Walt Dropo 1923-2010

 The New England Sports World suffered received sad news Saturday when it was learned that Walt Dropo passed away at the age of 87.  Dropo, who is most notably known for being the first Red Sox player to win Rookie of the Year, was a person who simply was pure New England blood.

Dropo grew up in Moosup, CT, a small mill village in rural northeast Connecticut, and was a standout athlete a Plainfield (CT) High School before going to UCONN, where he emerged as one of the all-time great Huskies, starring in football, basketball, and baseball.  Dropo was the face of UCONN athletics in a time long before Calhoun, Aurriema, or Edsall.

He would go on to be drafted by the NFL, NBA, and MLB, opting to play baseball.  Dropo would go on to have a lengthy career which spanned over parts of 13 seasons, playing for 5 different teams.  His career numbers was .270 AVG, 152 home runs, over 1100 hits, and was notoriously hard to strike out, with his average strikeouts over 162 games being just 73.  His most notable season came in 1950 with the Boston Red Sox, when he hit .322 with 34 homers, 144 RBI (led MLB), scored 101 times, and had a .961 OPS, good enough for the AL Rookie of the Year.

Walt Dropo was simply a New England kid in every sense of the word, and will be truly missed in the New England sports world.