Ike Delock

Ivan Martin Delock

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.
• High School Highland Park (MI) High School
• Debut April 17, 1952
• Final Game July 13, 1963
• Born November 11, 1929 in Highland Park, MI USA
• Died February 28, 2022 in Raleigh, NC USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Before the 1948 season Ike Delock was signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent. The Sox assigned the 18-year-old righthander to the class C Auburn Cayugas for his initial season. The young pitcher responded with a 5-5 record with a 5.16 ERA. In 1949 he appeared in 33 games for the Oneonta Red Sox and went 12-13 with a 4.21 ERA.

Things started to look up and Ike's record improved to 15-8 with a 2.87 ERA for the 1950 class B Roanoke Red Sox. His 1951 season was even better with a 20-4 record and a 1.92 ERA for the Scranton Red Sox. In 1952, at age 22, Delock made his first appearance in a major league uniform with the Red Sox. It was a little rough starting out and Ike went 4-9 with a 4.26 ERA his first year up. He also spent time with the AAA Louisville Colonels that season, where he went 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA.

1953 saw him split the year again with the Red Sox, doing much better with 3 wins and 1 loss in 23 appearances and then falling a bit with Louisville, going 3-6 in 12 games. 1954 was Delock's last year in the minors. The 24-year-old went 17-10 with a 3.29 ERA for the Louisville squad and never looked back.

When Ike put on his Boston uniform in 1955 he would remain a member of their mound corps until 1963. His eleven years in a Red Sox uniform was a longevity record for a pitcher with the team until Bob Stanley made his run from 1977 to 1989.

Delock stated: "I was a starter in the minors and preferred it to relieving." In 1956, when he had a record of 13-7, his 11 wins out of the bullpen were the most in the American League. In 1958, he started out with four straight wins in relief and was moved into the starting rotation where he won his first six starts for a 10-0 record on his way to finishing with a career-high 14 victories.

Delock, who closed out his career with the Baltimore Orioles in 1963, was 84-75 in his major league career, including a 34-15 mark in relief, with 31 saves and a 4.03 lifetime ERA. His minor league record shows that he appeared in 176 contests, winning 74 and losing 47 for a 3.52 ERA. Ike had been in pro baseball from 1948 through 1963, a total of 16 years.

After baseball Delock stayed in Boston, MA and worked in various sales jobs before owning a small construction business. He also was head coach of Brandeis University. Ike retired in 1988 and moved with his family to Naples, FL. He passed away in 2022 in Raleigh, NC at the age of 92.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page

Further Reading

• Ray Birch: "Ike Delock", in Mark Armour and Bill Nowlin, eds.: Red Sox Baseball in the Days of Ike and Elvis: The Red Sox of the 1950s, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2012, pp. 36-41. ISBN 978-1933599243

Related Sites

• Ike Delock at the SABR Bio Project