Former big league reliever Jack Baldschun passed away this week after a battle with leukemia, according to an obituary from the Malcore Funeral Home in Green Bay. He was 86 years old.
An Ohio native, Baldschun entered the minor league ranks in 1956 as a signee of the Washington Senators. He’d spent four years in the Reds’ organization thereafter before moving to the Phillies during the 1960 Rule 5 draft. That set the stage for the right-hander to make his big league debut with Philadelphia in April 1961.
Baldschun took an immediate key role on the Phils’ pitching staff. He logged 99 2/3 innings over 65 relief appearances as a rookie, leading the majors in pitching appearances. Baldschun posted a 3.88 ERA, then followed up with consecutive sub-3.00 showings. He pitched to a 2.96 ERA over 112 2/3 frames of relief in 1962, then posted a career-best 2.30 mark in 113 2/3 innings the next season.
While he didn’t quite keep his ERA below 3.00 for a third straight year, Baldschun tossed a personal-high 118 1/3 frames of 3.12 ball in 1964. He fell just shy of the century mark the following season, working to a 3.82 ERA over 99 innings.
Over the stretch between 1961-65, only Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Perranoski and Stu Miller absorbed a heavier workload out of the bullpen. Baldschun posted a cumulative 3.18 ERA and, while the save wouldn’t become an official statistic until the end of the decade, he’d be retroactively credited with 59 of them.
After the ’65 season, Philadelphia traded Baldschun to the Orioles. Baltimore would flip him back to Cincinnati within a matter of days, packaging him in one of the most impactful trades in MLB history. Baldschun joined starter Milt Pappas and outfielder Dick Simpson in heading to the Reds for Frank Robinson. The future Hall of Famer would go to win an MVP in his first season in Baltimore and help the club to a pair of World Series titles.
Baldschun never really found his form with the Reds, pitching to a 5.25 ERA in parts of two seasons. He signed with the Padres going into 1969 and pitched for two years there. He retired after the 1970 campaign, having appeared in parts of nine MLB seasons. Altogether, Baldschun pitched 704 innings over 457 games as one of the top bullpen workhorses of the 1960s. He posted a 3.69 ERA, struck out 555 and finished 267 contests.
MLBTR sends our condolences to Baldschun’s family, friends and loved ones.
Remember Jack well. Had his baseball cards as a kid. RIP.
RIP
FrankRobinson did not just win MVP. He also won the TRIPLE CROWN. but as a young kid,i was a phillies fan because my parents were..l. So i remember Jack. RIP sir.
Gene Mauch didn’t invent bullpen games but I was at a game (probably 10/11 years old) that Dick “Turkey “ Hall started, went 4 innings and Jack closed the game. Mauch used him up.
He was on the 1964 Phillies team that was in 1st place since opening day then missed the playoffs after completely dumping the bed in last two weeks of the season.
Not like it’s a negative against the dude, just a notable team he was on
It was a painful ending to the 64 season but I also remember Jim Bunning pitching a 6-0 perfect game over the Mets. I remember it only took him 90 or 96 pitches on Father’s Day that years.
Also remember my favorite Phillie growing up, Johnny Callison, winning the All Star game (and the MVP award) for the NL by hitting a 3 run bomb, on a 2-2, pitch with 2 out after the NL tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. I sprained my ankle when I jumped for joy. I turned 8, seven days later.
RIP Mr Baldschun
OMG. Callison was my favorite too!
If i remember right, he worked for a beer distributor in the offseason, because ballplayers were not well paid… unlike today…
That was a season to remember that unfortunately they couldn’t finish the deal. Will always blame Mauch for choking down the stretch. Collison and Allen were awesome to watch. Also Frank Thomas was raking till he broke his thumb.
He has one of the toughest baseball cards to acquire in high end condition. His 1963 Topps card had an error on it and Topps butchered the correction and made another that is the rare one. Called “Slash Repair” version.
R.I.P.
R .I. P.
To this day, 1964 leaves a bad, really bad, taste in my mouth. I was too young to witness the 1950 Whiz Kids pennant, and by the time I started following the Phillies in the late fifties and early sixties, they were pretty bad. Lost 23 games in a row in 1961.
But the Phillies were trading off veterans and acquiring young guys like Johnny Callison, Tony Gonzales, Cookie Rojas et al. Prior to the start of the ’64 season, when some of the aforementioned youngsters found their niche, the team added veterans like Jim Bunning, Wes Covington to augment them and the already present Tony Taylor and Chris Short.
Dick Allen made the team out of spring training and won ROY honors. All was a bed of roses for 150 games. Heading into the final two weeks we held a 6 1/2 game lead with only 12 games to play. I was gonna see my Phillies in the WS vs. the New York Yankees.
Then it happened, We lost 10 games in a row, fell out of first place, and finished in a tie for second place with the Reds a scant one game behind the pennant winning Cardinals.
I’ve been a Philly fan my entire life, and we have endured some painful seasons across all four of the major sports. But no pain ever exceed what I felt in 1964 when the Phillies blew the pennant.
1964 is when I earned my “Purple Heart” as a Phillies fan.
RIP, Jack. I remember you well. Old #27.
You must have cursed the baseball gods! Mauch went down as one of the best managers to never win the big one. There are those guys in every sport it seems. We had Chuck Knox in Seattle with the Seahawks. A great coach that never quite got the brass ring. As for Baldshun, another one of my baseball cards passes. RIP Jack.
I know of him from playing with my older brother’s stratomatic cards.
Oh, Lord, yes, StratOMatic.
Every Sunday my parents and I would watch the Phillies on the local station WGAL. We saw Bunning’s perfect game on Father’s Day, and it was our last. My dad died two weeks later. I always attributed the Collapse of ‘64 to that…. And maybe Mauch’s questionable managing down the stretch.
Not a “great” pitcher, but solid and reliable. And finished 2nd on the 1969 Padres in wins. RIP.
Although the 64 Phillies are known for losing the pennant in the last days, I’ve heard commentary from many former players of that generation over the years. It seems like their consensus was that Gene Mauch had that team over performing their talent. If you look at the roster compared to other NL teams I think most of us will come to the same conclusion.
So you dont think it was my dad dying?
They actually finished four games above Pythagorean projections, even with the collapse.