Everett Lamar "Rocky" Bridges (August 7, 1927 – January 28, 2015) was a middle infielder and third baseman with an 11-year career in Major League Baseball from 1951 to 1961. Bridges played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs and St. Louis Cardinals of the National League, and the Washington Senators, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of the American League.
Charles Henry Rabe (born May 6, 1932) is an American former professional baseball player. The left-handed pitcher and native of Boyce, Ellis County, Texas, appeared in 11 games in Major League Baseball for the 1957–1958 Cincinnati Redlegs. He was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 185 pounds (84 kg).
Rabe graduated from Waxahachie High School, alma mater of prominent baseball manager and front-office executive Paul Richards, and began his 12-year, ten-season pro career in the Cincinnati organization in 1952. After winning 16 of 26 decisions in 1957 for the top-level Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, he was recalled in September by the Redlegs and used in two games. In the second, on September 27, he started against the eventual world champion Milwaukee Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium and held them to only five hits and two runs, striking out six, in seven full innings pitched. But the Redlegs could not solve Milwaukee's ace right-hander, Lew Burdette, and went down to defeat, 2–1. He began 1958 with Cincinnati and worked in nine games, including his second and last start, May 25 against the St. Louis Cardinals at Crosley Field; however, he lasted only three innings, gave up eight hits and four runs, and absorbed the 4–2 defeat. He made only one more MLB appearance before returning to the minors for the remainder of his career, which lasted through 1963.
In his 11 games with Cincinnati, Rabe posted an 0–4 won–lost record and 3.67 earned run average, allowing 30 hits and nine bases on balls in 27 innings pitched. He struck out 16.
Robert Rudolph Balcena (August 1, 1925 – January 5, 1990) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs during the 1956 season. He had two at-bats and scored two runs as a pinch runner.
Listed at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), 160 pounds (73 kg), Balcena batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in San Pedro, California.
Prior to playing professional baseball, Balcena served in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II with the United States Navy.Balcena became the first player of Asian American and Filipino ancestry to appear in a major league game. He had a long distinguished Triple-A career with the Seattle Rainiers as a center fielder in the 1950s; one paper described him as a "popular miniature dynamo of almost infallible perpetual motion" after his Rainier team won the 1955 Pacific Coast League title.He also played from 1952 through 1962 in the Minor Leagues, including stints with the Leones del Caracas and the Industriales de Valencia in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
He batted .284 with 134 home run and 441 runs batted in in 1948 minor league games. In a VPBL two-season career, he posted a .306 average with five homers and 44 RBI in 87 games.
After his baseball career ended, he worked as a longshoreman in Seattle where he had played parts of four seasons in the minor leagues.Despite being the first Filipino-American to play in the major leagues, Balcena kept company with Slavs during his life. His union president told the Los Angeles Times that he was an "honorary Slav. He always r[a]n around with the San Pedro Slavs. He speaks Slav. He sings Slav." Outside of his professional career, he also played baseball with an amateur team of Yugoslav Americans.Balcena died in his hometown of San Pedro, California at the age of 64.
Saturnino Escalera Cuadrado (December 1, 1929 – July 3, 2021) was a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and scout whose playing career extended for 14 seasons (1949–1962). The outfielder and first baseman appeared for one full season, 1954, in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs and was the first player of African descent to appear in an MLB game for the Cincinnati franchise. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and 165 pounds (75 kg).
Harold Lewis "Corky" Valentine (January 4, 1929 – January 21, 2005) was an American professional baseball pitcher who worked in 46 career games in Major League Baseball as a member of the 1954 and 1955 Cincinnati Redlegs. Born in Troy, Ohio, Valentine threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 203 pounds (92 kg).
Robert Edward Kelly (born October 4, 1927) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for four seasons for the Chicago Cubs from 1951 to 1953, the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1953 and 1958, and the Cleveland Indians in 1958.
Kelly led East Cleveland Shaw High School to a state title in 1944, compiling a 7–2 record in 13 games with 75 strikeouts. He attended Purdue University, where he played college baseball for the Boilermakers from 1946 to 1947. Kelly also pitched collegiately for Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve University) from 1948 to 1949. As of 2022, Kelly is the last surviving Major Leaguer to have been managed by Rogers Hornsby and Frankie Frisch.
Robert Eugene Durnbaugh (January 15, 1933 – September 20, 2023) was an American Major League Baseball player. He played in two games at shortstop for the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1957, and grounded out in his only major league at-bat.
James Cyril Bolger (February 23, 1932 – April 9, 2020) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He appeared in 312 games over all or parts of seven Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons, but spent over two-thirds of his big-league playing time — 260 games — as a member of the Chicago Cubs. Bolger had short stints with the Cincinnati Reds (nine games), Cleveland Indians (eight), and Philadelphia Phillies (35 games). His MLB totals included 140 hits, 14 doubles, six triples, and six home runs, with a career batting average of .229. Bolger threw and batted right-handed. During his playing days, he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 180 pounds (82 kg).
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Bolger attended Purcell Marian High School. He began his pro career with the 1950 Reds, also playing Minor League Baseball (MiLB) in their farm system.
On October 14, 1951, Bolger was traded by the Cincinnati Redlegs to Buffalo for pitchers Moe Savransky and Tom Acker.Bolger's best MLB season came in 1957. He spent the full season with the Cubs as their fourth outfielder, appeared in 112 games (starting 57, including two starts as a third baseman), and batted a career-high .275, in 273 at-bats. The previous year, Bolger had been named a Pacific Coast League (PCL) all-star, after he batted .326, with 147 runs batted in, 193 hits, and 28 home runs, as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.
Bolger's 13-year professional career ended in 1962, after he batted .319 for the Triple-A Louisville Colonels.
Bolger died on April 9, 2020, at the age of 88.
Richard Lee Murphy (October 25, 1931 – December 12, 2020) was an American professional baseball player who played for three seasons (1954; 1957–1958) and had a six-game trial with the 1954 Cincinnati Redlegs of Major League Baseball. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
Murphy attended Ohio University, where he was an All-American as an outfielder. He signed with his hometown Redlegs on June 12, 1954, and made his Major League debut the following day against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Crosley Field. In his only MLB plate appearance, he pinch hit for Cincinnati relief pitcher Jackie Collum against Brooklyn lefthander Johnny Podres and struck out. After a short tenure in minor league baseball, Murphy returned to the Redlegs that September and served as a pinch runner in five more games, scoring his only Major League run in his last appearance on September 13. He then spent two seasons in military service before resuming his minor league career in the Redleg farm system in 1957 and 1958. He retired after the latter campaign with a .192 career batting average and four home runs.