William Arthur Cristall (September 12, 1875 - January 28, 1939) was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who played with the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

in 1901. Cristall batted and threw

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

. His playing height and weight were listed as 5 foot 7 inches and 145 lbs. He was Jewish.

Baseball career

Cristall made his major league debut on September 3, 1901. His time in the major leagues was short, as he only started and pitched in six career games. His career numbers were not so impressive, as his win-loss record would be 1–5, although he did pitch 5 complete games and his one win was a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

. Although he had very few at bats, he was a respectable hitter, especially for a pitcher, as he had 7 hits in 20 at-bats, including two hits for

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

, and finished with a career .350

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. Cristall finished his career with a fielding percentage of .957, making only one error in his six starts. His last game would be on September 28, 1901. He was the first professional baseball player to be born in Ukraine, and is one of only three players in Major League history, (the other two being

Reuben Ewing Reuben Ewing (born Reuben Cohen on November 30, 1899) was a Jewish Ukrainian-American baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals. Early life Ewing (then Cohen) was born in Odessa, Russian Empire to Jewish-Ukrainian parents and emigrated with t ...

and

Izzy Goldstein Isidore Goldstein (June 6, 1908 – September 24, 1993) was an American baseball player. A native of Odessa who grew up in The Bronx, he was a right-handed pitcher who played seven years in professional baseball from 1928 to 1934, including 16 ga ...

) to have been born in Ukraine. He is also the only Ukrainian baseball player to record a victory, a strikeout, a walk, a win, a loss, a complete game, a shutout, and a hit batter in major league history. He died on January 28, 1939, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cristall, Bill 1875 births 1939 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Canada American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Appleton Papermakers players Albany Senators players Alton Blues players Chatham Reds players Cleveland Blues (1901) players Evansville River Rats players Hamilton Blackbirds players Harrisburg Senators players Jewish American baseball managers Jewish American baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Ukraine Memphis Egyptians players Minor league baseball managers Montgomery Senators players New Orleans Pelicans (baseball) players Oakland Clamdiggers players Oswego Grays players Rome Romans players Jews from the Russian Empire Ukrainian Jews Schenectady Electricians players Scranton Miners players Sportspeople from Odesa Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Toledo Mud Hens players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players Troy Trojans (minor league) players Williamsport Millionaires players Woodstock Bains players Worcester Farmers players Bay City Wolves players