Supposedly Valo made a token appearance in one game in 1939 which would make him a "four decade" player. He refuses to talk about it, and none of the encylopedias reference it.

I always associate Elmer Valo (along with Bobby Tiefenauer and Lenny Greene) as guys that I ALWAYS got triples or quadruples of when buying baseball cards, and you couldn't get rid of them because no one else wanted them, either

As baseball geeks, we all have our Walter Mitty moments, baseball style. And as kids in the backyard, we all took the name of the hero of the day when we stepped up to the plate in wiffle ball. Some guys fantasize about being the slugger, some dream to be the unhittable pitcher.

Bizarrely, unexplainably I always wanted to be the pinch hitter extraordinaire. Jerry Lynch, Manny Mota, Jose Morales, John Vanderwal, etc etc. If the genie were to pop up from the lamp today, that's what I'd wish for. Really.
Or maybe even a pich walker.....

Whatever really happened in 1939, Elmer Valo took to his grave in 1998.

Valo was one of five players to make the big leagues out of Czechoslovakia

Just to fill my pedantry quota early today :) it appears that a gentleman named Carl Linhart who had a cup of coffee with Detroit in 1952 is the only other major-leaguer actually born in the state of Czechoslovakia. The others were born in the 19th century in what would then have been the Austro-Hungarian Empire or some variation thereon.

And unless there are some current teen prospects born before January 1993 in Czechoslovakia, there aren't going to be any others ...

Supposedly Valo made a token appearance in one game in 1939 which would make him a "four decade" player. He refuses to talk about it, and none of the encylopedias reference it.

From The Baseball Library on Valo...

» April 5, 2000: The Diamondbacks bite the Phillies, 11-3, with Mike Morgan picking up the save. Arizona is his 12th major league team, an ML record. (though Bobo Newsom switched teams more often). He also becomes the 25th player, and 9th pitcher, to appear in four decades. Earlier today, Jesse Orosco of the Cardinals became the 24th player, and 8th pitcher, to do so. (See also Elmer Valo, September 30, 1939)

But that date shows nothing...must find boxscore!

'38 and '39 mut have been very worrisome & heady years for a Czech, to say nothing of the war years. Anyone have any details of his military career? American troops liberated parts of Czechloslovakia in '45 -- it would be a neat story if he had part of that.

Posted by Traderdave on February 04, 2005 at 01:02 PM (#1124473)
'38 and '39 mut have been very worrisome & heady years for a Czech, to say nothing of the war years. Anyone have any details of his military career? American troops liberated parts of Czechloslovakia in '45 -- it would be a neat story if he had part of that.

This obituary says that he served stateside in WW2:

Elmer Valo obit

But that date shows nothing...must find boxscore!

The boxscore shows nothing either. I checked both the NYT and the Sporting News (love those SABR perks!) and unless he made an unrecorded pinch-running appearance (which is a possibility - sometimes pinch-runners weren't announced in those days), he didn't get in the game.

-- MWE

Elmer Valo in uniform...from the wonderful Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society site.

Mike...how do I access the Sporting News at SABR? It's not listed with the Times etc.

The story about Valo playing in 1939 says that he was a pinch hitter IIRC.


The other question about Valo: Czech or Slovak?

I remember checking (pardon the pun) on a map and not being too successful in finding his birthplace.

One set of great-grandparents of mine were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Looks really cool on Census records.
Place of birth "Austria-Hungary"

They were actually Croatian.

Mike...how do I access the Sporting News at SABR?

You don't, unfortunately. Different perk :)

SABR members were offered the opportunity to purchase a subscription to Paper of Record at a reduced price when TSN was added in December 2003 2003, and then again last year (I renewed for two years, so I'm good through December '06).

-- MWE

The story about Valo playing in 1939 says that he was a pinch hitter IIRC.

On further review:

It's possible that Valo made an appearance as a pinch-hitter that didn't get into the box score.

The game in question is Washington at the Philadelphia A's, played 9/30/1939. The box score doesn't balance for the A's. Philadelphia scored 5 runs and left 8 men on base, according to the box - but their #5 and #6 hitters had 5 ABs each, which means that they *had* to have had at least 15 R+LOB rather than 13. There's also at least 2 ABs missing on the A's side of the ledger - they drew two walks, had no sacrifices or HBs, but the #1, #2, and #3 batters had 4 ABs (#4-#6 had 5) and the pitcher's slot had 3. I assume it's possible that Valo pinch-hit for the pitcher at some point during the game - there were a couple of other box score which indicated that a pinch-hitter had been used but didn't list that player in the box due to space constraints. I suppose only a Philadelphia paper might have it.

-- MWE

The other question about Valo: Czech or Slovak? I remember checking on a map and not being too successful in finding his birthplace.

If I'm correctly placing the location of Ribnik, Valo was probably Croatian or Slovenian. The link takes you to a more detailed map; Ribnik is at about 5:30.

The other question about Valo: Czech or Slovak?

I remember checking (pardon the pun) on a map and not being too successful in finding his birthplace.

Expedia and Mapquest locate two towns named Rybnik in the Czech Republic. Alas, they also locate two towns named Rybnik in Slovakia.

The Czech and Slovak genealogy pages I looked at on the web didn't make any mention of the surname Valo - there was one person named Valyo whose father came from Vinne in Slovakia. I'm willing to let that be the tie-breaking vote...

The Ribnik you've found, though, Jed, is so far from the Czech provinces that it's hard to imagine how Valo could have been supposed to be Czech. I'm guessing he was born in Rybník in Southern Bohemia.

Thanks, John, and everyone -- you know, I am unlikely ever to forget anything I've learned about Elmer Valo today, even though everything else about my life turns into a blur as soon as I hear about it. I suppose this is the definition of a baseball fan.

Sorry for the shoddy research. I'll back quickly away from my Croatia post. It's no wonder you found four Rybníks, rlc — the word means "pond," "pool" or "lake" in Czech and Slovak.