Chester Cornelius "Red" Hoff (May 8, 1891 – September 17, 1998) was an American left-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("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 attempts to e ...

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) ...

Biography

Early life

Chester ("Chet" or "Red") Hoff was born in Ossining, New York, the fifth child (and fourth son) of Walter, a railroad worker, and Harriet Hoff.

Baseball career

Hoff made his major league debut on September 6, 1911. Pitching against the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

in his second appearance on September 18 at the wood-grandstand Hilltop Park in

Washington Heights, Manhattan Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the uppermost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defe ...

on the site now occupied by Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, he struck out

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the la ...

. In later years, Hoff recalled this as the highlight of his career. Hoff played in a total of 12 games during the 1911, 1912 and 1913 seasons with the New York Highlanders/Yankees, and he pitched in 11 games with the 1915 St. Louis Browns with a 2-2 record and a 1.24 ERA. Hoff went on to play for a minor league baseball team in Rochester in 1914 and with the St. Louis Browns in 1915.

Oldest National or American Leaguer

Although he only appeared in 23 games, Hoff is best remembered for being the oldest living ex-major leaguer at the time of his death in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the age of 107. This record was later surpassed by former

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 ...

pitcher

Silas Simmons Silas Joseph Simmons (October 14, 1895 – October 29, 2006) was an American semi-professional and professional baseball player for African-American teams in the pre-Negro leagues era, and became the longest-lived major league player in history. ...

. Hoff died of complications resulting from a fall. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving person to have played in Major League Baseball during the

dead-ball era In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from around 1900 to the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919, when he hit a then-major league record 29 home runs; only three players since 1890 had even hit 20. This era was characterized ...

, the historically low-scoring period from 1901 to 1920.

Later life

After his professional baseball career ended, he returned to Ossining and pitched semipro baseball on Sundays for 10 years, facing some top Negro league teams as well as inmates at the

Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north ...

state prison in games inside the penitentiary walls. He worked as a map cutter for Rand McNally in Ossining before retiring to Florida in the 1950s. Upon his death in 1998, Hoff was survived by two daughters; four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. He was predeceased by his wife, Eva, who died in 1934 at age 42.

References

External links

* 1891 births 1998 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers New York Highlanders players New York Yankees players St. Louis Browns players Lawrence Barristers players Rochester Hustlers players Salt Lake City Bees players Little Rock Travelers players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Baseball players from New York (state) American centenarians Accidental deaths in Florida Accidental deaths from falls Men centenarians People from Ossining, New York {{US-baseball-pitcher-1890s-stub