Joseph Aloysius Peploski (September 12, 1891 – July 13, 1972), sometimes referred to as "Pepper Peploski", was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. He played college baseball for

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...

in 1912 and 1913. He later played professional baseball for two years in 1913 and 1914, including two games in

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), ...

as a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

in June 1913.

Early years

Peploski was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in 1891. He attended

South Orange, New Jersey South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...

where he played baseball as a

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 ...

in 1912 and 1913. Peploski was tall, weighed 158 pounds, and was a right-handed batter and thrower.

Professional baseball

Peploski played minor league baseball in the summer of 1912 as a

for Brattleboro. After graduating from Seton Hall in 1913, he joined the

. He appeared in only two games for the Tigers, both as a third baseman, on June 24 and June 26, 1913. He had two hits in four at bats for a .500 batting average and scored a run. He finished the 1913 season as a third baseman for the Lincoln Railsplitters in the Western League. He continued to play in the minor leagues in 1914 for Lawrence and Haverhill in the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

Family and later years

Peploski's younger brother,

Henry Peploski Henry Stephen Peploski (), nicknamed "Pep", was a former professional baseball player who was an infielder in the Major Leagues in 1929. He played for the Boston Braves and is recognized as one of four Major Leaguers born in Poland, along with ...

, was born in Poland in 1905 and played third base for the

Boston Braves The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

in 1929. Henry, who was nicknamed "Pep" Peploski, played in six major league games, four more than his older brother. Joe Peploski died in New York City in 1972 at age 80. He is buried at Rosedale Cemetery in

Linden, New Jersey Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, located about southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island, a borough of New York City, across the Arthur Kill ...

References

Detroit Tigers players Major League Baseball third basemen 1891 births 1972 deaths Baseball players from Brooklyn Lincoln Railsplitters players Lawrence Barristers players Haverhill Hustlers players Seton Hall Pirates baseball players

External links

{{baseball stats, br=p/peplope01, brm=peplos001jos