Marv Rotblatt

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Marv Rotblatt
175px
Pitcher
Born: (1927-10-18)October 18, 1927
Chicago
Died: Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Chicago
Batted: Switch Threw: Left
MLB debut
July 4, 1948, for the Chicago White Sox
Last MLB appearance
July 22, 1951, for the Chicago White Sox
MLB statistics
Win–loss record 4-3
Earned run average 4.82
Strikeouts 30
Teams

Marvin Rotblatt (October 18, 1927 – July 16, 2013), nicknamed "Rotty", was a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox in the 1948, 1950 and 1951 seasons. His ERAs in 1948 (7.85) and 1950 (6.23) were the highest in the majors.[1] He failed to get a base hit in fifteen career at-bats.

Rotblatt was born in Chicago, where his father, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, owned a lamp business.[2]

His minor league Southern Association record included a season-high 202 strikeouts and a no-hitter.

Before playing professional baseball, Rotblatt played for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The 1947-48 team won the Big Nine Championship.

Listed at 5' 6", Rotblatt has being considered one of the shortest pitchers in Major League history. As a result, in 1951 he appeared on You Bet Your Life, the television quiz show hosted by Groucho Marx, after being selected at an audition over his pitching teammate Bob Cain, who knew something about short players. While pitching for the 1951 Detroit Tigers, Cain walked Eddie Gaedel, a 3' 6" dwarf pinch hitter signed by St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, also a showman who enjoyed staging publicity stunts.[3]

In 1964, students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota named an intramural slow-pitch softball 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 nearly century-and-a-half existence.[4]

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. New York Times – Marv Rotblatt, Pitcher Celebrated Through Softball Marathon, Dies at 85
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links