Carl Alvin Scheib (January 1, 1927 – March 24, 2018) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player, a right-handed

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 ...

for the Philadelphia Athletics (1943–45 and 1947–54) and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

(1954) of

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), ...

(MLB).

Biography

Born in Gratz, Pennsylvania, Scheib led the American League in

wild pitch In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, or the batter (on an uncaught third str ...

es with 9 in 1950. He was one of the best-hitting pitchers of his time. In 1948, he registered 31 hits in 104 at bats, for a

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 ...

of .298 with two

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 21

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

. He appeared in 32 games as a pitcher, and 20 more as a pinch hitter. In 1951, Scheib appeared in 46 games as a pitcher, two more as a pinch hitter, and batted .396 (21 for 53). His .396 mark was the highest for a pitcher with that many at bats since 1925. During his MLB career, Scheib batted an even .250, with five home runs, 59 RBI and 117 hits in 468 at bats. In 11 seasons, Scheib had a 45–65 win–loss record, in 267 games, with 107 games started, 47 complete games, 17 saves, 1,070 innings pitched, 290 strikeouts, and a 4.88 ERA. When Scheib made his first appearance in 1943 at age 16, he was the youngest player in the modern era until Joe Nuxhall debuted with the Cincinnati Reds the following season. Scheib remains the youngest player in American League history. A biography of Scheib entitled "Wonder Boy – The Story of Carl Scheib: The Youngest Player in American League History" by Lawrence Knorr was released May 26, 2016. It was published by Sunbury Press.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheib, Carl 1927 births 2018 deaths American people of German descent Baseball players from Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Major League Baseball pitchers Philadelphia Athletics players Portland Beavers players St. Louis Cardinals players San Antonio Missions players