ESPN - Nuxhall, youngest player in MLB history, dies at 79 - MLB

RIP Joe Nuxhall, 79, the youngest man ever to play in a major league game

A pitcher, Joe was 15 when he relieved in his first game in The Show. It was during WW2 and teams were struggling to fill their rosters. Nuxhall was in junior high school at the time and couldn't join the team until the school year ended. The kiddie pitcher experiment didn't work out too well. Nux hung in there for three batters, retiring two and walking the other. Then the kid fell apart. It suddenly dawned on him that just a few days earlier he had been facing seventh graders and now the man in the batter's box was The Man with capital letters, the National League's reigning MVP, Stan Musial. The kid got the jitters and never retired another batter.

He was 23 when he appeared in his second game, but that time he seemed to hang around forever. From 1952-66 he was with the Reds every year except one, 1961. That was the one year they won the pennant!

He had one excellent year, 1955, when he made the all-star team. That year he made 33 starts and 17 relief appearances to accumulate a workhorse total of 257 innings, in which he tossed five shutouts and went 17-12 for a losing team. Despite pitching for a second division club, he was third in the league in wins, behind only Robin Roberts and Don Newcombe.