Today’s Dodger of the Day is outfielder Lou Johnson.

Johnson was born September 22, 1932, to Sidney Bell & Shirley Johnson in Lexington, Kentucky. He played baseball and basketball at Dunbar High School; basketball was his first choice. His desire in high school was to play under Adolph Rupp at Kentucky, but Kentucky wasn’t recruiting black players at the time like so many other SEC institutions.

Johnson signed with the New York Yankees in 1953 and played for the Class-D Olean Yankees of the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League. Johnson had a .194 batting average over 165 at-bats that year. His three home runs contributed a .297 slugging percentage. He split 1954 between two independent Class-C teams: the hometown Lexington Colts of the Mountain States League and the Pampa Oilers of the West Texas-New Mexico League.

His numbers greatly improved from his stint in Olean. Johnson hit .273 with a .355 for his hometown club and .322 in 90 at-bats for the Oilers. The Oilers won the league by a half-game margin over the Clovis Pioneers.

The Oilers sent Johnson to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1954 offseason. He only played 28 minor-league games in 1955, most with the Clinton Pirates of the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League. There, he batted .238 with 19 and 12 RBI over 24 games. He also played four games for the St. Jean Canadians of the Provincial League in Quebec. Johnson spent the rest of the season in the Negro American League as an outfielder for the Kansas City Monarchs during their final season in the city. The team moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan the next season.

Johnson was traded by the Pirates to the Chicago Cubs to begin the 1956 season. Johnson would remain in the Cubs system until 1961. He played 110 games for the Ponca City Cubs of the Sooner State League in 1956. He batted .296 for Ponca City with 14 doubles, 11 triples and 11 home runs. Johnson played with future Cub Billy Williams at Ponca City, as well as future Dodger teammate Jim Brewer.

1957 saw Johnson play for the Burlington Bees of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. He played 87 games that season for the Bees, the last season of his career where he played less than 100 games. Johnson slashed .245/.340/.387 over those 87 games and was second on the tam in stolen bases with 22.

Despite doing ok at Class-B with the Bees, Johnson regressed to begin 1958. Very badly. In 18 games at Burlington in 1958, he batted .117 and only got 16 total bases. For a guy who consistently had a notable slugging percentage when compared to his BA, getting fewer TB than games played is not ideal.

He spent the rest of the season at the Class-D Paris Lakers of the Midwest League. Johnson performed like an All-Star in Paris, batting .365 and hitting an 1.017 OPS. The only offensive stats Johnson didn’t lead the Lakers in were OPS, sacrifice hits and sac flies. Only two other players made it to the majors from that Lakers squad; both pitchers, they pitched a grand total of six innings in the bigs.

Johnson saw AA and A ball for the first time in 1959. He played 97 games for the Eastern League’s Lancaster Red Roses, hitting .316 with 114 hits and 176 total bases. That earned him a late-season callup to the AA San Antonio Missions, where he once again played with Jim Brewer and Billy Williams. Also on that team was a fresh-faced Ron Santo. In San Antonio, Johnson improved offensively, hitting .327 and slugging .575 in 30 games.

Johnson began the 1960 season by finally seeing a major-league field, seven years after he signed with the Yankees. He debuted for the Cubs in a 4-3 loss at the Giants April 17. Johnson went 1-for-6 with three strikeouts. He played 34 total games for the Cubs in 1960, slashing before .224/.283/ .306 before being sent down at the end of June.

Amidst the 34-game trial, he played 103 games for the AAA Houston Buffs with several future or former major leaguers, including a 44-year-old Enos Slaughter. Johnson was in the top five or 10 in most offensive categories, including leading the team in stolen bases and triples. Slaughter still had a thing or two to teach the youngin’s too: he led the Buffs in on-base-percentage.

Johnson was called back up to Chicago near the end of September. He returned as a pinch hitter in the second game of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh. He played in six more games that season, including a 2-for-7 series against the Dodgers to end the season.

The Cubs traded Johnson to the Angels on April 1,1961 for Jim McAnany and the Cubs somehow got the better end of the deal even though McAnany got three hits total for the Cubs. Johnson played one game for the Angels. He replaced Bob Cerv in left field in the bottom of the 8th in the April 11 7-2 win in Baltimore. He never stepped up to bat in an Angels uniform.

The Angels then traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs April 13, for whom he played 103 games that season. He led the team in hits, doubles and triples while leading the team to a 76-79 record. He began the 1962 season in Toronto as well; he played 90 games for the Maple Leafs in 1962 before the the Milwaukee Braves called him up in the middle of July. His first game for the Braves was a 1-for-2 day July 19 in Milwaukee against the Giants. He slashed .282/.349/.453 while in a Braves uniform.

He played 14 games combined for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Denver Bears in 1963 before the Braves traded him to the Tigers May 8 for Chico Fernandez. The Tigers stashed Johnson in AAA with the Syracuse Chiefs. He played 121 games for the Chiefs.

The Tigers traded Johnson with $10,000 to the Dodgers April 9, 1964 for Larry Sherry. Johnson spent 1964 with the Spokane Indians of the PCL, hitting .276 in 637 plate appearances. He played 15 games for Spokane to start 1965 before the Dodgers called him up in May. He was used as a defensive replacement May 5 and 6, finally seeing the plate on May 7. He went 0-for-1 and his first hit had to wait until May 18 in Houston. Johnson scored the only run during Sandy Koufax’s perfect game after a throwing error from Cubs pitcher Chris Krug. He led the team in OPS and tied the team lead with 12 home runs.

Of course, he’s known for one specific home run and it isn’t one of those 12.

It’s the top of the 4th in game seven. Jim Kaat and Sandy Koufax have been in a pitching duel and the game is still tied 0-0. In the dugout, Johnson tells Koufax he will give him the only run needs. Johnson steps up and hits one off the left field foul pole. Ron Fairly doubled on the next pitch and Wes Parker singled to score Fairly. The Dodgers won the game 2-0.

The next year, the Dodgers returned to the World Series with Johnson as their regular right fielder. He once again provided an above average performance at the plate, hitting 17 home runs and 73 RBI for career-highs. Like most of his teammates, he sputtered at the plate in the World Series; the Dodgers only got two runs in the series, both in game one.

He remained the starting right fielder in 1967, but plateaued offensively, slashing .270/.330/.418. He broke his ankle early in the season and was out the entirety of May. The 104 games he played that season would his last in a Dodger uniform. That season, the Dodgers finished 8th in the NL, 28.5 games back of the World Series-winning Cardinals.

The Dodgers traded Johnson back to the Cubs November 30 for Paul Popovich and Jim Williams. He played in 62 games for the Cubs, slashing .244/.289/.356. The Cubs traded him to the Indians June 28 for Willie Smith. His numbers slightly improved with the Indians, but not enough for them to keep him.

The Indians traded Johnson to the Angels April 4, 1969 for Chuck Hinton. His tenure with the Angels was as short as those with the Cubs and Indians; he only played 67 games for the Halos. His numbers took a serious dive, slashing .203/.272/.263. His final appearance for the Angels (and in the majors) was as a pinch runner September 6 against the White Sox. His last hit came July 14 against Kansas City.

Johnson struggled with addiction during and after his playing days. He once said that being “a black man in the minors” caused him to turn to drugs. He remembered holding a gun to his wife’s head and giving away his World Series ring as collateral in a drug deal gone wrong. The ring would go missing for over 30 years.

In 1980, Johnson approached Don Newcombe, by then the Dodgers’ Director of Community Affairs. Newcombe was himself a recovered alcoholic and had also pawned his ring from the 1955 series win.

Johnson asked for help. Newcombe replied, ''I know. We've been waiting for you.''

Newcombe recommended Johnson for treatment. Team owner Peter O’Malley paid for Johnson’s treatment in its entirety. Johnson then became a member of the Community Relations Department, where he remains today.

In February 2001, Dodger historian Mark Langill got a tip: Johnson’s ring was to be auctioned. Langill tracked down the auctioneers and Dodger president Bob Graziano bought the ring himself for $3,457, just as Peter O’Malley had done for Don Newcombe.

When Graziano gave Johnson the ring, it didn’t fit and that didn't matter. It was all Johnson had left of that 1965 season and it was all he needed.