Joe Taylor (baseball)

Taylor was a hard-hitting outfielder whose career began in the semipro ranks in 1946. From 1949 to 1951, he played in the Negro leagues, including service with the Chicago American Giants,[3] prior to entering minor league baseball (MiLB) at the Class C level. By 1954, he was an All-Star in the Triple-A International League, hitting .323 with 23 home runs for the Ottawa A's.

The performance earned him a call-up to the American League and the Philadelphia Athletics in August, but Taylor hit only .224 with 13 hits in 18 games during the franchise's waning days in its original home city. He did not make the move to Kansas City with the Athletics, spending 1955 with three clubs at the top levels of the minors. Two strong campaigns and an All-Star selection as a member of the Seattle Rainiers of the Open-Classification Pacific Coast League got him a late-season trial with the 1957 Cincinnati Redlegs. Taylor batted .262 with 28 hits (including four home runs) in 33 games over the final two months of the season, including 24 starts as a corner outfielder. At season's end, however, he was included in a five-player December 5 trade in which the Redlegs, seeking pitching help, acquired three hurlers from the St. Louis Cardinals. The three pitchers involved would win only six total games for Cincinnati, but the rookie center fielder who accompanied Taylor to St. Louis—Curt Flood—would become a three-time National League All-Star, a seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, a two-time World Series champion, and a pivotal figure in baseball labor relations.

Taylor began 1958 at Triple-A Omaha before his recall to St. Louis late in May. Playing sparingly, he batted .304 in 23 at bats, largely as a pinch hitter, before he was claimed on waivers by the Baltimore Orioles on July 25. He played in 50 games for Baltimore over two seasons, but batted a composite .239. His last major-league appearance came July 21, 1959, as a pinch hitter against his first-ever MLB team, the Athletics. He then returned to the Triple-A Vancouver Mounties, where he was selected to the Pacific Coast League All-Star team for a second time. He played in the high minors in the United States and Mexico through 1963 before retiring.

Taylor's baseball career was hampered by bouts of alcoholism.[3] In parts of four years with four MLB teams, Taylor batted .249 in 119 games. His 74 career hits included 16 doubles, one triple and nine homers, with 31 runs batted in. In addition, he played for the Leones del Caracas of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (VPBL).[4]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• Kuzmiak, Steve, Joe Taylor. Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project