Joe Nuxhall dead at age 79!

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Posted By: Neal

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071116/SPT05/711160354

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Posted By: Art M.

When discussing baseball records that will never be broken Joe Nuxhall is never mentioned. It seems obvious to me that Joe Nuxhall holds that honor.
Joe pitched in the major leagues at age 15 years, 10 months, 11 days old.
We will never see another 15 year old pitch in the major leagues.
Never.

Rest in peace Joe Nuxhall.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Although his epitaph will always be the youngest player ever in the majors, he was a good pitcher who had a solid career.

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Posted By: john/z28jd

Actually Art,Fred Chapman is the youngest major leaguer ever,he was just shy of his 15th birthday when he pitched for the Philadelphia A's in 1887. After him is Billy Geer who played for the New York Mutuals in the National Association in 1874 and he too was just shy of 15. Nuxhall is 3rd youngest all-time

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Posted By: barrysloate

Those 19th century guys don't count!

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Posted By: Chris Counts

"This is the ol' lefthander, rounding third and heading for home ..."

The old lefthander, as one Reds fan observed today, "is rounding third and headed for heaven ..."

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Posted By: john/z28jd

They never do Barry,but i say if you count Nuxhall with his 2/3rds of an inning during a 13-0 game that he got bombed during and he only pitched because rosters were depleted from the war going on( Reds had 8 pitchers that year pitch just 1 or 2 games)then why not count a guy who pitched a complete game in Chapman or Geer who was actually a regular in 1875 when he was still younger than Nuxhall. I'll begrudgingly accept modern day record for youngest player but not the major league record

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

There's no reason that folks outside central/southern Ohio and the tri-state area (Indiana-Ohio-Kentucky) would know this, but Nuxhall lent his efforts and name to numerous charitable organizations and foundations and did a ton of work for the Cincinnati community, all the way up to his final days. He was one of those guys about whom you could say everyone who met him liked him.

In addition to being the perfect buffer for sometimes-acerbic radio partner Marty Brennaman, the laid-back Nuxhall was just easy to listen to while calling a game. He could flub a name with the best of them, but he had that rare ability to make you feel like you were listening to a friend tell you about the game.

It was a tough morning at work today after the news broke that Nuxhall had died.

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Posted By: Ed Ivey

He sounds like the Phil Rizzuto of Cincy. RIP.

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Posted By: Eric Brehm

My only card of Joe Nuxhall, showing his 45.00 ERA in 1944:

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Posted By: Paul

Are there any contemporary newspaper articles confirming that those two 19th century players were actually 14 when they took the field? I've always wondered if the Baseball Encyclopedia just got their dates of birth wrong when compiling information on everyone who ever played in the majors.

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Posted By: john/z28jd

I have read an article about Chapman's only game and they do state his age in it.If you check his page on baseball-reference youll see there's a lot known about him including birth/death date which was confirmed by his gravestone,along with his batting and throwing hand,and height and weight.For Geer,im not sure but he was around for parts of 6 seasons and his age doesnt seem to be in dispute,they even have a his given name as well as the named he played under.Im sure stuff like that could be checked with census records and probably has,i remember sabr doing work to find out more about these players.

The other thing about both of them is they werent known when Nuxhall first played,thats probably what the confusion was about and research came up with these facts later on. Its like with Fleetwood Walker being known as the first black player along with his brother who came along later that season.Alot of people assume or did assume that Robinson was the first black player,but the other 2 players were and now are known to be before him. Recent research however uncovered another black player who played even before the Walker's in the majors named William White.If you ask most people youll get either Robinson or Walker as the first black player depending on what theyve heard and if youve only heard about Nuxhall being the youngest player then thats who you know

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Posted By: RC

My memories of Nuxhall are as an announcer for the Reds, he started announcing in '67 which was the first year I consistently followed baseball. He was an absolute pleasure to listen to, just a "down home" guy.

Some of the stories being told on WLW radio about him are both amusing and even inspiring in this day and age of professional athletes who are somewhat distant to the fans. Joe was the kind of guy who would never say no to a requested autograph and would also stop and offer a ride to a couple kids standing in the rain hoping for autographs after a game.

I could go on and on, but for the Cincinnati area, he was definitely an icon and will forever be embraced by the community.

RC

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Posted By: ErlandStevens

My best memories of the Reds date to the very late 70s through the late 80s. In those years, Bench was at the end of his career (hitting pinch hit homers in the ninth inning), Mario Soto was striking out tons of batters, and Concepcion even pitched two innings of scoreless baseball. The Reds also did a lot of losing, but I loved to listen to Joe and Marty on the radio. One of my friends in grade school had a radio on his bike handle bars and could ride and listen to the Reds. I thought that was so cool.