Young Eddie Basinski tried out for the baseball team when he was a student at East High School in Buffalo. The coach sent him home and suggested he try tennis instead. However, Basinski had a neighbor who believed in him as a ballplayer – Johnny Mokan, a former outfielder who played in the major leagues from 1921-27. Mokan got Basinski a gig with the Niagara Falls team of the Independent Canadian-American League. In 1944, by which time Basinski was 21, Mokan wrote to Brooklyn Dodgers general manager and part-owner Branch Rickey and told him there was a kid in Buffalo who was a “natural.”
Oh – and Basinski had just paused his other career as a first-chair violinist for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Not Very Profitable
Basinski began taking classical violin lessons when he was six years old. He was composing a symphony when he decided to concentrate on baseball. “I decided on baseball because music is not a very profitable career,” he told Harold Kaese of The Boston Globe. (For most, that’s still true in 2026.)
Died #OTD in 2022 Eddie Basinski. Born in Buffalo. Attended UB. Played three seasons in the majors for the Dodgers and Pirates as well as violin in the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra. Claim to fame was being included in the lyrics Van Lingle Mungo. Passed away at the age of 99 pic.twitter.com/6276yj8lIb
— ThisDateInBuffaloSportsHistory (@BuffSportsHstry) January 8, 2025
Basinski went straight from the sandlot to the major leagues, although the “how” isn’t clear. In 1947, he told Chilly Doyle of the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph that once Rickey saw him play, he made him a cash offer on the spot and paid him half of it immediately. “Two days later, in St. Louis,” said Basinski, “I played second base for the Dodgers. By the time we reached Pittsburgh, Rickey and manager [Leo] Durocher wanted me to stay and Rickey paid me the balance.” When Basinski passed away at age 99 in 2022, his son told The Oregonian that his father was part of a group of Triple-A all-stars who were invited to practice with the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. After practice, the group would change into street clothes and watch the game from the stands. After a few days, Basinski was changing his clothes when Durocher came into the clubhouse to call out the lineup for the day’s game. Basinski heard Durocher call, “Basinski, shortstop!”
Both are good stories, but the fact is that Basinski made his major league debut at second base for the Dodgers at Crosley Field against the Cincinnati Reds on May 20, 1944. The right-handed hitter was placed eighth in the batting order and went 1-for-4 with a run scored. His first major league hit was a fifth-inning triple off Reds righty Bob Katz. He scored on a two-out single by Frenchy Bordagary. Brooklyn won, 6-1.
Nothing but Fastballs
After 11 games, Basinski was 13-for-37. “I cannot figure it out,” he told Doyle, “but perhaps it was because I appeared light [he was thin at six-foot-one, 172 pounds, and wore glasses] – anyhow, the pitchers all kept throwing me fastballs and I kept making hits. Then the deluge! One day [June 4] in Brooklyn, Paul Derringer [of the Chicago Cubs] stepped on the slab against us. He threw me 17 curves and I went up five for zero [actually 1-for-3], as the players say.”
Nothing but Curveballs
Presumably now on a steady diet of curveballs, Basinski was mired in a 9-for-49 slump, dropping his average from .351 to .256. On July 21, the Dodgers farmed Basinski out to Triple-A Montreal and recalled Barney Koch to play second base. Basinski hit .244/.306/.311 there and returned to the Dodgers in September. He finished the 1944 major league season hitting .257/.310/.314.
“The Fiddler”
Basinski played for the Dodgers all of 1945, starting at shortstop for Pee Wee Reese, who was serving in the Navy during World War II. Basinski was deferred from the draft due to color blindness. Now his violin playing was receiving attention. Players nicknamed him “The Fiddler,” which some classically trained violinists would consider an insult. Basinski apparently took it in stride.
Just as in the case with the story of Basinski’s major league debut, there are conflicting versions of the first time Durocher heard Basinski play the violin. As told by Basinski, Durocher was skeptical and bet him a $100 suit that he couldn’t play the instrument. Basinski showed up the next day with his violin and gave an hour-long concert. In 2011, he told Daniel J. Wakin of The New York Times, “[Durocher] stopped and looked at me and said, ‘Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch.’ While he was shaving, I was right next to him, giving it to him with my violin.” Basinski’s teammate Howie Schultz didn’t recall that there was a $100 limit on the suit. He told Peter Golenbock, author of Bums, the definitive history of the Brooklyn Dodgers, “Leo said, ‘Well, I guess I owe you a suit. What kind of suit do you want?’ Eddie’s response was, ‘Where did you get yours?’ Leo’s suit was probably five times more expensive than what Ed ever paid for a suit.”
The Dodgers lost that day’s game, and Durocher banned music in the clubhouse. He thought it made the players soft.
“I Have Quick Hands”
Basinski told Kaese that baseball made him into a better violinist. “I found last winter that I played with more emotion. I used to be shy and backward, but those Brooklyn fans cured me of that.” There was a risk that baseball could result in tightening muscles or breaking a finger. “But I don’t worry about that,” said Basinski. “I have quick hands. If I did worry I just couldn’t play baseball.”
However, there was one occasion when the Pirates’ Johnny Barrett spiked Basinski while breaking up a double play. He drew blood, and Basinski suffered a broken finger. Later in the game, when Barrett tried to steal second, Brooklyn’s Eddie Stanky leapt on Barrett’s chest. “He was bleeding like a pig,” Basinski told Wakin.
Basinski hit .262/.293/.313 for the Dodgers in 1945. Fielding metrics didn’t exist back then, and fielding average generally isn’t a reliable indicator of defensive skills. It doesn’t factor in range, and errors are subjective with the official scorer. But it’s all we have for 1945, and for what it’s worth, he posted a .926 fielding percentage at shortstop while being charged with 34 errors. He had at least one teammate, however, who believed in his defense.
Basinski spent the entire 1946 season in the minors, as Reese had returned from the war. Meanwhile, the Dodgers leveled tampering charges against Philadelphia Phillies manager Ben Chapman, claiming that he illegally made a contract offer to Basinski while he was under contract with the Dodgers. Chapman claimed that Basinski wrote to him, saying he was dissatisfied with what the Dodgers were paying him. Basinski had no public comments on the matter. Commissioner Happy Chandler ruled that Chapman was innocent.
On to Pittsburgh
In December, the Dodgers traded Basinski to the Pirates for pitcher Al Gerheauser. By this time, former Dodger Billy Herman was the Pirates’ manager. Although he, too, was in the service while Basinski played for Brooklyn, he would have spent spring training with him in 1946 and knew him. Herman wanted Basinski because he felt he was one of the best fielders in baseball.
After spending the offseason performing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Basinski was named Pittsburgh’s Opening Day second baseman for 1947. Doyle interviewed him for a column meant to acquaint Pittsburgh with its new player, but try as he might to turn the subject to baseball, Basinski was more interested in discussing a symphony he was composing. It involved writing separate melodies for 20-30 instruments. “It is a very big job,” said Basinski, “but I feel sure I will be able to finish it. . . As you probably know, when you have finished writing the melody for each of the instruments you then have to make them all harmonize. My ambition goes beyond writing an ordinary symphony. . . I hope to compose one that will carry contrasting melodies, all of which must harmonize in the score. Bach was very good at this, but it requires a lot of time and study. That is what they call counterpoint.”
At second base, Basinski put up better defensive numbers with a .972 fielding average and only seven errors, but he hit a mere .199/.279/.335 along with his only four major league home runs. On July 20, the Pirates traded him to the New York Yankees for pitcher Mel Queen. Basinski never played in the majors again.
The Legend
Even so, he played professional baseball through the 1959 season, including 11 seasons at Portland in the Pacific Coast League. He became a local legend in Portland. His stats there are incomplete, but in verifiable games he hit .259/.326/.371, 99 HR, and 579 RBI for his career at Portland. He was inducted into the PCL Hall of Fame in 2006. He continued to play the violin, once at home plate between games of a doubleheader in Portland, and with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
His name was included in jazz pianist David Frishberg’s 1969 song, “Van Lingle Mungo,” the lyrics of which consist solely of a recitation of names of former major leaguers. Basinski was the last surviving player of those mentioned in the song.
