Bob Cain
| Bob Cain | |
|---|---|
 Cain in about 1953. | |
| Pitcher | |
|
Born: October 16, 1924 Longford, Kansas | |
|
Died: April 8, 1997 (aged 72) Cleveland, Ohio | |
| Batted: Left | Threw: Left |
| MLB debut | |
| September 18, 1949 for the Chicago White Sox | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 11, 1954 for the Chicago White Sox | |
| Career statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 37-44 |
| Earned run average | 4.50 |
| Strikeouts | 249 |
| Teams | |
Robert Max Cain (October 16, 1924 – April 8, 1997), nicknamed "Sugar", was a left-handed pitcher who played Major League Baseball from 1949 to 1954. In 1951, Cain was the pitcher who issued a walk to Eddie Gaedel, whose single plate appearance made him the shortest person to appear in a major league game.
Biography
Cain was born on October 16, 1924 in Longford, Kansas. He was signed to a contract with the New York Giants in 1943.[1] Cain shut out the New York Yankees in his first major league start in 1949. In 1952 he matched one-hitters with Bob Feller and won, 1–0.
On August 19, 1951, St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck put the 3 foot, 7 inch Eddie Gaedel into the game with instructions to hold his bat on his shoulder and not swing. Cain later recalled: "I went out to the mound to start to pitch the bottom half of the first and as I was warming up, Eddie went over and got these little bats. We couldn't understand what was going on." (Richard Bak, "Cobb Would Have Caught It" (1991), p. 350) In his crouch, Gaedel reportedly had a strike zone of 1½ inches. Detroit catcher, Bob Swift, advised Cain to "Keep it low." According to observers, Cain was laughing so hard at the prospect of pitching to Gaedel that "he's practically falling off the mound with each pitch." Cain proceeded to walk Gaedel on four straight pitches, all high.[2]
Cain pitched five seasons in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox (1949–1951), Detroit Tigers (1951), and St. Louis Browns (1952–1953), also appearing a pinch-hitter in one game for the White Sox in 1954. Cain played in 150 major league games, with 140 appearances as a pitcher, for 628 innings, with a career record of 37–44 and an earned run average of 4.50.
When Gaedel died in 1961, Cain was the only person affiliated with major league baseball who attended his funeral. Cain said, "I never even met him, but I felt obligated to go."
After leaving baseball, Cain was a salesman for Kraft Foods. He lived in Euclid, Ohio for the last 40 years of his life, and died of cancer in Cleveland at age 72.[3]
References
- ↑ "Bob Cain". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
- ↑ Numbelivable!, p. 93, Michael X. Ferraro and John Veneziano, Triumph Books, Chicago, Illinois, 2007, ISBN 978-1-57243-990-0
- ↑ New York Times Obituary of Bob Cain
Sources
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
- ESPN - "Short on size, long on history"
- Richard Bak, "Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit" (Wayne State Univ. 1991), Chapter 20 ("Bob Cain")