Bob Boyd

Robert Richard Boyd (October 1, 1919 2004) was an American first baseman in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball. Although his obituary indicated that he was born in 1919, most baseball records indicate the year as 1925. He was born in Potts Camp, Mississippi.

In Memoriam

• 'The Rope' delighted in fooling pitchers. Bobby Boyd might have been past 40, but he could still hit. He just didn't want the young pitchers he was facing in the National Baseball Congress World Series during the mid-1960s to know. So when one of them would buzz a fastball in at his letters, Boyd would jerk away from the plate as if frightened for his safety. The pitcher would puff his chest, believing he had the old man right where he wanted him. But it was all a ploy. Boyd would usually hit the next fastball he saw like a rope. He would get a special thrill when that rope went back through the middle, forcing the pitcher to duck for his life. Fittingly, Boyd was nicknamed "The Rope" for his constant line drivers. - Bob Lutz, at The Wichita Eagle.