Jake Pitler
Jake Pitler | |
---|---|
New York, New York, U.S. | |
Died: February 3, 1968 Binghamton, New York, U.S. | (aged 73)|
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
May 30, 1917, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
Last MLB appearance | |
May 24, 1918, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .232 |
Home runs | 0 |
Runs batted in | 23 |
Teams | |
As player
As coach
|
Jacob Albert Pitler (April 22, 1894 – February 3, 1968) was an American second baseman and longtime coach in Major League Baseball. Born in New York City, and Jewish,[1][2] he moved with his family to Western Pennsylvania when he was a boy, and he grew up in Beaver Falls and Pittsburgh.[3]
Baseball career
Pitler stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, weighed 150 pounds (68 kg) and batted and threw right-handed. He began his professional playing career in
During much of the 1920s, Pitler played in semi-professional or "outlaw" leagues. But in
In 1939, Pitler joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as a minor league manager, winning back-to-back pennants with the Olean Oilers of the PONY League in 1939–40. He was promoted to the Dodger coaching staff in 1947 and remained a member of it through the end of the team's stay in Brooklyn in 1957 — through six National League championships and Brooklyn's lone world title, which came in 1955.
Pitler usually served as Brooklyn's first-base coach and worked under Dodger managers Leo Durocher, Burt Shotton, Chuck Dressen and Walter Alston. He appeared in Roger Kahn's memoir The Boys of Summer as a somewhat obsequious aide to Dressen. But with his minor league managing background, he was also hailed as a fatherly figure to Dodger rookies and young players. He was cited for that role in poet Marianne Moore's paean to the 1955 champions, Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese.
Pitler retired as a coach after the
See also
References
- ^ "Big League Jews". Jewish Sports Review. 12 (137): 20. January–February 2020.
- ISBN 9780786428281. Retrieved 2015-01-06.
- ^ a b Bard, Stan, Jake Pitler, Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project
- ^ "Jake Pitler Dies Upstate at 73; Ex-Coach of Brooklyn Dodgers - Gifted Counselor and Scout Began as Minor-League Player and Manager". New York Times. February 4, 1968. p. 81. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
- Bucek, Jeanine, ed., The Baseball Encyclopedia, 10th edition. New York: Macmillan USA, 1996.
- Kahn, Roger, The Boys of Summer. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
- Spink, J. G. Taylor, ed., The Baseball Register. St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1956.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- NY Times obit, 2/4/68
- Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese by Marianne Moore
- Jake Pitler at Find a Grave