Rollie Sheldon, the right-handed pitcher who reached the major leagues with the New York Yankees after only one season in professional baseball and won two World Series rings, died Aug. 31 at 89 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Sheldon’s baseball career was improbable from the beginning. He grew up in Woodstock, Connecticut, and was just 5-foot-9 and 135 pounds when he graduated from Woodstock Academy in 1954.
After serving in the U.S. Air Force, where he played baseball in Germany and once threw a no-hitter, he attended Texas A&M and then transferred to the University of Connecticut. He played baseball and basketball in college.
The Yankees signed him in June 1960. Assigned to Class D Auburn, New York, Sheldon went 15-1 with a 2.88 ERA and 15 complete games, earning league Rookie of the Year honors. The following spring, he made the Yankees and won the James P.
Dawson Award as the outstanding rookie in spring training. Sheldon's timing was extraordinary. He joined a 1961 Yankees club featuring Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Ralph Terry.
Maris hit 61 home runs and Mantle 54, while Sheldon quietly produced an 11-5 record and a 3.60 ERA in 35 games, including six complete games and two shutouts. More news: Phillies World Series Champion Dies Unexpectedly at 72 Sheldon did not pitch in either the 1961 or 1962 World Series, although the Yankees won both championships. In 1964, he finally appeared in the postseason, pitching in two games against the St.
In Game 7, he retired all six batters he faced. Sheldon’s best opportunity to establish himself as a regular came after the Yankees traded him to the Kansas City Athletics in May 1965. He started 29 games that season, going 10-8 with a 3.95 ERA.
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