Bob Thurman: Post-World War II «Shohei Ohtani» in Puerto Rico’s Winter League

Bob Thurman, born in Kellyville, Oklahoma, on May 14, 1917, was a valued member of the 1947-48 to 1957-58 Santurce Crabbers (Cangrejeros) in the Puerto Rico Winter League (PRWL). His PRWL debut at age 30 featured a .411 BA (102/248) with nine HR, nine SB, and 55 RBI, coupled with a 9-2 W-L mark and 3.45 ERA in 99.1 innings for 33-27 Santurce. His Santurce plus 1959-60 Ponce Lions hitting and pitching stats are at https://beisbol101.com/jugador/bob-thurman/. The World War II combat veteran played three summer seasons with the 1946-1948 Homestead Grays, plus minor-league campaigns, two summer seasons in the Dominican Republic plus five (1955-1959) seasons with the Cincinnati Reds. Thurman became the 2^nd pitcher/OF in PRWL history with a BA over .400—San Juan’s (SJ) Roy Partlow hit .443 for the 1940-41 Senators (54/122) in a 42-game season.

Thurman—Overshadowed by Santurce Teammate Willard Brown

Thurman’s initial Santurce seasons were overshadowed by Crabbers’ OF Willard Brown, 1947-48 Triple Crown Winner (.432 BA, 27 HR, 86 RBI), but the left-handed hurler and hitter was more consistent over a longer timeframe; ran better than Brown; was a better fielder, with a stronger throwing arm. Brown earned a second Triple Crown in 1949-50, edging Thurman, .354 to .353, in the batting chase, outdistancing him in RBI (97-69) and HR (16-12). Brown smoked Chesterfield or Camel cigarettes, drank local beer, and fine PR rum. Thurman, a serious student of the game, did not drink or smoke, and was a six-tool player—hit, hit with power, ran well, and fielded his position (s) well, could throw, and pitched. The one-dimensional Brown had a weak throwing arm, per historian Jorge Colón Delgado. Thurman’s 120 career PRWL HR and 566 RBI remain the all-time standard. He posted a .313 lifetime BA (931/2978) and .525 SLG in the PRWL, scored 527 runs, hit 149 doubles, and 61 triples.

Valid Pitching Comparisons Between Thurman (PRWL) and Shohei Ohtani (MLB)

Thurman, who played at 6-1, 205 pounds, was 39-32 in 10 regular seasons for Santurce, albeit pitching fewer games after the early-1950s. Ohtani (listed at 6-3, 210) is 39-20 in five seasons with the LA Angels, plus 2025 for the LA Dodgers. (He did not pitch in 2019 nor 2024.) Ohtani’s MLB stats are at https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/ohtansh01.shtml. This is not an exercise to determine who was the better athlete. It is primarily designed to illustrate Thurman’s value as a two-way player in the PRWL, mainly from 1947-48 to 1954-55, just as the 31-year-old Ohtani is the two-way MLB superstar 70 years later.

Shohei Ohtani pitched 481.2 innings with the Los Angeles Angels, falling just 18.1 innings short of the 500-inning mark. Table I lists the Angels’ top 10 ERA leaders with a minimum of 500 innings pitched. Had Ohtani reached that threshold, he would rank fourth on the list.

Table I: Top 10 LA Angels ERA Leaders, 1961-2025 (500+ IP)

#Brunet (1964-65), Hartzell (1976-77), and Percival (1994-95) pitched for the Santurce Crabbers. ^Wright hurled for 1969-70 Ponce. Source: Paul Hartzell, January 2026.

Thurman’s throwing arm was so powerful from 1947-48 to 1954-55 that Roberto Clemente played LF for Santurce, his first three (1952-55) PRWL seasons, with Thurman entrenched in RF except when he was pitching. He ranks 12^th in most PRWL career regular-season wins, among Negro Leaguers per Table II. All are enshrined in the PR Pro Baseball Hall of Fame except for Dan Bankhead and Bill Greason.

Table II: Most PRWL Regular Season Wins by Negro Leagues Pitchers, 1938-1963

Sources: Jorge Colón Delgado and José Crescioni Benítez, 1997-2026.

A plus for Ohtani is five years in Japan’s Pacific League: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=otani-000sho. From age 18-22, Ohtani went 42-17 with a 2.55 ERA in 565 innings, fanning 651 and walking 213. He completed 13 of 62 starts with seven SHO, relieving 30 times. He was 10-4, 1.86 ERA for 2016 Hokkaido, striking out 174 in 140 innings.

Postseason Pitching

Ohtani was 2-1, 4.43 ERA in the 2025 postseason for the Dodgers, with four starts and 20.1 innings, and 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in the 2016 Japan Series for Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (89-52), in their four-game-to-two win versus Hiroshima Toyo Carp. On October  22, 2016, he allowed three earned runs in six innings, in Hiroshima’s 5-1 Game 1 win. Ohtani did better at the plate with a .375 BA and .625 SLG for champion Hokkaido, going 6-for-16 with four doubles. Hideki Kuriyama managed Hokkaido.

Thurman’s first PR postseason was a February 28-March 10, 1948, three-team series between his Island All-Star Team, Cervecería Caracas (CC) from Venezuela, and a Cuban All-Star Team. He went 2-0 with a save, for PR, 5-7 overall, edging 4-6 CC, trailing 7-3 Cuba, featuring Oreste «Minnie» Miñoso, Fernando Díaz Pedroso, Silvio García, Claro Duany, Impo Barnhill, and others. Games were played at Escobar, Mayagüez’s Liga París, and Ponce’s Charles H. Terry. Thurman’s night save against Cuba on February 28 helped starter/Santurce teammate Luis Rafael Cabrera, who was rocked with three HR/five runs in the ninth, in PR’s 10-7 win. (Caguas and Mayagüez were in the PRWL finals and not represented in this series.) Team PR was managed by Vic Harris, the Crabbers’ skipper. Dick Seay was Harris’s PR coach (and Santurce’s).

On September 29, 1948, Thurman—with the Homestead Grays—won G2 of the last Negro World Series, 5-3, at Rickwood Field, over the Birmingham Black Barons, featuring Willie Mays (CF), Artie Wilson (SS), and Piper Davis (2B). In nine innings, Thurman allowed seven hits, three earned runs, fanned seven, and walked two. Homestead won this series, four games to one.

On February 7, 1951, Thurman (6-5 W-L regular season) hurled 11+ innings in a 4-3 semi-finals loss to Ponce, at the Lions’ Den, but a week later, he fanned four Caguas hitters in a 2-1 finals CG win at the Criollos’ ballpark—Game 5. Santurce lost Game 6 but won Game 7, 3-2 at Escobar Stadium. Mike Clark, Thurman’s Game 5 mound opponent, said: «If we win that game [five], we win the series in six games and I do not face Thurman, Brown and Pepe Lucas in the ninth inning [in relief] of game seven [when Lucas’s walk-off HR won it]. Bob was a great hitter and effective on the mound.» Thurman went 8-for-21 versus Caguas (.381 BA), with a double, HR, three RBI, four runs, and .571 SLG.

Thurman was 4-1 with one postseason save (Homestead, Team PR, and Santurce), excluding some other postseason contests in 1948-49 and 1949-50. Santurce fans gave Thurman the nickname «El Múcaro» (The Owl) for his fine pitching during night games at Sixto Escobar Stadium, the ballpark shared by Santurce and the SJ Senators. Coincidentally, Escobar’s first night game was in 1947-48.

Regular Season/Postseason Hitting (Thurman)

In the February 28-March 10, 1948 postseason series, Thurman’s .438 BA (14-for-32) trailed Pedroso’s .485 (16-for-33) and Dumbo Fernández’s 13-for-26 (.500), but surpassed Chico Carrasquel’s .425 (17/40), CC’s starting shortstop. Thurman went 3-for-7 in the first two games of the 1948 Negro World Series, but stats were not available for Games 3-5. Homestead’s powerful line-up included Canena Márquez (CF), Sam Bankhead (SS), Luke Easter (LF), Buck Leonard (1B), Wilmer Fields (3B-P), and Thurman (RF-P).

Thurman, in 1949-50, stole 26 bases, second to Carlos Bernier’s 41. The 26 SB remains a Santurce single-season mark. Thurman’s 85 steals are a Crabbers’ career franchise record, ahead of Juan Beníquez (81) and Iván de Jesús (78). He was the 1950-51 PRWL MVP: .362 BA, 13 HR, and 66 RBI. Willard Brown led the loop with 76 RBIs and hit 14 HR. Santurce teammate James «Buster» Clarkson’s 18 HR led the league. Thurman hit more doubles than Brown (22 to 19) and had more hits, 112 to 99. Thurman outhit Brown in the 1951 Caribbean Series (CS): .364 BA, two HR and seven RBIs, in six games, 8/22, to Brown’s .250, one HR, three RBIs. CF Luis Rodríguez Olmo—.417 BA, three HR, and nine RBIs—earned CS MVP laurels. Thurman was chosen RF on this CS All-Star Team.

In 1952-53, Santurce (42-30) won their second league and CS title. Brown captivated baseball fans in Havana, Cuba, in the February 1953 CS, going 6-for-0 for Santurce with four homers, 13 RBI, and a .417 BA. Thurman had a higher BA—.474, 9/19, plus a .684 SLG, but did not homer. He stole two bases. The Crabbers hit .367 with a .575 SLG, in scoring 50 runs, 8.3 per game. The 1954-55 Crabbers were considered the «best Winter League baseball team ever assembled,» per Don Zimmer, their shortstop, MVP of the February 1955 CS in Caracas. Thurman went seven for 22, .318 BA, with three RBIs. Zimmer (.385, three HR, four RBIs), Willie Mays (.440, two HR, nine RBIs), Roberto Clemente (.269, one HR, three RBIs), and Clarkson (.375, one RBI) also starred for them.

Thurman’s 24 hits in 63 CS AB is a .381 BA, in Phase I, 1949-1960. Junior Gilliam (.383), Wilmer Fields (.375), Willard Brown (.343), Roberto Clemente (.327), Orlando Cepeda (.326), and Olmo (.303) are some ex-teammates with splendid CS BA, and at least 37 plate appearances. Thurman’s four doubles, two triples, two HR (and 15 RBIs) resulted in his .603 SLG, fifth-best all-time, Phase I, after Lou Limmer (.805), Fields (.679), Gilliam (.638), Willard Brown (.627), and ahead of Clemente’s .592. Thurman’s 3-for-7 stats in two documented 1948 Negro Leagues World Series games, 14-for-32 in the three-team 1948 postseason series in PR, and 8-for-21 in the 1950-51 finals, total 49-for-123, a .398 BA in one World Series, one PRWL finals, and three CS.

Regular Season/Postseason Hitting (Ohtani)

Two solid Hokkaido seasons (2016-2017) propelled Ohtani to sign with the 2018 LA Angels. His 2016 slash line was .322/.416/.588, with a 1.004 OPS, followed by .332/.403/.540 and .942 in 2017. In five Japanese Pacific League campaigns, he had a .286/.358/.500 slash line, and .859 OPS. His six (2018-2023) «Halos» seasons resulted in a .274/.366/.556 slash line, and .922 OPS. Most of his Angels’ HR (124/171, 72.5 percent) were from 2021 to 2023. Ohtani’s 171 Angels’ HR are eighth all-time in franchise history, after: Mike Trout (404), Tim Salmon (299), Garret Anderson (222), Albert Pujols (222), Brian Downing (222), Troy Glaus (182), and Vladimir Guerrero Sr. (173). Chili Davis (156) and Bobby Grich (154) round out the Top 10. Don Baylor (141) and Reggie Jackson (123) are 11^th and 14^th, respectively.

Ohtani, 2018 AL Rookie of the Year, has four MVP awards (2021, 2023-2025), two with the Angels and two with the Dodgers. His other MVP honor came in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) for undefeated Team Japan. At the plate, he went 10-for-23, with a .435/.606/.739 slash line, and 1.345 OPS. He walked 10 times, hit four doubles, and one HR. Pitching-wise, he fanned 11 in 9.2 innings—including Mike Trout of Team USA—with a 1.86 ERA. Trout’s strikeout ended this WBC with an Ohtani save. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/how-japans-shohei-ohtani-dominated-the-2023-world-baseball-classic/3119704/

With the Dodgers, he homered 54 times in 2024 and hit 55 more in 2025. His Dodgers’ regular-season slash line (two seasons) is .296/.391/.634, with a 1.025 OPS. In the postseason, he has crushed 11 HR in 33 games throughout seven series, including two Fall Classics. His Dodgers’ postseason slash line is .239/.397/.522, with an OPS of .918. In two NLCS events: five HR, 10 RBI, a .361/.531/.833 slash line, and 1.364 OPS. His eight MLB regular seasons show a .282/.374/.582 slash line, .957 OPS.

Thanks to Bob Thurman, Mike Clark, Paul Hartzell (Table I), and Ed Vazz. Jorge Colón Delgado did the editing and photo placements.

Tom Van Hyning

Tom Van Hyning se crió en Santurce, Puerto Rico. Su familia se mudó a esta preciosa Isla cuando tenía dos años. Tom es el autor de tres libros: “Puerto Rico’s Winter League”, “The Santurce Crabbers” y “The Caribbean Series: Latin America’s Annual Baseball Tournament 1949-2024, que fue publicado en 2025. Laboró como Economista de Turismo en el estado de Mississippi y es miembro de SABR, Capítulo Cool Papa Bell en Mississippi. Sus artículos han sido publicados por SABR en la revista National Pastime y Baseball Research Journal. Igualmente escribe para las páginas web negroleaguerspuertorico.com y safabpp.com.