Nuxhall debuted in MLB before his 16th birthday in 1944 due to the thinning of talent due to WWII. He then did the usual minor league work and returned to the Reds in 1952. Baseball Reference shows he was out of baseball in 1946 with 'voluntarily retired' given as the reason for no stats. I'd like to think he spent the year getting ready for his high school prom.
He went on to win 135 games over 16 seasons, all but five of those wins with the Reds. He went on to become a long-time, much-loved broadcaster for the Reds before retiring in 2004, a full six decades after his debut. Even then he wasn't completely retired as he sometimes pitched batting practice at Reds home games.
Joe Nuxhall died in 2007 at the age of 79.
Those are two pretty-good cartoons! In the first one it looks like they tried to make the caricature actually look like him.
ReplyDelete"Retired" at age 17!
ReplyDelete