Jake Pitler

Infobox MLB retired
name = Jake Pitler
bgcolor1 =
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position = Second Baseman
birthdate = birth date|1894|4|22
deathdate = death date and age|1968|2|3|1894|4|22
bats =Right
throws = Right
debutdate =May 30
debutyear =1917
debutteam =Pittsburgh Pirates
finaldate =May 24
finalyear =1918
finalteam =Pittsburgh Pirates
stat1label = Batting average
stat1value =.232
stat2label =Home runs
stat2value =0
stat3label =Runs batted in
stat3value =23
teams =
*Pittsburgh Pirates (1923-1924)
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Jacob Albert Pitler (April 22, 1894 — February 3, 1968) was an American second baseman and longtime coach in Major League Baseball. Born in New York, New York, he stood 5' 8" (173 cm) tall, weighed 150 pounds (68 kg), and batted and threw righthanded.

Baseball career

Pitler began his professional playing career in by|1913 at Jackson of the Class C Southern Michigan Association. When that league disbanded in by|1915, Pitler was picked up by the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class A Southern Association. He was batting a healthy .364 in 42 games when his contract was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the midseason of by|1917 during the World War I manpower crisis. He played in 109 games for Pittsburgh that season, and two contests in by|1918, compiling a .232 average in 383 at bats with no home runs and 23 runs batted in. He then joined the war effort.

During much of the 1920s, Pitler was out of "organized" minor league baseball, playing in semi-professional or "outlaw" leagues. But in by|1928, he joined the Binghamton Triplets of the New York-Pennsylvania League and became a fixture in that circuit, playing also for Elmira and Hazleton, and beginning his managing career in by|1934 with Scranton.

In by|1939, Pitler joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as a minor league manager, winning back-to-back pennants with the Olean Oilers of the PONY League in 1939-40. He was promoted to the Dodger coaching staff in by|1947 and served through the end of the team's stay in Brooklyn in by|1957 — through six National League championships and Brooklyn's lone world title, which came in by|1955.

Pitler usually served as Brooklyn's first-base coach and worked under Leo Durocher, Burt Shotton, Chuck Dressen and Walter Alston. Pitler appears in Roger Kahn's memoir "The Boys of Summer" as a somewhat obsequious aide to Dressen. But with his minor league managing background, he was also hailed as a fatherly figure to Dodger rookies. He was cited for that role in poet Marianne Moore's paean to the 1955 champions, "Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese."

After retiring as a coach, Pitler continued his association with the Dodgers (by now based in Los Angeles) as a scout. He died in Binghamton, New York, in by|1968 at the age of 73. In 1991 he was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pitler also holds a still-standing record for most putouts in a game by a second baseman.

References

*Bucek, Jeanine, ed., "The Baseball Encyclopedia," 10th edition. New York: Macmillan USA, 1996.
*Kahn, Roger, "The Boys of Summer." New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
*Spink, J.G. Taylor, ed., "The Baseball Register." St. Louis: The Sporting News, 1956.

External links

*baseball-reference|id=p/pitleja01
* [http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Jake-Pitler.shtml Baseball Cube stats]
* [http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1010372&position=2B Fangraphs stats]
* [http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Pitler.Jake.Obit.html NY Times obit, 2/4/68]