Lavern George Holtgrave (October 18, 1942 – May 8, 2023) was an American professional baseball player, a

right-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 subjecti ...

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 played for six pro seasons (1961–1966) and appeared in one

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), ...

game for the 1965 Detroit Tigers. He stood tall and weighed . Holtgrave was in his fifth season in the Detroit organization when he was recalled at the close of the 1965 season. He had appeared in 49 games in minor league baseball that season, all but one as a

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

, and posted a 2.06

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 ...

in 77

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. In his lone Major League appearance, on September 26, 1965, against the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

, he relieved Phil Regan with Detroit trailing 5–0. He held the Indians off the scoreboard in the fourth and fifth

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

but in his third frame, he gave up two

earned runs In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an err ...

on RBI hits by pitcher Tom Kelley and

Leon Wagner Leon Lamar Wagner (May 13, 1934 – January 3, 2004) was an American professional baseball left fielder who played Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants (–, ), St. Louis Cardinals (), Los Angeles Angels (–), Cleveland Indi ...

. All told, in three MLB innings, Holtgrave surrendered four hits, two runs and two

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...

, with two

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 ...

. He retired after the 1966 season. Holtgrave died in O’Fallon, Illinois, on May 8, 2023, at the age of 80.

References

External links

1942 births 2023 deaths Baseball players from Illinois Decatur Commodores players Detroit Tigers players Duluth-Superior Dukes players Knoxville Smokies players Major League Baseball pitchers Montgomery Rebels players People from Clinton County, Illinois Syracuse Chiefs players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1940s-stub