finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date article_title debutteam name throws
1966 both 22 april 1988 richardson , texas chicago , illinois 1966 september 4 0 -- 1 7.50 3 pitcher chicago cubs win -- loss record era strikeouts august 27 21 march 1942 len church
 chicago cubs len church right
len church

leonard church -lrb- march 21 , 1942 -- april 22 , 1988 -rrb- was a pitcher in major league baseball for the chicago cubs .
a student at lane technical high school in chicago , he was signed as a free agent by the cubs in 1963 .
after spending four seasons in the minors , church made his mlb debut on august 27 , 1966 , allowing one run in two innings of work in a 5-4 cubs loss to houston .
on august 29 and 31 , he came into both games in save situations and was the pitcher who surrendered the cubs ' lead , recording a blown save in each case .
on august 31 , church surrendered a pinch-hit home run to cincinnati 's art shamsky , the first batter he faced , but prior pitcher curt simmons was on the hook for the loss due to a player reaching on an error , followed by an intentional walk to the next batter .
the cubs blew a 5 -- 0 lead in the process , losing 7-5 .
church made one more appearance in his mlb career , relieving bill hands on september 4 of the same season .
he allowed four runs in two innings of work and was charged with the loss as the cubs lost to pittsburgh 8-5 .
for the 1966 season -lrb- and his mlb career -rrb- , church finished 0-1 with a 7.50 era .
he played five more seasons in the minor leagues , mostly with the aaa tacoma cubs , before hanging up his spikes in 1971 at age 29 .
