Joe Nuxhall: The Story of the Youngest Player In MLB History

The date was June 10, 1944, and for the Cincinnati Reds they, like the rest of Major League Baseball was suffering from a player shortage due to World War II. With their pitching staff undermanned, they called upon Joseph Henry Nuxhall to take the mound.

What made Nuxhall’s appearance so special was the fact that he was just 15 years and 316 days old. That made him the youngest pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball to play in an official game. While he only pitched for 2/3 of an inning, he set the record for youngest player ever which has never been broken.

Nuxhall's Debut Results?

In that game which the Reds got hammered by the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 18-0 in front of a home crowd at Crosley Field with just 3,510 fans looking on, Nuxhall’s debut was not a good one. In his 2/3 of an inning, the kid surrendered two hits and five earned runs while also walking five batters. His ERA was an astronomical 67.50.

Joseph Henry Nuxhall was a big kid standing 6’3” and weighing 195 pounds. He was born on July 30, 1928, in Hamilton, Ohio. With his young debut at 15 in 1944, he did not play again that season and not again the following year.

A Return to the Majors

But in 1952, now aged 24, he returned to the Reds and stayed on their staff until 1961 when he joined the Kansas City A’s. Before he retired in 1966, he would play for the Los Angeles Angels and then back to Cincinnati where he finished his career.

To Joe Nuxhall’s credit, he played 16 big league seasons and finished with a winning record of 135-117. His ERA was respectable at 3.90. His resume shows 20 shutouts and 83 complete games. He also recorded 19 saves. Nuxhall’s strikeout total was 1,372. He started 526 games. For left-handed pitchers in Cincinnati Reds’ history, Nuxhall still holds the record for most games pitched.

Following his retirement, he became a radio broadcaster for Reds games and held that position for 40 years. Nuxhall lost his life to cancer in 2007 at the age of 79. His final days were spent in Fairfield, Ohio. Nuxhall is in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and was a two-time All-Star in 1955 and 1956. Nuxhall’s father Orville was also a baseball player, taking the field for a semi-pro team that his son Joe also played for.

When the Reds went looking for players to fill the roster, they offered Orville a spot on the roster, but he refused rather expressing a desire to stay home with his five children. At that point, Reds scouts looked to Joe Nuxhall and signed him to a contract.

In the words of Joe Nuxhall about his Major League Baseball debut, “I was pitching against seventh, eight, and ninth graders, kids 13 and 14 years old…All of a sudden, I look up and there’s Stan Musial and the likes. It was a very scary situation.”

Reds Honor Nuxhall

In Cincinnati’s opening day game at home in 2008, the team paid tribute to Joe Nuxhall as Reds players sported alternate jerseys during their game introductions in honor of the late Cincinnati pitcher. For Aaron Haran, for this one game he put his normal number 39 jersey aside to wear Nuxhall’s jersey number 41. Cincinnati players also wore a patch that said “Nudy” on it as well as his number 41.

To this day, Joseph Henry Nuxhall remains the youngest player to ever appear in a MLB game and that is a record that will surely never be broken.