The pride of Portland, Maine,
"Handy" Andy Lano is considered among the greatest athletes to graduate from Portland High School. He captained the school's baseball, basketball, and football teams in his senior year, was part of the championship basketball squad in 1943 and hit .508 for the baseball team in 1946. Primarily a shortstop and pitcher, then, he earned the nickname "Handy" because he was equally adept at any position on the diamond.
After high school, Andy served in the military and played semi-pro ball until he was picked up by the Washington Senators in 1953. A knee injury ended his pro baseball aspirations a few years later.
Lano did make his mark in sports. Working for the E.E. Taylor shoe company, he invented a golf shoe that became a favorite of, and won the endorsements of, golfers Sam Snead and Byron Nelson.
Andy was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He passed away in 2011. A
Memorial Scholarship was established in his name in 2013.
The first two images are from a recent eBay auction. The third, which allegedly features Senators lifer
Clyde Milan on the left (shortly before he died), is from a current and unrelated eBay auction. All 3 are from 1953, when Andy was with the
Bluefield Blue-Grays. I have grey-scaled and cropped all 3 (because I can't help myself).