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gordon massa image from baseballreference.com
Image from BaseballReference.com

Player: Massa, Gordon

Card: NO CARD AVAILABLE

Position: C

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playerbio

Gordon Richard Massa (b. September 2, 1935 in Cincinnati, OH – d. July 16, 2016 in Cincinnati, OH) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in eight games as a catcher and pinch hitter for the 1957–1958 Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. His was nicknamed "Duke" and "Moose".

After graduating from Elder High School in Cincinnati, Massa attended The College of the Holy Cross, where he starred in baseball and football. In 1955 he led the Crusaders in home runs and runs batted in as the team posted a 13–4 record and qualified for the NCAA Division I College Baseball Tournament. Overall, Holy Cross won 42 of 53 games during Massa's time on the varsity. In football, he played center and linebacker and was selected by the New York Giants in the tenth round of the 1957 National Football League Draft.

But Gordon chose professional baseball as his destination and signed with the Cubs on June 24, 1957. Three months later, after prepping with the Des Moines Bruins of the Class A Western League, Massa made his MLB debut, starting at catcher and notching two hits, both singles, in four at bats with one run batted in against Hal Jeffcoat of the Cincinnati Redlegs. All told, Massa collected seven hits in 15 at-bats with three RBI during his first trial with the Cubs. The following year, he was sent to the Class B Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League for further minor league seasoning, and he batted .316 to earn his second late-season call-up to the Cubs. He went hitless in two at-bats.

Massa returned to the minors for good in 1959, where he was a two-way player during several years, pitching in 24 games. With the San Antonio Missions in 1961 he had an ERA of 3.86. His minor league career was spent in the Midwest and the South, with five seasons in the Texas League. He retired in late 1963 after seven seasons in the Cub farm system. After baseball, he had a sales career with Ashland Chemical.

He was elected to the Holy Cross Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. Massa died July 16, 2016, aged 80, in Cincinnati.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)

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