finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date article_title debutteam name throws
1953 right 21 may 1970 cleveland , ohio pryor , oklahoma 1952 june 12 .169 1 3 catcher st. louis cardinals batting average home runs runs batted in april 16 7 march 1921 les fusselman
 st. louis cardinals les fusselman right
les fusselman

lester leroy fusselman -lrb- march 7 , 1921 -- may 21 , 1970 -rrb- was an american professional baseball player , a catcher who appeared in 43 major league games for the -- st. louis cardinals .
he threw and batted right-handed , stood tall and weighed .
born in pryor , oklahoma , fusselman attended western illinois university .
his decade-long professional career , which began in the cardinal farm system in 1942 , was interrupted by three years of service in the united states army during world war ii .
fusselman 's postwar baseball career was spent bouncing between upper-level redbird affiliates until , at age 31 , he made the cardinal roster in 1952 as a rookie .
he appeared in 32 games that season as the backup catcher to del rice , who started 137 out of the cards ' 154 games .
fusselman himself batted 63 times and made ten hits .
his best day came on may 9 , 1952 , when he went two for four with a home run and two runs scored off ken raffensberger of the cincinnati reds .
as a minor leaguer , fusselman batted a creditable .274 with 717 hits in 823 games played .
his playing career ended after the 1954 season .
