Melvin Joseph Queen (March 4, 1918 – April 4, 1982) was 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 ...

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), ...

. From 1942 through 1952, he played for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

and Pittsburgh Pirates. Born in Maxwell, Pennsylvania, he batted and threw right-handed. In an eight-season career, Queen posted a 27–40 record with 328 strikeouts and a 5.09

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 ...

in 556 innings pitched. His best season was in 1951 when he led 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 ...

pitchers with a 6.58 SO/9 (123 SO in 168 IP). On August 27, 1951, Queen became a notable footnote in baseball history when he was thrown out by two feet at first base by strong-armed Brooklyn Dodger outfielder

Carl Furillo Carl Anthony Furillo (March 8, 1922 – January 21, 1989), nicknamed "The Reading Rifle" and "Skoonj", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB), spending his entire career with the Brooklyn / ...

after Queen had apparently singled into right field. His son, Melvin Douglas Queen, was an MLB

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 c ...

-turned-

who played with the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

and

Angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...

and also coached and managed for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

. Queen died in

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

, at the age of 64.

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1918 births 1982 deaths Akron Yankees players Amsterdam Rugmakers players Augusta Tigers players Baseball players from Pennsylvania Binghamton Triplets players Butler Yankees players Cincinnati Reds scouts Dover Orioles players Hollywood Stars players Indianapolis Indians players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Major League Baseball pitchers New York Yankees players Newark Bears (IL) players People from Brooke County, West Virginia Pittsburgh Pirates players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1910s-stub

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