[FatJack]

Carl Miles, briefly a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics, passed away on September 9, 2016. At the time of his death, he was 98 and the second oldest former major leaguer behind only 99 year old Eddie Carnett and just ahead of Bobby Doerr, the oldest living Hall of Famer.

Carl was a pitching star at the University of Missouri and the team captain in his senior year (1940). He signed with the Athletics in May 1940 and reported directly to the major league team. They didn't have all that much to lose as they were dreadful and destined to finish last in the American League that year. If there was any silver lining to the Athletics cloud, it was that the other Philadelphia team, the Phillies, was even worse.

Carl didn't see a lot of action. On June 8, the southpaw was sent in in the 6th inning of a game Philadelphia was already losing to the Browns 8 - 1. He did his part, pitching 4 innings and giving up 7 more runs. He had to wait until July 2 to get another shot. He entered that game in the 5th with the Red Sox leading 10 - 3. In 4 innings, Carl gave up 5 earned runs.

Was there any good news for Carl? Actually, yes. In 4 trips to the plate, he'd gotten 3 hits (he was 3 for 3 against Boston). So his major league ERA might say 13.50, but his lifetime batting average reads .750. And not a lot of people know that Carl pitched one more game for Philadelphia that year. On September 3, Carl took the mound in an exhibition game in which the Athletics faced Springfield of the Eastern League. Carl tossed a no-hitter. Yes, he really did. True, he walked 6, but no runs scored and, anyway, a no-hitter is a no-hitter (even when it doesn't count). Oh, and between his last regular season outing and the exhibition, Carl got married to his childhood sweetheart, Norma Jean Ripley. They celebrated their 75th anniversary last summer.

Carl pitched for three more years in the minors (interrupted a bit by the war effort), but seemed to get less effective each year. He and Norma Jean returned to Chillicothe Missouri where she became a teacher and Carl became a teacher and coach. And Carl kept pitching. Chillicothe had a history of semi-pro baseball that went back to the thirties. Their teams were good enough that pro teams would write requesting to play exhibitions against them. In 1946, Carl pitched for the Crookshanks Bakers. In 1947, they organized the Tri-County league and Carl pitched for the Chillicothe Highview Sluggers. He was a strikeout machine, mowing 13 down in one game, 22 in the next, and 15 in the game after that. And he was still quite the hitter, too.

At some point, Carl and his wife moved to Iowa where, eventually, he became the superintendent of schools until he retired in 1981. Norma Jean passed away on June 17 this year. And, as sometimes happens, Carl followed a few months later.

Charles Conlon took some great pictures of Carl with the Athletics. They are currently part of the Getty collection, if you want to license them (or whatever). To avoid that, here's a non-Conlon image (doesn't mean Conlon didn't take it, but its not at Getty) which was found on the Autograph Addict web site. I was able to gray-scale it without removing the color of the autograph (give me B&W over sepia tones any day). The other image is from a newspaper. Lousy picture, sure, but he's got the white A's home cap on and its the only image I found of him with the white cap, so I figured what the heck. (It's from a 1974 edition of the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune as part of the Linnie Phillips Day tribute, Linnie Phillips being the acknowledged father of Chillicothe baseball).