Alec John Distaso (December 23, 1948 – July 13, 2009) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, a right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

who appeared in two

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

for

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

in . The native of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, stood tall and weighed . Distaso's professional career, curtailed by elbow miseries, lasted four seasons (1967–1970), all in the Cubs' organization. After winning 13 games for the Class A

Quincy Cubs The Quincy Cubs were a minor league baseball team located in Quincy, Illinois. The team played in the Midwest League, and were an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. Their home stadium was Q Stadium. The franchise lasted from 1965 to 1973, when the Cu ...

in 1968, he was included on Chicago's

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

opening season roster and appeared in two games as a

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

in April. In the first, he hurled two scoreless

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

against the expansion edition of the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...

. This game also made Distaso the first MLB player to make their debut in Canada ( Ken Rudolph also debuted in this game on the Cubs, but he was a pinch hitter in the 9th inning while Distaso entered the game in the 5th). In the second, he allowed two

earned runs In baseball, an earned run is any Run (baseball), 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 ...

in innings against the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

, a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

by the Pirates' Bob Robertson the most damaging blow. He then was sent back to 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 Nort ...

. Some weeks afterward, he hurt his elbow. Distaso tried to pitch through the injury but enjoyed only sporadic success, never enough to warrant a return to the majors. He quit baseball in the spring of 1971. After retiring as an active player, Distaso became a police officer and then a detective for the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

, retiring in 1994. In 1996, he became a public housing administrator in Macomb, Illinois. Distaso died of cancer in 2009.

References

External links

* 1948 births 2009 deaths Baseball players from Los Angeles Caldwell Cubs players Chicago Cubs players Lodi Crushers players Major League Baseball pitchers Quincy Cubs players San Antonio Missions players Tacoma Cubs players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-pitcher-1940s-stub