Born in
Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Early began his
professional baseball career in at the age of 21 with the Jacksonville Tars of the
South Atlantic League. By , he had moved up to the
Charlotte Hornetts of the
Piedmont League where he posted a .316
batting average in 97 games. The Senators traded Ferrell to the St. Louis Browns in May
1941, leaving Early to share catching duties with
Al Evans. Early out-hit Evans and ended the season having caught the majority of the team's games with a career-high batting average of .284 along with 54
runs batted in and a team-high 10
home runs. Although his batting average dropped to .204, he led American League catchers in
assists and in baserunners
caught stealing, and finished second in
putouts. Early developed a reputation as a talkative player on the field, using several methods to distract the hitter. He had the arduous task of catching for a Senators' starting pitching staff that included four knuckleball pitchers.
Dutch Leonard,
Johnny Niggeling,
Roger Wolff and
Mickey Haefner all threw the notoriously difficult to catch knuckleball. Further recognition came when he was selected to be the starting catcher for the American League in the
1943 All-Star Game. The difficulty in catching the knuckleball was evident as Early led the league in
passed balls allowed. In December 1943, Early was called into military service and was inducted into the United States Army. He was assigned to an artillery unit attached to the
87th Infantry Division and fought in the
Battle of the Bulge. He lost two years of his baseball career while he served in the Army. In
1947, he
platooned alongside catcher
Les Moss, hitting for a .224 average along with a career-high
on-base percentage of .381 in 87 games. In
1949, he split his playing time between the minor league
Chattanooga Lookouts and the Washington Senators. After being released by the Senators in February , he played five more seasons in
minor league baseball, including four seasons with the
Minneapolis Millers before retiring in at the age of 39. ==Career statistics==