Win–loss record 9–25 Role Baseball player Name Bobby Tiefenauer | Strikeouts 204 Earned run average 3.84 | |
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Died June 13, 2000, Desloge, Missouri, United States | ||
Bobby Gene Tiefenauer (October 10, 1929 – June 13, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. A knuckleball relief pitcher, he pitched for six Major League teams during a ten-year MLB career that stretched between 1952 and 1968: the St. Louis Cardinals (1952, 1955, 1961), Cleveland Indians (1960, 1965–67), Houston Colt .45s (1962), Milwaukee Braves (1963–65), New York Yankees (1965) and the Chicago Cubs (1968). Tiefenauer was born in Desloge, Missouri.
In 1948 he was selected by the Cardinals as an amateur free agent. In 1964 with the Milwaukee Braves he had one of his better seasons, saving 13 games (8th best in the National League) with an ERA of 3.21. Like many pitchers, Tiefenauer was a notoriously bad hitter, having only 1 hit in 39 at-bats for a career batting average of .026. The one hit was an extra base hit, a double. And it was off of one of the best pitchers in baseball that year, Jack Sanford of the San Francisco Giants. The hit occurred in the fourth inning of the game between the Houston Colt 45's and the San Francisco Giants on September 29, 1962. Bobby pitched 6 innings in relief that day for Houston, and also came up to bat in the sixth inning when he grounded out to shortstop.
Tiefenauer was elected to the International League Hall of Fame in 2008.