Random Thoughts
When the batboy batted, part 2
April 23, 2021
When Joe Reliford, batboy for the Fitzgerald Pioneers of the Georgia State League, pinch hit in a game on July 19, 1952, he became the youngest person ever to play in a professional baseball game.
The dramatic event occurred in Statesboro, Georgia, before a relatively large crowd of 5,000 spectators. The home team Pilots were leading the game in a 13-0 blowout when many people in the stands began taunting the Pioneers with the chant of “Put the batboy in!”
So the Pioneers’ player-manager, Charley Ridgeway, decided to give the spectators what they wanted and inserted young Reliford into the lin...
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