Today’s Dodger of the Day is catcher Stan Andrews.

Stanley Joseph “Polo” Andruskewicz was born April 17, 1917, in Lynn, Massachusetts. He signed a contract with the Boston Bees September 24, 1936, and thereafter spent 15 years in professional baseball.

His time with the Dodgers spanned parts of the 1944 and 1945 seasons. His Dodger debut came in the second half of the September 16, 1944 doubleheader at the Boston Braves. Andrews went 0-for-3 in a 4-2 loss.

Andrews would play in three more games in 1944, splitting doubleheader duty with catchers Fats Dantonio and Mickey Owen. His sole hit in 1944 came September 21 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 1945, he once again spot started and split doubleheader duty, seeing 49 at-bats in 21 games with the Dodgers. He slashed .163/.255/.204 during his time with the Dodgers in 1945. The Dodgers put Andrews on waivers at the end of July and the Philadelphia Phillies picked him up August 1.

He hit 11 hits in 33 at-bats during his time with the Phillies. The 13 games he played for the Phillies would be the last major league games ever played. His last hit was in a 9-0 loss against the New York Giants: he singled to left to begin the top of the 5th inning. Andrews also hit his sole major league home run with the Phillies, a solo shot to begin the bottom of the 6th.

Andrews began his career in 1937 with the Zanesville Grays of the Middle Atlantic League. He batted .298 over 409 at-bats, 5th-highest on the team. He also hit 10 home runs with Zanesville, easily a career-high. However, he committed 47 errors with the Grays.

He improved on his batting numbers the next year with the Hartford Laurels of the Atlantic League. His .304 batting average and .409 slugging were 4th and 5th on the team, respectively. He earned a mid-season callup to the Bees in 1939, debuting with a 2-for-2 day against the Cubs June 11. He slashed .231/.259/.231 over the next 13 games and functioned as a spot starter and pinch hitter for the 1940 Bees.

The beginning of 1941 saw Andrews get little action with the Yankee-affiliated Newark Bears of the International League before returning to Hartford. He was once again in the top 5 in batting average and top six in slugging over 159 plate appearances for the now Hartford Bees.

In 1942, Andrews moved to the St. Paul Saints of the International League. Once again, Andrews was good but never a standout with the Saints. He was 5th or 6th in most offensive categories including a slash line of .240/.305/.325. 1943 saw marginal improvements to that slash line over 91 games: .242/.323/.354.

He moved to the Dodgers affiliate in the International League in 1944, the Montreal Royals. Here would share a roster with future Dodger great Duke Snider and future managing great Gene Mauch. Andrews, for his part, had one of the best seasons of his career in Montreal. He notched career highs in stolen bases, on-base percentage and runs.

After his time in the majors, he spent a few more years in the minor leagues, mostly in the Florida International League. He played two games for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League in 1946 before going to the Birmingham Barons (then the affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates) and playing in 60 games to finish out the season.

In 1947, he moved to Florida, where he would stay for the rest of his career. He spent two seasons with the St. Petersburg Saints, managed in part by Jimmie Foxx. His time in St. Petersburg brought the best seasons of Andrews’ career (never mind that the Saints were a class-C affiliate at the time). He had career-highs in total bases, doubles and hits in 1947 and career-highs in batting average and slugging in 1948.

He went to the West Palm Beach Indians in 1949, following his manager Lou Finney from St. Petersburg. Andrews batted .301 over 116 games with the Indians. He finished his career with two years on the Ft. Lauderdale Braves, ending his playing career in 1951 with a .370 batting average, good enough for first on the team.

Andrews took over as manager of the 1948 Clarksville Colts in June of that year. The Colts finished with a 49-77 record. He left baseball entirely after that and died June 10, 1995, almost 56 years to the day after his major league debut.