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| Jill Corey and Don Hoak would meet for the first time at home plate at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field one day during the summer of 1960. Jill was there for publicity pictures to promote a scheduled personal appearance in the Pittsburgh area. Don was present with the other members of his team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were contending that year for the National League pennant. The Pirates would go on to capture that pennant and then beat the New York Yankees in what many consider the most exciting and dramatic World Series of all time. Approximately a year and a half later, on December 27, 1961, the couple were married in Pittsburgh, and soon thereafter Jill would effectively retire from her own career to follow Don wherever his career in baseball led them. |
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I met Don Hoak in the hospital at Coudersport, Pennsylvania. He was
asked to visit me by my mother who knew that my aunt from Roulette, Pennsylvania
had taught him in school. We spent a wonderful hour together talking
about baseball, hunting and fishing. He autographed a baseball for
me, and on another occasion he signed a Pirates Yearbook
for me. I'll never forget the time we spent together. I usually
stop at the cemetery and put flowers on his grave when I'm in the Roulette
area. It's only a mile from my relative's former farm up Fishing
Creek.
Thomas
FitzSimmons
Jill,
George Schroeder, the person who sent you the scrapbook on Don. Recently
took a trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., and visited the Hall Of Fame. On
the way up I stopped at Roulette and visited Don's grave. At age
64, he's still the best influence I ever had. I cherish the pictures
I have of him and the little note he sent me when he played for the Pirates.
Purchased a picture of the '55 Dodgers with Don, John Podres, and
Roy Campanella celebrating the final out of the '55 World Series at Yankee
Stadium. Larry King Live recently said that was the
greatest moment ever at Yankee Stadium. Recently had many talks with
Dick Groat, and he loved Don Hoak. Thanks again for sending me the
card and baseball cards of Don.
. |
| While in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, before actually joining the Dodger team at the major league level, Don played in the Cuban leagues during the winter of 1950-51. In one game between Cienfuegos and Marianao some "rowdies" over ran the field, and one of them actually took to the mound and threw several pitches to Don, who was up at bat at the time. At that point the umpire with the help of the local authorities escorted the interlopers off the field. Don's unscheduled "relief pitcher" that day: Fidel Castro! |
| Don Hoak, No. 43, is fourth from the right in the second row in this official team picture of the World Series champion 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers reproduced above. Only the name of bat boy Charlie DiGiovanni sitting on the ground in front of the team has been omitted from the picture caption. This copy of the original historical photo autographed by many members of the team is courtesy of Kristin Baggelaar Milton from her personal collection of Brooklyn Dodger memorabilia. |
| Even though Don did not actually meet her until that summer of 1960, he evidently was bewitched by the beauteous Jill as early as 1958, when he hired a bus to take his team mates from the Cincinnati Redlegs to a drive-in theater to see Jill in Senior Prom, Jill's movie that was released by Columbia Pictures that year. |
| When Don first met Jill at Forbes Field on that August afternoon in 1960, he told her that he would come to see her at the Vogue Terrace, the club where she was then performing in the Pittsburgh area. True to his word, Don appeared there on opening night and found a seat very near where Jill's own family, who lived nearby, were sitting. At intermission, when Jill came out to chat with members of her family, Don took the opportunity to ask her to dance. When she accepted, Jill recalls that, "He held me very tightly, teased my hair and said, 'I'm going to marry you." |
| Don earned two World Series rings, the first with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, when they defeated their perennial nemesis the New York Yankees that year. The second came when Don was a member of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team that defeated the Yankees in a series most remembered for Bill Mazaroski's dramatic game winning home run in the ninth inning of the seventh game. Click here to read more about Don and his record as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. |
| Don came in second in voting for the title of Most Valuable Player in the National League in 1960, the season he batted .282 and his team the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the perennial powerhouse New York Yankees in dramatic fashion in a seven-game World Series. Jill still has as a momento of her husband's career in baseball a pipe given to him by fellow pipe smoker Bing Crosby, one time owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. |
| Although Don had played with the Cincinnati Redlegs, it was later, when he was with the Pirates and returned to Cincinnati to play against his old team, that he managed to carry on his amorous pursuit of Jill. Jill happened to be appearing at that same time across the Ohio River in Covington, Kentucky. Jill recalls that she was to make her entrance on stage unannounced, elegantly adorned in a bright orange feather boa. Bathe in a single spotlight, that entrance was intended to be sophisticated and grand. Instead, as Jill started to sing, she began to hear titters from the crowd. The laughter increased in volume until Jill simply stopped singing to ask the audience what exactly was so amusing about her performance. Her attention was then directed to stage left, where out of her sight, Don had moved two chairs, a small table adorned with a white tablecloth, a crystal vase holding two dozen red roses and a magnum of champagne on ice! |
| Jill was working a club in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and during one set she heard some strange notes coming from the trumpet section of the band. She turned around to learn the reason and found Don sitting in for the lead trumpeter! Jill was more or less engaged to a Brazilian diplomat at the time, but Don's persistence and ingenuity led her in time to break that engagement. Don and Jill were eventually united in marriage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 27, 1961. |
| Don was named to the National League All-Star Team in 1957 while then playing for the Cincinnati Reds, and in the same year he led the league in doubles with 39. Don had a good eye at the plate, and during the late 50's and early 60's he was usually near the top among National League players reaching base on balls. |
| Don's competitive spirit actually precipitated a change in the baseball rule book. While on second base in a game between the Reds and the Braves on April 21, 1957, Don instinctively attempted to break up an impending double play by fielding a ball, bare- handed, hit by team mate Wally Post! Subsequently, Rule 7.09(g) was adopted giving the umpire authority to call the batter-runner out when a base runner intentionally interferes to break up a double play. |
| In 1995, Don Hoak was inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame, just forty years after playing with the 1955 Dodger team that defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series, giving the Dodgers their first ever world championship. The March and April 1997 issues of The Flatbush Faithful, a newsletter directed to those fans who still lament the move west of their beloved Bums, featured full-page profiles of both Don and Jill. Click here to read these tributes to the player and his devoted wife. In the year 2000, a glove used by Don as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers would bring an impressive $1150 at auction among collectors of baseball memorabilia. Read more of the story by clicking here. |
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