Herb Fash
| Date and Place of Birth: | 1916 East St. Louis, IL |
| Date and Place of Death: | January 21, 1945 Pacific |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | First Base |
| Rank: | Lieutenant (jg) |
| Military Unit: | US Navy |
| Area Served: | Pacific Theater of Operations |
His .408 batting average for the Olean Oilers in 1940, made Herb Fash a fan-favorite. But a freak accident would claim his life five years later.
Charles H. "Herb" Fash, the son of Charles S. (a switchman on the
railroad) and Marion Fash, was born in East St. Louis, Illinois and was
at East St. Louis Senior High School before enrolling at St. Louis
University. For three years with the Billikens basketball team under
coach Mike Nyikos (former Notre Dame star), Fash was an all-Missouri
Valley selection and held the conference record for foul shots.
Captaining the team in his senior year he played 20 games and scored 174
points.
At 6-foot-2, Fash was also an outstanding first baseman and broke into
professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization
immediately following graduation in 1936, joining the Union City
Greyhounds of the Class D Kitty League. Fash batted .263 with 44 RBIs in
101 games in his rookie year and was brought up to the Columbus Red
Birds of the Class AA American Association at the end of the season. He
was assigned to the Decatur Commodores of the Class B Three-I League in
1937, where he played 26 games and batted .315, before being assigned to
the Daytona Beach Islanders of the Class D Florida State League. In 25
games with the Islanders he batted .247.
Not surprisingly, Fash also played professional basketball during the
winter of 1937–1938 with the traveling New York Shamrocks, a team that
played every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
The big first baseman was with the Taft Cardinals of the newly formed
Class D Texas Valley League in 1938, where he batted .345 with 14 home
runs, an impressive 132 RBIs and a league-best 54 doubles to earn
honorable mention on the league all-star selection.
With all teams failing to break even in 1938, the Texas Valley League
disbanded after its inaugural season, and Fash split the 1939 season
between the New Iberia Cardinals of the Class D Evangeline League and
the Mobile Shippers of the Class B Southeastern League, batting .283 in
76 games for the Cardinals and .337 in 47 games for the Shippers.
Fash joined the Brooklyn Dodgers’ organization in 1940, and was with the
Fayetteville Angels of the Class D Arkansas-Missouri League as a
24-year-old player-manager. He was batting .356 when the league
collapsed on June 30, and the Dodgers sent him to the Olean Oilers of
the Class D PONY League, where he became a fan-favorite with the upstate
New York state team. His superb .408 batting average and excellent
defensive play in 66 games helped lift the Oilers from the basement of
the league to the top spot, and he was described by the Olean
Times-Herald as “the most popular man to wear an Oiler uniform.” The
Oilers went on to beat the Hamilton Red Wings, three games to one, in
the playoffs and clinched the championship by defeating Batavia, four
games to two.
Fash was sold to Elmira of the Class A Eastern League in September 1940
but was with Durham Bulls of the Class B Piedmont League for 1941. With
the team on its way to a championship season; he was batting .253 when
he broke his leg sliding across home plate in July.
Fash entered military service with the Navy the following year and
served as a lieutenant junior grade on the aircraft carrier USS Hancock
(CV-19) in the Pacific. In January 1945, the Hancock’s planes struck
blows at Luzon in the Philippines and Formosa (now Taiwan).
On January 21, 1945, at around 1:30 P.M., a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo
bomber, returning from a sortie, made a routine landing on the Hancock,
taxied and disintegrated in a blinding explosion as one of its 500-pound
bombs detonated. Fifty-two sailors were killed — including Herb Fash. He
was buried at sea and is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery in
the Philippines.
|
Year |
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
AVG |
| 1936 |
Union City |
Kitty | D | 101 | 392 | 80 | 103 | 22 | 9 | 4 | 44 | .263 |
| 1936 | Columbus | American Assoc. | AA | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1937 |
Decatur |
Three-I | B | 26 | 89 | 10 | 28 | 2 | 2 | 0 | - | .315 |
| 1938 |
Taft |
Texas Valley | D | - | 532 | 117 | 184 | 54 | 8 | 14 | 132 | .345 |
| 1939 |
New Iberia |
Evangeline | D | 76 | 244 | 33 | 69 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 34 | .283 |
| 1939 |
Mobile |
Southeastern | B | 47 | 163 | 27 | 55 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 23 | .337 |
| 1940 | Fayetteville | Arkansas-Missouri | D | 43 | 160 | 31 | 57 | 18 | 3 | 4 | 35 | .356 |
| 1940 |
Olean |
PONY | D | 66 | 275 | 63 | 112 | 25 | 5 | 5 | 81 | .408 |
| 1941 |
Durham |
Piedmont | B | 49 | 182 | 28 | 46 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 24 | .253 |
The aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19)
The aftermath of the explosion that killed Herb Fash aboard the USS Hancock on January 21, 1945
The 52 crewmen - including Herb Fash - who were killed in the explosion on January 21, 1945, were buried at sea.
The photo of Herb Fash (top right) is from the St. Louis University online digital collection, Yearbooks. Thanks to Mark Haubenstein for locating this image. Thanks also to Astrid van Erp for help with photos for this biography.
Date Added: January 29, 2012 Updated August 1, 2017
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