George Eugene Korince (born January 10, 1946) is a Canadian former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who appeared in 11 games in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the and Detroit Tigers. The right-hander, born in Ottawa, was listed as tall and (15

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

). Korince entered the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

in 1965 and was called up to the Tigers in September 1966 after he had

struck out In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denote ...

183 batters in 182 innings pitched for Double-A Mongomery. He made his major league debut at age 20, pitching a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

inning against the

Kansas City Athletics The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun as a charter member franchise in the new American League in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 sea ...

. Detroit auditioned him exclusively as a

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

, using him in two games in late 1966 and nine more during the opening weeks of the 1967 campaign. Korince threw shutout ball through his first six

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

appearances, and was credited with his only decision, a

victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes ...

, on May 13, 1967. Entering a game at

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Bas ...

in the eighth inning with Detroit trailing the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

5–4, Korince held Boston off the scoreboard without allowing a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

. Then, in the ninth inning, he exited for a pinch hitter during a Tiger rally that produced six runs and a 10–4 lead. Detroit held on to win, 10–8, to cement Korince's triumph. The next day, however, Korince surrendered five earned runs to the Red Sox in the second game of a doubleheader, breaking his shutout skein and ballooning his

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

from 0.00 to 6.43. By the time he was sent back to the minors, after May 27, his ERA stood at 5.14. He never returned to the major leagues. In 17 full innings pitched, he allowed only 11 hits and fanned 13, but he issued 14 bases on balls and permitted eight

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an erro ...

s. He posted a 1–0 record and no saves, with a career ERA of 4.24, high for its day. His minor league career lasted until 1970, and in his last two seasons in the minors he had as many walks allowed as innings pitched, which likely contributed to his professional career ending at age 24.

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1946 births Living people Baseball people from Ontario Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Detroit Tigers players Jamestown Tigers players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from Canada Montgomery Rebels players Sportspeople from Ottawa Toledo Mud Hens players Winnipeg Whips players {{Canada-baseball-pitcher-stub