Age-old Question

Joe Cunningham died last week at the age of 89. If I can remember him playing first base for the White Sox, what does that say about me? I’ll go with “good memory, Doug.” Cunningham came to the Sox for Minnie Minoso before the 1962 season. In truth, I have no memory of him playing in ’62 (or any of Minoso, for that matter, until he came back to the Sox for a few weeks in ’64). In fact, one of the only two things I do remember about Cunningham is that he broke his collarbone in 1963 and was replaced by 22-year old rookie Tommy McCraw. My God, baseball-reference.com lists McCraw as being 80-years old. What a memory. McCraw was a typical Sox player of the ’60s, with good speed, good glove and just a hint of power. When the Sox traded Cunningham to the Senators for Bill “Moose” Skowron a few weeks before my twelfth birthday, I worried what would become of McCraw. Silly me. Al Lopez started to play him in the outfield.