Kid at play

Reds manager Bill McKechnie and Joe Nuxhall in 1944

Left-handed pitcher Joe Nuxhall becomes the youngest player in major league history 80 years ago today as he works two-thirds of an inning in the Cincinnati Reds’ 18-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals before a Saturday afternoon crowd of 3,510 at Crosley Field.

Before he finishes his first game, Nuxhall gives up five runs on five walks and a pair of singles – the first by future Hall of Famer Stan Musial – as he makes his debut while the majors are playing short-handed during to World War II.

Nuxhall – 15 years, 10 months and 11 days old at the time – does not pitch again in the majors until 1952, when he returns to the Reds to resume what turns out to be a lengthy career in the majors.

He ends up earning a spot on two National League All-Star teams and pitches through the 1966 season.

Nuxhall, 38 by the time he finally retires, soon begins a long and distinguished career as a broadcaster with the Reds.

Of course, wherever he goes from 1944 until he retires from the radio booth in 2004, Nuxhall gets reminders about his historic debut 80 years ago today.

Not that Nuxhall ever seems to mind retelling the tale of when Reds manager Bill McKechnie first calls on him.

“The Cardinals are just killing us; it’s 13-0,” Nuxhall tells author William Mead in the mid-1970s. “McKechnie told me to go warm up. Really, he yelled twice. “The first time he said ‘Joe,’ I didn’t pay any attention, figuring he was talking to someone else. The second time it was a little louder, and I went down and warmed up.”

Before he gets a chance to warm up, though, Nuxhall finds himself on the ground after slipping on the top step of the Reds’ dugout.

Understandable, Nuxhall says, that his disastrous debut follows.

“Jeez, God, I was scared to death,” Nuxhall says. “I was throwing the ball all over the damned place.”