THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 19, 1995 TAG: 9508190189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Ray White, a former pitcher and manager for the old Norfolk Tars who remained a presence on the South Hampton Roads baseball scene for 60 years, died at his Norfolk home Thursday. He was 84.
White was known throughout baseball as the man who might have saved Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto's career. As manager of the Tars, the New York Yankees' farm team in the Class B Piedmont League, in 1938, White went to bat for Rizzuto - both attended the same high school in Queens - when the Yankees were pushing for another prospect, Claude Corbitt, to play short in Norfolk.
White, who managed Rizzuto in 1937 at Bassett, Va., won out. Rizzuto batted
``If Rizzuto had gone back to Augusta (Ga.), you might never have heard of him,'' longtime scout and former sports writer Harry Postove said.
``Ray was hard to beat, both as a baseball man and a gentleman.''
White, born Raymond Petrie White on Nov. 26, 1910 in Brooklyn, N.Y., graduated from Columbia University in 1932 and came to the Tars in 1934.
A righthander, White went 17-6 and the Tars won the pennant. But White perhaps gained more lasting fame by beaning Yankees' first baseman Lou Gehrig, who attended Columbia at the same time as White, in an exhibition game at the old Bain Field.
Gehrig, nine years into the 2,130 consecutive-game streak that the Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. is approaching, had to be carried from the field on a stretcher. Gehrig recovered enough, however, to play in the Yankees' next game.
White, inducted into the Tidewater Baseball Shrine in 1977, played two more seasons, hurt his arm and became a player-manager in 1938, the year Rizzuto and former Old Dominion coach Bud Metheny helped the Tars to an 84-52 record and the Piedmont League pennant.
White managed through the 1940 season, then took a job with the Royal Crown bottling company in Norfolk. He worked there 35 years and eventually became president.
After he retired, White joined Metheny at ODU and served as pitching coach until 1980.
``We finished up our careers together,'' Metheny said. ``Ray also helped out all over the city. He helped different high schools and in the old City League, when it was real good.''
White is survived by his wife, Mabel S. White; a sister, Agnes Christensen of Orlando, Fla; three daughters, Mary Jo Strachwitz of San Diego, Calif., S. Elizabeth White Lavin of Falls Church, Va., Katherine White Carinder of Augusta, Ga; five sons, Raymond P. White Jr. DDS of Chapel Hill, N.C., Michael F. White of Newport News, Thomas C. White of Orlando, Fla., and John S. White and James T. White of Norfolk; 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A wake will be held Sunday at 5 p.m. at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments in Norfolk.
A funeral mass will be at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church in Norfolk, with a graveside service to follow at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ray White was known as the man who might have saved Hall of Famer
Phil Rizzuto's career.
by CNB