Pitcher loses leg in hunting accident

Two weeks after  the amputation of most of his right leg, Monty Stratton was released from the hospital on Dec. 13, 1938.

Even though the lanky farmboy from Celeste had been blessed with a blazing fast ball, he never dreamed someone would pay him a man’s wages for playing a boy’s sport.  As much as he hated to leave home, money was too tight during the Depression for him to turn down the princely sum of $2.50 a game.

Stratton thought he would spend the summer in the Red River Valley League, but the semi-pro batters were such pushovers that the Chicago White Sox moved him up a couple of notches to their farm team in Galveston.  The strikeout sensation did not stay long on the island either before he was transferred to Omaha and then to St. Paul, the last stop on the way to the majors.

Summoned to the Windy City in 1934, Stratton finally met his match in big-league hitters, who turned his fast balls into screaming line drives.  He took a pounding, posting a 6-9 win-loss record over three years, until an arsenal of new pitches produced 15 victories in 1937 and the identical number the next season.

The tall Texan, six-foot-six in his stocking feet, was hailed as the ace of the White Sox pitching staff.  At age 26 with his best years ahead of him, he looked to be right on track for the Hall of Fame.

On that fateful November morning, Stratton was stalking rabbits a half mile from the farm house.  As he squeezed through a fence, the pistol in his pants pocket or a holster on his belt suddenly discharged.  The bullet entered his right leg below the hip and tore through the thigh before coming to a stop above the knee.

Bleeding profusely from a severed artery, Stratton crawled to a dirt road 250 yards from his grandmother’s place.  He yelled for help in the desperate hope of attracting his wife’s attention before losing consciousness.

Ethel Stratton heard the shouts off in the distance, raced to the rescue in the family car and carried her critically wounded husband to the hospital in Greenville.  Her quick action saved his life.

Doctors struggled to restore circulation to the badly damaged limb but could not prevent the onset of gangrene.  Amputation was the only option, and the next day the leg was removed above the knee.

Displaying the indomitable spirit that would make his name synonymous with courage, Stratton was soon up and around on a wooden prosthesis.  For hours on end he practiced a stiff-legged wind-up and delivery in preparation for his Comiskey Park homecoming.

After five months of rehabilitation, Stratton tossed out the ceremonial first pitch at the White Sox-Cubs game on May 1, 1939.  Twenty-six thousand fans endured a cold drizzle to pay tribute to their hero and to contribute the price of their ticket to his comeback.  Even newspaper reporters, ushers, umpires and players insisted upon paying full admission.

The entire proceeds from the game, including concessions, were given to the grateful Texan.  In addition to the estimated $30,000 in cash receipts, an ex-teammate-turned-car dealer presented Stratton with the keys to a showroom-new automobile specially modified for hands-only operation.

The Sox capped the unforgettable afternoon by beating their cross-town rivals.  The losing pitcher for the Cubs was Dizzy Dean, who took an early shower after allowing four runs on seven hits in his season debut.

Stratton consoled his friend and neighbor, who recently had purchased a farm outside Dallas.  “This game didn’t mean anything, Dizzy.  You’ll be back.”

“Shucks, Monty,” the ever chipper Dean drawled.  “I bet that peg leg of yours has got more zip than this soupbone of mine.”

But it didn’t and that in the end was Stratton’s undoing.  He still fired the ball with the best of them, as 18 wins with Sherman in the East Texas League amply demonstrated, but his lack of mobility ruled out a return to the majors.  He simply could not move fast enough on his artificial leg to field a bunt in time to throw out the runner at first base.

Stratton pitched his last game at Waco, where he added seven more victories to his career stats.  He gave managing a try but felt like a caged tiger in the cramped confines of the dugout.  Biding baseball farewell, he went back to his beloved roots and bought a farm near Greenville, where he lived until his death in 1982.

Hollywood took the usual liberties with “The Monty Stratton Story,” the 1949 film starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, leaving moviegoers with the impression that the plucky pitcher made it back to the major leagues.  But the truth did not need stretching because in real life Monty Stratton was always a winner.

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