Jack Edward Baldschun (October 16, 1936 – June 6, 2023) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He was a relief pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) for all or part of nine seasons (1961–67; 1969–70), for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, and San Diego Padres. Baldschun threw and batted right-handed, and was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall, weighing 175 pounds (79 kg).
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.
Richard Paul LeMay (August 28, 1938 – March 19, 2018) was an American professional baseball player. A left-handed pitcher, LeMay appeared in parts of three Major League Baseball seasons (1961–63), but had a long career in minor league baseball. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Withrow High School.
LeMay attended the University of Michigan, stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg). He signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1958 and was recalled from the minor leagues during the 1961 season, appearing in 27 games for the Giants that season, starting five. He dropped six of nine decisions and recorded an earned run average of 3.56 and one complete game in 83+1⁄3 innings pitched. He had nine-game trials with the 1962 Giants and the 1963 Chicago Cubs, and was winless in two decisions. All told he won three games, lost eight and had a career ERA of 4.17 in 45 Major League games. In 108 innings pitched, he surrendered 100 hits and 49 bases on balls. He struck out 69, and was credited with four saves. In his lone MLB complete game, on June 24, 1961, at Busch Stadium, he defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6–1, allowing six hits; future Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Gibson took the loss.After he returned to minor league baseball in 1963, LeMay had a successful career as a starting pitcher at the Triple-A level through 1970, reaching the double digits in wins for six consecutive seasons, including 17- and 16-victory seasons in 1965 and 1968. All told, he won 139 games and lost 124 as a minor league pitcher. LeMay also managed at the Class A level in the Cubs' farm system in 1971–72 and was a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1970s and the Montréal Expos during the 1980s.
LeMay died on March 19, 2018.
Donald Ray Elston (April 6, 1929 – January 2, 1995) was an American relief pitcher who appeared in 450 games in Major League Baseball, all but one of them as a member of the Chicago Cubs (1953, 1957–1964). Elston batted and threw right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kg). He was born in Campbellstown, Ohio, and attended Camden High School. His 18-season professional baseball career began in the Cub farm system in 1948.
A hard thrower, Elston played for perennially weak Cubs teams over the course of his nine-year major league tenure. After a brief late-season trial with the 1953 Cubs, when he was treated rudely by the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, he was sent back to the minor leagues for the next two campaigns. Chicago included him in a December 1955 trade with the defending world champion Brooklyn Dodgers that was headlined by veterans Randy Jackson, Don Hoak, Russ Meyer and Walt Moryn, but Elston remained in the minors for all of 1956. He made the Dodgers' 1957 early-season roster and worked in one game. throwing one inning of shutout relief on May 5 against the Milwaukee Braves. He was traded back to the Cubs 18 days later for pitchers Jackie Collum and Vito Valentinetti.
The Cubs first used him as a swingman: in 1957, after his re-acquisition, he began as a reliever, then, beginning June 30, he made 14 appearances as a starter through September 13. But on September 18, he moved back to the bullpen, where he would spend the rest of his career. Elston became one of the best relief pitchers in the National League. He led the league with 69 games pitched in 1958, setting a club mark. Then, in 1959, he tied teammate Bill Henry for the league lead in appearances, with 65. That season, Elston won a career-high ten games and was selected to the 1959 National League All-Star team. He came on in the ninth inning of the first of 1959's two All-Star tilts and earned a save to preserve a 5–4 victory over the American League at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh, on July 7. His 14 saves in 1959, third in the league, also was a career high. He was one of the Senior Circuit's top five relief pitchers for five straight years in saves (1957–1961) and games pitched (1958–1962). He posted sub-3.00 earned run averages in 1958, 1962 and 1963.
In 450 career MLB games, Elston compiled a 49–54 won–lost record with a 3.69 ERA and 64 saves. In 7552⁄3 innings pitched, he allowed 702 hits and 327 bases on balls. He struck out 519. During his brief career as a starting pitcher, he registered two complete games.
Elston died in Arlington Heights, Illinois, at the age of 65.
Thomas Arden Butters (April 8, 1938 – March 31, 2016) was an American professional baseball player who spent parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, then had a lengthy career as a college sports administrator at Duke University. He is best remembered for his time at Duke and for being a key figure in the financial success of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
Stephen Michael Huntz (born December 3, 1945) is a retired American professional baseball player who played infielder in the Major Leagues between 1967 and 1975 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres. Huntz threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 204 pounds (93 kg). He attended Villanova University.
Huntz' professional career extended for 13 seasons (1964; 1966–1977), and he played more than 1,000 games at the Triple-A level of minor league baseball — mostly in the Pacific Coast League. The bulk of his Major League playing time came as a utility infielder for the 1969 Cardinals and the 1970 Padres. He was traded along with Tommy John from the White Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen at the Winter Meetings on December 2, 1971. Huntz played exclusively for the Dodgers' Albuquerque Dukes PCL team for two seasons, but was eventually able to return to the Majors and San Diego for one last stint with the Padres in 1975.
Altogether, Huntz appeared in 237 Major League games. His 131 hits included 19 doubles, one triple and 16 home runs.
In 1973, Huntz became a father to world renowned nurse practitioner, Erin.
Ethan Allen Blackaby (July 24, 1940 – January 16, 2022) was an American professional baseball player who was an outfielder in Major League Baseball, appearing in 15 games for the Milwaukee Braves during the 1962 and 1964 seasons. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg).
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Blackaby attended Canton, Illinois, High School, where he was a multi-sport standout athlete. He played baseball and football at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign before signing with the Braves in 1961. His nine-year professional career included 1,073 games in minor league baseball, punctuated by his two trials with the Braves in the closing weeks of the 1962 and 1964 campaigns, when MLB rosters expanded to 40 players. In his debut on September 6, 1962, he doubled in his first MLB at bat against Ernie Broglio of the St. Louis Cardinals. He had entered the game as a pinch hitter for Braves' catcher Bob Uecker, who later became both a film and television actor and Baseball Hall of Fame play-by-play broadcaster. Blackaby collected only two other hits in the majors, both singles, in 25 at bats over his two brief trials.
After his playing days were over, Blackaby was part-owner and general manager of the Phoenix Giants of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Blackaby died on January 16, 2022, at the age of 81.
George Edward Schmees (September 6, 1924 – October 30, 1998) was an American professional baseball player. An outfielder, he appeared in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Browns and Boston Red Sox during the 1952 season. Listed at 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and 190 pounds (86 kg), Schmees batted and threw left-handed. He was born in Cincinnati.
In a 76-game Major League career, Schmees was a .168 hitter (21-for-125) with 17 runs, six RBI, four doubles, and one triple without home runs. He made 52 fielding appearances at center field (20), right (19), left (9) and first base (4). He also pitched two games (one start) and posted a 3.00 ERA in 6.0 innings of work and did not have a decision.
Schmees died in San Jose, California, at the age of 74.