Southpaw Pitcher

The 1952 baseball card for Dave Koslo.  We've talked about Dave in past blog posts, how he is the namesake of the Menasha ballpark and how he worked with my father later in his way too brief life at Banta's.  And as with many big leaguers of his time, he lost three years of his professional baseball career while serving in World War II as a paratrooper stationed in France.  Though his career ended before I was even born, I still knew of and about him my entire life.  Dave ended his career in 1955 played for the then-Milwaukee Braves. 

Some notable facts about Dave Koslo:  On April 18, 1947,he gave up Jackie Robinson's first major league home run, hit in the third inning.  

He was the National League ERA champion in 1949 with New York. 

He was the winning pitcher in the opening game of the 1951 World Series and the losing pitcher of its final game.

For his career, he compiled a 92–107 record in 348 appearances, with a 3.68 ERA and 606 strikeouts.