Donald Lee “Don” Blasingame grew up in Corinth to become a Major League All-Star and then to serve as a player/manager in Japan.
Throughout his baseball life, Blasingame was best known in Mississippi as a St. Louis Cardinal, the team on which he played from age 23 in 1955 for five seasons.
Mostly a second baseman who also played some shortstop, Blasingame was one of the best bunters the game had ever seen. Blasingame was selected for the MLB All-Star Game in 1958.
After his Cardinals years, he played for the Giants, Reds (on a World Series team in 1961) and Senators. After Major League Baseball, Blasingame went to Japan to play and coach the remainder of his years in professional baseball. Nicknamed the “Blazer” as a player, Blasingame had attended David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tenn., in 1953 and 1954.
Blasingame died in 2005 at age 73.
Courtesy of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum director Rick Cleveland, author of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes. Cleveland can be reached at rcleveland@msfame.com.
