Xavier Frederick Rescigno (October 13, 1912 – December 24, 2005) was an American 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 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 ...

. He played 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), ...

(MLB) for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

from 1943 to 1945. The , right-hander was a native of

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

. He attended St. Ann's Academy in Manhattan, New York. Rescigno is one of many ballplayers who only appeared in the major leagues during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He started out as a member of the

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

's farm system, and was notably a member of the 1937 Newark Bears squad that is often mentioned as one of the greatest minor league teams in history, but he had difficulty working his way into a spot on the deep Yankee roster. The enrollment of many players in the armed forces brought opportunity, however, and at the age of 30, Rescigno made his

major league debut 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), ...

as a relief pitcher for the Pirates against 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 ...

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

on April 22, 1943. He started 14 games that season and relieved in 23. The best start of his career came on September 12, 1943, when he hurled a 7–0

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

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 ...

against the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in the second game of a doubleheader at

Crosley Field Crosley Field was a Major League Baseball park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the home field of the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) an ...

. "Mr. X", as he was sometimes called, then became the 1940s version of a closer in his next two seasons. In 1944 he ranked second in 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 s ...

games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched (denoted by Games G in tables of only pitching statistics) is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher; a player who is announced as the pitcher must face at least one batter, although except ...

, saves, and games finished. In 1945 he was sixth in games pitched, and third in saves and games finished. Career totals for his three seasons include 129 games, 21 starts, 7 complete games, 1 shutout, 60 games finished, and 16 saves. In 335.1

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 ...

struck out 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 denot ...

115 and walked 113. His final record was 19–22 with a 4.13

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. Compa ...

. After the 1945 season, the Pirates sold Rescigno to the Hollywood Stars, as part of a larger agreement between the two clubs. The Pirates would send eight players to the Stars, and in return would be permitted to select two players from Hollywood's roster at the end of the year. Rescigno was one of the better players on the Stars that year, as they finished third.Beverage, Richard E. "The Hollywood Stars", p. 66. Arcadia Publishing, 2005. Rescigno was subsequently a member of the 1937 Smiths Falls Beavers. Rescigno died at the age of 93 in Sun City West, Arizona.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rescigno, Xavier 1912 births 2005 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Ann's Academy (Manhattan) alumni Manhattan Jaspers baseball players Baseball players from New York City Akron Yankees players Albany Senators players Binghamton Triplets players Bluefield Blue-Grays players Elmira Pioneers players Hollywood Stars players Montreal Royals players Newark Bears (IL) players Norfolk Tars players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players