finalyear death_date death_place bats birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date image article_title debutteam name throws
1946 24 july 2002 escondido , california right escondido , california 1938 may 17 .243 nbsp ; 269 & nbsp ; & nbsp ; 28 & second base - shortstop pittsburgh pirates batting average home runs rbi april 26 16 june 1913 pete coscarart.gif pete coscarart
 brooklyn dodgers pete coscarart right
pete coscarart

peter joseph coscarart -lrb- june 16 , 1913 -- july 24 , 2002 -rrb- was a second baseman/shortstop in major league baseball who played for the brooklyn dodgers -lrb- 1938 -- 1941 -rrb- and pittsburgh pirates -lrb- 1942 -- 1946 -rrb- .
coscarart batted and threw right-handed .
he was born in escondido , california .
his older brother , joe , was an infielder who played for the boston braves -lrb- 1935 -- 1936 -rrb- .
signed out of san diego state university , coscarart debuted with the brooklyn dodgers in 1938 .
considered the top defensive second baseman in the national league in 1939 , he finished with a .277 batting average , 22 doubles and 10 stolen bases .
he followed that season with an all-star game appearance the next year , while hitting 24 doubles with career-highs in home runs -lrb- 9 -rrb- , runs batted in -lrb- 58 -rrb- and games played -lrb- 143 -rrb- .
he also was a member of the brooklyn team that faced the new york yankees in the 1941 world series , but as his hitting declined , he was replaced by billy herman and then traded to the pittsburgh pirates before the 1942 season .
in his first year with pittsburgh , coscarart started at shortstop and switched to second base for the next three seasons .
in 1944 he hit .264 with 30 doubles and 10 stolen bases in 139 games and also posted career-numbers in hits -lrb- 146 -rrb- and doubles -lrb- 30 -rrb- .
he was named to the national league all-star team but did n't play in the game .
in a postwar era that foretold the sometimes rancorous relationship between major league players and owners , coscarart was ahead of his time as he strongly supported efforts in 1946 to form a players union that could negotiate pension benefits .
he voted , along with a minority of his pirates teammates , to strike , but he found himself out of the major leagues , sold to the san diego padres of the pacific coast league .
although a pension plan was adopted in 1947 , it was too late for coscarart , who never gave up fighting for the benefits he believed he deserved .
following his baseball career , coscarart worked as a scout for the minnesota twins and the yankees .
while he was working with minnesota , he signed graig nettles .
he later worked in real estate for 30 years .
in 1996 , coscarart was inducted into the brooklyn dodgers hall of fame .
the same year , he joined frank crosetti , dolph camilli , al gionfriddo , and 72 other players from his era , in suing major league baseball for lost benefits and rights of players to receive royalties for use of their images and memorabilia without the players consent .
`` there 's no way of proving it , but i 've always felt i was cheated , '' coscarart said in an interview with `` the san diego union-tribune '' .
a california appeals court ruled against the players in december 2001 as coscarart was informed by commissioner bud selig that he was not entitled to $ 10,000 in annual pension benefits because of his suit against major league baseball .
but many other pre-1947 major leaguers eventually received their benefits , in no small part thanks to coscarart 's efforts .
after that , he received widespread media exposure in his appeals to selig , but sympathy and support did n't translate into success .
a few months later , coscarart died of an aneurysm in escondido , california , at the age of 89 .
