Leo Fishel (December 13, 1877 – May 19, 1960) was a
pitcher in
Major League Baseball who played one game for the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
in 1899. He also attended
Columbia University and became a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
after his professional baseball career was over. Fishel stood at 6' 0" and weighed 175 lbs.
["Leo Fishel Statistics and History"](_blank)
Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
Biography
Leo Fishel was born in
Babylon, New York, as the youngest of eight children to Leopold and Theresa Fishel.
[Jacobs, Jane]
"Leo Fishel"
. ''bioproj.sabr.org''. Retrieved 2010-12-29. He entered Columbia in the fall of 1894 and pitched for the baseball team there while also playing for various semi-pro teams around New York and New Jersey. He was once offered US$20 plus expenses to pitch in a game for White Plains.
On May 3, 1899, Fishel made his major league debut for the New York Giants, pitching a
complete game
In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...
and taking the loss.
He was the first Jewish pitcher in Major League Baseball. Later that summer, he played for the New London Whalers and New Haven Blues of the
Connecticut State League. Fishel went 2-4 in the CSL and did not play any professional baseball after 1899.
Fishel graduated from
Columbia Law School in 1900 and was admitted to the
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
later that year.
He became coach of the Columbia baseball team in early 1901
"Will Hear Ball Players"
''query.nytimes.com''. Retrieved 2010-12-29. and over the next few years played and coached various teams in the area while setting up his law practice. In 1905, he won a championship while coaching the Freeport High School team.
Fishel was married twice. His first marriage to Mary Blossom Searle in 1903 produced one daughter, but it ended in divorce. He later married Laura Duerstein, and his second child, a son, was born in 1917.
Fishel died in Hempstead, New York, in 1960.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fishel, Leo
1877 births
1960 deaths
19th-century baseball players
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia Lions baseball coaches
Columbia Lions baseball players
Jewish American baseball coaches
Jewish American baseball players
Jewish Major League Baseball players
Major League Baseball pitchers
New Haven Blues players
New London Whalers players
New York Giants (NL) players
New York (state) lawyers
People from Babylon, New York
Baseball players from Suffolk County, New York