View Full Version : Youngest player in the Bigs...
SkooterPhil#10
09-29-01, 12:02 PM
Joe Nuxhall at age 15. 15!!! :eek:
He pitched 2/3rds an inning and gave up 5 runs, allowing 5 walks and 2 hits. He didn't return to the Majors until he was 23.
:lol:
penguin4
09-29-01, 12:41 PM
You forgot to mention that it was 1944-- wartime when they were desperate for players, and would take just about anyone who could throw the ball 60 feet 6 inches.
Nuxhall actually went on to a pretty respectable career. 135-117 with a 3.90 ERA in 15 full big-league seasons, most of which were with Cincinatti.
SkooterPhil#10
09-29-01, 03:26 PM
Originally posted by penguin4
You forgot to mention that it was 1944-- wartime when they were desperate for players, and would take just about anyone who could throw the ball 60 feet 6 inches.
Nuxhall actually went on to a pretty respectable career. 135-117 with a 3.90 ERA in 15 full big-league seasons, most of which were with Cincinatti.
Yea, but still. FIFTEEN! A guy missing his arm also played during that time.
Slippery Elm
09-29-01, 07:11 PM
We all know about Nuxhall. Now tell us who was the SECOND youngest. I've long wondered about that.
#1YankeeLover
09-29-01, 10:57 PM
I'm older than he was . . . :lol: :lol: :lol:
-#1YankeeLover
RogerRacer
09-30-01, 01:41 PM
Originally posted by Slippery Elm
We all know about Nuxhall. Now tell us who was the SECOND youngest. I've long wondered about that. I know that Bob Feller was 17 when he came up for the Indians, in 1936. He stayed with the major league team as well, while Nuxhall pitched one game, one inning, giving up five walks, two hits, and five runs. He didn't pitch again until 1952. Still, 15 years old- what a fantasy for any pimply-faced kid from Hamilton, Ohio. (I may have exagerated about the pimply-face part...)
weirdwriter
09-30-01, 11:03 PM
I don't remember the exact age of the kid, but there was once a team playing and they were losing by enough for them not to really care. And so the manager sent up the bat boy. The other team protested and the kid was fired soon afterwards. But he must have been really little too.
penguin4
09-30-01, 11:18 PM
http://baseball-almanac.com/rb_ten1.shtml
Well, I dont know if this site will help, but for the record, Jim Curry was the youngest AL player, when he debuted at 16 years, 6 months in 1909.
Allonsanfan
10-01-01, 08:10 AM
Joe Nuxhall wasn't the youngest player in the history of the ML.Fred Chapman was.He played in 1887 for the Philadelphia in the American Association(a major league then).Chapman was still 14 years old while playing.He celebrated his 15th birthday on November 25, 1887.
1TonHumanHamsterWheel
10-04-01, 01:49 PM
Nuxhall's still involved with the game now. He announces Reds games on the radio with HOF announcer Marty Brennaman.
deranged2005
10-04-01, 02:06 PM
I know some kid that could have been in the Bigs 50 years ago!
Feller came to the Indians right out of HS, oitching a ML game just a few days after his graduation. I believe he pitched a game where he had 18K's in his rookie year.
Other oddities were;
Eddie Gaedell in 1954 pinch hit for the Baltimore Orioles as a publicity stunt. He was the shortest player in ML history. He was 3' 7" and 65#'s.
I believe Randy Johnson at 6'11" is the tallest ever to be in ML baseball.
It is interesting that quite a few Pro basketball stars also played ML baseball.
Included and Gene Conley, Dave DuBuschere, Danny Ainge, Bill Sharman. Winfield had the talent to play both pro baseketball and football along with baseball.
Incidentally, the late ML Umpire, I believe it was Cal Hubbard is enshrined in both the MLB and Pro Football Hall of Fames, the only person to share that distinction.
Sixty one
11-02-01, 09:07 AM
Didn't Texas have a pitcher who they signed to a big contract right out of high school and had him brought to the bigs that same summer. If I remember correctly he was a lefty and never really made it. I can't remember his name but I think he was a lefty!
Slippery Elm
11-02-01, 06:09 PM
DAVID CLYDE!! A blast from the past. What a phenom BUST!
BTW, Eddie Gaedel was beaten to death in a mugging about a decade after the famous at bat. What kind of creep would mug a midget??
Sixty one
11-02-01, 10:46 PM
Yes, David Clyde was the lefty that I was referring to. I think he lost his confidence after being rushed to the majors by Texas. Arizona better be careful that they haven't ruined their young closer Kim after what the Yankees have done to this young man in the past two games.
Agreed. He is very vulnerable now. They need a sports psychologist to help him.
Not to be maudeline but I remember a player committing suicide because of his WS performance
Sixty one
11-04-01, 12:28 PM
I believe that was Donny Moore who pitched for the Angels. He gave up the winning run for the Red Sox to advance to the ACLS. However, I don't think he committed suicide right after that year. It may have been a few years later.
Slippery Elm
11-04-01, 12:42 PM
It was. He also tried to whack his wife at the same time but only wounded her.
coalcracker
11-04-01, 02:19 PM
Originally posted by SkooterPhil#10
Yea, but still. FIFTEEN! A guy missing his arm also played during that time.
Yes, the player was Pete Gray. Born in Nanticoke, PA - not to far from the birthplace of the Moose - Williamsport.
Gray played one year in the majors with the St Louis Browns. He played in 77 games and batted .218 He fielded .959 in 61 games, w/162 PO's, 3 assists, 1 DP, and 7 errors. Even with the watered down pitchers due to WWII, he was overmatched and was released the following year. Even at that, Pete Gray's one year in the majors has to be considered one of baseball's most outstandingn feats, IMO
BTW, in a doubleheader at the Stadium in May 1945, against our Bombers, Pete had 4 hits, scored twice, drove in two, and handled 9 chances in the outfield.
SkooterPhil#10
11-07-01, 07:18 PM
Originally posted by Slippery Elm
DAVID CLYDE!! A blast from the past. What a phenom BUST!
BTW, Eddie Gaedel was beaten to death in a mugging about a decade after the famous at bat. What kind of creep would mug a midget??
Probably a pitcher! :lol: Sorry that was a sick joke. Anywho, Gaedel has a 1.000 OBP and he averages 162 walks per season!
But he didn't play for the Orioles, it was the St. Louis Browns.
#1YankeeLover
11-11-01, 07:28 PM
How does a guy play baseball with one arm?!?!
-#1YankeeLover
penguin4
11-11-01, 08:36 PM
Very interesting. He had this stubble of an arm (since he lost it in some accident when he was young), so what he used to do in the field is catch the ball in his glove and use his other armpit to pry it off his hand, thus rolling the ball free, catching it with the now-free hand, and throwing it in. He reputedly got so good at it, that unless you paid attention, you wouldn't even notice the switch.
Swinging the bat, he used to just use the one arm, which must've been extremely strong. Major league pitchers, unlike the guys in the bushleagues, however, soon figured out he couldn't touch the outside pitch because of this inevitable lack of leverage, and that led to his eventual downfall -- his lifetime batting average was only .218 or so.
They made a TV movie about his life a few years back called A Winner Never Quits, i think it was called. You should try to catch it if it's ever on; as far as TV movies go it wasn't so bad.
#1YankeeLover
11-11-01, 10:13 PM
That sounds rather unusual . . . I'd like to see that!! (Well, not today, obviously, since I'd like to have everyone keep their arms, but I'd like to see how this guy did it.)
-#1YankeeLover
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