Obituary: Brant Alyea (1940-2024)

RIP to Brant Alyea, a slugger in the minor leagues who hit a home run with the very first pitch he ever saw in the majors. The Pennsylvania resident died at his home on February 4, at the age of 83. Alyea played for the Washington Senators (1965, 1968-69), Minnesota Twins (1970-71), Oakland Athletics (1972) and St. Louis Cardinals (1972).

Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea IV was born on December 8, 1940, in Passaic, N.J. He was a very athletic student at Rutherford High School, but basketball was his top sport. He was good enough to receive a basketball scholarship to Hofstra University, in fact. Alyea also played football and baseball, where he was a very good hitter and a capable but inconsistent pitcher. The power that he showed as a professional was evident early on, and he was named to the 1958 All-County Second Team as an outfielder. That same year, he was named to the All-Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League basketball team. He scored 260 points during the season to finish second in the league.

Source: *Tucson Daily Citizen*, September 15, 1965.

Alyea continued to be a leading scorer at Hofstra, but his power hitting as an outfielder was just as impressive. He finished his sophomore season of 1960 with a .393 batting average in 13 games, with 3 doubles, 5 triples and 3 home runs. He tied for the league lead in the Metropolitan Collegiate Baseball Conference with 18 RBIs, and he added a 3-1 record and 1.57 ERA as a pitcher. He had scored 682 points in two years of varsity basketball and was a cinch for 1,000 points before he graduated, but he had other, more immediate concerns. Alyea and then-wife Judy were the parents of a 9-month-old son, Steve, and he was counting on a payday from a major-league team to support his family. “I’m on a full scholarship, but I’ve had to borrow money to live,” Alyea told Newsday in March 1961. “We’ve got a small apartment near school… if only I could get a good bonus…”

Alyea signed with the Cincinnati Reds and scout Chuck Ward in July of 1961, after his junior year. He reported to the Geneva Redlegs of the New York-Penn League in 1962 and was a hitting star, batting .319 and slugging .598. His 32 home runs (a new team record) and 116 RBIs were second in the league only to Bobby Guindon‘s 37 and 121. Alyea also led the league by striking out 142 times, showing a weakness in an otherwise brilliant season. In November of 1962, the Washington Senators chose Alyea in the minor-league draft. As he advanced through the minors with Washington, Alyea batted in the .250s and .260s with double-digit home run power, though he didn’t reach the heights of his rookie campaign. Strikeouts continued to be an issue, as he fanned 170 times while playing for Class-A Peninsula in 1963. But the power was very impressive. He hit a home run against Kinston in 1963 that traveled more than 400 feet, clearing the center field fence at the Peninsula Grays ballpark. Alyea was the first player to ever hit a homer over the fence in a regular-season game and only the second player to ever do it — Larry Doby cleared the fence in a 1949 exhibition game.

While playing for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League in 1965, Alyea homered 27 times and added 26 doubles while batting .269. The eighth-place Senators brought him to the majors that September. His first appearance on September 11, 1965, was over in a matter of seconds. He was announced as a pinch hitter to face California Angels pitcher George Brunet, but when the lefty Brunet was relieved by righty Bob Lee, the right-handed hitter Alyea was replaced by lefty Jim King. King promptly belted a 3-run homer off Lee, so Senators manager Gil Hodges won that particular battle of wits, even if it cost Alyea his first real major-league at-bat. The rookie made up for it soon enough, though.

The next day, September 12, Washington was leading the Angels 3-0 when Alyea pinch-hit for second baseman Don Blasingame with two runners on base. He swung at the very first pitch ever thrown to him, courtesy of Rudy May, and slammed it over the fence and into the Senators bullpen for a 3-run home run. It remains a rare feat in baseball to homer on your first swing. Bert Campaneris had accomplished the same feat just the year before, but no American Leaguer prior to Alyea had done it as a pinch-hitter.

“With men on first and second and one out, I figure I’m going to get a breaking ball for double play purposes. So I laid back and waited and there it was,” Alyea explained. He noted that he was a streak hitter in the minors, but he believed he was ready for the next level. “If I can hit 27 homers in Triple-A, I believe I can do it in the majors, and 27 home runs is where the big money is.”

The Senators gave Alyea a few more games, and he had 3 hits in 13 at-bats over 8 games. One of those hits was a 2-run homer, leaving him with a .231/.286/.692 slash line in a very small sample size. He returned to Hawaii in 1966 and never got hot, offensively. He hit 21 home runs but batted just .218 with 137 strikeouts. He spent 1967 back in Double-A and didn’t show any improvement. Alyea finally regained his power stroke in Buffalo in 1968. He homered 31 times in just 87 games and brought his batting average up to the mid-.200s. Just in case Washington had forgotten about them, he took part in a home run hitting contest with Senators players Frank Howard, Bob Chance and Mike Epstein before a Washington-Buffalo exhibition game in June. He hit 4 home runs, and the three major leaguers managed just 1 homer between them. Alyea wondered why he hadn’t been promoted but did not mind being in Buffalo. “I figure I’m worth more in the expansion draft if I can keep having a good year with Buffalo than I’d be worth sitting on the bench [in Washington],” he reasoned.

The Senators finally promoted Alyea in late July and gave him playing time as a corner outfielder. The streaky hitter started off ice cold, with just 2 hits in his first 19 at-bats, but then he started having multi-hit games with regularity. He belted a couple of pinch-hit home runs in August to help raise his batting average over .300. Alyea was also the hitting star of a Labor Day doubleheader sweep of the Chicago White Sox on September 2 — the Senators’ first Labor Day sweep in 17 years. He singled in the only run in the first game, making a winner out of starting pitcher Jim Hannan, and then he singled, doubled and homered, driving in 3 runs in the 11-3 win in the nightcap. Alyea played in a total of 53 games and hit .267 with 6 home runs and 23 RBIs. He also struck out just 39 times, a noticeable improvement from his minor-league totals.

Source: *The Courier-Journal*, July 21, 1968.

Alyea spent all of 1969 with the Senators as a pinch-hitter, backup corner outfielder and occasional first baseman. He got off to a slow start in spring training and never got into manager Ted Williams’ favor. “If he would play me I’d hit for him,” the outfielder said in the spring. “I really don’t know what his plans are for me and that’s the worst part of it.” In 104 games, Alyea hit 11 home runs, which was fourth-best on the team, but his batting average slipped to .249. In March of 1970, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins for pitchers Joe Grzenda and Charlie Walters.

Alyea had paid attention to Williams’ hitting tips and switched from a 35-ounce bat to a 33-ounce model on his manager’s advice. With Minnesota, he was able to demonstrate the improvements he made as a hitter. He was the star of Opening Day, hitting 2 home runs as part of a perfect 4-for-4 day, and he drove in 7 runs in a 12-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. Days later, he hit a grand slam off California pitcher Andy Messersmith to secure an 8-2 win. He exited April with a batting average over .400 but soon leveled off. While he spent most of the season as the right-handed half of a platoon in left field, along with Jim Holt, Alyea reached career highs with 12 doubles, 16 home runs and 61 RBIs. He drove in 9 runs over a doubleheader sweep of Milwaukee on September 7. Seven of those RBIs came in the first game, thanks to a grand slam and a 3-run homer off Lew Krausse. By season’s end, he had a slash line of .291/.366/.531 and an OPS+ of 142. The Twins finished first in the AL West with 98 wins, so Alyea got his only postseason experience that year. He was 0-for-7 with a couple of walks and a run scored, as the Twins were swept in 3 games by the Baltimore Orioles.

Alyea got off to a good start with the Twins in 1971 but slumped badly, losing his role as a platoon player. He hit just .177, and he only homered twice in 79 games. Minnesota optioned him to Triple-A Portland after the season, but the transaction left him available to be claimed in the offseason Rule V Draft. Sure enough, the Oakland A’s selected him in the draft, setting Alyea up for a tumultuous 1972 season.

The 1972 A’s had an extremely talented outfield with Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson and Angel Mangual, with rookie George Hendrick on the bench. Alyea was used primarily as a pinch hitter and had 3 hits in 13 at-bats over 10 games. On May 28, he was traded to St. Louis for infielder Marty Martinez. He didn’t find any playing time there, either, and had 3 hits in 19 at-bats, mostly as a pinch-hitter. The Cardinals released Alyea on July 23 to the Iowa Oaks, Oakland’s Triple-A team. The outfielder batted .400 in 10 games and was brought back to Oakland in August. He had 3 hits in 18 at-bats, though one of them was a solo homer. The last hit of his career was a booming base hit off Baltimore’s Jim Palmer. As he rounded first base, he tore a groin muscle. Alyea missed a month of the season and was able to only make a handful of pinch-hit appearances in September. The injury also kept him off the A’s postseason roster. Between all the travel, Alyea appeared in a total of 33 games in the majors in 1972, and he had 9 hits in 50 at-bats for a .180 batting average. On the bright side, the 1972 Oakland A’s won the AL pennant and World Series, so Alyea was part of a championship ballclub — twice.

Alyea, left, with Twins teammate Jim Perry after Alyea’s home run led to Perry picking up a win. Source: *The Ithaca Journal*, April 16, 1970.

After the season, the A’s traded Alyea to Texas, but he failed to make the team in spring training of 1973 and was released. He signed with Pawtucket, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in May. He quickly went on an offensive tear, with home runs in 3 straight games, but he cooled off and batted .212 with 6 homers. It was his final season in pro ball. The groin injury never really healed and led to his retirement.

In parts of 6 seasons in the majors, Alyea had a career slash line of .247/.326/.421. His 214 career hits included 33 doubles, 2 triples and 38 home runs. He drove in 148 runs and scored 100 times. He had a career OPS+ of 112. Alyea also batted .257 in 9 minor-league seasons with 162 home runs.

Source: *The Minneapolis Star*, September 8, 1970.

In a 1984 interview, Alyea noted that the groin injury he suffered in 1973 was no longer a career-ender, thanks to the advent of the designated hitter. By then, he had traded in baseball for softball. He was the leading slugger on the Tropicana Casino softball team in Atlantic City. He operated a craps table at the Trop, eventually working his way up to pit boss. While other former ballplayers like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were punished for their association with casinos, Alyea was able to work without repercussions from his former profession. “You can’t play baseball forever,” he told Daily News writer Bruce Chadwick. “I bounced around with insurance companies for a few years and then came here in 1980. I was trained at a casino school and have worked here four years. I have a good future in the gaming business. I plan to stay.”

Alyea’s boss at the Topicana was a baseball fan and let him know one day that a rookie named Brant Alyea Jr. was playing in the Blue Jays organization. It came as a surprise to the elder Alyea, who had not seen his son in almost 20 years. While he was single and a rookie playing winter ball in Nicaragua in the 1960s, he dated a nurse. She had his son, and when Alyea found out, he returned to the country to support her and spent time with him. Then, due to political unrest in the country, he had to leave quickly, with no chance to take them with him. “When I left the country, I had my luggage at the hotel that I couldn’t get, because they were holding 20 people hostage,” Alyea said in a 1986 interview. “I had seen people shot in the streets. I saw a tank pull up at a hotel and blow the top off. What was I supposed to do?”

Brant Jr. grew up playing baseball and turned into a prospect. He was smuggled out of the country by Toronto Latin American scout Epy Guerrero, who had to use some bribery and some deception to get the kid on a plane to Mexico City, where he then traveled to Canada. The Blue Jays, Alyea Sr. said, were reluctant to help the father and son reunite because of the father’s connection with gambling. They finally met in 1986, after 17 years apart, and rebuilt their relationship over the ensuing years. The younger Alyea played in the minors until 1990 and showed some power. He had a batting stance that was uncannily like his father’s, though he had never seen him play. “Hey, he is my father. You gotta look like your father in something, don’t you?” Alyea Jr. said.

Alyea was predeceased by his wife Robin Huber. He is survived by children Brant Jr., Steve, Blair, Nicole and Ken, and their families.