Cups of Coffee: Jess Buckles
Cups of Coffee: Jess Buckles ©DiamondsintheDusk.com On September 9, 1916, Scranton Miners’ pitcher Jess Buckles, on the final day of the New York State (B) League regular season, hurls a 4-3 six-hit complete game victory over the Binghamton Bingoes, evening his record at 21-21. Eight days later, the well-travelled left-hander makes his major league debut with the New York Yankees, allows one hit and striking out one while pitching a scoreless eighth inning in relief of Mike Cantwell (also making his major league debut) in a 9-7 loss to Cleveland. For the 26-year-old Lordsburg, California, native, his relief stint against Cleve- land is the first of only two major league appearances in a seven-year profes- sional baseball career. Sixteen days later on October 3, Buckles pitches three solid innings - one earned run on two hits - against the Washington Senators in the second and final appearance of his major league career. Born on May 20, 1890, Jesse Robert Buckles is at various times referred to as a “Giant”, “a Giant Oak”, “Big Southpaw”, a “Slabster with Size,” among others and over the course of his organized baseball career, Buckles’ height ranges from 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-5. In the fall of 1909, an 18-year-old Buckles enrolls in St. Vincent College (now known as Loyola Marymount) after pitching Pomona High School to the South- ern California championship the September 17, 1916 previous spring. One of the high- New York vs. Cleveland lights of his brief (one year) college Dunn Field, Cleveland, Ohio career is a 5-3 complete game vic- tory over the University of Califor- nia Bears.
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