Joseph Thomas Hesketh (born February 15, 1959) is a former

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), ...

who played from

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

through

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

for the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

(1984–90),

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

(1990) and

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 ...

(1990–94). Listed at 6' 2", 170 lb., Hesketh 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 ...

. He was selected by the Expos in the 1980 draft out of the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. One of the most dominant pitchers in UB history, Hesketh compiled an overall 1.77

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 ...

, including a notable 0.91 during his junior season. He also had 10

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

s for the Buffalo Bulls and pitched one of the greatest wins in school history – a 4–0

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 ...

against powerful St. John's team and future major league star

Frank Viola Frank John Viola Jr. (born April 19, 1960) is an American former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Minnesota Twins (1982–1989), New York Mets (1989–1991), Boston Red Sox (1992–1994), Cincinnati Reds (1995), and ...

. Hesketh also picked up the save in a victory on the road over nationally ranked

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

. In 1979, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Cotuit Kettleers The Cotuit Kettleers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the lea ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. After that, he earned the 1980 ECAC New York-New Jersey District Player of the Year honors, as his six shutouts for the Bulls remain a school record. In 1984, Hesketh was named the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

pitcher of the year after going 12–3 with a 3.05 ERA and 135

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 in

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 ...

for the

Indianapolis Indians The Indianapolis Indians are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Indianapolis, Indiana, and play their home games at Victory Field, which open ...

. He joined the Montreal Expos late in the season and ended with a 2–2, 1.80 ERA in 11 appearances. His debut on August 7 against the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

was unusual, in that he was called for a

balk In baseball, a pitcher can commit a number of illegal motions or actions that constitute a balk. Most of these violations involve pitchers pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so. In games played under the Official Baseball Ru ...

before he delivered his first pitch. In 1985 he was 10–5 with a 3.29 ERA in 25 starts, allowing just 125 hits in a career-high innings into late August, but a home plate collision broke his leg and his season was over. He was considered in the

National League Rookie of the Year In Major League Baseball, the Rookie of the Year Award is given annually to two outstanding rookie players, one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL), as voted on by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The aw ...

vote. In 1986 he was bothered by an impinged nerve in his left shoulder, then missed virtually all of 1987. While Hesketh did bounce back to some extent as a

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 ...

, he never completely recovered. Hesketh was released by Montreal in April 1990. At least a half-dozen teams claimed him, so he ended up in Atlanta by virtue of the Braves' poor record. Although he had recorded five saves, the Braves released him after 31 appearances; the Boston Red Sox then signed him in late July. In 1991, Hesketh came back of several injury-plagued seasons. He ended with a 12–4 mark in 39 games for Boston, including 17 starts and a career second-best innings, as his .750 won-loss % topped

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

pitchers. The next three years he divided his playing time as a starter, middle reliever, and occasional closer. He retired after the 1994 season. In an 11-season career, Hesketh posted a 60–47 record with a 3.78 ERA in 339 appearances, including 114 starts, four complete games, two shutouts, 79

games finished In baseball statistics, a relief pitcher is credited with a game finished (denoted by GF) if he is the last pitcher to pitch for his team in a game. A starting pitcher is not credited with a GF for pitching a complete game. Mariano Rivera is th ...

, 21 saves, 726 strikeouts, 378 walks, and innings of work. Hesketh is a member of both the UB Athletic Hall of Fame (Class of ’86) as well as the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame (2002). In 2006, he was named the Bulls’ pitching coach by head coach

Ron Torgalski Ronald J. Torgalski is an American former college baseball and college basketball coach. He was most recently the head baseball coach for the University at Buffalo. During his nine seasons as coach of the Bulls, he has compiled an overall record of ...

. His tenure with the UB Bulls ended after the 2007–2008 season.

References

Sources

The Baseball CubeBaseball ReferenceUniversity at Buffalo press release
*''The Scouting Report: 1992'', STATS INC./John Dewan and Don Zminda, editors. HarperPerennial publishers, 1992. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesketh, Joe 1959 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada Atlanta Braves players Baseball players from New York (state) Buffalo Bulls baseball players Boston Red Sox players Cotuit Kettleers players Gulf Coast Expos players Indianapolis Indians players Jacksonville Expos players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Chicks players Montreal Expos players People from Lackawanna, New York West Palm Beach Expos players Wichita Aeros players University at Buffalo alumni