Earl Halstead

Earle W. Halstead

• Born May 16, 1912 in Sciotoville, OH USA
• Died July 12, 1996 in St. Petersburg, FL USA

Earle Halstead spent most of his life in various capacities in baseball. He was a major league scout, who signed Bob Buhl and Red Murff, both of whom pitched for the World Champion Milwaukee Braves in 1957, was a general manager and owner on the minor league level, and umpired up to the AAA level (and was described as one of the two best umpires, along with Bill McKinley in the minors). He later went on to own and operate the Baseball Blue Book, the "Bible of Baseball", and invented the Tru-Pitch pitching machine, which was the first machine capable of throwing curveballs in batting practice. He also was Vice Chairman of the Pinellas Sports Authority and spent many years trying to help obtain a major league baseball team for Pinellas County, Florida.