Dick Ellsworth, longtime Fresnan who became a major league All-Star, dies of cancer

Longtime Fresno resident Dick Ellsworth, a Major League Baseball All-Star who went on to a successful career in local real estate, has died.

Ellsworth died late last Sunday night at age 82, succumbing to cancer, according to family.

Along with Hall of Famers Frank Chance and Tom Seaver, Ellsworth ranks among the biggest baseball names to come out of Fresno.

The left-handed pitcher made his big league debut as a teenager in 1958 and lasted 13 seasons, including his first eight with the Chicago Cubs.

Ellsworth finished second in the Cy Young voting in 1963 (won by Sandy Koufax) after posting a 22-10 record with a 2.11 ERA over 290⅔ innings pitched. And in 1964, Ellsworth was named an All-Star.

“In those days, the Cubs were called ‘The Lovable Losers,’ so getting 22 wins on a team that struggled, that’s not too shabby,” said son Steve Ellsworth, who also played in the majors. “Fresno is very well known in the baseball world and known as a place where a lot of major league players come from.

“I like to think my dad was one of the first ones to establish that.”

Ellsworth, considered a junk-ball pitcher in the majors, was so crafty on the mound at such a young age that he signed with the Cubs directly out of high school at 18.

It also helped that he was 6 feet, 3 inches by the time he was in middle school, filled in each year and learned “how to use his big body” in high school, longtime friend Gary Gostanian said.

Ellsworth starred for Fresno High and went 15-0 for a 1958 Warriors team that is considered the greatest high school baseball team in California history, beating the likes of the Cal freshman team, Stanford freshman team and UCLA freshman team that year.

The Warriors under coach Ollie Bidwell went 25-1, armed with future major leaguers in Ellsworth, Jim Maloney and Pat Corrales. Fresno High’s only loss was to the Fresno State Bulldogs freshman team.

The morning after partying with his friends to celebrate high school graduation, Ellsworth signed with the Cubs for $60,000, bought his parents a $23,000 home, then flew to Chicago the next day, according to Gostanian.

He made his major league debut a few months later.

“Not to take anything from Tom Seaver, but Dick got to the majors a few years before him and really established that this area was a hotbed for baseball talent,” Gostanian said.

Ellsworth played for five teams in the majors, wrapping up his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971 and finishing with 115 wins and a 3.72 ERA.

His career includes a couple of other unique factoids:

He lost 20 games in 1962, then followed it with 22 wins the next season.

In addition, Ellsworth and his son Steve are believed to be the only father-son duo to win games for the Boston Red Sox. Steve registered one season in the bigs, suiting up for Boston in 1988.

“Growing up, he made me really mad a couple of times,” Steve said. “I’d say ‘Dad, teach me how to throw a curveball.’ And he’d tell me I’m not old enough yet. He just wouldn’t do it.

“I kind of learned on my own, then at some point, he showed me to the right way to do it. Come to think of it, I probably should’ve listened to him a lot more than I did since he had a way longer career than me.”

Though teaching curveballs was met with hesitation, Ellsworth was adamant about sharing his baseball life with his family.

Steve often joined Dick on the field and the dugout before baseball games.

“Some kids watched baseball on TV or maybe in the stands,” Steve said. “Because of my dad, I got to watch up close from the dugout or batting cage.”

“Great memories. Feel very fortunate to have gotten to experience that at a young age.”

Ellsworth went on to be inducted in the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame. The 1958 Fresno High team joined him in the Hall in 2005.

And he became such a prominent name for baseball in Fresno, that decades later, when Fresno was in the process of getting a Triple-A franchise, ownership groups of the Fresno Grizzlies were quick to get Ellsworth to endorse their visions.

Eventually, Ellsworth went from serving as a baseball ambassador for professional baseball in Fresno and advocating for a stadium in downtown Fresno to becoming a part owner of the Fresno Grizzlies in 2005.

“It’s icing on the cake to have a guy like Dick Ellsworth involved,” Pacific Coast League commissioner Branch Rickey said in 2005 when the Grizzlies began changing ownership groups from the Fresno Diamond Group to the Fresno Baseball Club.

Chris Cummings, who headed the Fresno Baseball Club and was the primary owner of the Grizzlies from 2005-2017, said he’d turn to Ellsworth for guidance and support through the years.

“Dick was a phenomenal partner and a great human being,” Cummings said. “He was always available to me and stood by me even when things weren’t perfect. As you know, there were more than a couple of times when things weren’t perfect.”

Following his time in the majors as well as throughout his tenure with the Grizzlies, Ellsworth worked as a commercial real estate agent at Pearson Realty and eventually a partner.

Ellsworth often interacted with city of Fresno officials and other mover-and-shaker types to help complete those real estate transactions.

“Many people knew him from baseball,” Steve said. “But he ended up knowing practically everybody in town through his real estate career.”

During his free time, Ellsworth served on the Hall of Fame committee, was involved in the Fresno Rotary Club for 40-plus years and was a longtime member at First Presbyterian Church.

Ellsworth was married to his wife, Jean, for 61 years. She died in February 2021.

Ellsworth is survived by his brother Jon Ellsworth; son Steve and his wife Molly and three boys; daughter Kim and her husband Paul Enos and their two children; five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Services for Ellsworth are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Fresno.