Charley Stanceu
Charles Stanceu
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.
- High School McKinley High School (Canton)
- Debut April 16, 1941
- Final Game September 26, 1946
- Born January 9, 1916 in Canton, OH USA
- Died April 3, 1969 in Canton, OH USA
Biographical Information[edit]
" . . . he's the toughest pitcher I ever tackled. He had that blamed slider pitch and there was nothing I could do with it." - Phil Weintraub, talking about Stanceu in the minors, quoted at Rob Neyer's website
Charley Stanceu pitched before World War II and after the War, and was a member of the 1941 Yankees who won the 1941 World Series. One site says he was the first Romanian-American player in major league baseball.
Born in Canton, OH, he played minor league ball beginning in 1934 and ending in 1949. Perhaps his best success was with the 1940 Kansas City Blues for which he went 15-8. After his major league days he pitched three seasons for Columbus.
Phil Rizzuto was a teammate on the 1940 Kansas City and 1941 New York Yankees teams, and predicted success for Stanceu. The site just mentioned has a photo of Rizzuto and Stanceu taken in 1941 in street clothes in front of Rizzuto's family's home.
Stanceu appeared in 22 games for the 1941 Yankees, a team which won 101 games as well as the 1941 World Series.
During World War II, he was in the Army.
He came back in 1946 to pitch some more for the 1946 Yankees as well as for the 1946 Phillies. After three games in 1946 with the Yankees, he was selected off waivers by the Phillies and pitched in 14 more games for them that season.
He was remembered in an April 22, 2007 article in the San Francisco Chronicle when three players on the 2007 Yankees got their first wins back to back on successive days. The article said it hadn't happened since May 20-22, 1941, when Norm Branch, Charley Stanceu and Steve Peek had done it.
Notable Achievements[edit]
- Won a World Series with the New York Yankees in 1941 (he did not play in the World Series)
We're Social...for Statheads
Every Sports Reference Social Media Account
Site Last Updated:
Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction?
Subscribe to our Free Email Newsletter
Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE
Your All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database
Do you have a sports website? Or write about sports? We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Find out more.