Koslo's last pitch made baseball history

Uncommon commons. Contemporary accounts of tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figure that if I found these items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors.

On May 29, in an entry about Clark Griffith, we mentioned that he was the first known major league pitcher to have pitched to just one player in the season, and to give up a home run to that player. (Hal Chase in 1912).

The last player known to have done so was Dave Koslo, in 1955.

Koslo was a Wisconsin native who had pitched for 10 season with the New York Giants between 1941-53. He'd been sold to the Orioles for 1954, and the Milwaukee Braves picked him up when Baltimore released him in mid-season.

Koslo made 12 relief appearances for Milwaukee in 1954, with a 1-1 record and a save.

In the second game of the 1955 season, April 14, Koslo was called to the mound at St. Louis in the bottom of the 11th inning, with the Braves and Cardinals tied 7-7. Rookie centerfieder Bill Virdon came to the plate and delivered his first major league home run, a walk-off homer.

Koslo never pitched again in professional baseball.