Category: Relief Pitcher

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Hedgpeth, Harry

Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Fayetteville
First, Middle Names: Harry Malcolm

Date of Birth:  Sept. 4, 1888 Date and Place of Death: July 30, 1966, Richmond, VA
Burial: Westhampton Memorial Park, Richmond, VA

High School: Undetermined
Colleges: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA

Bats: L Throws: L         Height and Weight: 6-1, 194
Debut Year: 1913        Final Year: 1913    Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Washington Senators, 1913

Career Summary
G          W         L           Sv         ERA             IP          SO        WAR
1           0           0           1           0.00             1.0        0           0.1

When he wasn’t studying to be a doctor in 1913, Harry Hedgpeth was pitching his minor-league team to a pennant, throwing two no-hitters in the process. His major-league career by contrast lasted all of one inning in the penultimate game of a season.

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West, Weldon

Player Name: West, Weldon
Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Gibsonville

First, Middle Names:  Weldon Edison
Nickname: Lefty

Date of Birth:  Sept. 3, 1915   Date and Place of Death: July 23, 1979, Hendersonville, NC
Burial: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hendersonville, NC

High School: Undetermined
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: R Throws: L        Height and Weight: 6-0, 165
Debut Year: 1944        Final Year: 1945          Years Played: 2
Team and Years: St. Louis Browns, 1944-45

Career Summary
G          W        L          Sv        ERA     IP         SO       WAR
35        3         4          0         4.29     98.2     49        -0.5

Weldon “Lefty” West lost almost twice as many games as he won down in the low minors, but he got his shot in the major leagues as World War II ground on and depleted team rosters. When the war ended, West finished his career back in the bushes.

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Moon, Leo

Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Alamance County

First, Middle Names:  Leo
Date of Birth:  June 22, 1899  Date and Place of Death: Aug. 25, 1970, New Orleans, LA
Burial: Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, LA

High School: Undetermined
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: R Throws: L         Height and Weight: 5-11, 165
Debut Year: 1932        Final Year: 1932    Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Cleveland Indians, 1932

Career Summary

G          W         L           Sv         ERA             IP          SO        WAR
1           0           0           0          11.12            5.2        1           -0.3

Leo Moon acquired a reputation as a “nightlifer” with a pretty mean fastball. During a minor-league career that spanned nearly two decades, he won almost 200 games in the daylight and danced the nights away in clubs from Minneapolis to New Orleans. His major-league career, however, lasted all of one game and consists of this ugly pitching line: 5.1 innings, eight runs, 11 hits, and seven walks. He wasn’t in the majors long enough to enjoy the big-city lights.

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Prince, Don

Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Clarkton

First, Middle Names:  Donald Mark

Date of Birth: April 5, 1938    Date and Place of Death: Nov. 8, 2017, Myrtle Beach, SC
Burial: Hammond Cemetery, Nichols, SC

High School: Floyds High School, Nichols, SC
College: Campbell University, Buies Creek, NC; East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

Bats: R Throws: R        Height and Weight: 6-4, 200
Debut Year: 1962        Final Year: 1962          Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Chicago Cubs, 1962

Career Summary
G          W        L          Sv        ERA     IP         SO       WAR
1          0          0          0          0.00     1.0       0          0.0

Don Prince pitched one inning in the major leagues and seven years in the minors, but this really isn’t a story about his life in baseball. He was later a successful insurance agent and enthusiastic private pilot. This isn’t about annuities or aviation, either. This is, instead, a sad tale about how a brother’s fidelity – yes, some might bluntly call it his stupidity – led him down a dark path where federal agents posing as hit men lurked in the shadows. This is a story about how Don Prince, baseball pitcher, insurance salesman and pilot with a wife, children, a house at the beach, and all the trappings of a good life, turned to murder to save his brother.

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Brewington, Jamie

Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Greenville

First, Middle Names: Jamie Chancellor        
Date of Birth: Sept. 28, 1971
Current Residence: Chandler, AZ

 High School: J.H. Rose High School, Greenville, NC
College: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

 Bats: R Throws: R        Height and Weight: 6-4, 180
Debut Year: 1995        Final Year: 2000          Years Played: 2
Teams and Years: San Francisco Giants, 1995; Cleveland Indians, 2000

Career Summary
G          W        L          Sv        ERA     IP         SO       WAR
39        9          4          0          4.85     120.2   70        0.4

Jamie Brewington’s 13-year journey through professional baseball spanned the breadth of a continent, from the sandy loam of the North Carolina coast to the redwood forests of the Pacific Northwest, from the Bisons of Buffalo, New York, to the Toros of Tucson, Arizona. He moved his family 23 times to pitch for 16 different teams, including two in the major leagues where he spent parts of two seasons. As so often happens to pitchers, it was a tour interrupted by arm injuries, surgery, and rehabilitations.

Even in his retirement, baseball continued its hold on Brewington. He’s coached kids, scouted for the majors, and tried to inspire young Blacks to play the game that shaped his life.

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