Bob Veale, former Pirates pitcher and 1971 World Series champion, dies at 89
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced Tuesday evening the death of former pitcher Bob Veale.
Veale, who pitched for the Pirates from 1962-72, was named a National League All-Star twice and helped the team win the 1971 World Series against Baltimore. He was 89 and died in Birmingham, Ala., with his family by his side, MLB.com reported.
He’s the club’s all-time strikeouts leader (1,652) and ranks top 10 in shutouts (20), wins (116) and ERA (3.06).
“Bob was an integral member of the Pirates who helped our team capture back-to-back division titles as well as the 1971 World Series,” Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting said in a news release. “He was one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers in all of Major League Baseball during his remarkable big league career that he proudly spent a majority of as a member of the Pirates. He was a great man who will be missed.”
The southpaw, who was released in the middle of the 1972 season and signed later that year with Boston, won 120 games in total over 13 years.
His fastball earned the nickname “radio ball” from Pirates’ broadcaster Bob Prince, because it was so fast you could hear it but not see it. He led the National League in strikeouts with 250 in 1965, his first All-Star season, then finished second the next year with 276, a Pittsburgh record to this day, and again made the All-Star Game.
Veale was born in Birmingham, the second of 14 children to Robert Andrew Veale Sr. and Ollie Belle Veale, according to MLB.com. Robert Sr. played for the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League, and Veale started in the Negro Leagues as a bat boy and pitcher — his stats did not count since he was a minor — for the Black Barons in 1948.
Veale played basketball and baseball at Benedictine College (Kan.). He signed with the Pirates in 1958 and made his MLB debut in 1962.
