Rolland Mays Stiles (November 17, 1906 – July 22, 2007) was an American right-handed

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 dr ...

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 (A ...

who played for the St. Louis Browns from to . Born in

Ratcliff, Arkansas Ratcliff is a city in Logan County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 202 at the 2010 census. Geography Ratcliff is located in northwestern Logan County and is bordered to the east by the town of Caulksville. Arkansas Highway 22 passe ...

, he batted and threw right-handed, and was 9–14 with an

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 numb ...

of 5.92 in his three seasons. Rollie attended Southeastern State Teachers College. His first game in the major leagues was on June 19, , and his last game was October 1, . Stiles' nicknames when playing baseball were "Leapin' Lena", "Lena", and "Rollie", all typical of how he signed autographs for baseball fans.Rollie Stiles
Article written by Matthew Clifford. ''SABR Biography Project''. Retrieved on June 23, 2019. Stiles made an appearance and gave a speech at the St. Louis Browns Reunion dinner held at the

Missouri Athletic Club The Missouri Athletic Club (often referred to as the MAC), founded in 1903, is a private city and athletic club with two locations. The Downtown Clubhouse is in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA and the West Clubhouse is located in the St. L ...

on June 8, 2006 in St. Louis, Missouri. He died in his sleep at age 100 on July 22, 2007 at the Bethesda Southgate Nursing Home in St. Louis.Obituary
''Legacy website''. Retrieved on June 23, 2019. Stiles was the last living person to have pitched to

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

. While he was the oldest living major league ballplayer at the time of his death, Stiles was not the oldest living professional baseball player; that distinction was held by Emilio Navarro of the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

, who turned 103 years old in 2008.

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SABR Biography ProjectPhotograph of Rollie Stiles age 99 in 2006Article about Rollie Stiles and Babe RuthVideo interview with Rollie Stiles discussing Babe Ruth and Lou GehrigRollie's 100th birthday in the St. Louis newspaper
* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Rollie 1906 births 2007 deaths American centenarians Baseball players from Arkansas Chattanooga Lookouts players Dallas Steers players Jersey City Giants players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Longview Cannibals players Major League Baseball pitchers Men centenarians Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Muskogee Chiefs players People from Logan County, Arkansas St. Louis Browns players Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm baseball players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Wichita Falls Spudders players

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