Nebraska Minor League Baseball

George Silvey

 

George Silvey won the 1st base position with Lincoln in the Nebraska State League in 1932. He played in 87 games and had a .254 average.

In 1933, George returned to Lincoln and averaged .262 in 98 games. According to the Lincoln papers he finished the year in Norfolk.

George was a Nebraska State League All Star in 1934. He led the league with 143 hits. At the end of the season he was picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals and assigned to Houston in the Texas League.

He was moved from Houston to Huntington in the Middle Atlantic League for 1935.

At the end of the 1935 season he was one of the Cardinal farm hands "freed" by Judge Landis in the famous St. Louis purge. He was in the training camp for Cedar Rapids in the spring of 1936. George appealed to Landis and was allowed to stay in the Cardinals organization as his future was in managing not as a potential major league player. He managed the St. Louis Cardinals farm system from 1936 to 1941. In addition he managed various St. Louis Cardinals farm teams during this time.

He was 23 years old when he was named manager of the New Philadelphia Red Birds in the Ohio State League in 1936. He had a 2-6 record when the team was disbanded on May 26th. He then moved to the Fostoria Cardinals in the Ohio State League where he replaced Harry Aldrick. He was a player manager and appeared in 92 games. He had a .317 average. (Sporting News Jan 21, 1937 p 06).

Image courtesy Dan Bretta
In 1937 he managed the Shelby Cardinals in the North Carolina State League. He led the league with 15 triples and with 56 steals while avearaging .273.

In 1938 he managed the Shelby/Gastonia team. He led the league with 80 stolen bases, averaged .316 and led the league in fielding..

In 1939 he managed the Springfield Missouri team in the Western Association. The team finished third in the regular season but won the playoffs for the 1939 Western Association championship. On October 7th he married Miss Dorothy Bram of Shelby North Carolina.

He started 1940 with Springfield. In July, after a 10 game losing streak he traded places with Ollie Vanek. Ollie moved from Johnson City to take over the Springfield team and George took over the Johnson City Cards in the Appalachian League.

He moved to the California League for 1940 where he managed the Fresno Cardinals and he won the league with a 90-50 record.

In 1952 he led a camp in Albany Georgia with more than 400 players were evaluated for the 15 minor league teams in the Cardinals organization.

In 1953 he supervised the class "C" and class "D" clubs for the Cardinals. According to the Sporting News he added Quincy Troupe as a scout. Quincy was the first African American scout for the Cards. He also added Jackie Cohan, a former pitcher who was injured in Korea.

He then held a number of positions within the Cardinals organization from 1960 through the 1976 season.

 

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