Batting average .236 Role Baseball athlete Name Joe DeMaestri | Runs batted in 281 Home runs 49 | |
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Joseph Paul DeMaestri (December 9, 1928 – August 26, 2016), nicknamed "Froggy", was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago White Sox (1951), St. Louis Browns (1952), Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1953–59) and New York Yankees (1960–61). He batted and threw right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.83 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
In an 11-season career, DeMaestri was a .236 hitter with 49 home runs and 281 RBI in 1,121 games played. He made the American League All-Star team in 1957.
On July 8, 1955, at Briggs Stadium, DeMaestri collected six hits in six at bats in an 11-inning game against the Detroit Tigers. All his hits were singles and he scored two runs, but Detroit won the contest, 11–8.
In the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, DeMaestri took over for regular Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek when Kubek was struck in the throat by a bad-hop ground ball hit by Bill Virdon of the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, DeMaestri was off the field when, one inning later, Bill Mazeroski hit his famous walk-off homer against Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry. Dale Long pinch hit for DeMaestri in the bottom of the eighth.