James Henry Bloodworth was born on July 26, 1917, in Tallahassee, Florida, but spent his life 80 miles southwest in the coastal city of Apalachicola. The third of four children (and the second son), he was descended from a long line of Bloodworths dating to the seventeenth century in one of America’s earliest settlements — the extinct locality of Nansemond, now a part of Suffolk County, Virginia. On his mother’s side Jimmy was the great-grandson of Italian immigrants who had arrived in the late nineteenth century.

Jimmy was a second baseman who played for the Washington Senators (1937 and 1939–41), Detroit Tigers (1942–43 and 1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Cincinnati Reds (1949–50), and Philadelphia Phillies (1950–51). In 1948, Jimmy was the MVP of the International League Montreal Royals.

In June 1950 Jimmy Bloodworth, one of the oldest players on the Philadelphia Phillies youthful roster, quipped, “It took me 34 years to become a Whiz Kid.” In truth, Jimmy was soon to turn only 33 but that didn’t prevent him from another of the many wisecracks that endeared him to fans and teammates alike.

But Bloodworth was capable of more than one-liners. In 1942 he was cast as Detroit’s second-base replacement for retiring future Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer. Military service in World War II derailed these plans and Bloodworth’s 11-year major-league career garnered less than 3,800 plate appearances. Possessing little speed but a powerful bat, Bloodworth originally seemed on a much brighter path.

He was on the 1950 Phillies team that won the 1950 NL pennant. He played in one game in the 1950 World Series; as a ninth-inning defensive replacement, he did not get any plate appearances. However, Jimmy's many contributions as a teammate were not overlooked by fellow players and fans: "We would not have won the pennant without the contributions of guys like Putsy Caballero, Dick Whitman, Jimmy Bloodworth, and Milo Candini." - Robin Roberts in The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant (2000).

(excerpted from SABR, BR Bullpen, Baseball Almanac, and Wikipedia)