Can’t-miss kid missed out

Dagres’s career dreams unrealized

July 14, 2011|By Mike Carraggi, Globe Correspondent

Angelo Dagres played his first game for the Orioles on Sept. 11, 1955, the… (Josh Reynolds for the Globe )

It would be impossible to contain the story of Angelo Dagres on the back of one of his old, worn-out baseball cards. It’s a tale that belies the former major leaguer’s lifetime .267 batting average, the three RBIs, the one career walk.

To the untrained eye, it would appear that Dagres was nothing but an emergency call-up who never even had time to finish his cup of coffee with the big boys.

Nothing could be further from the truth. There was a day, albeit a half-century ago, when Dagres was considered one of the can’t-miss prospects in baseball. A kid from Newburyport with all the tools who was going to roam major league outfields for years.

“I was always the best at what I did growing up,’’ said the 76-year-old Dagres at his Rowley home, breaking into a loud cackle. “I just knew I was going to be playing in the majors for a long time.’’

But stories of fantasy and fame rarely escape the pages of children’s books.

Dagres was the Bo Jackson of Essex County during the late ’40s and early ’50s. As a basketball star, the Newburyport High Wall of Famer established a school career mark for points with 1,350, averaging 32 per game as a senior. On the diamond, Dagres was putting up video game numbers, hitting .679 in his senior year.

“The biggest decision that I had to make was whether to go pro in basketball rather than baseball,’’ said the barely 5-foot-11-inch former guard. “The only thing that kept me from that [basketball] money was my size.’’

His athletic excellence would continue at the University of Rhode Island, where he received a basketball scholarship. But it was on the baseball field where he did most of his damage. In his two years as a Ram, he hit over .400 both seasons.

Dagres was on the well-traveled path that nearly all ballplayers end up taking on their way to The Show. After his sophomore season at Rhode Island, he enjoyed a record-breaking season in the Maine-New Brunswick League, where he set the standard with 15 home runs, 52 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases while hitting .422 en route to winning the 1954 MVP award, according to records of the now defunct league.

“I thought that I was pretty good,’’ said Dagres.

He was inching closer to his dream, but he was also inching closer to his heartbreak.

Major league teams wanted Dagres’s golden touch - by his count, 13 of the 16 teams that made up the league offered a contract to the 20-year-old outfielder. Full of enough pride to rival his talent, he refused to sign anything other than a major league deal. In the end, it was the Baltimore Orioles who made the strongest pitch.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 1955, Dagres signed an improbable contract with Baltimore that made him an immediate member of the big league roster.