Salvatore Anthony Maglie (April 26, 1917 – December 28, 1992) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), and later a scout and a pitching coach. He played from 1945 to 1958 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. Maglie was known as "Sal the Barber", because he gave close shaves—that is, pitched inside to hitters. A gentle personality off the field went unnoticed during games, his foreboding physical appearance contributing to his menacing presence on a pitcher's mound. He was the last of 14 players to play for the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees at a time when all three teams were in New York City. During a 10-year major league baseball career, Maglie compiled 119 wins, 862 strikeouts, and a 3.15 earned run average.
Born and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, Maglie had to play ball secretly growing up because his parents discouraged it. Signed by the Buffalo Bisons of the International League in 1938, he pitched in the minor leagues for five years, then took two years off during World War II to work at a Niagara Falls defense plant. He started pitching again with the Jersey City Giants in 1945, then made his major league debut with the Giants later that year at the age of 28, starting 10 games for the Giants. It would be five years before he returned to the major leagues, as he joined the upstart Mexican League in 1946 and was subsequently blacklisted from Major League Baseball (MLB) for five years by Commissioner Happy Chandler. Not until he was 33 in 1950 did Maglie become a full-time pitcher in the major leagues.
For the first part of the 1950 season, Maglie pitched out of the bullpen for the Giants. Moved into the starting rotation midseason, he threw shutouts in four straight starts and pitched 45 consecutive scoreless innings. Emerging as the Giants' ace in 1951, he led the National League (NL) with 23 wins as the Giants reached the 1951 World Series. Maglie followed this with an 18-win performance in 1952, but back trouble threatened his career in 1953. Inserting a lift into one of his shoes to correct a tilted pelvis, he returned in 1954, winning the game which clinched the NL pennant for the Giants as the team won the 1954 World Series. Maglie spent one more season with the Giants in 1955 before being claimed off waivers by the Indians on July 31. Seldom used with Cleveland, Maglie joined the Dodgers in May 1956 and went on to finish second in NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) and MLB Cy Young Award voting. He threw a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on September 25 and pitched in the 1956 World Series. Maglie spent three more seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees, and Cardinals before retiring in 1959. During his career, he had a 1–2 record in four World Series starts and also appeared in two of baseball's most famous games, Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World game in 1951 and Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956.
After his playing career, Maglie served one year (1959) as a scout for the Cardinals, two stints (1960–62; 1966–67) with the Boston Red Sox as a pitching coach, and one season (1969) with the Seattle Pilots as a pitching coach. He held a variety of jobs in Niagara Falls before retiring in 1979. In 1983, Hyde Park Stadium in his hometown was renamed Sal Maglie Stadium. Maglie died on December 28, 1992, due to bronchial pneumonia complications.
Salvatore Anthony Maglie was born on April 26, 1917, in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest of three children of Giuseppe Maglie and Maria Breve. His father, an Italian immigrant from Taranto, worked blue collar jobs around town. Sal showed an interest in baseball from an early age, but his parents discouraged it, and he tried to keep his playing a secret from them. When he played sandlot ball, he was not initially good at pitching and usually played other positions. Niagara Falls High School did not have a baseball team, though he did become a basketball star for them. He was offered a basketball scholarship by Niagara University but turned it down because baseball was his favorite sport.
After high school, Maglie worked for Union Carbide, pitching on the company team as well as for local semipro teams. In 1937, he tried out as a pitcher for the Rochester Red Wings but was rejected after just three pitches. However, while pitching for the Niagara Cataracts (a local semipro team) in 1938, he caught the attention of Steve O'Neill. The manager of the Double-A Buffalo Bisons of the International League, he was impressed enough with Maglie's skills to sign the pitcher to a contract.
Maglie began his professional career with Buffalo in 1938, appearing in five games and posting a 3.75 earned run average (ERA) while losing his only decision. He spent a full season with Buffalo in 1939, pitching in 39 games (eight starts) but posting a 4.99 ERA and a 3–7 record. In 1940, he struggled to an 0–7 record and a 7.17 ERA in 23 games (five starts) before asking to be sent to a lower-level minor league circuit in order to hone his skills.
For the rest of the 1940 season, Maglie pitched for the Class D Jamestown Falcons of the Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League (PONY League), where he had a lower ERA (2.74) and a 3–4 record in seven starts. In 1941, Maglie pitched for the Single-A Elmira Pioneers of the Eastern League. He credited team owner and former major league pitcher Jack Ogden with teaching him one of the most important lessons he learned in his whole baseball career. "Sal, when you pitch," Ogden said, "pitch to that man that's at the plate. Don't worry about the man that's up next." Maglie led the league in games pitched (43) and innings pitched (270) and ranked among the leaders in wins (20, second only to Red Embree's 21) and losses (15, fourth) His ERA was 2.67.
The United States became involved in World War II that December, but Maglie was spared from having enlist in military service when he failed his physical; a chronic sinus condition kept him from enlisting. Since many players were unavailable, the New York Giants signed him and assigned him to their Double-A affiliate, the Jersey City Giants of the International League. Maglie was used mainly out of the bullpen, making only seven starts among his 50 games, but he had a 9–6 record and a 2.78 ERA. However, he resigned after the season to serve the war effort domestically, by working in a defense plant in Niagara Falls for two years.
Maglie returned to Jersey City at the beginning of the 1945 season, where he was this time used as a starter. Through August, he had a 3–7 record and a 4.09 ERA in 13 games (nine starts). That month, he was promoted to the major league Giants.
On August 9, 1945, Maglie made his major league debut, relieving Harry Feldman in the fourth inning and pitching 2⁄3 innings without allowing any runs to score in a 5–3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. He made his first major league start on August 14, throwing a complete game and allowing just two runs in a 5–2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. In his next start, he threw a shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing only three hits. On September 3 and September 7, he threw two more shutouts in back-to-back outings. In 13 games (10 starts) during his rookie season, he had a 5–4 record, a 2.35 ERA, 32 strikeouts, 22 walks, and 72 hits allowed in 84+1⁄3 innings pitched.
Mexican League, suspension (1946–1949)
A candidate to rejoin the Giants' rotation in 1946, Maglie attended spring training with the ballclub but was not happy with how he was treated by Mel Ott, the Giants' manager. Mexican League president Jorge Pasquel, whom Maglie had met while playing winter ball in Cuba during the 1945-46 offseason, was offering large contracts to players who would leave the major leagues to come play in the Mexican League, and Maglie accepted the offer. Because of this, Maglie was banned from organized baseball by Commissioner Happy Chandler along with other players who left. For the next two seasons, he pitched for the Pericos de Puebla, managed by Dolf Luque, who had been Maglie's pitching coach with the Giants and his Cuban winter league team. It was from Luque that Maglie learned the art of throwing high, inside pitches that just missed the batters' heads, diminishing their confidence. In 1946, he had a 20–12 record and a 3.19 ERA for Puebla. His win–loss record was very similar in 1947, as he had a 20–13 record, this time with a 3.92 ERA.