In
the spring of 1941, 19-year-old John Mueller dropped out of
Lane Tech High School and paid his own way to Hopkinsville,
Kentucky and pursued his dream of playing professional
baseball. Riding the bench with a veteran outfield already
in place, it looked like he would be released when club
rosters
were reduced in June.
But the trade
of outfielder Mel Reist to the Jackson Generals proved to be
just the stroke of luck young Mueller needed. While the
pitcher Hopkinsville received for the veteran Reist didn’t
last very long, his replacement in left field did. Mueller
batted .318 with 11 home runs, 97 runs batted in, and 16
stolen bases for the 2nd place Hoppers. The Detroit Tigers
organization were so impressed that they paid the Hoppers
$1,500 for his contract at the end of the season.
Detroit
initially sent Mueller to their Class B Winston-Salem club
in the Piedmont League at the start of the 1942 season. When
he failed to adapt to the higher level, they dropping him
down to their Class C Pittsfield club in the
Canadian-American League where was more successful, batting
.340.
But like so
many other young players at the time, Mueller’s potential
was never fully realized. He was drafted into the Army and
served three years in World War II. Once he returned to
baseball, he was 24 years old and was, by major league
standards, no longer considered a prospect.
Mueller was
named player-manager at Detroit’s Class D Nazareth,
Pennsylvania club in 1946, but he was hampered by a knee
injury and released in July. He underwent surgery on the
knee over the winter and signed with his old Kitty League
team in Hopkinsville for the 1948 season.
Wearing
a brace for his repaired knee, Mueller led the Hoppers to a
pennant-winning season, finishing with the third-best
winning percentage in league history. He batted .360 with 11
homers and 98 RBI and even stole 10 bases. A year later, he
took over as player-manager at Hopkinsville and led the club
to a respectable third-place finish. His batting average
improved to .373 with 31 doubles and a Kitty League
career-high 98 RBI. He more than doubled his stolen bases
with 30.
Mueller
was named player-manager of the Union City Greyhounds in
1950. He took his productive bat with him and contributed a
.343 batting average and 60 RBI. But the Greyhounds finished
in seventh place and he was not brought back the
following season.
During
four seasons in the Kitty League, John Mueller amassed the
highest career batting average in league history (.348). His
352 runs batted in are fifth-best for players between 1935
and 1955, his 115 doubles rank sixth and his 548 hits
rank eighth.
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