In 1927 Mancuso moved up to the Syracuse Stars of the International League (Class Double A, then the highest minor league level). He hit .372, which earned him a promotion to the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he made his major league debut on April 30, 1928. Batting just .184 in forty plate appearances, he was sent to the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association (Class Double A) for the remainder of the season. After splitting the 1929 season between the Rochester Red Wings of the International League and the Houston Buffaloes (both were affiliates of the Cardinals), Mancuso started the 1930 season in St. Louis. He owed his return to the major leagues to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Landis strongly opposed the extensive farm system of the Cardinals, which tied up many good players in the minor leagues in perpetuity unless they were traded or released. Landis ruled that the Cardinals could not send Mancuso back to the minors, and Mancuso remained in the big leagues through 1945. He served as a backup catcher behind Jimmie Wilson, a veteran who was in the middle of an eighteen-year career in the major leagues. Mancuso improved under Wilson’s mentorship and appeared in two World Series, as the Cardinals won pennants in 1930 and 1931.
Although Mancuso was a part-timer, he caught the attention of other National League managers. Among them was the last man (as of 2024) in the National League to hit .400, Bill Terry, who took over as player–manager of the Giants during the 1932 season. Terry thought enough of Mancuso to trade for him after the season was over. After a sixth-place finish in 1932, Terry wanted to build his team around pitching and defense. The incumbent first-string catcher, Shanty Hogan, was an eight-year veteran with a good offensive record, but he was lacking in defensive skills. Therefore, Terry sold Hogan to the Boston Braves and installed Mancuso as his starting catcher in 1933. Terry also acquired another Texas-born catcher, Paul Richards, who went on to a long career as a manager and front office executive.
Mancuso’s best years were with the Giants. He demonstrated skill at throwing out baserunners and worked well with the team’s pitching staff. Every year Mancuso was with the Giants, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell was an All-Star. From 1933 to 1938 Mancuso hit .284. During this span with the Giants, he played in three World Series (1933, 1936, and 1937) and was a National League All-Star in 1935 and 1937. By 1938 Mancuso, age thirty-two, had lost his starting job to Harry Danning, age twenty-six, who had been with the team as long as Mancuso and immediately embarked on a four-year string of All-Star appearances.
In 1939 Mancuso was traded to the Chicago Cubs, where he served as a backup for catcher–manager Gabby Hartnett, a future Hall of Famer who was in the twilight of his career. Mancuso also served as a backup catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940. After the season he was traded back to the Cardinals for catcher Mickey Owen, a four-year veteran who was ten years younger than Mancuso. The Cardinals had a young catcher named Walker Cooper and chose Mancuso to be his mentor. The results were immediate. In 1942 Cooper was named to the first of eight All-Star selections.
Two days after Mancuso celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday, the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbor. The United States subsequently entered World War II, and the shortage of ball players due to the military draft allowed the aging Mancuso to remain in the major leagues for a few more years. In 1942 the Giants re-acquired him to serve as a backup catcher and pitching coach. The following year Mancuso shared lead catching duties with Ernie Lombardi after Harry Danning, who had displaced him in 1938, was drafted. The Giants released Mancuso after the 1944 season, but in 1945 he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, who were managed by Freddie Fitzsimmons, one of the pitchers for whom Mancuso had caught during his first stint with the Giants. Mancuso, approaching age forty, retired before the end of a 46–108 season in Philadelphia. In the 1940s and 1950s Wilson Sporting Goods sold a Gus Mancuso model catcher’s mitt.
Mancuso had a lifetime batting average of .265 with 1,194 hits. He threw out slightly more than half (50.69 percent) of the baserunners who attempted to steal on him. As of 2024 this caught stealing percentage ranked him twelfth all-time in major league history (former teammate Paul Richards ranked thirteenth with 50.35). Towards the end of his career, The Sporting News described Mancuso as “the National League’s most skilled receiver of his time, and one of the most underrated backstops in two decades of major league competition.” Mancuso’s defensive skills made him a valuable team member, whether he was first-, second-, or even third-string (during this period it was common for teams to carry three catchers on the roster). Even when Mancuso was past his prime, he was a reliable backup and also served as a mentor to promising young catchers.
Though Mancuso’s major league playing career was over, he continued to play in the minor leagues. Taking over as manager for the Tulsa Oilers of the Texas League in 1946, he occasionally wrote himself into the lineup. He did the same when he took over the San Antonio Missions, also of the Texas League, in 1948. In 1950 he returned to the big leagues as a pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds. In 1951 Mancuso became a sports broadcaster for KPRC in Houston. After a half-season of broadcasting Houston Buffaloes games, he was sent to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he worked with legendary play-by-play announcer Harry Caray. Mancuso broadcast Cardinals games through 1953. His voice was widespread in the South and Midwest, as the Cardinals had a network of more than eighty radio stations.
After Gussie Busch bought the Cardinals before the 1954 season, he dropped Mancuso in favor of Jack Buck and Milo Hamilton. Buck went on to become a broadcasting legend in St. Louis. Hamilton was in the second year of a career that lasted until 2012. From 1985 until he retired, he was the voice of the Houston Astros. Mancuso stayed with the Cardinals and worked as a scout but later returned to broadcasting; he again called Texas League games for the Buffaloes as well as the San Antonio Missions. After Houston was awarded a National League franchise, Mancuso went to work for the Colt .45s, as the team was initially called. Starting as a scout, he later hosted pre-game and post-game radio shows. His mother, “Granny” Mancuso, became a fixture at baseball games in Houston.
In October 1962 Mancuso’s wife Lorena was killed in an automobile accident in Houston. Several years later he married Estelle DeShazo Shoemake. Two of Mancuso’s brothers also played professional baseball. Frank, also a catcher, played four seasons of Major League Baseball (1944-47), three with the St. Louis Browns (with whom he appeared in the 1944 World Series) and one with the Washington Senators. He later served on the Houston city council for thirty years (1963-93). Another brother, Leon, a first baseman, played two seasons (1937-38) of minor league ball.
Gus Mancuso died of emphysema (he had been a heavy smoker) on October 26, 1984, in Houston. He was preceded in death by both of his children. He was buried alongside his first wife and son at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston. Mancuso was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (in Chicago) in 1984, the last year of his life. Source
Section 55
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery
Houston
29° 42.826, -095° 18.138
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