Appling, "Luke" (Lucius B. Jr.)
Baseball
b. April 2, 1907, High Point, NC
d. Jan. 3, 1991
5-10, 180, right-handed, shortstop. Early in his major league career, Appling was known as "Fumblefoot" and "Kid Boots" because of his poor fielding. He eventually became an adequate shortstop, but he was much better known for his hitting.
Appling arrived in the majors late in the 1930 season with the Chicago White Sox. In 1933, he batted .300 for the first time; he was to do it fifteen times in all, including a league-leading .388 average in 1936, the best ever by a twentieth-century shortstop.
The gangly 5-foot-10, 180-pounder was a hypochondriac who acquired yet another nickname, "Old Aches and Pains." He once told his manager that he couldn't play because he was "dying," and the manager replied, "You might as well die out there at shortstop instead of cluttering up the clubhouse."
Ironically, Appling suffered a chronic ankle injury that he never complained about. His healthiest season was 1942, when he hit just .262. A year later, he won his second batting title with a .328 average despite an eye infection, a badly spiked knee, bouts with indigestion and the flu, and several muscle pulls.
After spending most of two seasons in the Army, Appling returned to the White Sox late in 1945 and played five more seasons. He retired after batting only .234 in 50 games in 1950. Appling was later a minor league manager and major league coach. He managed the Kansas City Athletics to a 10-30 record for part of the 1967 season.
In 1982, at the age of 75, Appling briefly became famous again when he hit a home run in an old-timers' game, the Cracker Jack Classic, in Washington, DC.