MIT Athletes
MIT Alumni Make it to the Big Leagues
Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Michael Flippo.
Jason Szuminski's quest to make the Major Leagues has captured the imagination of MIT alumni who have offered Jason encouragement and good luck. A couple of alumni, however, have taken umbrage with classifying Jason as the first "MIT graduate" to make the majors—and semantically they have a point. Two other MIT graduates have also played Major League Baseball, but both attended MIT after their playing days. Jason would be the first to apply his MIT degree to a career in Major League Baseball.
Alumnus Jim Weldon SM '87, SM '96 wrote in about Skip Lockwood, the most prominent major leaguer in MIT history. Claude "Skip" Lockwood SM '83 pitched 12 years in the pros, including stints with the Seattle Pilots, Milwaukee Braves, California Angles, and five years with the New York Mets, pitching alongside Tom Seaver and a kid named Nolan Ryan.
Lockwood was originally drafted in 1964 as a third baseman and was called up by the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at the tender age of 18. He didn't stick, so he converted to pitcher and returned to the majors in 1969, and enjoyed a 12-year career, primarily as a relief pitcher. In 1975 he was second in the league in saves.
MIT's other major league connection was noted by Stephen Eschenbach '83, SM '87, who is working on a project about Ivy League athletes. Eschenbach points out that Art Merewether '25 played one game and had only one at-bat in 1922 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Merewether, who could very well have been the inspiration behind Archie "Moonlight" Graham in the movie Field of Dreams, also had his professional experience before his MIT days. Eschenbach went on to say that Art Merewether became captain of the MIT baseball team, enjoyed a 20-year career as chief meteorologist for American Airlines, was president of the American Meteorological Society, and even discovered a frozen lake in the Labrador region of Canada that was later named after him.
MIT had one other graduate who almost made the majors after graduation, Alan Dopfel '72. Drafted in the third round by the California Angels, Dopfel, a righty, pitched three years in the minor leagues, rising as high as AAA in Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League in 1974. He went to spring training with the Angels in 1975 and faced the Oakland As, winner of three consecutive World Series, in an exhibition game. Dopfel told Robert Sales at the MIT News Office that his high point was "...striking out Reggie Jackson. He swung from the heels." His low point? "I hung a curveball and Joe Rudi hit it out of sight for a home run."
Dopfel quit baseball to get married when he was reassigned to Salt Lake City after the 1975 training camp. According to Dopfel, when teammates discovered the identity of his alma mater, they asked if MIT was a Michigan school.
Published 2004
