Gary Waslewski Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Gary Waslewski
This article was written by John Cizik and is presented in part, courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research

Gary Waslewski woke in his Peabody, Massachusetts apartment on the morning of October 11, 1967 as the starting pitcher in Game Six of the World Series. "I was reading the papers that morning, and one guy wrote that Gary Waslewski has as much chance of winning as Custer had of beating the Indians," Waslewski said. "But it didn't bother me. I just went out and tried to do my job." His major league experience to that point consisted of 12 games, 8 starts, a 2-2 record, and a 3.21 ERA. He had made his major league debut exactly four months earlier. Hadn't won a game since July 2, and hadn't started one since July 29. He had never pitched a major league complete game, and was declared eligible for the World Series only two days before game one, when Darrell Brandon was placed on the injured list.

Gary Lee Waslewski was born on July 21, 1941 in Meriden, Connecticut, the first child of Michael Waslewski and the former Adelaide Lee. The family lived in the Kensington section of Berlin, Connecticut, and Michael Waslewski was employed as a master tool and die maker at a silversmith plant in Wallingford. Adelaide didn't work. "Being a tool and die maker my father didn't make a lot of money," Gary remembers. "So we only had one car, and if he took the car and went off to work my mother was basically stuck at home all day. So she, like most of the other women on the street at that point, they were all stay-at-home moms." Adelaide passed away in early 1970, a cancer victim at the age of 51.

The family heritage was pure Polish on Dad's side, and a mixture of German and Cherokee Indian on Mom's. "We were shown pictures way back when of my...great, great grandmother, and she was in a headdress," Waslewski recalls. "I've never tried to follow back a family tree or anything like that; it's just never appealed to me." His ethnic mix led writer Dick Young to call him "[A]lmost pretty," in a 1967 article. "His perfectly chiseled Polish features blend [with] the Cherokee on his mother's side, giving him dark, sinister good looks." "People were always trying to get you into a controversy about it," Gary remembers. "'You're an Indian, aren't you? ' Or 'you're Polish,' or 'you're German.' No, I'm an American -- I was born here. Oh, you're not proud of your...heritage? Yes, but I'm an American. This went on and on looking for controversy."