Angel a saint
Pearson has spent life helping children
As one of the shortest players in the history of major league baseball, Albie Pearson says he was never booed.
Not even on the road.
“I was the guy-who-never-made-it’s hero,” said Pearson, who stood 5-foot-5 and weighed 140 pounds. “The blue-collar guy who made a couple hundred bucks a week would always root for me.”
Imagine, then, how fans might honor him today because Pearson, 74, is still leaving an outsized mark, still making a contribution worthy of admiration and applause.
“The Littlest Angel,” as the former outfielder was known when he played for Gene Autry’s expansion Angels from 1961 to 1966, is the founder of Father’s Heart Ranch in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., an 11-acre home for abused, neglected and abandoned boys.
These are kids, ages 6 to 12, whose lives have been torn apart so horribly, Pearson said, that it’s almost unimaginable.
Pearson, an ordained minister, offers comfort and hope.
“We saw a tremendous need with these little guys,” he said during an interview at the ranch, voice cracking and eyes welling. “We teach them that they’re not a piece of meat, that they were created and there’s a plan for every one of them.”
Pearson and his wife, Helen, married 55 years and high school sweethearts before that, have five grown daughters of their own, 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
But that didn’t stop them from emptying their wallets 12 years ago, selling their home on a golf course and plunking down $200,000 to buy a dusty parcel in “no man’s land,” as Pearson describes the out-of-the-way site where dorms and a dining hall were later built.
Spiritual from a young age, Pearson credits divine intervention for shaping key developments in his life.
Though born with spina bifida, a sometimes debilitating back condition, and weighing less than 100 pounds in the ninth grade, he was a multisport star at El Monte (Calif.) High, lettering in football, basketball, baseball, tennis and track and field.
Before signing with the Boston Red Sox in 1953, he asked for a bonus and was told by a scout, “If I gave you a bonus, they’d fire me.” Instead, he was given a suitcase and two pair of shoes.
In the majors, Pearson batted .270 in nine seasons with the Washington Senators, Baltimore Orioles and Angels before a back injury forced him to retire in 1966.
The American League rookie of the year with the Senators in 1958, the diminutive left-hander scored the first run in Angels history in 1961, led the American League in runs in 1962 and made the A.L. All-Star team in 1963.
His size, Pearson said, was never a hindrance, “except in the eyes of those I was trying to please.”
Pearson has started dozens of churches worldwide. His foundation, meanwhile, has opened several orphanages.
Father’s Heart Ranch, which opened in 2002 and is presently housing 24 boys, is his crowning achievement.
“When you see a little kid whose life is changed,” Pearson said, “it’s worth more than any home run I ever hit.
“This may sound pretty corny,” Pearson said, chuckling to himself, “but I’m still playing with the Angels.”
At Father’s Heart Ranch, he’s the captain.