April 26, 2012

Harley Hisner, Red Sox Pitcher

Photo by SoSHer Boggs26

One of the former Red Sox players invited back to Fenway Park for the 100th anniverary celebration last Friday was Harley "Jim" Hisner, now 85 years old.

Back on September 30, 1951, he was a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher making his major league debut in the final game of the season against the New York Yankees.

The Yankees' lineup featured five future Hall of Famers - Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizutto, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Johnny Mize - but Hines did quite well.

He faced Mantle to start the game and struck him out. Hisner pitched six innings and allowed seven hits and three runs. He walked four and struck out three. He also had a single in two at-bats.

In the seventh inning, Johnny Pesky pinch-hit for him and that was the end of his day. Spec Shea and Johnny Sain pitched a combined shutout and the Red Sox lost 3-0.

It was Harley Hisner's only major league appearance. You can read more about his career here.

3 comments:

laura k said...

A one-gamer!!! Awesome! I love how your old research comes back around to this blog.

Lovely picture of him with the intern-assistant, too.

RedSoxDiehard said...

That's awesome, on a couple of counts. I loved seeing guys who were only in a handful of games come back. I loved seeing people who have a hard time walking coming out in their wheelchairs and walkers. And I loved seeing how many octogenarians were able to be there. Hisner wins on all counts!

I remember hearing from Dr. Charles beforehand that they had at least one player coming who had only played in one game, and I was wondering who it was. I remembered Phil Seibel being in 2, and Abe Alvarez being in 1 in '04 but then pitching again in a different year. Glad to find out who it was.

laura k said...

I loved seeing people who have a hard time walking coming out in their wheelchairs and walkers.

I liked this, too. :)