John Leo Mokan (September 23, 1895 – February 10, 1985) 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), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. He batted and threw right-handed. A native of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, Mokan made his major league debut on April 15, 1921 at the age of 25. He spent seven seasons in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

(1921–22) and

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 ...

(1923–27). Mokan was a .291 career hitter with 32

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 273 RBI in 582 games. His most productive season came in 1923 when he posted career-highs in

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 ...

(.313), home runs (10), runs (76) and doubles (23). He had another good season in 1926, hitting .303 with career-highs in RBI (62), hits (138), triples (5) and

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Basebal ...

(135). Mokan played his final game on October 2, 1927. He died in Buffalo, New York at age 89.

External links

Johnny Mokan
- Baseballbiography.com 1895 births 1985 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders Pittsburgh Pirates players Philadelphia Phillies players Baseball players from Buffalo, New York Fort Dodge Gypsumites players {{US-baseball-outfielder-1890s-stub