Jerry Dean Lumpe ( ; June 2, 1933 – August 15, 2014) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He had a 12-season career in Major League Baseball, primarily as a second baseman, for the New York Yankees (1956–1959), Kansas City Athletics (1959–1963) and Detroit Tigers (1964–1967), played in two World Series, and was selected to the 1964 American League All-Star team. Named for National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jerome "Dizzy" Dean, Lumpe was born in Lincoln, Missouri. He batted left-handed, threw right-handed, and was listed as tall and .
Lumpe was raised in Warsaw, Missouri, where he graduated from high school. He signed with the Yankees as a shortstop in 1951. Lumpe and future MLB teammate Norm Siebern had been basketball players together for Missouri State University (then known as Southwest Missouri State), where they won two NAIA Championships in 1952 and 1953, although both needed to miss some tournament games to report to baseball spring training camp. Lumpe maintained strong ties to the university and died in 2014 in Springfield, Missouri, the school's home.
Playing career
New York Yankees
Lumpe rose through the Yankee farm system during the early 1950s, although he missed part of the 1953 and all of the 1954 minor league seasons while performing military service. He made the Bombers' roster for the first time in , appearing in 20 games as a member of the expanded early-season 28-man squad, and the post-September-1 40-man allotment. In between, he batted .279 in 129 games at Triple-A Richmond. He then began at Richmond, batting .297 in 98 games, and was recalled to New York in July.
With another young player, Bobby Richardson, installed as the club's second baseman, and Gil McDougald and Tony Kubek at shortstop, Lumpe started 21 games at third base, and appeared in 40 contests, hitting a robust .340 with 35 hits. He also appeared in three games of the 1957 World Series as the Yankees' starting third baseman in Games 3, 5 and 6. Lumpe collected four hits, all singles, in 14 at bats (including three additional appearances as a pinch hitter), and two runs batted in, but the Milwaukee Braves triumphed in seven games. In , his first full year as a major leaguer, Lumpe earned a world championship ring. He appeared in 81 games, with 54 starts at third base, and hit his first three MLB home runs, as the Yankees won another American League pennant. Then, in the 1958 World Series, a rematch with the Braves, he again was the Yankees' starting third baseman in three games, including the decisive Game 7, won by New York 6–2 for the 18th title in the team's history.
Kansas City Athletics
But Lumpe could not break into the Yankees' regular lineup. In , again beginning the season as a utility infielder, he was hitting only .222 in 18 games when he was dealt to the second-division Kansas City Athletics on May 26 with pitchers Johnny Kucks and Tom Sturdivant for outfielder Héctor López and pitcher Ralph Terry. Lumpe started 54 games as Kansas City's second baseman and 47 as their shortstop, although he still showed rust at the plate, hitting only .243 with the Athletics in 108 games.
In , Lumpe's first year as a starting second baseman, he began to find his stride. He raised his batting average to .271 and led his club in hits with 156. His best two offensive seasons came in and , as he held down the right side of the Kansas City infield with first baseman Siebern, his teammate in college and with the Yankees. In 1961, Lumpe batted .293 with 167 hits, including nine triples, second in the American League. Then, in 1962, he batted .301, with ten homers and 83 RBI. He was second the league in hits with 193, second again in triples (ten), fifth in doubles (34) and eighth in batting average. All were personal bests, and Lumpe finished 25th in voting for the Junior Circuit's MVP race.
Detroit Tigers
After a solid campaign with Kansas City, when he batted .271 in 157 games, he was traded along with Dave Wickersham and Ed Rakow to the Detroit Tigers for Rocky Colavito, Bob Anderson and $50,000 on November 18. The lowly Athletics were making room for young second baseman Dick Green, who would be a fixture on the Oakland Athletics' early 1970s dynasty. Lumpe, in turn, became the first-string second baseman for the first-division Tigers, playing alongside shortstop Dick McAuliffe. He started 156 games in , leading all American League second basemen, and was named to the 1964 AL All-Star team as a reserve behind his former Yankee teammate Richardson. Lumpe did not appear in the July 7 contest at Shea Stadium, won by the National League on Johnny Callison's walk-off home run.