Frank "Spec" Shea

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In honor of Frank "Spec" Shea's October 2nd birth date, Mayor Pete Hess officially declared the month of October as “Spec” Shea month in Naugatuck. Spec would have turned 100 years of age this year.

Mayor Hess went on to say:

"For those newcomers to Naugatuck, Spec skyrocketed to fame in 1947 when, as a rookie, he became the winning pitcher of the All Star Game leading the New York Yankees to victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series by winning games 1 and 5 while also participating in game 7 with only one day’s rest."
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A 2013 article written by Don Harrison also attributes much of the victory to Spec:

"Give a lion’s share of the credit to Frank “Spec” Shea, a twenty-six-year-old rookie right-hander from Naugatuck, Connecticut, who threw hard and cracked wise. Shea assembled a 14-5 record with a 3.07 earned run average for the pennant-winning Bronx Bombers, leading the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.4) and winning percentage (.737). On July 8 he became the first rookie pitcher to receive credit for a victory in the All-Star Game, working the middle three innings of the American League’s 2–1 win at Wrigley Field in Chicago."
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Spec has such a storied history that I might spend all day listing off all the "firsts" that could be attributed to him. Much has already been written about him and his sports record in Major League Baseball as a member of the New York Yankees and other teams. I'll just mention a few of the many interesting achievements this man has to his credit.

Obviously, he was the first Naugatuck resident to become a member of the New York Yankees, but well before that, he was making headlines in the local papers. Spec lead the Naugatuck Greyhounds in the very first, inaugural CIAC State Championship event in 1938. Naugy dominated the game, defeating Manchester 7-0. Spec pitched and hit 2 home runs, making him the first winning pitcher in the history of the CIAC.

The next year, in the 1939 CIAC state championship, he struck out 21 Torrington batters before injuring his wrist with two outs in the 11th inning.

Wikipedia sums him up like this:

Francis Joseph "Spec" Shea (October 2, 1920 – July 19, 2002) was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 1947 to 1955. He played for the New York Yankees from 1947 to 1951 and the Washington Senators from 1952 to 1955. He was known as "The Naugatuck Nugget" as a result of being from Naugatuck, Connecticut, and was named as such by Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen, and was nicknamed "Spec" because of his freckles.
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There are a few stories as to how Frank earned the nickname of "Spec." Mayor Hess tells us that it was handed down from Frank's father, perhaps he also had freckles. From there, a newspaper typo did the rest:

"Frank's father was the original Speck. After winning a game for the Yankees, the New York Mirror used the name “Spec” (No K) in its headline because there was no room for the k. After that, he went by the name “Spec” for the remainder of his life."

Spec himself confirms my guess about his Dad, in this quote from an article in the New Haven Register:

"(My father) had a lot of freckles, so he was called Speckles, which became Speck. I was young Speck," Shea said. "One day, when I was with the Yankees, the Daily Mirror had a headline, 'Newhouser Bested by Spec.' Their writer, Ben Epstein, apologized because the last letter didn't fit. I said, 'Don't worry about it.'"

He also related to that reporter how his dad ribbed him more than once about altering his last name, dropping the O':

"Shea was never sure why he altered his last name. "My father gave me hell for it a few times," he told the Register's Bob Barton in 2000."

Francis Joseph O’Shea was born in Naugatuck on Oct. 2, 1920, to Frank Lawrence O’Shea and Helen (Morris) O’Shea. His sister and only sibling, Eleanor, was two years old at the time.

Spec graduated from Naugatuck High School in 1939, and just one year later signed with the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1940. He quickly progressed through the Yankees’ farm system, but then World War II intervened.

After serving for three years, Spec returned to his home, and to baseball. He was promoted to the Yankees' major league roster at the start of the 1947 season. Spec made his Major League debut on April 19, 1947, pitching two innings of scoreless relief in a 4–2 loss at Griffith Stadium against the Washington Senators. His home-field debut on Thursday, April 24, 1947 against the Boston Red Sox was such an anticipated day, that it resulted in yet another first to add to his growing list. Spec's popularity shut down his alma mater, Naugatuck High School. The school suspended operations for the day, so that teachers and students could go to Yankee Stadium and root for him!

In that same year, Spec and Yogi Berra became the first all-rookie battery to start a World Series Game. Spec was the winning pitcher in Games one and four and got a no decision in Game 7, a 5-2 Yankees victory. Mel Allen, the legendary Yankee broadcaster, brought notoriety to Shea's hometown, coining him "The Naugatuck Nugget." Shea returned home a hero, with over 10,000 fans attending a parade down the streets of Naugatuck in his honor, another first to be sure!
(Photo #4)

More "firsts" surround Spec as well, the 1947 World Series was the first to be televised, and the first to feature a desegregated major league baseball team. For the first time in World Series history, a racially integrated team played when Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, took the field.
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After several years in the Majors, it ended where it began with the Washington Senators. This time however, Spec wasn't playing against the team, he was part of the team. A trade reunited him with his former Yankees manager, Bucky Harris, who had also begun working with the Washington team. After 4 years with the Senators, Spec retired from baseball at the age of 34. He returned to Naugatuck, landing a job as the town's Parks and Recreation Director, where he worked for 20 years. He became a regular at Yankees' Old Timer's Day games. He played golf and was very active in the community, and charity fund raising efforts.
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Along with other retired Major Leaguers such as Ralph Branca, Willard Marshall, and Sal Yvars, Spec's involvement in charity golf tournaments throughout Connecticut and New York helped raise funds for local nonprofits. He was also devoted to the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.), an organization founded by retired Major League catcher and broadcaster Joe Garagiola which helped former players and other baseball people who found themselves down on their luck and in need. Spec was still as outgoing as ever and found himself in demand as a frequent guest on the banquet circuit, most notably at the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance annual Gold Key Dinner. In 1962 he was honored at the group’s banquet.

It was during his years as Supervisor of Parks and Rec that Spec pulled off yet another amazing "first." As local resident Jon March explains it, Spec apparently oversaw the installation of Naugatuck's first motorized ski tow rope!

"I am Jon March, I grew up in Naugatuck - home to Naugahyde "leather", Mounds and Almond Joy, Keds sneakers, and Frank Zappa's keyboardist Tommy Mars - my next door neighbor! Fairchild Park was a neighborhood park, ball field, and courts, but had the unique benefit of being backed up to the foot of Hunters Mountain. I will tell what I remember... A local Youth Activities Committee, along with the town Park Department (headed by former Yankee Frank "Spec" Shea), oversaw the installation of an engine powered rope tow up the sledding hill. Also constructed at the park was a small "lodge" dubbed the "Alpine Hut", due to its quaint Scandinavian styling. As I recall, it was staffed occasionally with lemonade and chips service, and maybe hot dogs. This is 1972-1973 we're talking."

Fairchild Park would later serve as the location for yet another well deserved honor for the much beloved "Naugatuck Nugget," as family and friends gathered there in 2006. Part of the park was renamed in his honor as "Frank "Spec" Shea Field." Spec passed away in 2002 at the age of 81, having inspired countless youth from Naugatuck, his beloved home town.
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One of those youth was of course Spec's own son, Frank Shea. Younger Frank had much to tell about his famous father:

"One of my proudest memories was a story my father told about the 7th game of the 1947 World Series. The series was played 7 straight days. After the 6th game won by the Dodgers, the Yankees had a a big meeting to determine who would pitch the 7th game. None of the veterans would volunteer. Spec stepped up and said he would pitch, though he had pitched 9 innings and won game 5. The team all laughed at him and said he was crazy. Management finally agreed that he would pitch. The General Manager announced that because he had the “guts” to volunteer there would be a $1,000 bonus for him. The next day he started and only lasted into the second inning, with the Dodgers winning. The Yankees rallied and won it all, but they never paid him the $1,000.

My dad played with the Yankees along with players such as Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. He pitched against Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters of all time and had pretty good luck against him for a while."

Perhaps one of the most interesting stories younger Frank relates is about what might be Spec's most incredible "first." There is certainly no other Naugatuck resident who can claim he was called upon by a famous movie star to be coached at Breen Field!

Frank explained how it happened that his father became Coach to a star:

"About 1983 he received a call from a Hollywood producer who was in Boston looking to rent Fenway Park to film the movie “The Natural”. The producer asked Spec if he would be interested in coaching Robert Redford on the style of pitching from the 1930’s-1940’s. Spec agreed and met Redford at a home in Fairfield County. They hit it off and Redford planned on renting Sacred Heart University Baseball Field to workout. Spec said no and told Redford to come to Naugatuck as Spec was in charge of Parks and Recreation. So they met at Roosties Hot Dog stand (now Al’s Hot Dogs) on a Sunday afternoon and they worked out on Breen Field."

That "home in Fairfield County" was most likely Redford's home in Weston, CT just a mile from the home of his friend and fellow actor, Paul Newman. Redford moved into the home in 1978 and lived there through the mid-1990s. In an interview from 2011, younger Frank goes into even more detail about the fantastic event, including some additional input from his sister, Barbara Shea:

"In the early 1980s, the telephone rang in the Shea household one day, and Spec asked his daughter to answer it. "May I ask who's calling, please," said Barbara Shea, then 19. "It was Robert Redford. I think he said 'Bob Redford.'"

Indeed, Robert Redford was preparing for the role of Roy Hobbs in the 1984 film, "The Natural," and he was asking Spec Shea to teach him how to pitch and hit, 1930s style. "I don't want to embarrass myself," Redford told Shea.

So, on at least one Sunday, perhaps on a few occasions (stories differ), Shea provided the rudiments of pitching and hitting to the Hollywood actor at Breen Field. "People were walking by, saying, 'Is that Robert Redford?'" Frank Jr. recalls.

"It was supposed to be a big secret, but the word got out," Barbara says."

And so it happened, that Frank "Spec" Shea, achieved what is perhaps his most incredible "first" by convincing Robert Redford, to come to Naugatuck; the two working together to prepare for a famous scene in the movie where Hobbs strikes out "The Whammer."

When you watch that film again, and that scene appears onscreen, you will certainly think of "The Naugatuck Nugget," his Major League success, all his community service, and all he did for his hometown, including bringing Robert Redford to Breen Field.

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Frank “Spec” Shea
BIRTH: Oct 2nd, 1920
Naugatuck, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA

DEATH: July 19th 2002 (aged 81)
New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA

BURIAL: Saint James Cemetery
Naugatuck, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA
(Photo #8 - 9)