Former Cleveland Indian Woodie Held dies at 77
CLEVELAND (AP) – Woodie Held, who played major league baseball for 14 years and was traded for future home run king Roger Maris, died Thursday. He was 77.
Held died in Dubois, Wyo., after a long bout with cancer, the Cleveland Indians said.
Held played for seven AL teams, including the 1966 World Series champion Baltimore Orioles.
He spent the majority of his career with Cleveland after being acquired on June 15, 1958, from the Kansas City Athletics in a multiplayer trade for Maris. A year later, Maris was sent in another big trade to the New York Yankees – the team that originally signed Held and brought him to the major leagues in the early 1950s.
Held was picked for the Indians’ All-Time Top 100 roster in 2001 as a shortstop.
During his time with them through the 1964 season, he hit 85 career home runs while playing that position, establishing a team record that stood until it was broken this year by Jhonny Peralta.
Held’s best season was his first full year in Cleveland when he set career highs in homers (29), runs (82) and RBIs (71) while batting .251.
Traded by Cleveland to the Washington Senators in 1965 and then to Baltimore, Held spent the entire 1966 season with the Orioles as a utility infielder.
He did not see action in Baltimore’s four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
