Baseball players from Columbus

David Lee Bakenhaster (March 5, 1945 – July 30, 2014) was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in two games in Major League Baseball as a member of the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals. Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in nearby Dublin, he threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and 168 pounds (76 kg).
Bakenhaster signed with the Cardinals for a $40,000 bonus in 1963 after he graduated from Dublin Coffman High School. The Cardinals protected him from the first-year player draft by putting him on their 25-man MLB roster for 1964. But he would appear in only two games and hurl only three full innings as a Redbird.
He made his major-league debut at the age of 19 on June 20, 1964, at Busch Stadium. He entered a contest against the San Francisco Giants in a low-leverage situation, with St. Louis trailing 10–1 in the eighth inning. Bakenhaster allowed six hits and four unearned runs in two full innings as the Giants rolled, 14–3. One month and two days later, on July 22, he appeared in his second and last MLB game, another one-sided home game, this time against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bakenhaster again worked the ninth inning, allowing a two-run home run to Bill Mazeroski and surrendering the final two runs in an eventual 13–2 Pittsburgh romp.The Cardinals then sent Bakenhaster to the minor leagues for the remainder of 1964; he escaped the first-year player draft but never returned to the majors. He missed the 1968 season while serving in the military, and retired from the game after the 1970 season. In his brief MLB career, he posted a 0–0 won–lost record and a 6.00 earned run average, with nine hits and one base on balls in three full innings pitched. He did not record a strikeout.
After leaving baseball, Bakenhaster worked for 34 years in a warehouse operated by Exel Logistics, serving the Nabisco Brands Food Company in Columbus, Ohio. In 1975, he married the former Carolyn Harr. In 2002, he was elected to the inaugural class for the Dublin Coffman High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jon Warden (born October 1, 1946) is an American baseball player originally from Columbus, Ohio. A left-handed pitcher, he was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the fourth round of the 1966 amateur draft. In the 1968 season, he played 28 games and 37+1⁄3 innings for the Tigers, ending with a 4-1 record, 3 saves, 11 games finished, and an ERA of 3.62. After the conclusion of the 1968 season, he was selected in the expansion draft by the Kansas City Royals, but did not play any games for that team.

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.

Thomas Leo "Duke" Simpson (September 15, 1927 – February 7, 2021) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, Simpson had a seven-year (1948–1954) career, which included a full, 1953 season in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs. He stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kg).

John Glen Morlan (born November 22, 1947) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

James Marion McKee (February 1, 1947 – September 14, 2002) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the 1972 and 1973 Pittsburgh Pirates.
An alumnus of Otterbein College, McKee was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 4th round of the 1969 amateur draft. He pitched in a total of 17 games for the Pirates, and continued to pitch in their Minor League system until 1974. McKee died as a result of a car accident in 2002 at the age of 55.

Richard Lloyd Hoover (December 11, 1925 – April 12, 1981) was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Boston Braves during the 1952 season. Listed at 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m), 170 lb., he batted and threw left-handed.

Robert William Gillespie (October 8, 1919 – November 4, 2001) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played between 1944 and 1950 for the Detroit Tigers (1944), Chicago White Sox (1947–48) and Boston Red Sox (1950). Listed at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), 187 lb., Gillespie batted and threw right-handed. The native of Columbus, Ohio, served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II.
In a four-season career, Gillespie posted a 5–13 record with a 4.73 ERA in 58 pitching appearances, including 23 starts, two complete games, 59 strikeouts, 102 walks, and 202 ⅓ innings of work.
Gillespie died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on November 4, 2001, at the age of 82.

Edward James Milner Jr. (May 21, 1955 – November 2, 2015) was an American professional baseball player. He played all or parts of nine seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Reds (1980–86, 1988) and San Francisco Giants (1987), primarily as a center fielder. Milner batted and threw left-handed.

Lawrence Rayford Howard (June 6, 1945 – May 11, 2019) was a Major League Baseball catcher. He played four seasons with the Houston Astros (1970–1973) and Atlanta Braves (1973). He died on May 11, 2019.