Forrest Vandergrift Jacobs (November 4, 1925 – February 18, 2011) was a second baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1954 through 1956 for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1954–56), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1956). Listed at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m), 155 lb, he batted and threw right-handed. His teammates affectionately called him Spook, a moniker that he used throughout his life.

Born in Cheswold, Delaware, Jacobs graduated from Salem High School, Salem, New Jersey in 1943. Immediately after graduation, Jacobs enlisted in the United States Army where he rose to the rank of sergeant during World War II and was awarded the Asian Pacific Campaign Theatre Medal, the American Campaign Theatre Medal, the United States Army Good Conduct Medal, and the United States Victory Medal.

Following his honorable military discharge, he played professional baseball for 17 seasons for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations, three of them in the majors, while playing for several professional league clubs including the highly competitive Cuban, Panamanian and Puerto Rican winter leagues.

Winter leagues
Jacobs won batting titles in Panama in the 1948–49 and the 1949–50 seasons while also helping Panama to its only Caribbean World Series Championship by having the game-winning walk-off hit against Puerto Rico for the Carta Vieja Yankees, and again in Cuba during the 1955–1956 season while playing for the Leones de la Habana / Reds.

Jacobs also had the game-winning Cuban championship walk-off hit in 1952–1953 for the Azules de Almandares managed by Bobby Bragan. Because of Jacobs' exploits he was honored by being elected into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame and the Cuban Sports Hall of Fame. To date the only American to receive both prestigious honors.[1]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia