Oldest living player pitched to Williams
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Sept. 3, 1941, Fred Caligiuri sat in the Philadelphia Athletics’ dugout ahead of a game in Washington.
He was 22 years old, ecstatic about his Major League Baseball call-up and the crisp uniform that came with it.
“That first game, I come out dressed up in that suit,” he said. “I thought I was really something. Here comes a guy down the walk — a big tall fella, with a little hat on. It was Connie Mack, the first time I’ve ever seen him. He got by me, threw me a ball and said, ‘You’re pitching today.’ ”
He made his major-league debut, pitching eight innings and hitting a triple in a 9-8 loss.
Mack, a future Hall of Fame manager, gave him five starts in 1941. The next three were standard, but the last one associated Caligiuri’s name with one of the most iconic seasons in majorleague history.
Caligiuri was on the mound when Ted Williams of the Red Sox accomplished something that hasn’t been done since then.
“That,” Caligiuri said, “was the year the boy hit .406. And I pitched the last game to him.”
Today, Caligiuri, who was born and raised in tiny West Hickory, Pa., lives in a Charlotte assisted-living community, and is the oldest living player in A’s franchise history.
On May 28, with the death of former St. Louis Browns first baseman Chuck Stevens, Caligiuri became the oldest living former MLB player. He is 99 years old, with his 100th birthday coming Oct. 22.
Before the doubleheader on Sept. 28, Mack gathered Caligiuri and the rest of the Athletics’ pitchers for a meeting.
Williams was going to play in the final two games of the regular season, despite holding a .3995 batting average that would’ve rounded up to a clean .400. And it was up to the A’s, in last place in the American League standings, to try to contain him.
“Connie Mack told us, the pitchers, ‘Just don’t give him anything. Throw it as hard as you can throw it,’ ” Caligiuri said. “In other words, he’s going to earn it.”
Williams promptly went 4-for-5 in the first game, a Boston win, and was comfortably over .400 heading into the second game. Caligiuri got the start against a loaded Boston lineup that featured Williams, Jimmie Foxx and Dom DiMaggio. And the Red Sox were giving a final start to 41-year-old Lefty Grove, who had picked up his 300th win that season.
Caligiuri and Williams first faced each other in the top of the second — Williams singled. Then, in the fourth, he doubled to center field.
But in their third meeting, in the seventh, Caligiuri prevailed. He remembers the out perfectly, from the play (a foul ball) to the direction (sky high into left field) to the teammate who caught it (Elmer Valo).
Caligiuri ended up pitching a complete game, allowing six hits and one earned run. The Athletics won 7-1, splitting the doubleheader. Williams went 6-for-8 in the two games, and finished the season hitting .406.
“No matter if you only throw one ball in the major leagues, you’ve accomplished something,” Caligiuri said.
Caligiuri split time between the Athletics and the Class B Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks in 1942. Then, with World War II in full swing, he was drafted into the Army in 1943.
“One day, in the mail, I received two contracts: one from Connie Mack and one from Uncle Sam,” he said.
He spent three years overseas in an Army boat unit, returning home in 1946 at the age of 27.
“I never reached my potential,” he said. Mack “took me to spring training. They had to do that — present you with the same job that you had, before you went in the Army. And I knew I couldn’t make the team. I went through spring training in Florida, and I went home.”
Caligiuri and wife Anne lived in Rimersburg, Pa., before retiring to Charlotte to be close to their son, Fred Jr., 70, a real-estate agent.
Anne died in 2014 at 91 after 72 years of marriage.
He’ll celebrate his 100th birthday simply: a nice dinner, cake, a few presents.
“You know, it’s quite a feat,” he said. “If you think about everybody playing baseball today, and me, I’m the oldest. But when I go, there’ll be some more old folks. So that and a cup of coffee will just about do it.”