Bob Veale, one of those hard-throwing, glasses-wearing pitchers who stirred fear in the hearts of batter, died January 3 at the age of 86.
The six-foot-six lefty spent most of his 13-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates before spending his last three seasons with the Boston Red Sox.
Here’s his obituary by Andrew Destin in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Richard Sandomir in The New York Times.
Veale’s best season came in 1964 when he led the league in strikeouts (250) and walks (124). By winning “just” 18 games, he fell two shy of inclusion in The Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners. (Note: that book was published in 2007. Since then C.C. Sabathia and David Price have joined the “deck.”) But he does get a chapter in Baseball in Alabama: Tales of Hardball in the Heart of Dixie.
Here’s an interview with Veale in 1963.
One of the baseball cards I remember from my initial foray into collecting is in the middle row, second from the left.
is available on Amazon.com,
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