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1907–1995 · born, formed and died in South Bend
Aloysius Frank Bejma — Ollie — was born September 12, 1907, in South Bend, quit school at sixteen, went to work for Studebaker, and played five years on the company's baseball team, in the factory game the Sports leg records. The company diamond was his whole road up: from the Studebaker nine he reached the major leagues as an infielder, debuting April 24, 1934, and played from 1934 to 1939 for the St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox. His fullest season was his first — a .271 average in 95 games in 1934, both career highs — and he played four positions across his years. He was traded to Cleveland with Johnny Gerlach for Skeeter Webb, and his last major-league game came on October 1, 1939.
His best professional season was a minor-league one: with St. Paul in 1938 he hit .326, won the American Association's Most Valuable Player award and the pennant, and earned the "Miller Killer" name against Minneapolis. That season gave him an immortality no register can hold. Charles Schulz had idolized him as a boy, and on February 21, 1974, Peanuts made him the answer to a trivia question — Woodstock names Bejma as the 1938 St. Paul shortstop. The strip itself carries an error the record corrects with affection: Bejma was St. Paul's second baseman that year; Tony York played short. Eugene Murdock interviewed Bejma in South Bend on May 13, 1974 — the same day he recorded Stan Coveleski. Bejma died in South Bend on January 3, 1995: born here, formed on the company's team here, and home at the end.
Sources
- Baseball-Reference and the SABR biography file — the South Bend birth, the Studebaker years and company team, the 1934–39 major-league record, the 1938 St. Paul season and the Association MVP award.
- Peanuts, February 21, 1974, and the strip's documented record — the Woodstock question, Schulz's boyhood idolatry, and the shortstop error against the second-base fact.
- Eugene Murdock oral history collection — the May 13, 1974 South Bend interview.