Victor Cole (born January 23, 1968) is a former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher. Cole is the only

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), ...

player ever to have been born in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, and the ninth to have been born in what is now

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Cole pitched in eight games for the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates, with an 0–2 record, 12

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 ...

and allowing 14

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 ...

. Cole attended

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Cole's father, from Sierra Leone, studied medicine in Russia and married a Russian woman. The family left Russia when Cole was four years old, lived in Sierra Leone for four years, then spent two years in Canada before moving to the United States when he was ten years old. Cole was taken by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

in the 14th round of the 1988 amateur draft. He was traded to the Pirates May 3, 1991 for

Carmelo Martinez Carmelo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Carmelo Anthony (born 1984), American basketball player * Carmelo Antrone Lee (born 1977), Puerto Rican basketball player * Carmelo Bene (1937-2002), Italian director, actor, phil ...

. Cole played in the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

in 1994 and the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

organization in 1995 and 1996. He announced his retirement during the 1995 season. He then went to play in the

Taiwan Major League The Taiwan Major League Professional Baseball (TML; ) was a professional baseball league in Taiwan that operated from 1996 to 2003. It was established by TV tycoon Chiu Fu-sheng after a row over the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) b ...

for

Kaoping Fala The Rakuten Monkeys (), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (, abbreviated ), La New Bears () and then the Lamigo Monkeys (), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. Owned and administer ...

in 1997. Cole returned to the minors in 1998 and 1999 with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

. He spent 2000 with the

Memphis Redbirds The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbir ...

, a

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affiliate of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

and

SK Wyverns SSG Landers () are a South Korean professional baseball team. The team was originally established as the SK Wyverns but was renamed as the SSG Landers in 2021 after Shinsegae acquired the team from SK Group. They are a member of the KBO League. B ...

of the

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KBO ...

. Cole spent 2001 and 2002 with the KBO's

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears ( ko, 두산 베어스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and ...

before retiring. In his ten seasons in the minor leagues, he had a record of 37 - 36 with an ERA of 3.70. In 2003, Cole joined the

Russia national baseball team The Russia national baseball team is the national baseball team of Russia. The team competed in the bi-annual European Baseball Championship. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the World Baseball Softball Confederation banned Russian ath ...

. He also joined the team on its tour of the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

-based

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Northeast League The Northeast League was a professional independent baseball league that operated in the Northeastern United States from 1995 until 1998 and from 2003 until 2004. Between 1999 and 2002, the league was part of the Northern League after the two lea ...

. Cole later coached with the National Team in the 2020 European Championships, in Group B.

References

External links

Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Victor 1968 births Living people Acereros de Monclova players Águilas del Zulia players Baseball City Royals players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Carolina Mudcats players Doosan Bears players El Paso Diablos players Eugene Emeralds players Expatriate baseball players in South Korea Iowa Cubs players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Russia Memphis Chicks players Memphis Redbirds players New Orleans Zephyrs players Omaha Royals players Pine Bluff Locomotives players Pittsburgh Pirates players Russian people of Sierra Leonean descent Salinas Peppers players SSG Landers players Sportspeople from Saint Petersburg Sultanes de Monterrey players Tiburones de La Guaira players West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx players Russian baseball players Expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Russian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Russian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate baseball players in Mexico Soviet emigrants to the United States Sierra Leonean emigrants to the United States Expatriate baseball players in Taiwan Sierra Leonean emigrants to Canada