Joe Nuxhall and Barry Bonds
Posted by Andy on November 16, 2007
I just heard that Joe Nuxhall passed away. Lots has been written about his interesting career as both a player and broadcaster, so I won't try to add to that. But here are all the pitchers since 1901 under the age of 18:
Cnt Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+---+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Joe Nuxhall 1944 15 CIN NL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 2 5 5 5 0 67.50 5 0 9 0 0 1 0 2 Jim Derrington 1956 16 CHW AL 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 0 6 9 6 5 6 3 7.50 55 2 31 0 0 1 0 0 3 Rogers McKee 1943 16 PHI NL 4 1 1 0 2 1 0 1.000 0 13.1 12 9 9 5 1 6.08 55 0 59 0 0 2 0 4 Carl Scheib 1943 16 PHA AL 6 0 0 0 5 0 1 .000 0 18.2 24 14 9 3 3 4.34 78 4 85 1 0 0 0 5 Jay Dahl 1963 17 HOU NL 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 0 2.2 7 7 5 0 0 16.88 19 0 16 16 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .438 .438 .500 .938 188 6 Jim Derrington 1957 17 CHW AL 20 5 0 0 4 0 1 .000 0 37 29 21 20 29 14 4.86 77 4 166 134 7 0 0 1 1 1 3 2 2 0 0 1 .216 .358 .358 .716 102 7 Larry Dierker 1964 17 HOU NL 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 .000 0 9 7 4 2 3 5 2.00 171 1 36 32 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 .219 .278 .313 .591 77 8 Bob Feller 1936 17 CLE AL 14 8 5 0 5 5 3 .625 1 62 52 29 23 47 76 3.34 154 1 279 4 3 8 0 9 Chris Haughey 1943 17 BRO NL 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 .000 0 7 5 6 3 10 0 3.86 87 0 33 0 0 0 0 10 Art Houtteman 1945 17 DET AL 13 0 0 0 9 0 2 .000 0 25.1 27 17 15 11 9 5.33 66 1 116 1 0 0 0 11 Joey Jay 1953 17 MLN NL 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 1.000 0 10 6 0 0 5 4 0.00 0 0 37 0 0 1 0 12 Harry Macpherson 1944 17 BSN NL 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.00 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 13 Mike McCormick 1956 17 NYG NL 3 2 0 0 1 0 1 .000 0 6.2 7 7 7 10 4 9.45 40 1 36 0 0 1 0 0 14 Stover McIlwain 1957 17 CHW AL 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0.00 0 0 5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .500 .600 .500 1.100 214 15 Rogers McKee 1944 17 PHI NL 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 0 4.50 80 1 9 0 0 0 0 16 Bob Miller 1953 17 DET AL 13 1 0 0 8 1 2 .333 0 36.1 43 25 24 21 9 5.94 69 2 171 1 0 3 0 17 Ron Moeller 1956 17 BAL AL 4 1 0 0 3 0 1 .000 0 8.2 10 5 4 3 2 4.15 94 0 39 0 0 0 1 0 18 Charlie Osgood 1944 17 BRO NL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 1 3 0 3.00 118 0 13 1 0 0 0 19 Claude Osteen 1957 17 CIN NL 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 4 1 1 3 3 2.25 181 0 19 16 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .250 .368 .313 .681 88 20 Carl Scheib 1944 17 PHA AL 15 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 36.1 36 18 17 11 13 4.21 82 1 156 4 2 1 0 21 Dave Skaugstad 1957 17 CIN NL 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5.2 4 1 1 6 4 1.59 256 0 27 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .190 .370 .238 .608 70 22 Chuck Stobbs 1947 17 BOS AL 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 0 9 10 6 6 10 5 6.00 65 0 45 0 0 1 0 23 Lefty Weinert 1919 17 PHI NL 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 11 9 8 2 0 18.00 18 0 25 0 0 0 0 24 George Werley 1956 17 BAL AL 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 0 9.00 43 0 6 0 0 0 0 0
Notice, too, that after appearing at age 15, he didn't come back to the big leagues until age 23. How many other players can you name with 7+ year layoffs from big league activity? The other one who comes to mind right away is Minnie Minoso.
And I just wanted to add some thoughts about Barry Bonds' indictment. Based on the very long due process that has occurred, it seems like to me that he will be convicted although will probably serve only a token jail sentence. However, this penalty is a lot more severe than has been faced by any player who tested positive for a banned substance (which Bonds has not.) This indictment, and the likely conviction to follow, will probably do more to elicit compliance from baseball players, at least when it comes to answering questions about PEDs in MLB. The timing of the whole thing is odd to me: had Bonds' indictment on obstruction of justice come before George Mitchell's investigation was completed, the former senator may have obtained a lot more useful information from players. Still, it will be interesting to see what he did find once the report is released in the coming weeks.
November 16th, 2007 at 9:59 am
By the way, this guy Lester Munson is amazing:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=3112878
He's a lawyer who has given opinions on some of the high-profile sports cases from the last few years. Within a few weeks of Michael Vick being investigated on the dog-fighting charges (well before the real legal troubles) I heard an interview with Munson where he predicted everything that has since happened to Vick, exactly correctly. So I put a lot of stock in what he predicts for Bonds, which (among other things) is 1-2 years in jail.
November 16th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Satchel Paige, very much like Minoso, had a 12-year layoff followed by a brief comeback to the bigs.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:47 am
[...] just because Andy wrote a Joe Nuxhall blurb, that doesn’t mean I can’t, [...]
November 16th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I should mention that apparently the indictment does indicate that Bonds had a positive test for steroids. It isn't clear to me whether this was an MLB test. I am guessing that it was a test from the earlier period where MLB was not under obligation to release the names.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Jim Bauman played only two limited seasons in the majors, 1949 & 1961 and not a single game during the 1950s.
Jack
November 16th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Make that Jim Baumer (sorry).
Jack
November 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Regarding layoffs heres everything you'd want to know:
http://mikesrants.baseballtoaster.com/archives/17145.html
From that article:
Finally, here are the players who missed fifteen or more straight seasons before coming back to the majors:
Name Yr Age Gap
Paul Schreiber 1945 42 21
Charley O'Leary 1934 51 20
Gabby Street 1931 48 18
Clay Touchstone 1945 42 15
November 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Ferrell Anderson had a six year hiatus between seasons.
November 16th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
For some reason your apostrophe doesn't work. This should work if you're copying and pasting:
Charley O'Leary
November 17th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
By the way OscarAzocar, great work here!
November 17th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Yeah...I appreciate all the commenters here, especially those of you who check in fairly often, but I give a special shout-out to Oscar, who has made quite a few high value-added comments over the last several months.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
With regard to these teenagers, I wish I knew what the rule was at various times about the age at which they could be signed, according to MLB rules.
For example, Richie Ashburn was first signed by the Cleveland Indians, but that contract was voided because, I believe, he hadn't yet graduated from high school. Does that mean that all these other 16- AND 17-year-olds from 1945 and before HAD graduated from high school? (And this list is limited to the signees who played in the majors by these ages.)
Ashburn turned 18 on March 19, 1945. No doubt the rule about when a player could be "legally" signed has changed, probably several times, since Cleveland lost its rights to Ashburn.
November 17th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Thank you kingturtle and Andy
November 18th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Dierker counts as 17 years old? I remember being at the game when he made his debut on his 18th birthday...
November 18th, 2007 at 9:19 am
I was waiting for someone to ask about the age thing. Ages are calculated on June 30th of the year in question. On June 30 1964, Dierker was indeed 17 years old, but you are absolutely correct that by the time he debuted on September 22 1964, he had just turned 18 that day.
December 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I got another guy with a long layoff from MLB: Warren Cromartie. He spent 1984 to 1990 in Japan, giving him an 8-year layoff.