Born: October 2, 1919
Died: March 19, 2003
Sport: Baseball
Town: Alpha, New Jersey
Joseph John Buzas was born October 2, 1919 in Alpha, NJ. His parents, Hungarian immigrants, ran a grocery store in town. Tall, tough and coordinated, Joe excelled in team sports at Phillipsburg High and caught the eye of Connie Mack of the Philadelphia A’s. Mack had had good luck with college-educated players and, during this time, the cash-strapped manager-owner occasionally offered to finance college tuition instead of paying out a signing bonus. He offered to send Joe to Duke University, where his old pitching ace, Jack Coombs coached the varsity.
Joe turned down the offer and enrolled at Bucknell instead. He majored in business and continued to excel in baseball, football and basketball, and also did a little boxing. He was the team’s leading hitter and a fine pitcher. Joe once fanned 16 Temple batters in a game. A shoulder injury suffered in a 1940 football game would nag Joe throughout his playing career, but the Yankees saw enough to sign him for $7,500 the following spring.
Joe drew raves for his smooth glove work as an infielder and rose through the system during the war years, staying in the US thanks to a job as a maritime safety inspector and 4-F status from a pierced eardrum. He was one of the most aggressive base runners in the organization and, led the Newark Bears in stolen bases in 1943 and 1944. In the 1944 playoffs, he stole four bases in a game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Joe was the Opening Day shortstop for the Yankees in an 8–4 win over the Red Sox. He supplanted veteran Frank Crosetti, who was holding out for a fatter contract. Two weeks into the campaign, Crosetti signed and Joe became a bench player. Shortstop being a relatively new position for Joe, the Yankees decided to send him to the minors at the end of June to work on his fielding.
Joe never made it back to the majors. His throwing arm did not improve and he was beaned in a 1946 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The damage caused by the pitch gave him intense headaches when he played under the lights, but he refused to give up on baseball. Joe bounced around the bush leagues, eventually becoming a manager in the minors and in Puerto Rican winter ball.
In 1957, Joe took over the Syracuse franchise in the Eastern League and moved it to Allentown, PA. It was the first of a long string of clubs he owned or ran over the next 40-plus years. In 1967, he owned the farm teams of three different big-league clubs. Following the 1972 season, he bought the Louisville Colonels and moved them to Pawtucket, RI, where they became the Triple-A farm team of the Red Sox. Joe was a master at marketing and cost-control, and loved interacting with fans. He could usually be found taking tickets before games and selling hot dogs at the concession stand during them.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Joe would own two clubs in the same league. That happened in 1977; he had to put one of the clubs in his daughter Hilary’s name. In 1996, Joe was named Minor League Owner of the Year. His last team was the Salt Lake Buzz, which became an Angels affiliate in 2001. It was the 82nd team with which he was involved. He passed away at 83.