Win–loss record 2-4 Role Baseball player Name Red Hoff | Innings pitched 83 Earned run average 2.49 | |
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Died September 17, 1998, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States | ||
Chester Cornelius "Red" Hoff (May 8, 1891 – September 17, 1998) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball.
Biography
Born in Ossining, New York, he pitched for the New York Highlanders (renamed the Yankees in 1913) from 1911–1913 and for the St. Louis Browns in 1915.
Hoff made his major league debut on September 6, 1911. Pitching against the Detroit Tigers, he struck out the first batter he faced, Ty Cobb. In later years, Hoff recalled this as the highlight of his career.
Although he only appeared in 23 games, Hoff is best remembered for being the oldest living ex-major leaguer at the time of his death in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the age of 107. He was the longest-lived person to have played in Major League Baseball. At the time of his death, he was also the longest-lived person to have played in any professional sport; this record was later surpassed by former Negro Leagues pitcher Silas Simmons, who was at least 108 years old and possibly as old as 111 when he died in 2006. Hoff died of complications resulting from an accidental fall.
At the time of his death, he was the last surviving person to have played in Major League Baseball during the dead-ball era, the historically low-scoring period from 1901 to 1920. (The aforementioned Simmons played in the Negro Leagues during that era.)