Dateline: Cincinnati
On a warm June day in 1944, Saturday June 10th, young men were riding trains in and out of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal on the West end of town.
Perhaps they were boarding or changing trains but thousands of them were reading the accounts of the D Day invasion of France four days prior. They themselves were on their way to join the fight against Nazi, Germany.
Perhaps some of them took advantage of a layover to walk a few blocks to Crosley Field to join a crowd of 3,500 to watch the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals play the Cincinnati Reds.
If the stayed to the eighth inning of the game with the Cardinals leading 13-0, they saw a tall, 195 pound, kid come out of the bullpen down the first base line. Joseph Henry Nuxhall was 15 and just out of Wilson Junior High School for the summer, intending to play football and basketball for Hamilton High School that fall.
Major League Baseball decided to continue playing during the war though nearly 500 professional players from the big leagues and minor leagues were in the service, many more worked in the factories to build the items needed in battle.
Orville “Ox” Nuxhall worked in a plant making deisel engines in Hamilton, 30 miles from Crosley Field.
On weekends the 36- year father of five played semi-pro baseball. They too had trouble finding enough players to fill a team. Orville’s son Joe was 14 in 1943 when scouts from the Reds arrived to see him play.
When they got there Joe, a left hander, was pitching. They asked about Ox, and who is that big kid pitching.
“That’s Ox’ son, Joe,” said a teammate. They were pleasantly surprised. They offered the kid a tryout. They offered Ox a tryout.
Orville Nuxhall said no he had five kids to support. Not knowing if baseball would continue through the war or not. After all there were players as old as 47 playing, one nine years after he retired were playing in the big leagues. How long would that last?
Young, Joe went to the tryout. He was impressive enough that Reds’ manager Bill McKechnie took the youngster on a road trip to St. Louis that September. The Reds were offering Joe a contract but he wanted to compete in basketball at Hamilton High School and didn’t sign until after the season in February 1944 to preserve his amateur status. When he signed he was paid a $500 signing bonus and $175 a month which contributed to the family’s income.
He was sent to Birmingham to train when the school year ended and found himself in the Reds’ bullpen that June 10th, 82 years ago today.
The Cardinals were merciless that day with Hall of Famer Stan Musial in the lineup, the reigning National League batting champion, they had a 13-0 lead when McKechnie called on Nuxhall to warm up.
According to Nuxhall, “He must have called me three times before I realized he was talking to me.”
Bucky Walters the ace of the Reds pitching staff from the 1939 and 1940 National League Championship teams was within earshot.
“I was so nervous I tripped over the last step in the dugout on the way to warm up,” Nuxhall recalled.
There he was facing the first place Cardinals in front of 3,500 people about a 10th of the capacity with a scattering of soldiers going to war.
It was the ninth inning. Nuxhall was the 9,696th player in Major League history and forever the youngest at 15 years, 316 days.
It started out fine he pitched to George Fallon who grounded out to shortstop. Was a phenom born? Not quite, Nuxhall walked Mort Cooper. Then Augie Bergamo popped out to shortstop. Deb Garms stepped in. Nuxhall threw a wild pitch. “Calm down”, he told himself, “One out to go.” Garms walked. Now the youngster was face to face with the great Musial.
“That’s when I realized where I was,” Nuxhall said of the experience. Musial singled. Mort Cooper scored. After that Nuxhall misplaced home plate. He walked Ray Sanders, Walker Cooper, and Danny Litwhiler. Emil Verban singled.
McKechnie showed mercy and brought in 21-year old Jacob Eisenhart, who was signed under similar circumstances to Nuxhall, walked George Fallon but retired Mort Cooper on a fly out to first base. It was the last time Eisenhart ever pitched.
Nuxhall was far from finished.
He was sent back to Birmingham the rest of the summer. He voluntarily and temporarily retired to get his amateur status back making All-State in Ohio in football and basketball.
He returned to professional baseball in 1947. He played five more years in the minor leagues and made the Reds out of spring training in 1952.
Nuxhall didn’t appear in another big league game until May 21 at Ebbett’s Field in Brooklyn. It was eerily similar to his debut he entered the game in the sixth inning with the Reds trailing 19-1 but this time he threw three scoreless innings with one hit, no walks, yes zero walks and three strikeouts in the final three innings.
He appeared in 37 games with five starts and started his career over with a 1-4 record and 3.22 ERA. Nuxhall finished a 16-year career on October 2, 1966. He won 135 games and lost 117. He pitched exactly 2,302 innings after his 1944 experience. He walked 776 batters but struck out 1,372, nearly a 2-1 ratio. He finished with a 3.90 ERA and made the National League All-Star team in 1955 in which he led the league with five shutouts and again in 1956.
But it is not nearly the end of the story.
Having broadcasting basketball for Miami University eight miles from his native home, with Ray Motley, Nuxhall joined the Reds broadcast booth in 1967. He was mentored by Hall of Fame pitcher turned broadcaster Waite Hoyt. He broadcast Reds games until 2007. He was elected to the Reds’ Hall of Fame and was nominated to the National Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Nuxhall signed off Reds’ broadcast with, “This is the old lefthander rounding third and heading for home.” It is immortalized in lights facing the highway of Great American Ball Park.
Nuxhall passed away on November 15, 2007 at Mercy Hospital in Fairfield , Ohio. His visitation at Fairfield High School where he frequently watched sports, drew over 6,000 people.
His son Kim, who pitched in the Reds’ farm system in 1972 through 1974, along with son Phil, honor their father with the Joe Nuxhall Miracle Field at Hatton Park in Fairfield, Ohio. Kim retired as a PE teacher at Fairfield High School. The field is dedicated to serve special needs children so they can enjoy baseball.
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