finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date article_title debutteam name throws
1959 right 22 march 2007 newcastle , oklahoma hays , kansas 1952 september 26 31 -- 29 3.93 586 1/3 pitcher cincinnati reds win-loss record earned run average innings pitched april 19 29 may 1928 willard schmidt
 st. louis cardinals willard schmidt right
willard schmidt

willard raymond schmidt -lrb- may 29 , 1928 -- march 22 , 2007 -rrb- was an american professional baseball player , a pitcher who played in major league baseball between 1952 and 1959 .
listed at , , schmidt batted and threw right-handed .
he was born in hays , kansas .
his four grandparents were volga germans .
he reached the majors in 1952 with the st. louis cardinals , spending part of six years with them -lrb- 1952 -- 53 , 1955 -- 57 -rrb- before moving to the cincinnati redlegs -lrb- 1958 -- 59 -rrb- in the same transaction that brought curt flood to st. louis .
his most productive season came in 1957 with the cardinals , when he set a 10 -- 3 mark and led the national league pitchers with a .769 w-l % .
he was inducted into the kansas baseball hall of fame in 1989 .
in a seven-season career , schmidt posted a 31 -- 29 record with 323 strikeouts and a 3.93 era in 194 appearances , including 55 starts , 11 complete games , one shutout , two saves , and 586 1/3 innings pitched .
following his playing career , schmidt was a business owner in norman , oklahoma , where he and his wife , margaret schachle schmidt , raised their family of six children , all of whom attended and graduated from the university of oklahoma , before retiring to a small farm in newcastle , oklahoma .
