Marvin Rotblatt (October 18, 1927 – July 16, 2013), nicknamed "Rotty", 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

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), ...

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 ...

in the , and seasons. His

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 ...

s in 1948 (7.85) and 1950 (6.23) were the highest in the majors. He failed to get a base hit in fifteen career at-bats.

Biography

Rotblatt was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where his father, a Jewish immigrant from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, owned a lamp business. He was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He attended Von Steuben High School in Chicago. Before playing professional baseball, Rotblatt played for the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. The 1947-48 team won the Big Nine Championship. His minor league

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cla ...

record included a season-high 202 strikeouts and a no-hitter. Listed at tall, Rotblatt has been considered one of the shortest pitchers in Major League history. As a result, in 1951 he appeared on ''

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show deb ...

'', the television quiz show hosted by Groucho Marx, after being selected at an audition over his pitching teammate

Bob Cain Robert Max "Sugar" Cain (October 16, 1924 – April 8, 1997) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns between 1949 and 1954. He batted and threw left-handed. Cain was the pitc ...

, who knew something about short players. While pitching for the 1951 Detroit Tigers, Cain walked

Eddie Gaedel Edward Carl Gaedel (June 8, 1925 – June 18, 1961) was the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game. Gaedel gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing and standing t ...

, a pinch hitter signed by

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

owner Bill Veeck, also a showman who enjoyed staging publicity stunts. In 1964, students at Carleton College in

Northfield, Minnesota Northfield is a city in Dakota and Rice counties in the State of Minnesota. It is mostly in Rice County, with a small portion in Dakota County. The population was 20,790 at the 2020 census. History Northfield was platted in 1856 by John W ...

named an intramural slow-pitch

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

league after Rotblatt. Although traditional intramural softball is still played at Carleton, the name ''Rotblatt'' now refers to an annual beer softball game that is played with one inning for every year of the school's over 150-year existence.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotblatt, Marv 1927 births 2013 deaths American expatriate baseball players in Mexico American people of Polish-Jewish descent Atlanta Crackers players Baseball players from Chicago Charleston Senators players Chicago White Sox players Jewish American baseball players Jewish Major League Baseball players Little Rock Travelers players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Chickasaws players Mexican League baseball pitchers Montgomery Rebels players Sacramento Solons players Sultanes de Monterrey players Syracuse Chiefs players Topeka Hawks players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Waterloo White Hawks players 21st-century American Jews