Aldon Jay "Lefty" Wilkie (October 30, 1914 – August 5, 1992) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born

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 ...

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. The native of Zealandia, Saskatchewan, was a

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 subject ...

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 ...

who worked in 68 games pitched, 12 as a starter, in the Major Leagues over three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1941–42; 1946). He stood tall and weighed . Wilkie's professional career began in 1937. After winning 13 games for the 1940

Seattle Rainiers The Seattle Rainiers, originally named the Seattle Indians and also known as the Seattle Angels, were a Minor League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 to 1906 and 1919 to 1968. They were initi ...

of the Pacific Coast League, Wilkie was acquired by the Pirates that August. He appeared in 26 games during the 1941 season, and another 35 games in 1942. During his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

campaign, he pitched the only

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 ...

of his MLB career, blanking the Philadelphia Phillies 5–0 on six hits on June 9, 1941. Wilkie served in the 36th Infantry Division of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, and was out of professional baseball from 1943 to 1945. When he returned to the Pirates in 1946, he appeared in seven games but was ineffective, compiling an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

of 10.57 in 7 innings pitched. During his time in the Major Leagues, Wilkie allowed 215 hits and 80 bases on balls in 194 innings pitched, with 37

strikeouts 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 ...

, three complete games and three saves. He then returned to minor league baseball, playing through 1951.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkie, Lefty 1914 births 1992 deaths Baseball people from Saskatchewan Beaumont Exporters players Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Hollywood Stars players Indianapolis Indians players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Major League Baseball players from Canada Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Oklahoma City Indians players Pittsburgh Pirates players Salem Senators players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players Seattle Rainiers players Tacoma Tigers players Victoria Athletics players United States Army personnel of World War II