This is the first bio of inductees in the Valley Baseball League Hall of Fame. The remaining bios will be postied in the coming days.
Bennie Huffman’s baseball days spanned some six decades, from his roots in the Shenandoah Valley, throughout the minor and major leagues. Huffman began his baseball career in 1933, playing for the New Market entry in the Valley League. Enrolling in Bridgewater College in 1935, Huffman batted .330 and led the Eagles to a 9-5 record.
Huffman decided that pro baseball was his future, so he left Bridgewater and headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he enrolled in Ray Doan’s baseball school. Soon after, legendary player/manager Roger Hornsby spotted Huffman and invited him to play with the St. Louis Browns. Without any prior professional experience, Huffman became the 1937 Browns’ opening day catcher and went 2-for-3 in his first big league game. But Huffman’s luck soon took a turn for the worse. In a game against Cleveland, he was involved in a collision at home plate that seriously injured his shoulder. With his shoulder ailing and his playing time reduced, Huffman went on to bat .273 with one home run in his only major league season.
Huffman split the 1938 season between AAA Baltimore and Hartford, then moved on to the Texas League in 1939. Playing for the San Antonio club, Huffman was voted MVP in 1940 and looked poised for a big league comeback. But Huffman was selected in a different draft. From 1941-45, Huffman served in the U.S. Navy, where he played ball with many ex-major leaguers. Discharged in 1946, he returned to baseball, where he served as a minor league player/manager for close to a decade. Huffman skippered the 1951 Seattle club in the Pacific Coast League to a pennant and a victory in the playoffs.
In 1953, he hung up he cleats for good, joining the Chicago White Sox organization as a player scout. For the next 36 years Huffman scouted for the ChiSox, helping sign notable players as Minnie Minoso, Roy Sievers and Harold Baines.