Joseph Louis Benz (January 21, 1886 – April 22, 1957) was an American

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 ...

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), ...

from 1911 to 1919. He played for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

. Benz's two main pitches were the

spitball A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to mo ...

and the

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This chan ...

. Benz pitched a no-hitter for the White Sox on May 13, 1914, against the

Cleveland Naps 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 ...

. He was a member of the Sox teams that reached the World Series in both 1917 and 1919, but appeared in neither. Benz had a 7-3 record during the 1917 season and was 8-8 a year later, throwing 10 complete games. But he pitched in just one game during the 1919 season, and was not on the roster for the

1919 World Series The 1919 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1919 season. The 16th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. ...

, which was tainted by the

Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led ...

. The Benz family was of German Catholic descent, Joe's grandfather having emigrated from the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918. It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subs ...

in 1849.
"The Benz family was of German Catholic stock, Joe's grandfather, also named Michael, having emigrated from the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1849." After baseball, Benz was the custodian of a church and also worked for O'Hare International Airport, O'Hare Field. He died of a heart-related illness in 1957.

References

External links

Joe Benz
at SABR (Baseball BiogProject) :
1886 births 1957 deaths American people of German descent Baseball players from Indiana Chicago White Sox players Des Moines Boosters players Green Bay Bays players Major League Baseball pitchers Newark Newks players People from Dearborn County, Indiana {{US-baseball-pitcher-1880s-stub