'Lefty' Lefebvre, 91, Pitched For Boston Red Sox And Washington Senators
Bill Schenley
his major league debut and in his first at-bat - hit a home run
off Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton.
It was his only AB that year and he became the first American
League batter to homer in his only plate appearance of a season.
However, an inning later, Stratton extracted some revenge by
hitting a grand-slam off Lefebvre. The White Sox routed Lefty
and his Red Sox that day, 15-2. Lefebvre wasn't a bad hitting
pitcher - he had a .276 batting average over his four major league
seasons - but that would be his only home run.
Only two other Red Sox batters hit home runs in their first major
league at-bats (Eddie Pellagrini and Bob Tillman).
He pitched in two seasons for Boston, 1938-39, and then came
back to the major leagues as a war-time pitcher with the
Washington Senators for the 1943 and '44 seasons. With the
Senators, in 1944, he was one of five knuckleball pitchers.
Dutch Leonard, Roger Wolfe, Mickey Haefner and John
Niggeling were the others.
Bill Lefebvre died on January 19th in Clearwater, Florida.
He was 91.
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Photo:
http://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/images/1950/50_lefebvre_lefty.jpg
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FROM: The Clearwater (Florida) Citizen (January 21st) ~
Lefebvre, Wilfred "Lefty," 91, of Largo, died Friday
at Largo Medical Center.
He was born in Natick, R.I., and came here in 1977
from Boston.
He was a professional baseball pitcher with the Boston
Red Sox and Washington Senators.
He was an Army veteran of World War II. He was a
member of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church,
Clearwater.
Survivors include a son, Michael, Palm Harbor; two
grandchildren, Darcey Gartner, Coral Springs, and Dean
Lefebvre, Lexington, N.C.; and three
great-grandchildren, Brett, Brian and Savannah. Garden
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Stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lefebbi01.shtml