this topic: Jeff Heath
Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
“He who comes into Assemblies only to gratifie his Curiosity, and not to make a Figure, enjoys the Pleasures of Retirement in a[n] ...exquisite Degree.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“Adultery itself in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envy of another man’s enclosed pleasures: and there have been many who refused fairer objects that they might ravish an enclosed woman from her retirement and single possessor.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
“Douglas. Now remains a sweet reversion—
We may boldly spend, upon the hope
Of what is to come in.
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Hotspur. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)