JUNE 10

On this date in 1944, the youngest player ever to participate in a Major League baseball game, took the mound for the Cincinnati Reds.  The fifteen-year-old's name was Joseph Henry Nuxhall.  Joe is a legend in Cincinnati. 

Consider that the Reds were not very good; that Joe was very big for his age; that good players were hard to find because World War II was in progress.  Why not give the big kid from Hamilton, Ohio a shot at it.

Joe was brought into a game against the first place St. Louis Cardinals while the Reds were losing 13-0.  He got the first batter out - but then . . . he gave up two hits, five walks, one wild pitch and five runs. 

Joe was sent to the minors after high school.  He made it back to the big club in 1952 - eight years after his debut.  Nuxhall had a decent career followed by a stellar career as an announcer.  Known in Cincinnati as "the ol' left-hander"; he endeared himself to the local fans and is immortalized with a statue on the grounds of Great American Ball Park.