The Reading Rifle: One of my favorites

April 9, 2024 William A. Gralnick

Sal Marchiano with Dodgers' right fielder Carl Furillo. Photo courtesy of Sal Marchiano

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It was one of the most astonishing plays I’d ever seen. It left my mouth hanging open. I don’t remember who hit it other than he was a lefty and that he smashed it. The ball arched high towards Ebbet’s Field’s famous right field wall. It had home run written all over it — except to one person. That one person, a student of the wall, was Carl Furillo, the Reading Rifle.

While the batter raced towards first, and the man on first raced to second, Furillo was doing mathematics. The ball dropped right into Skoonj’s glove and coaches began screaming and waving the runner on his way to second back to first. He was dead meat. Furillo threw a rope behind the runner to Hodges who put the amazed runner out at first. On the fielding side of his game, not much more needs to be said, except maybe this.

Renowned for his strong and accurate throwing arm ability, Carl Furillo recorded ten or more assists in nine consecutive seasons, led the league twice, and retired with the fifth-most games in right field (1,408) in the history of the National League tells us Sports Brief.

According to “Daily Breeze,” “Furillo eventually made his way to the big leagues, playing his first game for the Dodgers on April 16, 1946. That season would be the first of many exemplary campaigns with the team for which he played during his entire 15-year career.

During Furillo’s tenure, the Dodgers won seven National League pennants, and World Series titles in 1955 and 1959. He was perennially among the league leaders in hitting and baserunners learned not to challenge his throwing arm. He would narrowly miss attaining a lifetime .300 batting average, ending his career at .299.”

Furillo was an all-around ball player, a wonder with the glove and a threat with the bat. Teammate Roy Campanella said Furillo had the best throwing arm of any right fielder he’d ever seen.

Baseball-Reference gives us this bird’s eye view of his career: He had 6,378 at-bats that produced 1,910 hits of which 192 were homers. He batted .299 lifetime, batting in 1,058 runs and scoring 895. His slugging percentage was .458 while his OPS was .813. Those are the numbers of a well-rounded ball player.

But all was not well in the baseball world of the Reading Rifle. He became a bitter ex-ball player. Despite a lavish send-off in LA after his last year including a fancy, expensive car and a Shetland pony for his boys, he felt the Dodgers dropped him like a rock. He had had a serious injury and the Dodgers released him instead of letting him retire. That took money out of his pocket that he had to go to court to get back.

Was he black balled? He was never offered a job in the organization, either in the minor league system or in the Dodgers administration. He could have been a coach on the bases, a batting instructor, or an outfield coach. None of that happened. Nor was he elected to the Hall of Fame, even as an old-timer. So, Furillo gave up baseball. For years he never even attended a game. He held a series of jobs in the trades including being an automobile mechanic. What a difference between then and now. Today ball players buy cars that cost more than guys like Furillo made in a lifetime. But in time, the bitterness abated and on occasion, he could be seen seated with the fans and acting as if he was just a fan, not the greatest right fielder ever to put on a Dodger uniform.

Then came the end. As it’s said, only the good die young. Dead at 66, he was afflicted with cancer which caused him to have a heart attack. Another great difference between then and now. So, let’s honor this March baby with his NY Times obituary. The next time you are in an Italian restaurant and order snails or see someone else order snails think of the “skoonj” a nickname from his famous love of them. In Italian snails are scungili and the next time you see your kid or someone else’s make a great catch in the outfield and whiz the ball into the infield, wonder if that’s the next challenger to the Reading Rifle, Carl Furillo.

It was my childhood. It is my memory. It was embedded in me by one of my favorites: Carl Anthony Furillo.