Richard Conger of Los Angeles, California. Corporal Conger served in the Marine Corps from 1944 to 1946 after pitching for three Major League clubs.
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Dick Conger

Marine Corps Service

Richard “Dick” Conger earned the title of United States Marine at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in 1944, after pitching that season for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. He attained the rank of corporal and served through 1946. His military service interrupted a professional career that had already taken him from UCLA to the Major Leagues while he was still a teenager.

Available public summaries confirm Conger’s World War II Marine service but provide little detail about his assignment. No reliable evidence reviewed for this profile places him in an overseas combat theater, so none is claimed here. Following his discharge, he returned to the Angels during the 1946 season.

Baseball Career

Born in Los Angeles on April 3, 1921, Conger became a schoolboy pitching star at John C. Fremont High School. As a sophomore, he won 17 consecutive games while helping Fremont win a city championship; as a senior, he helped the school capture another. He attended UCLA for one year and lost only once for the freshman team before signing with the Detroit Tigers in 1940.

Conger made his Major League debut on April 22, 1940, only 19 days after his nineteenth birthday. Facing the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, he worked a scoreless inning of relief and received the decision when Detroit rallied for a 6–5 victory. He was the second-youngest player in the American League that season, behind fellow Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser, and shared a clubhouse with Hank Greenberg on a team that went on to win the league pennant.

Detroit sent Conger to the minors later in 1940, and the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the Rule 5 draft after the season. He made four appearances for Pittsburgh across 1941 and 1942, allowing only two earned runs in 12⅓ innings. His strongest professional seasons followed: he went 11–6 with a 1.96 earned-run average for Toronto in 1943, then 13–7 with a 2.88 ERA and five shutouts for Los Angeles in 1944.

The Philadelphia Phillies gave Conger his longest Major League opportunity in 1943. On July 17, he pitched a two-hitter against the New York Giants and won 2–1. His last Major League appearance came on September 14, 1943. Across four seasons with Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, the right-hander appeared in 19 games, started 12, and compiled a 3–7 record with a 5.14 ERA.

Later Life and Legacy

Conger resumed his playing career after the war but never returned to the Major Leagues. He remained in the minors through 1950, pitching for the Los Angeles Angels, Nashville Vols, Sacramento Solons, and Oklahoma City Indians, and finished with a 76–68 minor-league record.

After his playing days, Conger scouted for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and worked as a foreman in the stereotype department of the Los Angeles Times. The son of a Russian Jewish immigrant mother, he was posthumously inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. He died in Los Angeles on February 16, 1970, at age 48.

Sources and further reading

  1. Major League Baseball — Dick Conger statistics and biographical data
  2. Baseball-Reference — Dick Conger Major League record
  3. Baseball-Reference — Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, April 22, 1940
  4. Baseball-Reference — Dick Conger minor-league record
  5. UCLA Athletics — Bruins in Major League Baseball
  6. Jewish Baseball Museum — Richard “Dick” Conger
  7. The Bend Bulletin, March 23, 1944 — Conger joins the Los Angeles Angels
  8. Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame — Inductees by year
  9. Wikipedia — Dick Conger