Fastball John

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Fastball John is gaining again in popularity. You can buy a copy at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Most bookstores have it by ordering it.

Roman Anthony Semproch (born January 7, 1931), also known as Baby and Ray, is a retired right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1958 to 1961 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels.

He was signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1951, but he did not make his big league debut until many years later – on April 15, 1958, against the Cincinnati Reds. The year prior, he'd gone 12–4 with a 2.64 ERA for the Triple-A Miami Marlins. In his first major league game, he gave up a hit and a walk, struck out two, and earned the win in a three-inning relief appearance. Overall, he went 13–11 with a 3.92 ERA in 36 big league games (30 starts) that season. Although he was leading the league in wins at mid-season, his success tapered off and he finished with a winning percentage slightly higher than .500.

Asthmatic, Semproch never lived up to his rookie season's success. In 1959, he went only 3–10 with a 5.40 ERA in 30 games (18 starts). He was traded to the Tigers on December 5, 1959 with Chico Fernandez for Ken Walters, Ted Lepcio, and minor leaguer Alex Cosmidis. In 17 relief appearances for the Tigers in 1960, he had an ERA of 4.00 and a record of 3–0. Despite that moderate success, he was traded on June 15, 1960, to the Los Angeles Dodgers with cash for Clem Labine. He would never play in a Dodgers uniform.

On November 28, 1960, he was drafted by the Washington Senators in the Rule 5 draft (he and John Gabler were the first two player acquired by the "new" Washington Senators of 1961). On April 7, 1961, the Angels purchased him from the Senators. He'd appear in only two games for the Angels, posting a 9.00 ERA. He played his final major league game on May 2, 1961.

Overall, Semproch went 19–21 with a 4.42 ERA in 85 games (48 starts). In 344 innings, he walked 136 batters and struck out 156. He hit .116 at the plate and had a .965 fielding percentage.

Following his big league career, he worked as a bar manager at his brother's Italian restaurant.

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I Want to be Alone....Abstract

Joseph Richard Jay (August 15, 1935 - September 27, 2024) was an American professional baseball starting pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1953 through 1966, Jay played for the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves (1953–1955, 1957–1960, 1966), and Cincinnati Reds (1961–1966). He was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed.

In a 13-season big league career, Jay posted a 99–91 win–loss record, with 999 strikeouts, and a 3.77 earned run average (ERA), in 1546.1 innings.

In July 2008, he was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

In addition to being the first Little League player to advance to the major leagues, Jay was one of the first "bonus baby" players in the major leagues. This resulted when he signed a significant contract ($20,000) with the Braves, which forced the Braves to keep Jay on their major league roster for two seasons because of the contract's amount. On September 20, 1953, at the age of 17, making his first career start (having pitched only one game in relief previous), he pitched a seven-inning complete game shutout (the game was shortened due to rain), but generally was unremarkable in his two years with the team. Following the end of his two years, he was sent to the minors to gain experience on a staff that already was loaded with Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, Bob Buhl and Lew Burdette. Jay went 7–5 with an ERA of 2.14 in 18 games for the Braves in his best season (1958), becoming the first pitcher (fourth player overall) to win the NL Player of the Month award in July (going 5-2 in seven starts, posting an ERA of 1.39, and earning 46 strikeouts in 58+1⁄3 innings) but a broken finger kept him out of the World Series.

The Braves traded Jay to the Cincinnati Reds after the 1960 season for infielder Roy McMillan. Braves General Manager at the time, John McHale, reportedly made the deal based on the feeling Carl Willey could do a better job for Milwaukee than Jay.

Jay took full advantage of the trade, as he became a key figure in the Reds' stunning revival in 1961. Jay won 21 games (the first pitcher to win 20 since Ewell Blackwell in 1947), tied for the league lead in wins and shutouts, and won his second NL Player of the Month award in May (winning all six starts, including a May 4 one-hitter against the Phillies, a 2.72 ERA, and 38 strikeouts in 51+2⁄3 innings) as the Reds surged to their first National League pennant since 1940. However, the Reds faced a powerful New York Yankees club which won 109 games and featured Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and Wh**ey Ford, as the Reds lost in five games. The lone Reds win occurred in Game 2, a 6-2 victory as Jay threw a complete-game four-hitter at Yankee Stadium, being Jay's single-game career highlight.

On May 1, 1962, at the Polo Grounds, off New York Mets pitcher Sherman Jones, Jay hit a three-run home run (base runners were Wally Post and Leo Cárdenas), in the sixth inning, for his first MLB home run. At Crosley Field, on May 28, 1962, Jay hit his only other career home run, off Houston C**t .45s pitcher Bobby Tiefenauer, in the fifth inning, a two-run blast (Don Zimmer was on base).

Jay also won 21 games in 1962 as the Reds won 98 games to finish in third place behind the Giants and Dodgers. Jay's heavy workload in 1961 and 1962 took a toll the following year, as he struggled to a 7–18 record. Jay posted a mark of 11-11 mark in 1964, as the Reds finished a single game behind the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Jay would finish his career by returning to the Braves for their initial season in Atlanta in 1966.

Jay resided in Florida after retiring from baseball and pursued a business career. An exploration and drilling company in which he was a partner expanded to own several oil fields in West Virginia.[5] In addition, Jay owned or had ownership stakes in taxicab companies, limousine fleets, a carpet-cleaning company and building maintenance firms.

Family
In October 1954, Jay married Lois Elizabeth Bruggen in Middletown, Connecticut. They were the parents of five children.

Jay died in Lutz, Florida on September 27, 2024, at the age of 89.

Leavitt Leo "Bud" Daley (October 7, 1932 – October 15, 2024) was an American professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1955 to 1964. He played for the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics, and New York Yankees.

Leavitt was his father's name. Leo was for St. Leo from his mother's Catholicism. He was called Bud because his mother was an only child and she always wanted a child like her cousin, Buddy Walker. As a player Daley made his home in Orange, California. He was successful in public relations and a skilled speaker. In the offseason he once appeared in seventy-two towns in six states.

Daley was a knuckleball pitcher. who threw curves of two different speeds.[1] He became an All-Star pitcher in 1959 and 1960 for the Kansas City Athletics. During that two-year period, Daley won a total of 32 games and was 3rd in the American League with 16 wins in 1960. In June 1961, he was traded by Kansas City to the New York Yankees, becoming an impact pitcher as the Yanks won the 1961 World Series over the Cincinnati Reds.

Daley was purchased by the Cleveland Indians from the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League on August 18, 1955. The purchase price was not revealed. Daley received offers from five other major league clubs. He signed with the Indians because of his friendship with Bob Lemon, whose children Daley used to babysit for.

He dropped his first major league start at Briggs Stadium in a 6–2 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Harvey Kuenn hit an 8th-inning home run in a game in which the Tigers reached Daley for nine of ten hits in the first six innings. Daley was optioned to the Indianapolis Indians on July 4, 1956. On September 7 he was one of 7 players recalled from the American Association farm team.

On March 31, 1958, Daley was traded, along with Gene Woodling and Dick Williams, to the Baltimore Orioles, for Larry Doby and Don Ferrarese. On April 18 Daley was traded to the Athletics for pitcher Arnie Portocarrero.

Daley put together a 4-game win streak in 1959. On June 6 he beat the Orioles 5–1, for his 5th win of the season. He conceded five hits to Baltimore, and afterwards, had allowed only a single run in his previous four games. Casey Stengel selected Daley as one of seven pitchers he picked for the American League All-Star team on July 2. Daley pitched a 5-hitter against the Orioles on July 21. The 8–1 win would have been a shutout except for a homer by Walt Dropo, which Daley gave up with two out in the 9th inning. Kansas City earned its 6th straight victory with a 3–0, 4-hitter, thrown by Daley against Boston, on July 25. For the 7th place Athletics Daley achieved a 16–13 record with a 3.17 ERA in 1959. On July 29 Daley was sidelined with an infected knee, which had hurt while sliding. His record was 11–6. He gained his 12th win against the Washington Senators with relief help from Tom Sturdivant. Daley concluded the 1959 season with a 16–13 record.

Bob Cerv hit two home runs which assisted Daley in stopping a four-game winning streak by the Detroit Tigers, in May 1960. He earned his 10th victory of the season in June with an 11-7 decision over the Boston Red Sox. He yielded 7 earned runs, 4 of them on 2 home runs and a run scoring single by Ted Williams. Daley suffered his 16th setback against the Tigers on October 2, in a 6–4 loss. He had an equal number of wins.

He was traded to the New York Yankees after being relegated to the Kansas City bullpen during the 1961 season. The move impaired his effectiveness as a pitcher. Frank Lane was responsible for trading Daley to the Athletics and then to the Yankees.

Daley knew how to throw a spitball, describing the process to Ned Garver when both were with the Athletics. First, Daley would make his thumb and fingers moist. Then, he would hold them by the white part of the baseball, not on the seams. He tried to squeeze it like a watermelon seed as he threw it. This would keep the ball from spinning and often cause it to sink.

Daley died in Riverton, Wyoming, on October 15, 2024, at the age of 92.

Daley's right arm was one inch shorter than his left, and he was unable to fully straighten it. It is often rumored that Daley was born naturally right-handed but developed polio as a child, "withering" his right arm. In fact Daley was born left-handed and his right arm and side were healthy. He did suffer temporary paralysis to his right arm after birth due to forceps pinching a nerve. However, massage and exercise restored the limb to health. Daley's mother, Mrs. E.G. Petzoldt, once said, "No one wanted a baby more than I did. But Buddy was so crippled I didn't want him to live." Although he could barely raise it high enough to comb his hair, Daley himself said that he has been living with it all his life without feeling handicapped a bit. In fact, Daley served as a fifth infielder, was competitive as a batter, shot golf in the low 80s, and was a proficient fisherman.

RIP Bud Daley

Gaylen Richard Pitts (June 6, 1946 – October 10, 2024) was an American professional baseball player, manager and baseball coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and coached in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

As a player, Pitts threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg). Pitts signed with St. Louis as a shortstop in 1964 after graduating from Mountain Home High School in Arkansas, and reached the Triple-A level with the Tulsa Oilers of the American Association in 1970. The following season, he was acquired by Oakland in a minor league transaction.

Pitts' Major League experience came with the Oakland Athletics during brief call-ups during the 1974 and 1975 seasons. He appeared in 28 games, batted 44 times, and compiled a batting average of .250, with four doubles and four runs batted in. However, Pitts spent most of his career in the Cardinals' organization.

In the minor leagues, Pitts played all four infield positions for 11 total seasons spanning from 1964 to 1977.

Pitts' managing career began with two seasons (1978–1979) in the A's farm system managing the Modesto A's. He returned to the Cardinals in 1981 as a minor-league manager and spent most of his career with the club. With extensive experience in the minor leagues as a skipper and a roving instructor, Pitts managed at Arkansas in 1981, 1982 and 1989, Savannah in 1985, the Springfield in 1986–87 and Johnson City. He guided Springfield to division titles in 1986 and 1987 and Arkansas to a league championship in 1989, earning him Texas League Manager of the Year honors.

Pitts' first five years coaching for the Major League club occurred from (1991 to 1995) on Joe Torre's staff when Torre was the manager of the Redbirds. His coaching roles included hitting (1991), bullpen (1992 St. Louis Cardinals season), bench coach in 1995.

Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was winning the 2000 Pacific Coast League Championship as manager of the Triple A St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds. In extra innings, Albert Pujols who was at the time 20 years old, hit a walk-off home run to win the title.

During his most recent managerial assignment, he was the 2008 manager of the Palm Beach Cardinals, St. Louis' High-A affiliate in the Florida State League. He opened the 2009 season as the Cards' special assistant for player development and served in that role until joining Matheny's staff.

Pitts managed 19 years in the minor leagues and posted a 1,359-1.298 (.511) record.

Pitts lived in Mountain Home, Arkansas. His hobbies included skiing, racquetball and trout fishing.

Pitts and his wife, Julia, moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2019. Julia died in 2022. Pitts died in Santa Fe on October 10, 2024, at the age of 78.

RIP Gaylen Pitts great coach for the younger players coming up.

Lillies and Fruit abstract still Life