Frederick William Van Dusen (July 31, 1937 – June 1, 2018) was an American

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) ...

player. Van Dusen played for

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

during the

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yiji ...

season, when he was 18 years old. An

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

by trade, out of

William Cullen Bryant High School William Cullen Bryant High School, or William C. Bryant High School, and W.C. Bryant High School, or Bryant High School for short, is a secondary school in Queens, New York City, United States serving grades 9 through 12. Name It is named in hon ...

, Van Dusen was signed by the Phillies in August 1955 as a bonus baby, meaning he had to be kept on the Phillies' 40-man roster for two years. During his first month with the team, he appeared just once,

pinch hitting In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, American ...

in the second game of a doubleheader against the

Milwaukee Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

on September 11, 1955 at

County Stadium Milwaukee County Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Opened in 1953, it was primarily a baseball park for Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Braves and later the Milwaukee Brewers. It was also used for Green Bay Packers ...

. In the ninth inning, with the Phillies down 9-1, he pinch hit for pitcher

Lynn Lovenguth Lynn Richard Lovenguth (November 29, 1922 – September 29, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. The right-handed pitcher played for 16 seasons (1946–61) in minor league baseball, with two Major League trials for the 1955 Philade ...

against

Humberto Robinson Humberto Valentino Robinson (June 25, 1930 – September 29, 2009) was a middle relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1955 through 1960 for the Milwaukee Braves (1955, 1958), Cleveland Indians (1959) and Philadelphia Phillies (1 ...

and was hit by a pitch. While Van Dusen never appeared in another major league game, he did continue to play in the Phillies minor league organization until before retiring. Van Dusen divorced his first wife, with whom he had three children, after his baseball career ended. He later remarried and became an insurance agent based in New York.

References

External links

MLB.com article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dusen, Fred 1937 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in insurance Asheville Tourists players Baseball players from Queens, New York Businesspeople from New York (state) Chattanooga Lookouts players High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms players Indianapolis Indians players Insurance agents Miami Marlins (International League) players People from Jackson Heights, Queens Philadelphia Phillies players Williamsport Grays players Wilson Tobs players