Robert Frederic Heffner (born September 13, 1938) nicknamed "Butch", 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), ...

right-handed pitcher with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

(–),

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 ...

(), and

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

(). He stood tall and weighed , in his playing days.

Early life and education

Heffner was born in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...

. He attended and graduated from

Allentown High School Allentown High School is a public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from three communities in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Upper Freehold Regional School District. The scho ...

in 1957.

Major League Baseball

On June 12, 1957, Heffner was signed by the

as an amateur free agent right out of high school. Throughout his

career, Heffner was used both as starter and

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather ...

. His most productive season came in with the Red Sox, when he posted career-highs in wins (seven, including 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 ...

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s (112), saves (six),

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

(55), and

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

(). Hefner's five-season MLB career totals include an 11–21 W–L record, a 4.51

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, and six saves. Overall, he appeared in 114 games, 31 of which were as a starter.

External links

Bob Heffner
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Bob Heffner
at Baseball Almanac
Bob Heffner
at Baseball Library 1938 births Living people Allentown Red Sox players Baseball players from Pennsylvania Boston Red Sox players California Angels players Cleveland Indians players Corning Red Sox players Johnstown Red Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Sportspeople from Allentown, Pennsylvania Portland Beavers players Seattle Angels players Seattle Rainiers players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players York White Roses players William Allen High School alumni {{US-baseball-pitcher-1930s-stub