December 16, 2000 – A native of East Boston, Leonard Richard “Lennie” Merullo was the ninth of twelve children of Italian immigrants. His outstanding prep school performance in baseball earned him a scholarship to Villanova University, where he was captain of the baseball team. He became ineligible to play during his senior year after signing with the Chicago Cubs.

Exempt from military service during World War II due to color blindness, Merullo made his debut as a late-season call-up in 1941 and was then a Cubs shortstop through 1947, when a back injury forced him to retire at the age of thirty. In six-plus seasons he hit .240 in 639 games. On September 13, 1942, in the second game of a doubleheader in Boston, Merullo set a major league record. It was the day his first child had been born and after playing the entire first game on little sleep, the Cubs shortstop made four errors in one inning, booting two grounders and then making errant throws on both. As a result, Len Jr. would forever be known as “Boots.”

Merullo also enjoyed a long and successful career as a scout, working for the Cubs from 1950 to 1972 before joining the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau. He retired in 2003, ending a 64-year career in professional baseball. In 2006 the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America presented him with the Judge Emil Fuchs Memorial Award for his contributions to baseball. At the time of his death on May 30, 2015, at age 98, he was the last living Cubs player from the 1945 World Series.

Merullo’s son, Len, Jr., aka “Boots,” played in the Pirates minor league system for three years, and his grandson, Matt, had a six-year major league career with three teams, mainly as a catcher.