Joe Cunningham

Joseph Robert Cunningham, Jr. (born August 27, 1931 in Paterson, New Jersey) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and left-handed batter who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1954-1961), Chicago White Sox (1962-1964), and Washington Senators (1964-1966).

The best season for Cunningham was in 1959, when he batted .345 to finish second to Hank Aaron for the National League batting title. He finished his career with a .291 batting average over 1,141 games spread over a 12-year career.

Cunningham was traded from the Cardinals to the White Sox after the 1961 season in exchange for long-time star Minnie Miñoso. Although his first season as the White Sox first baseman was successful, Cunningham would never fully recover from a broken collarbone suffered in a collision on June 3, 1963.

Cunningham narrowly avoided death during a tornado in St. Louis on Feb. 10, 1959 in which 21 died. He was discussing Bible verses in his apartment after 2 a.m. with a friend when they heard a roar. They ran to another room. Then the ceiling caved in where he had been sitting.^{[citation needed]}

His son, also named Joe, works as a batting instructor in the Cardinals' farm system.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube

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