THE YOUNG GUN

Author

Matthew Garringer
July 06, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Ozzie Guillén hates Nick Swisher.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about the youngest player to ever take the field in a major-league game.

The first half of the 1940s were a weird time for baseball.

America was in the throes of World War II, and some of the best talent in the league went off to fight for our country.

More than 500 big leaguers joined the armed forces during World War II - guys like Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, and Ted Williams all served during that time.

Over 4,000 minor leaguers also spent time in the military.

Big-league teams were desperate for ballplayers and they were letting just about anybody in the door.

Carl Scheib pitched for the Philadelphia A’s at the age of 16, and the St. Louis Browns signed a one-armed outfielder named Pete Gray.

In 1944, the Reds signed a 15-year-old kid named Joe Nuxhall.

He was certainly no scrub, but he definitely wasn’t ready for the big leagues.

The kid was definitely big for his age, 6’ 3” and 195 pounds.

His dad, Orville, also had a good arm and attracted the attention of some Reds scouts who came out to see him pitch.

Apparently, while they were scouting Orville, they spotted his son who played in the men’s league with guys eight years older than him.

Clearly impressed, they offered to sign Joe on the spot, but he declined because he was playing basketball for his junior-high team, which had a chance to win the league conference at the time.

But after that season ended, Joe inked a contract with the Reds for a $500 signing bonus and $175 per month.

He started the 1944 season with the team and attended games at night and on the weekend when he wasn’t in school.

Joe didn’t actually expect to play much, mostly he was just taking it all in.

But on June 10, he got the call.

Cincinnati was playing Stan Musial and the Cardinals that afternoon at Crosley Field.

It was an uncharacteristic performance for the Reds’ pitching staff - which was pretty amazing that year.

Collectively, the Red’s staff had the second-lowest ERA in the league, but their offense was an absolute dumpster fire - they were second to last in runs scored.

By the second inning, the score was already 7-0, and by the end, it was a complete f**king blowout.

Joe came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth, the score was 13-0.

When Nuxhall came into the game, he did okay initially, he had two outs with a man on first, but then Deb Garms, the former NL Batting Champ, stepped in the box.

Right away, the wheels started falling off.

Joe got rattled and threw a wild pitch, the runner moved to second.

He walked Garms, and Stan Musial singled to load the bases.

Nuxhall proceeded to have a complete meltdown and give up five runs.

That was his last appearance in the big leagues, until eight years later when he made it back to the show with Cincinnati as a 23-year-old.

He went on to play in the Major Leagues for 16 years, and made back-to-back all-star teams in ’55 and ’56.

After retiring as a player he became an announcer for the Reds in a career that spanned 38 seasons.

Joe still hold the major-league record for being the youngest player to ever debut in the MLB at 15 years, 10 months, and 11 days.

There might not be a bigger Dead Head in baseball than Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Ryan.

Our friends at Homage teamed up with him to create a Grateful Dead collection that’s a first-of-its-kind player collaboration for the brand.

And honestly, it turned out great:

Smash the button below to go straight to the collection.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Before he and Ty Cobb were teammates, Vernon “Slicker” Parks was the ace for the University of Michigan baseball team.

He was voted to be the team captain in 1920, and then was re-elected the next year, but he became ineligible after a paper published a photograph of him playing professional baseball in Portland under the name “Harold Brooks.”

Slicker had a super short career with the Detroit Tigers, but he played for a boatload of other teams throughout the next decade.

According to the internet, he played for 10 different squads from 1922 to 1932.

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