| Pat Scantlebury | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born:(1917-11-11)November 11, 1917 Gatun Lake, Panama | |
| Died: May 24, 1991(1991-05-24) (aged 73) Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
| Professional debut | |
| NgL: 1944, for the New York Cubans | |
| NL: April 19, 1956, for the Cincinnati Redlegs | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| August 3, 1956, for the Cincinnati Redlegs | |
| Professional[a] statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 27–20 |
| ERA | 3.75 |
| Strikeouts | 191 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Patricio Athelstan Scantlebury (November 11, 1917 – May 24, 1991) was a Panamanian professionalbaseballpitcher whose 16-season career spannedMajor League Baseball and theNegro leagues. He played six seasons with the Negro leagueNew York Cubans, and later pitched six games for the1956Cincinnati Redlegs. Born inGatun Lake,Panama, Scantlebury threw and batted left-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 180 pounds (82 kg).
Scantlebury pitched with thePanama national baseball team at the1941 Amateur World Series held in Havana; Panama finished the tournament with a 5–3 record.[2] He also pitched in the1943 Amateur World Series, leading his team with a 2.05 ERA.
His professional career[3] begins at age 26 in 1944 in theNegro leagues, when he was considered Panama's first professional baseball star on foreign soil.[4] He was a member of theNew York Cubans for seven years, spent 1951 and 1952 out of pro baseball, then at age 35 he joinedminor league baseball in 1953, where he led the Class BBig State League ingames won (24) andstrikeouts (177). The following year he won a combined 20 games in higher classifications, including 18 in theDouble-ATexas League.
He became a member of the Cincinnati organization when the Redlegs affiliated with theHavana Sugar Kings of theTriple-AInternational League in 1955. That year, Scantlebury won 13 games and posted a strong 1.90earned run average, leading to his promotion to Cincinnati the following season. He made his Major League debut on April 19, 1956, at the age of 38 years, 160 days. Given astart against theSt. Louis Cardinals atCrosley Field in his club's second game of the regular season, he went five fullinnings, allowing fourearned runs on eighthits, includinghome runs toStan Musial andBill Sarni. He departed with noneout in the sixth and St. Louis ahead 5–3, but Redlegs would rally to win 10–9 inextra innings.[5] Five days later, against the Cardinals atBusch Stadium, he started for his second and final time, working four innings and allowing three runs on a homer byKen Boyer; they were enough to pin the 5–3 defeat on Scantlebury,[6] his onlyMLBdecision. He pitched in four other games inrelief for the 1956 Redlegs through August, and spent part of the year with theirSeattle Rainiers affiliate in theOpen-Classification Pacific Coast League.
In his one-season, six-game MLB trial, Scantlebury allowed 24 hits (including five homers), 14runs (allearned), and fivebases on balls in 19 totalinnings pitched. He struck out ten.
He returned to the International League in 1957 and got into over 200 total games over the next five seasons, and posted double-digit victory seasons from 1957 to 1959. He retired from baseball at age 43 in 1961, and died inGlen Ridge, New Jersey, at the age of 73 in 1991.
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