Hub Kittle

Hubert Milton "Hub" Kittle (February 19, 1917 – February 10, 2004) was an American professional baseball pitcher, manager and front office executive in the minor leagues and a pitching coach at the Major League level. When he took the mound for the Triple-A Springfield Redbirds in an official American Association game on August 27, 1980, at the age of 63, Kittle, a longtime minor league hurler whose professional career began in the 1930s, became the only man ever to pitch in professional baseball in six decades. He retired the Iowa Oaks on 11 pitches.

Kittle was born in Los Angeles and attended San Diego State University. As a player, he threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 195 pounds (88 kg). He began his pitching career in 1937 with the Ponca City Angels of the Class C Western Association, a farm club of the Chicago Cubs. Two years later, Kittle won 20 of 30 decisions pitching for the Yakima Pippins of the Class B Western International League—beginning a long association with professional baseball in Yakima, Washington, and the Pacific Northwest.

Including his two years of military service during World War II, Kittle's active pitching career prior to his 1980 Springfield appearance spanned 22 years (1937–55, plus cameos as a fill-in pitcher during his minor-league managerial career in 1958, 1966 and 1969). His appearance in the 1970s came in a Major League uniform during his tenure as the pitching coach of the Houston Astros, when he hurled in an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers at the Astrodome at the age of 56 in 1973. All told, as a minor league pitcher, Kittle won 144 games and lost 115 (.556). He won 7 games and lost 6 during his three stints (1940–41; 1943) at the highest minor league level, in the Pacific Coast League.

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