that's what we were. But how many guys you know ever hit .389 and never got promoted?" The Majors Shuba made his major league debut with the Dodgers on July 2, 1948. At the peak of his playing career, Shuba delivered a pinch-hit homer in the 1953 World Series opener, which the New York Yankees won 9–5. Ultimately, he worked up a career batting average of .259 on 211 hits in 814 trips, with 125 RBIs, 106 runs scored, and 45 doubles and 24 homers. Playing for the Dodgers, Shuba watched as teammate Jackie Robinson won the league's MVP (1949). A recent feature article noted that Shuba's "best year was in 1952 when he batted .305 (78-for-256) with nine homers, 40 RBIs and 40 runs scored". Knee surgery, however, reduced his effectiveness after that season. Shuba played his final game on September 25, 1955. He appeared in the seventh and final game of that year's World Series; he pinch-hit for Don Zimmer in the sixth inning and grounded out for the final out. The Dodgers defeated the Yankees on Johnny Podres' 2–0 shutout for what would be the franchise's only World Championship in its Brooklyn history (the Dodgers would move to Los Angeles after the 1957 season). Personal life Shuba remained single during his professional baseball career. Roger Kahn wrote in The Boys of Summer that the young player spent his years with the Dodgers as "a bachelor living alone and apart from the rest of the players". After retiring from Major League Baseball, Shuba returned to Ohio, where he met his future wife. The couple settled in Austintown, a suburb of Youngstown, where Shuba spent 25 years working in the office of the United States Postal Inspection Service. Shuba and his wife, Katherine, who was nine years his junior, raised three children. Despite the visibility he gained as a professional athlete, Shuba remained deeply connected to his ethnic and religious roots. Kahn recalled that during a visit to the Shuba household in the early 1970s, the ex-ballplayer recited a mealtime prayer in Slovak. Shuba explained to Kahn that his father had recited the prayer before every family meal. Retirement Shuba lived in the Youngstown area since his retirement from Major League Baseball in 1955. In the early 1970s, he was interviewed at his Austintown home by Roger Kahn, who was conducting research for The Boys of Summer, a literary