Satchel Paige

Leroy Robert Paige (1906-1982)

Paige was a legendary pitcher in Negro leagues, later for the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns. He even pitched three scoreless innings for Kansas City in 1965 at the age of 59.

He's in the Hall of Fame, which is appropriate for many reasons. No pitcher was more famous than the one and only Satchel.

Paige owed much of his fame to his supreme self-confidence and his self-promotion. He was not the most reliable teammate in the Negro leagues because he often cut himself a better deal somewhere else, even if it were just for a special, one-game appearance.

His Negro league statistics are good (123 wins against 79 losses, with 26 shutouts), but he was probably better known for his performances against barnstorming major leaguers who spread the word that Paige was a very special pitcher.

His fame took away attention from other fine Negro league pitchers, such as Bill Foster, Chet Brewer, Ray Brown, Bullet Joe Rogan, William Bell and Andy Cooper.

I'm also intrigued by Stuart "Slim" Jones, who in 1934 had a remarkable 22-3 record for the Philadelphia Stars, reportedly adding 12 more wins in non-league games. He held out for more money in 1935, but was selected to start the Negro leagues all-star game even though he hadn't yet won a game that season.

For Jones it was all downhill from there. Arm trouble, attitude and alcohol reduced him to an ordinary pitcher who would win only 10 more league games in four years – the final four years of his life. He died of pneumonia in 1938. He was only 25.

Stan Partenheimer
Stanwood Wendell Partenheimer (1922-1989)

Partenheimer, a left-handed pitcher, made two brief World War II visits to the major leagues, with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. His full name reminds me of that famous camp song, 'John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmitt'.

However, there should be no jokes about Partenheimer, who was such an outstanding high school player that he is in the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame. He went on to become coach and athletic director at Sewickly Academy near Pittsburgh. The school's Hall of Fame is located in the Stanwood Partenheimer Room.

Partenheimer made nine pitching appearances, eight of them for the Cardinals in 1945. He was involved in no decisions, even though he started three games. His father, Steve, played one game at third base for Detroit in 1913.

Johnny Peacock
John Gaston Peacock (1910-1981)

Peacock was a catcher (1937-45) who spent most of that time with the Boston Red Sox. I can hear the announcer now: "Peacock struts to the mound for a talk with his pitcher."

Little did he know when he hit his first home run in 1938 that it would also be his last. He's one of the few catchers who ended his career with more stolen bases (14) than homers.

Wily Mo Pena
Wily Mo Pena (1982- )

The outfielder broke in with Cincinnati in 2002 and showed lots of promise. At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Pena had the look of a guy who'd deliver 40-plus home runs every season. However, the Reds parted company with Pena in 2005. He moved to the Boston Red Sox, but was on the disabled list much of the 2006 season. He spent most of 2007 with the Red Sox, but felt underused. Finally, in mid-August, he was dealt back to the National League, this time with Washington. He got off to a good start with the Nationals, homering in his first two games. He finished the season with a .293 batting average for Washington, with 8 home runs in 37 games. However, he struck out 36 times.

Pena has a unique name, though I'd like it better if Wily were pronounced the way it is spelled.

Kewpie Pennington
George Louis Pennington (1896-1953)

New York City-born Pennington was such a highly regarded young athlete that he was given a major league tryout in 1911 when he was only 14. However, his entire major league career was played out in one inning in 1917 when he made a relief appearance for the St. Louis Browns. He gave up one hit, no runs, with no strike outs or walks.

At 5-foot-8, Pennington was not a dominating pitcher, though he did hang around for many years in the minor leagues, afterward settling in Newark, NJ, where he had pitched for its Bears, an International League affiliate of the New York Yankees. Later he became manager of Bankers Indemnity Insurance Company of Newark.

Pretzels Pezzullo
John Pezzullo (1910-1990)

A pitcher, he was 3-5 with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1935, but in his only 1936 appearance had obvious control problems, walking six batters in two innings. Exit Pretzels.

Lip Pike
Lipman Emanuel Pike (1845-1893)

Pike is regarded as the first professional baseball player, accepting $20 a week in 1866 to play for the first team to be known as the Philadelphia Athletics. Other players soon followed suit, with Cincinnat's Red Stockings assembling the first all-professional team.

Pike played for and managed the Troy (NY) Haymakers in the first professional league, the National Association, in 1871. He was 5-foot-8, weighed about 160 pounds, but was the most noted slugger of his era. His combination of power and speed made him the league's home run champion four times. (In most parks, a ball hit over the fence wasn't automatically a home run; an outfielder could retrieve the ball, which forced hitters to run the bases full speed.)

Pike used his footspeed to earn money in unusual ways, such as the time he raced a trotter in a 100-yard dash and won.

He played outfield with the St. Louis Brown Stockings during the first National League season and bounced to four other teams over the next five years. His brother, Jay, played one National League game in 1877. Lip Pike's unusual enough, but he also carried this nickname: The Iron Batter.

Check out Lip Pike's biography at http://bioproj.sabr.org

Wally Pipp
Walter Clement Pipp (1893-1965)

Pipp was the New York Yankee first baseman who preceded Lou Gehrig. As such, Pipp has been at the heart of a baseball fairy tale that often is presented as truth. That fairy tale was given a twist in the famous 1942 movie, 'Pride of the Yankees,' purported to be Lou Gehrig's biography.

The most popular version of the story has Pipp, the Yankee first baseman for 11 seasons, asking manager Miller Huggins to replace him on June 2, 1925 because he had a headache.

The movie version apparently blended three separate incidents into something that never happened. The scene has Pipp getting hit in the head by an infielder's throw while he is running to second base. That prompts Yankee manager Miller Huggins to insert Gehrig into the game.

The three separate incidents are:

(1) The start of Gehrig's consecutive games streak, which, in truth, had begun the day before when he was used as a pinch-hitter.

(2) Gehrig replacing Pipp, which actually did happen on June 2, 1925, but not while the game was in progress. Gehrig started the game; Pipp was benched because he was in a hitting slump.

(3) Pipp getting hit in the head, which did happen, but a month later, not during a game but in batting practice against pitcher Charlie Caldwell. The beaning fractured Pipp's skull and sent him to the hospital.

Pipp's 1925 batting average was an awful .230. He wasn't the only Yankee having problems that season as the team limped home in seventh place after challenging for the pennant the season before. It was the summer of Babe Ruth's famous stomach ache, an illness that sidelined him for more than 50 games.

By June 2, manager Huggins was thoroughly annoyed. Gehrig replaced Pipp because Huggins wanted to shake up the line-up. He had an inkling Gehrig would be better than Pipp; he just didn't know it would happen so quickly. That was fortunate for the Yankees, because by July Pipp was sidelined with that head injury and in no shape to return to the line-up.

At the end of the season Pipp was sold to Cincinnati for $7,500. Because Gehrig became larger than life, people have had a tendency to overlook what Pipp accomplished during his years with the Yankees.

Twice he led the American League in home runs, though, yes, his totals were modest, 12 in 1916, nine in 1917. However, it was in 1916 that 'Believe It or Not!' cartoonist Robert Ripley coined the term 'Murderer's Row' to describe the Yankee line-up. Most people assume the term referred to Ruth, Gehrig and Bob Meusel in the late 1920s, but Ripley had in mind Pipp and Frank "Home Run" Baker who hit most of the Yankees' 35 home runs that season. No other team in the league hit more than 19.

At 33, Pipp was still a better-than-average player when he joined Cincinnati. He hit .291 for the Reds in 1926, and his 99 RBI led the team and was fourth best in the league. He retired two seasons later with a lifetime batting average of .281.

By the 1930s he was a salesman in Grand Rapids, MI. As fate would have it, he visited Detroit on May 2, 1939 when the Yankees were in town to play the Tigers. He saw Gehrig at the hotel where the Yankees were staying and Gehrig confessed he wasn't feeling well. It was the day Gehrig took himself out of the line-up, ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games.

All of the above has nothing to do with why Wally Pipp is on my list of favorite name. I've always thought Pipp's sounded like the name of a very British WWI flying ace. With a stiff upper lip, of course.

Pinky Pittenger
Clark Alonzo Pittenger (1899-1977)

Pittenger was a utility player (SS-3B-2B-OF) for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, playing parts of seven seasons during the 1920s. He had 959 at bats in 373 games, hit .263 with one home run (for Cincinnati in 1927). He struck out only 50 times and his walks were even fewer – 37.

He was a graduate of Ohio University and a dental student. No word whether Pittenger became a dentist after he retired from baseball.

Togie Pittinger
Charles Reno Pittinger (1871-1909 )

Pittinger pitched for the Boston Beaneaters and the Philadelpia Phillies of the National League for eight seasons (1900-07). He was twice a 20-game winner. His best season was 1902 when he and Boston teammate Vic Willis had 27 wins apiece to account for 54 of the Beaneaters' 73 victories.

After two losing seasons, he was traded to the Phillies, bouncing back in 1905 to win 23 games. Shoulder problems limited his appearances the next two seasons and he left the major leagues in the fall of 1907.

Pittinger was tall and lean (six-foot-two, 175 pounds) and he was usually among the league leaders in strikeouts. Unfortunately, he also was wild, three times leading the league in bases on balls.

He died in 1909 of Bright's disease, a kidney ailment. He was only 37.

Eric Plunk
Eric Vaughn Plunk (1963- )

The 6-foot-5 Plunk was a pitcher drafted by the New York Yankees in 1981, but when he arrived in the majors five years later he was with the Oakland Athletics bearing a perfect name for a pitcher who had trouble throwing strikes. As a rookie, he walked 102 batters in 120 innings. He also plunked five hitters. He settled down and enjoyed a 14-season major league career, appearing in 714 games, most of them in relief.

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