Former All-Star pitcher Joey Jay handed away final month at age 89, in line with an obituary from a Florida funeral house. A 6’4″ right-hander, he pitched 13 seasons within the large leagues.
A local of Middletown, Connecticut, Jay signed with the Milwaukee Braves for a $20K bonus in 1953. Underneath the so-called “bonus child” guidelines of the time, a participant who signed for greater than $4K couldn’t be assigned to the minor leagues. Jay due to this fact jumped proper to the majors as a 17-year-old for the 1953 season. He remarkably tossed 10 scoreless innings in an abbreviated stint. He solely made 15 appearances the next 12 months, struggling to a 6.50 ERA throughout 18 innings in his age-18 season.
After two seasons within the majors, Milwaukee was capable of assign Jay to the minors. He wouldn’t make a everlasting return to the massive leagues till 1958, his age-22 marketing campaign. Jay pitched properly in a swing position over the following three years. His profession actually took off when he was dealt to the Reds as a part of a bundle for Gold Glove shortstop Roy McMillan in the course of the 1960-61 offseason.
Cincinnati plugged Jay into the rotation. He seized on his first everlasting rotation spot, working to a 3.53 ERA over 247 1/3 innings masking 34 begins. He led the Nationwide League with 21 wins and 4 shutouts amongst his 14 full video games. Jay was chosen to each All-Star groups in 1961 — MLB had a number of All-Star video games for a number of years throughout that point — and completed fifth in NL MVP balloting. Three of the 4 gamers above him (Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda, Vada Pinson and Roberto Clemente) went onto Corridor of Fame careers.
The Reds completed 93-61 that season to safe the NL pennant earlier than the introduction of the Championship Sequence. Cincinnati met the Yankees within the World Sequence. Jay acquired the ball in Recreation 2 and tossed a two-run full sport to get the victory. That’d be the Reds’ solely win of the set. Jay was hit exhausting within the Recreation 5 clincher, because the Yanks tagged him for 4 runs with out permitting him to flee the primary inning.
That season was the spotlight of Jay’s profession, however he had one other productive season in 1962. He once more gained 21 video games with a 3.76 ERA via a personal-high 273 innings. Whereas his manufacturing tailed off from there, he remained a fixture of the Cincinnati rotation via ’65. The Reds dealt him again to the Braves, who have been enjoying in Atlanta by that time, halfway via 1966. He completed his profession with 9 appearances there earlier than being launched.
Jay ended his enjoying days with 3.77 ERA in additional than 1500 innings. He fell one win shy of the century mark and was one strikeout away from reaching 1000. Jay’s obituary notes that he went on to run corporations in West Virginia and Florida throughout his post-playing days. MLBTR sends our condolences to his household, buddies and family members.
