More Moonlight Graham’s – PT 3

I’ve written previously about Moonlight Graham and other
players like him. I also updated that post when one of the subjects, Brian
Esposito, actually made a several plate appearances during September of this
past season. So I’m going to go ahead and call this post part 3. A link to the previously updated post is here:

As most of you know, Moonlight Graham is one of the
principle characters in the book Shoeless Joe and the subsequent movie Field of Dreams.
He played in one game, but never got to bat. But he isn’t the only player
in Major League history that has happened to.

One of those players is the Chicago Cubs Chris Kitsos.

Chris Kitsos was signed as an amateur player in 1947 as a 19
year old by the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played the next 5 years with several
different Dodger minor league teams working his way up through their system as
a shortstop. Unfortunately for Kitsos, Pee Wee Reese was playing shortstop for
the Brooklyn Dodgers during this time period and there was no chance of Chris
moving into a major league role anytime soon.

Without any place to use Kitsos, the Dodgers left him unprotected
following the 1951 season. That December the Chicago Cubs selected Kitsos
during the 1951 minor league draft.

Chris Kitsos played the next two seasons for two different
teams in the Cubs minor league system, Springfield of the International League
and Des Moines of the Western League.

To start the 1954 season, the Cubs had two rookie shortstops
on their roster, Chris Kitsos and Ernie Banks. As we know, Ernie “Mr. Cub”
Banks was the starting shortstop and had a wonderful season finishing second in
ROY balloting.

On April 21^st, 1954 the Chicago Cubs played the
Milwaukee Braves on the road in Milwaukee. The starting pitchers that day were
Johnny Klippstein for the Cubs and HOFer Warren Spahn for the Braves.

The Cubs took an early 2-0 lead over the Braves by scoring
solo runs in the 2^nd and 3^rd innings. The Braves
countered with two runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game. The Cubs
once again regained the lead in the fourth after a solo home run by Hank Sauer,
it would be the last runs they scored that day.

The Braves scored 3 in the fifth inning off an Eddie Mathews
homerun and 2 more in the seventh with a Joe Adcock homer.

With the score 7-3 Braves entering the top of the 8^th,
Ernie Banks was due to lead off the inning. But Banks was 0 for 3 against
Spahn, including 2 strike outs and the rookie shortstop was pinch hit for by
Eddie Miksis. Miksis struck out.

In the bottom of the 8^th, our hero Chris Kitsos
went into the game playing shortstop. The first batter, Johnny Logan, hit a
grounder to Kitsos. It was a routine 6-3 put-out. Following a second batter K,
Spahn hit a grounder to Kitsos to finish the inning with another 6-3 out.

The Cubs went 1-2-3 in the ninth. The Cubs lost 7-3 and
Kitsos never got to bat.

In fact he never played in a Major League game again.

Kitsos was returned to the minors where he played the next 6
years before finishing his career in 1959 with New Orleans of the Southern
Association.

Unofficially, Kitsos played 1618 games in the minors with 56
HR’s and a .255 average.

Chris Kitsos died in Mobile, Alabama on June 7, 2004 at the
age of 77.

Photos: Bing Image Search