Joe Margoneri

Joseph Emanuel Margoneri

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.
• High School South Huntingdon High School
• Debut April 25, 1956
• Final Game June 3, 1957
• Born January 13, 1930 in Somerset, PA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Left-hander Joe Margoneri led his league in strikeouts three times.

He was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Giants before the 1950 season. The twenty-year-old pitcher was assigned to the Oshkosh Giants of the Wisconsin State League where he went 23-4 with a 2.70 ERA and leading the league with both his 23 victories and 288 strikeouts in 227 innings and was named as the All-Star pitcher. He struck out 120 more batters than anyone else in the circuit, but "only" finished 4th in ERA.

Joe came right back in 1951 with the Sunbury Giants of the class B Interstate League and racked up a 18-8 record with a 2.39 ERA, again leading his league with 212 strikeouts and making the All-Star team.

Margoneri spent the next two seasons (1952-1953) with the United States Military during the Korean War. He arrived back in time for the 1954 season with the Nashville Vols of the Southern Association, going 15-10 with a 4.50 ERA and leading the league with 184 strikeouts.

During that 1954 offseason, Margoneri played with for the Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League. The team finished second in the 1955 Caribbean Series, where he faced his future teammate Willie Mays, who was playing for the Santurce Crabbers of Puerto Rico. Santurce lost its only game of the Series against Margoneri, who limited the opponent to two runs in a complete game.

Joe was with the AAA Minneapolis Millers in 1955 and won 9 and lost 6, getting his chance to try on big league hitters for size when the Giants called him up in 1956. Joe appeared in 23 games and went 6-6 with a 3.93 ERA. In 1957, he got one more chance in the majors. Joe went 1-1 in 13 appearances and this finished up his big league career with a 7-7 record and a 4.29 ERA.

At age 27, Joe wasn't quite ready to call it a career just yet and he headed back to the high minors where he stayed until 1960, but no calls came and the thirty-year-old finished with the AAA Indianapolis Indians with a record of 88-52 and a 3.71 ERA over his nine active seasons in the minors leagues.

From 1962 to 1991, Margoneri was in the corrugated paper business as a supervisor for the International Paper Company and the St. Regis Paper Company in Pittsburgh, PA. He then retired to West Newton, PA.

His grand-daughter Nicole Sleith played softball as the main pitcher for Robert Morris University.

Sources

Baseball Players of the 1950s

Related Sites

• BR Minors page