Lib Mahon: The Run Producer

South Bend, 1945–1952

Elizabeth "Lib" Mahon was born November 18, 1919, in Greenville, South Carolina, came to South Bend in Marty McManus's 1945 trade with Kenosha, and stayed eight seasons, becoming the best run producer the club ever had and one of the best in the league. Her 1946 season is laid out above: a league-leading 72 runs batted in, a league record at the time, 114 stolen bases in 116 attempts, the league lead in total bases advanced, an All-Star place. She led the league in runs batted in again in 1949, with 60. Her 1951 season, at thirty-one, was a veteran's: .269 with 68 runs batted in by the register's count, second in the league — her biographer prints 60 in the narrative and 68 in his own summary, a disagreement this history carries openly rather than settles by preference. She was an All-Star in 1946 and 1949; a playing card that credits her with All-Star selections across 1946–49 overstates it. Her career totals: 837 games, a .248 average, 721 hits, 432 runs, 364 stolen bases, and 400 runs batted in, tied for fourth in league history behind Dottie Schroeder's 431 and two others. In 1952 she was a reserve, thirty-two years old, near the end — and when the Pryer suspension came, she walked out with the five others on the principle she stated forty-five years later: a teammate had been treated unfairly. She never played again. She stayed in South Bend, became a schoolteacher and counselor in the city's schools, and died there on September 6, 2001. South Carolina put her in its Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously, on May 5, 2005; South Bend keeps a plaque in her name.

Sources

1. Jim Sargent, SABR biography of Lib Mahon — the trade, the 1946 and 1949 RBI titles, the career totals (837 games, 400 RBIs tied for fourth), the All-Star selections of 1946 and 1949 against the card's wider claim, the 1951 RBI figures printed as 60 and 68 within the same biography, the walkout and her 1997 statement, the teaching career, and the 2005 South Carolina honor.
2. Baseball-Reference Register, 1951 South Bend batting list — the register's 68 RBIs for Mahon in 1951, the figure printed in this history's text.
3. Winthrop University archives — Mahon's 1946 record and South Bend career.