Del Bissonette
Delphia Louis Bissonette

Bats Left
Throws Left
Height 5'11
Weight 180

Born September 6, 1899
Winthrop, ME
Died June 9, 1972 (suicide by gunshot)
Augusta, MO

Batting  

 Year Ag Tm     G   AB    H  2B  3B  HR    R  RBI   BB    K HBP  IW  SB  CS    BA  lgBA   SLG lgSLG   TB 
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 1928 28 PAW       603  172  49   7   8   90  100                    14      .285  .278  .430  .376  259 
 1929 29 PAW       492  130  23   3  16   58   82                     6      .264  .265  .421  .391  207 
 1930 30 PAW       602  169  43   4  11   68   54                    19      .281  .280  .420  .430  253 
 1931 31 PAW  109  339   88  18   4   6   39   43                     8   3  .260  .263  .389  .388  132 
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
  4 Seasons   109 2036  559 133  18  41  255  279    0    0   0   0  47   3  .275  .272  .418  .397  851
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 Career High       603  172  49   7  16   90  100    0    0   0   0  19   3  .285  ----  .430  ----  259
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 Year Ag Tm     G   AB    H  2B  3B  HR    R  RBI   BB    K HBP  IW  SB  CS    BA  lgBA   SLG lgSLG   TB 

Postseason Batting

 Year Tm  Opp WLser  G   AB    H  2B  3B  HR    R  RBI   BB    K HBP  IW  SB  CS    BA   SLG   TB 
+------------------+--+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+----+
 1929 PAW MON   L    6   24    4   0   1   0    1    0    1    1   0   0   1   0  .167  .250    6
+------------------+--+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+----+
               0-1   6   24    4   0   1   0    1    0    1    1   0   0   1   0  .167  .250    6
+------------------+--+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+----+

WLser shows whether the player's team Won or Lost the series.

Appearances on Leaderboards and Awards  

Awards are Year-League-Award, Stats are Year-Value-Rank

RBI
1928-100-5
1929-82-10

Doubles
1928-49-4
1930-43-5

At Bats
1928-603-7


Transactions

January 1, 1928: Drafted 2nd round (15th overall) by Pawtucket.


Biography
Del Bissonette was twenty-eight years old when he finally made it to the major leagues, after nearly ten years of trying. The long struggle had ended, but a harder struggle was about to begin. From this point on, his career would be marked by a series of accidents, injuries and disease that would shorten his stay in the majors to only five years and earn him notoriety as the unluckiest man in baseball.

Bissonette was born September 6, 1899, in Winthrop, Maine. He began his baseball career as a pitcher with his high school team in Winthrop, Maine, continuing on to Brookton Academy, Kents Hill Seminary, Westbrook Seminary and New Hampshire State College. He finally made it to Georgetown University where he had some success until injuring his arm in 1921. The injury was serious enough that he had to carry his arm “in a sling or….pocket for a year and a half.” While it did not end his career, it did force him into beginning it all over again. As Bissonette himself summed it up, “I spent four years trying to cure a sore arm, and then I spent four more years learning to play first base.”

In 1922, Del played semipro ball in Montreal as an outfielder. The next year, he managed and played first base for the Star Taxi team in his home town of Lewiston. In 1924, he finally entered organized baseball with York in the Pennsylvania League, though he spent much of the season on loan at Binghamton, New York. He was back in York in 1925 when he attracted the attention of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who signed him near the end of the season. He spent 1926 in Jersey City and then in 1927 established himself as a premier hitter with the Buffalo Bisons of the International League.

In leading the Bisons to the pennant, Bissonette led the league in runs scored (168), hits (229), total bases (408), doubles (46), triples (20), home runs (31) and RBI (167). His marks in runs, total bases, and RBI set new league records. He also batted .365.

When he broke into the majors the next year with Brooklyn, his numbers did not drop off by much. In 155 games he gathered 188 hits, 30 doubles, 13 triples, 25 home runs, 90 runs, 106 RBI, and a .320 average. He was also generally recognized as more than capable defensively. But it had not been easy for Del to finally reach this level, and he would soon find out how difficult it would be to stay there.

In 1929, he was hit in the head by a pitch during the first week of the season. Then in May, he injured his right shoulder sliding into home. Sinus trouble sidelined him for a month. He ended up missing nearly forty games that year and his numbers dropped off dramatically: .281 average, 12 home runs, 68 runs and 75 RBI. In December, he underwent an operation for sinus trouble. On New Year's Eve, he had another operation, this time for mastoiditis behind his right ear.

In 1930, he bounced back from his troubles to again play a full season and produce impressive offensive numbers: 192 hits, 33 doubles, 13 triples, 16 home runs, 102 runs, 113 RBI and a .336 average. He had a respectable and virtually trouble-free year in 1931 as well, appearing in 152 games and batting .290 with 90 runs and 87 RBI. But following that 1931 season, his troubles accelerated once again.

Late in 1931, he underwent a shoulder operation to correct a muscle condition that had bothered him since his college days. Then in spring training of 1932, he tore an Achilles tendon while playing volleyball. Again, he underwent an operation, this time on the Achilles tendon. The operation was successful, but an infection set in following it, and Bissonette nearly died from blood poisoning. He missed the entire 1932 season.

He made a brief comeback in 1933, but appeared in only thirty-five games and was generally ineffective at the plate. That was how his major league career ended. He retired with a lifetime .305 average but was known more for his appearances at the doctor's office than for his appearances at the plate. Twelve sinus operations between 1928 and 1933 prompted one sports-writer to refer to him as the “human hospital ward,” but Bissonette never shared in this bleak portrayal. He considered himself “pretty lucky just to play in the majors.”

After his major league career ended, he played briefly in the minors and then went on to a long and successful career as a manager and coach. In this capacity, luck served him somewhat better. His ailments disappeared, and he won several pennants in the minors before serving as a major league manager, coach and scout in the late forties and fifties.

However, trouble came back to haunt his last days. In his seventies, living alone and suffering from emphysema, he decided it was time to quit. The final out was a bullet fired by his own hand in his orchard in Winthrop, Maine. True to Bissonette's ill fortune, even this solution did not deliver the immediate relief he sought. For one week, he lingered in a hospital bed while officials tried unsuccessfully to contact relatives. Finally, on June 9, 1972 he died. The struggle had ended.

Courtesy to In the Shadows of the Diamond by James Costello and Michael Santa Maria



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