Robert Frank Knoop ( kuh-NOP; born October 18, 1938) is an American former Major League Baseball second baseman and coach. In his nine-year MLB career, he appeared in 1,153 games as a member of the Los Angeles / California Angels (1964–69), Chicago White Sox (1969–70) and Kansas City Royals (1971–72). He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
Charles Henry Rabe (born May 6, 1932) is an American former professional baseball player. The left-handed pitcher and native of Boyce, Ellis County, Texas, appeared in 11 games in Major League Baseball for the 1957–1958 Cincinnati Redlegs. He was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 185 pounds (84 kg).
Rabe graduated from Waxahachie High School, alma mater of prominent baseball manager and front-office executive Paul Richards, and began his 12-year, ten-season pro career in the Cincinnati organization in 1952. After winning 16 of 26 decisions in 1957 for the top-level Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, he was recalled in September by the Redlegs and used in two games. In the second, on September 27, he started against the eventual world champion Milwaukee Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium and held them to only five hits and two runs, striking out six, in seven full innings pitched. But the Redlegs could not solve Milwaukee's ace right-hander, Lew Burdette, and went down to defeat, 2–1. He began 1958 with Cincinnati and worked in nine games, including his second and last start, May 25 against the St. Louis Cardinals at Crosley Field; however, he lasted only three innings, gave up eight hits and four runs, and absorbed the 4–2 defeat. He made only one more MLB appearance before returning to the minors for the remainder of his career, which lasted through 1963.
In his 11 games with Cincinnati, Rabe posted an 0–4 won–lost record and 3.67 earned run average, allowing 30 hits and nine bases on balls in 27 innings pitched. He struck out 16.
Robert Rudolph Balcena (August 1, 1925 – January 5, 1990) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs during the 1956 season. He had two at-bats and scored two runs as a pinch runner.
Listed at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), 160 pounds (73 kg), Balcena batted right-handed and threw left-handed. He was born in San Pedro, California.
Prior to playing professional baseball, Balcena served in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II with the United States Navy.Balcena became the first player of Asian American and Filipino ancestry to appear in a major league game. He had a long distinguished Triple-A career with the Seattle Rainiers as a center fielder in the 1950s; one paper described him as a "popular miniature dynamo of almost infallible perpetual motion" after his Rainier team won the 1955 Pacific Coast League title.He also played from 1952 through 1962 in the Minor Leagues, including stints with the Leones del Caracas and the Industriales de Valencia in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
He batted .284 with 134 home run and 441 runs batted in in 1948 minor league games. In a VPBL two-season career, he posted a .306 average with five homers and 44 RBI in 87 games.
After his baseball career ended, he worked as a longshoreman in Seattle where he had played parts of four seasons in the minor leagues.Despite being the first Filipino-American to play in the major leagues, Balcena kept company with Slavs during his life. His union president told the Los Angeles Times that he was an "honorary Slav. He always r[a]n around with the San Pedro Slavs. He speaks Slav. He sings Slav." Outside of his professional career, he also played baseball with an amateur team of Yugoslav Americans.Balcena died in his hometown of San Pedro, California at the age of 64.
Louis Joseph Berberet (November 20, 1929 – April 6, 2004) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees, Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers between 1954 and 1960. He was born in Long Beach, California.A stocky player of 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), 200 pounds (91 kg), Berberet was a very solid defensive catcher and a decent left-handed hitter. He retired after the 1960 season having a career batting average of .230, with 31 home runs, 153 runs batted in, and a fielding percentage of .992.
Berberet died on April 6, 2004.
Kenneth Wayne Trinkle (December 15, 1919 – May 10, 1976) was an American professional baseball player and right-handed pitcher who appeared in 216 games in Major League Baseball with the New York Giants (1943 and 1946–1948) and Philadelphia Phillies (1949). A relief specialist, he led the National League in appearances in 1946 and 1947. The native of Paoli, Indiana, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg).
Nicholas Strincevich (March 1, 1915 – November 11, 2011) was an American Major League baseball player. Born in Gary, Indiana, the right-handed pitcher made his big-league debut with the Boston Bees on April 23, 1940, played part of the 1941 season with the Boston Braves, played from 1941 to 1948 (excluding 1943) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and finished his big league career on June 11, 1948, with the Philadelphia Phillies. According to at least one source, Strincevich was selected to play on the 1945 All-Star team from the National League, but, due to wartime travel restrictions, the game was never played.
In a 10-season career, Strincevich posted a 46–49 record with a 4.05 ERA in 8892⁄3 innings pitched. Nicknamed "Jumbo", he was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 180 pounds (82 kg).
Strincevich died on November 11, 2011, in Valparaiso, Indiana. His funeral service was held at the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Merrillville, Indiana. He was buried at Calumet Park Cemetery.
Larry Francis Drake (May 5, 1921 – July 14, 1985) was an American professional baseball player whose played for eight seasons (1941–1942; 1944–1949), mostly at the minor league level. He appeared in five Major League games as an outfielder and pinch hitter for the Philadelphia Athletics (1945) and Washington Senators (1948). The native of McKinney, Texas, batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 195 pounds (88 kg). He attended Baylor University.
Drake played in one game for Philadelphia during the 1945 season, the last year of the World War II manpower shortage. He started the July 20 game against the Cleveland Indians in left field and struck out in his only two at bats before being replaced by a right-handed pinch hitter. He then returned to the minor leagues. Then, in 1948, he was recalled by Washington in September from the Double-A Southern Association and appeared in four games against his old team, the Athletics. On September 10, he started in right field and collected his only two Major League hits (both singles off Dick Fowler) and lone big-league run batted in, as the Athletics prevailed, 9–6.In his five MLB games, Drake had 11 plate appearances and nine official at bats. He scored no runs, drew one base on balls and was credited with one sacrifice hit. He handled five total chances in the field without an error.
Seth Marvin "Moe" Morehead (August 15, 1934 – January 17, 2006) was a left-handed specialist reliever in Major League Baseball. He was born in Houston, Texas.
Morehead was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1952 out of C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, LA. He spent five seasons in the major leagues pitching in parts of three seasons with the Phillies (1957–59), two seasons with the Chicago Cubs (1959–60) and one season with the Milwaukee Braves (1961).
Morehead posted a 5–19 record with a 4.81 ERA and five saves in 132 games pitched (24 as a starter). Among his career highlights was being the last pitcher to face Roy Campanella and also the last pitcher to face the Brooklyn Dodgers before the team moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.
Following his baseball career, Morehead graduated from Baylor University with a degree in business. He worked in banking for 36 years before retiring in 1999.
Morehead died in Shreveport, Louisiana, at the age of 71.
Paul Harrington Stuffel (March 22, 1927 – September 9, 2018) was an American professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher who worked in seven games over portions of three Major League seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies.
George Elwell Spencer (July 7, 1926 – September 10, 2014) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. A right-hander, he was primarily a relief pitcher for the New York Giants and the Detroit Tigers. Spencer stood 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).
A graduate of Bexley High School and Ohio State University, where he played quarterback on the OSU varsity football team, Spencer was a key member of the 1951 Giants' pitching staff, leading the club in saves and winning ten of 14 decisions, including a key August start over the front-running Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants would famously overcome a 131⁄2-game, mid-August deficit to tie Brooklyn on the season's final day, then defeated the Dodgers for the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson's historic Game 3 home run.