Jehosie "Jay" Heard (January 17, 1920 – November 18, 1999) 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 native of

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

, he was a left-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 stood tall and weighed . He pitched two games in

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 ...

for the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

, becoming the franchise's first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

player in Baltimore. Heard began his pro career in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

after serving in the

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during

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. During his career in the Negro leagues, he pitched for the

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960, including 18 seasons recognized as Major League by Major League Baseball. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, wi ...

Memphis Red Sox The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the l ...

Houston Eagles The Newark Eagles were a professional Negro league baseball team which played in the Negro National League (1933–1948), Negro National League from 1936 in sports, 1936 to 1936 in sports, 1948. They were owned by Abe Manley, Abe and Effa Manley. ...

and New Orleans Eagles. In 1952, at age 32, he joined the organized

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 ...

, winning 20 games for the Victoria Tyees of the Class A

Western International League The Western International League was a mid- to higher-level minor league baseball circuit in the Pacific Northwest United States and western Canada that operated in 1922, 1937 to 1942, and 1946 to 1954. In 1955, the Western International League ...

.Minor league statistics
from

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Promoted the following season to the top level of the minors, the Open Classification

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, Heard won 16 games for the

Portland Beavers The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL. Franchise history Many baseball teams h ...

. The Orioles, newly transplanted to

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as the former St. Louis Browns, purchased Heard's contract that winter. Heard was a member of the first Baltimore team to play in the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

since . He made two appearances for the 1954 Orioles 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 ...

, both times against the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

. In his April 24 debut, he faced four batters and retired all of them. But in his second game, more than a month later on May 28, Heard allowed six

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and five runs, all earned, in two

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 ...

. A

grand slam home run In baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners ("bases loaded"), thereby scoring four runs—the most possible in one play. According to ''The Dickson Baseball Dictionary'', the term originated in the ...

by Chicago's light-hitting Cass Michaels was the most damaging blow.1954-5-28 box score from Retrosheet
/ref> He then returned to the minors, where he pitched at the upper levels through 1957.

References

External links

an
Seamheads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heard, Jay 1920 births 1999 deaths African-American baseball players Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from Athens, Georgia Birmingham Black Barons players Havana Sugar Kings players Leones del Caracas players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Red Sox players Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela New Orleans Eagles players Portland Beavers players Seattle Rainiers players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Victoria Tyees players United States Army personnel of World War II American expatriate baseball players in Cuba American expatriate baseball players in Colombia Charleston Senators players

See also

References

External links