Nick Strincevich

Nicholas Strincevich
(Jumbo)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut April 23, 1940
• Final Game June 11, 1948
• Born March 1, 1915 in Gary, IN USA
• Died November 11, 2011 in Valparaiso, IN USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Nick Strincevich was in the majors eight years. In his best years, he went 14-7 with two saves for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1944 and 16-10 with two saves in 1945. Both teams were managed by Frankie Frisch.

Nick was born in 1915 in Gary, IN, in northwest Indiana. He pitched in the minors from 1935-1939, mostly in the New York Yankees organization, before the Boston Bees drafted him away in October 1939. From 1936 to 1938 he had gone 10-8, 11-8 and 11-4 in the minors.

He pitched for Casey Stengel's Boston Bees in 1940 and early 1941, by which time they had reverted to their former name, the Braves, before getting traded to the Pirates for the 35-year-old Lloyd Waner. He had been injured in spring training of 1941 when a ball fractured his skull. He spent some time in the majors in 1941 and 1942 with the Pirates, but was also in the minors with the Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Maple Leafs from 1941 to 1943, going 4-2 for Milwaukee and 12-10 and 15-7 for Toronto.

1944 and 1945 were his best years, and then in 1946 his ERA stayed almost the same, 3.58, but his record dropped to 10-15, primarily because the team went 63-91. His ERA was better than the team ERA of 3.72.

In 1947, he struggled, going 1-6 with an ERA of 5.26. After brief stints with the Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1948, his major league days were over. He continued to pitch in the minors for Toronto from 1948 to 1950. He then left baseball and went to work for the Budd Company in Gary, retiring as a safety supervisor in 1980.

The book Hardball on the Home Front has a chapter on him. His father was from what is now Bosnia, and was called "Jumbo", so the two got called "Big Jumbo" and "Little Jumbo". Nick played baseball as a youngster and also worked long days in the sheet mill after his sophomore year in high school during the Depression. He also played on the mill team and another semi-pro team. He was discovered by a former minor leaguer, Bob Prysock, against whose team Nick got 18 strikeouts.

Prysock told the Yankees about him and they signed Nick after he threw batting practice to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and others. Nick continued to work sometimes in the mill, and earned a wartime deferment as a result for part of the war.

At the time of his death in 2011, Strincevich was the third oldest living MLB player, at age 96.

Notable Achievements

• 15 Wins Seasons: 1 (1945)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 1 (1945)