The Youngest Pitcher To Start An All-Star Game
We look back at the second of two 1959 Midsummer Classics, which featured an American League starter who was the ripe old age of 20.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . On April 12, 1961, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jerry Walker was traded to the Kansas City Athletics for, among other players, future Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams, who famously managed the World Series-champion Oakland Athletics in 1972 and ‘73, along with the National League pennant-winning San Diego Padres in 1984.
. . . Walker might be the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star Game, but the oldest MLB player to appear in an All-Star Game was, unsurprisingly, Satchel Paige, who threw one inning in the 1953 All-Star Game at age 47. He faced six batters, five of which became Hall of Famers -- Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Eddie Mathews, Duke Snider, and Enos Slaughter -- and allowed two runs.
Leading Off
The 20-Year-Old All-Star Game Starting Pitcher: Jerry Walker
By Russ Walsh
By the time you read this, the 2023 All-Star Game will be history. The newspapers this morning will be reporting the score, the big hits, the pitching performances good and bad, or perhaps a spectacular defensive play. Who was this year’s shining star? Was it Shohei Ohtani or Miami’s spectacular Luis Arraez or perhaps, as often happens, some more obscure player, like the Oakland A’s Brent Rooker or the Chicago Cubs’ Justin Steele? Whatever happened, as a student of baseball history, I had to wonder if former All-Star pitcher Jerry Walker was watching.
Who is Jerry Walker? He is the answer to an All-Star trivia question. Jerry Walker of the Baltimore Orioles is the youngest pitcher to ever start an All-Star Game.
On Aug. 3, 1959, at the age of 20 years and 173 days, the right-handed Walker took the mound in front of 55,105 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the first ever All-Star Game played in Los Angeles and the only one ever played at the Coliseum. Walker may also be one of the most obscure All-Star pitchers of all time. His Major League career ended in 1964 with a career record of 37-44.
That Walker was on the team at all can only be described as a happy accident. 1959 was the first year that Major League Baseball held two All-Star Games. The idea was for the second game to be played for the benefit of the players’ pension fund. The experiment lasted until 1962, when it was abandoned because almost everyone agreed it was a bad idea. Walker was not on the All-Star squad for the first All-Star Game that year (won by the National League, 5-4). He was named to the squad for the second game when Orioles All-Star catcher Gus Triandos came down with an injury.
American League manager Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees had wanted to start Chicago White Sox ace Early Wynn in the game, but Wynn severely sprained an Achilles tendon in his pre-All Star Game start. Stengel’s second choice was the Orioles’ Hoyt Wilhelm, but Wilhelm pitched on the Sunday before the game. Finally, Stengel announced he would start his own flame-throwing, vision-challenged relief pitcher, Ryne Duren, but then he used Duren to pitch 3 1/3 innings on Sunday. At the 11th hour, Stengel announced that the rookie Walker would start. Fans around the country responded, “Who’s Walker?”
Walker was a high school phenom out of Byng High School in Ada, Okla. The Orioles signed him right after graduation in June 1957 and he made his Major League debut a month later on July 6. The youngster became a special protégé of Orioles pitching coach Harry Brecheen, who said he had the best curveball of any young pitcher he had ever seen. Walker appeared in 13 games with the Orioles as an 18-year-old and then had a spectacular 1958 campaign with Knoxville in the Class A Sally League, going 18-4. He was a September callup that season, and then became a permanent member of the Orioles’ rotation in 1959. Coming into the All-Star Game, he had a 6-3 record and a 2.90 ERA.
Walker responded well to his unexpected assignment. His mound opponent was the Dodgers’ ace Don Drysdale, who had also started the first All-Star Game that year. The NL scratched out a run off of Walker in the first. Johnny Temple led off with a double, moved up to third when Ken Boyer grounded out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Henry Aaron. Walker’s AL teammates got that run back when Frank Malzone hit a home run in the bottom of the first.
Walker issued a walk to Stan Musial in the second, but that baserunner was erased when Wally Moon lined into a double play. The AL extended its lead to 3-1 in the third when Yogi Berra followed a Nellie Fox single with another home run off Drysdale. Walker allowed a leadoff single to Del Crandell in the third, but then struck out pinch-hitter Eddie Mathews and retired Temple and Boyer on routine fly balls. Walker had reached the three-inning limit for pitchers in All-Star games. His pitching line: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.
The AL added a homer by Rocky Colavito, and Walker’s Orioles teammates Hoyt Wilhelm and Billy O’Dell pitched scoreless relief as the American League held on to win, 5-3. Cleveland’s Cal McLish earned the save. The victory made Walker not only the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star Game, but also the youngest winning pitcher of an All-Star Game.
Unfortunately for Walker, 1959 was the high point of his pitching career. He finished the season 11-10 and never won as many as 10 games again in an eight-year Major League career that included stints with Kansas City and Cleveland. His failure to control his pitches was a contributing factor. He averaged more than four walks per nine innings in his career.
After his pitching career ended, however, Walker stayed in baseball with considerable success. He worked for the Yankees as a Minor League manager for several years and was the Yankees’ pitching coach for part of 1981 and 1982. He was also the pitching coach for the Houston Astros from 1983-85. Later he worked in the front offices of the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds.
Jerry Walker is now 84. I hope last night’s game brought back some good memories.
Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, die hard Phillies fan, and student of the history of baseball with a special interest in the odd, quirky, and once in a lifetime events that happen on the baseball field. He writes for both the SABR BioProject and the SABR Games Project and maintains his own blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. You can reach Russ on Twitter @faithofaphilli1