Nick Altrock | |||
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Born: Cincinnati |
September 15, 1876|||
Died: January 20, 1965 Washington, D.C. |
(aged 88)|||
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MLB debut | |||
July 14, 1898, for the Louisville Colonels | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
October 1, 1933, for the Washington Senators | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Win–loss record | 83–75 | ||
Earned run average | 2.65 | ||
Strikeouts | 425 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
Nicholas "Nick" Altrock (September 15, 1876 – January 20, 1965) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Though his days as a full-time player ended quickly due to injury, Altrock made periodic appearances as a pinch hitter for many years. He appeared in a game at the age of 57. He was a coach for Washington for many years.
Born in Cincinnati, Altrock was one of the better pitchers in baseball for a brief period from 1904 to 1906 with the Chicago White Sox. He was instrumental in the White Sox World Series championship in 1906, going 20-13 with a 2.06 ERA in the regular season and 1-1 with a Series-best 1.00 ERA against the Chicago Cubs.
An arm injury after 1906 ruined his career, but he hung on with the White Sox and Washington Senators until 1924, though he pitched very little after 1908 and made sporadic pinch-hitting appearances after that, including one in 1933 (facing Rube Walberg of the Philadelphia Athletics) at 57 years of age. He appeared in Major League games in five decades, one of only two players to do this (Minnie Miñoso is the other); he is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in Major League games in four decades.
Altrock became a coach for the Senators in 1912 and remained on the Washington staff through 1953, a 42-year skein that represents the longest consecutive-year tenure of a coach with the same franchise in baseball history. Some Senator scorecards continued to list Altrock as a "coach emeritus" even after his formal retirement.