Joe Nossek

Joe Nossek
Outfielder
Born: (1940-11-08) November 8, 1940
Cleveland, Ohio
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 18, 1964, for the Minnesota Twins
Last MLB appearance
September 13, 1970, for the St. Louis Cardinals
MLB statistics
Batting average .228
Home runs 3
Runs batted in 53
Teams

Joseph Rudolph Nossek (born November 8, 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder, coach and scout. He threw and batted right-handed, and stood 6' (183 cm) tall and weighed 178 pounds (81 kg) as an active player.

Playing and coaching career

Nossek attended Ohio University and was signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1961. He made his major league debut for the club on April 18, 1964 against the Washington Senators.

A modest eater, Nossek was known as "coffee and juice" to his Minnesota teammates. He served as a back-up outfielder on the pennant-winning Twins team of 1965, hitting .218 in 87 games. He also played some games at third base for the squad. Despite his modest abilities, he started in center field for most of the games of the 1965 World Series over All-Star Jimmie Hall. The Twins lost to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.

During the 1966 season, Nossek's contract was purchased by the Kansas City Athletics and played in 174 games for them over the next two years. In the middle of the 1969 campaign, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Bob Johnson. He only played in 10 games for St. Louis, however, and retired after the 1970 season. Overall, Nossek batted .228 with three home runs and 53 runs batted in in 295 games during his six-year major league playing career.

Nossek, noted as a skilled "stealer" of opposing teams' signs from the bench or coaching lines, was a longtime (28-year) coach in major league baseball after his active career ended, serving with the Milwaukee Brewers (1973–75), Twins (1976), Cleveland Indians (1977–81), Kansas City Royals (1982–83) and Chicago White Sox (1984–86; 1990–2003). He then became a scout for the Houston Astros.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.