32 days until Astros Opening Day brings us to #32 on our jersey countdown.
Only one man wore #32 in a Houston baseball jersey, and that's they way it will always be. A tragic story that largely unfolded 60 years ago.
JIm Umbricht was a late bloomer in baseball parlance. He was an all-SEC shortstop at Georgia in 1951 and briefly played in the low minors for Milwaukee but served 2 seasons in the US Army, then went on to play in several other very low pro leagues. He didn't even make it to Double A ball until 1958, and debuted in the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates at age 28 in 1959. He pitched just 19 games in three years and was left unprotected for the 1961 expansion draft, where the Colt .45s snatched him up.
He was a ray of sunshine in 1962, going 4-0 out of the bullpen with a 2.01 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 67 innings. At the beginning of spring training 1963, Umbricht noticed a small mole on his right leg while playing golf with Houston GM Paul Richards. He ignored it until it got too big to ignore and when he got it checked out by a doctor, it was found to be cancer that had spread to his groin already.
He had surgery quickly, on March 7, 1963 and spent a month in the hospital, with both Umbricht and his doctors claiming he had beat cancer. That was a lie. The doctors didn't know if they had gotten the whole tumor. They told him his chances of survival were slim. Umbricht didn't tell the 45s and wanted to keep pitching, understanding that his days of health were going to drop rapidly.
He came back to the Colts on May 9 and was shelled by the Reds. In his next game out, he pitched 2 innings of relief and earned the win vs. the Cubs. He was somehow able to pitch 35 games that year, compiling a 2.61 ERA and a 4-3 record.
On the last day of the regular season, September 29, 1963, the 65-96 Colts hosted the 51-110 Mets at Colt Stadium in front of 3,899 people. The Mets shelled Chris Zachary for 4 runs in 3-1/3 innings to get up 4-2 and Umbricht entered the game in the top of the 4th, getting out of a jam. In the bottom of the 4th, the 45s erupted for 5 runs on 7 hits to go up 7-4. By virtue of getting 2 outs in the top of the inning and being the pitcher of record when the Astros took the lead, Umbricht was awarded the victory in his final game as a pro.
After the season, it was revealed that he had required up to 100 stitches in his leg while pitching because blood was seeping out of the scar fro his surgery, and that he was often sedated to deal with the pain. In November 1963, x-rays found that the cancer had spread to his chest and was going to be fatal. The team signed him to a scout contract so they could continue to pay him.
Umbricht died on April 8, 1964, 5 days before the start of the Astros season. His pallbearers included manager Harry Craft and teammates including Bob Lillis, Turk Farrell, and Ken Johnson, who had been Umbricht's roommate. Construction on the Dome had begun by then, and after the funeral, Umbricht's brother flew a plane over the Dome's construction sight and scattered his ashes there.
The team wore black armbands for the entire 1964 season and retired his #32 jersey immediately. That wasn't much of a thing back then, it was only the 12th number ever retired by a baseball team. On April 13, 1964, the Colts started their season against the powerful Cincinnati Reds. Johnson drew the start, dedicated the game to his fallen roommate, and went out and destroyed the Reds, giving up just 5 hits in 8-1/3 innings of a 6-3 victory.
Umbricht's shocking death did wonders for melanoma awareness in the US, and has a remarkably personal connection to all of us. In 1965, a talented linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams noticed a mole on his left arm that seemed similar to the one he had read in a newspaper article about Umbricht. He had it checked out and doctors found it was indeed malignant melanoma that had already spread to other parts of his body. Fortunately, it was caught in enough time to root it out and let him continue playing a year later. His name was Jack Pardee, Junction Boy and Class of '56.
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