Former Major League Baseball pitcher Art Schallock celebrated his 100th birthday on Thursday as the oldest living MLB alum.
Shallock, born April 25, 1924, in Mill Valley, California, played five seasons in MLB from 1951 to 1955 for both the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles. He won three World Series championships with the Yankees, playing alongside baseball legends such as Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and more.
“Those were some great times,” Schallock said of his time with the Yankees, according to MLB.com. “Hard to believe I’m hitting 100, but looking back on my life, I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve had.”
After graduating from Tamalpais High School in 1942, Shallock’s baseball career was put on pause as he entered the military to serve in World War II. He was drafted into the Navy and spent three years as a radio operator on the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier deployed in the Pacific, including Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japan.
“I was two weeks out of high school when they drafted me,” Schallock told SABR biographer Bill Nowlin. “I went in the Navy and I didn’t see a baseball for three years.”
Schallock was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers that same year. He went to Dodgers spring training in 1947 in Havana, Cuba, and played alongside future Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.
Schallock pitched for Dodgers’ minor league affiliate teams until 1951, when his contract was purchased by the Yankees. The Yankees promoted him to the team on July 12, 1951, and, in a corresponding roster move, demoted Mantle, who was then a struggling rookie. Schallock became roommates with Berra, whom he credits for teaching him about the game of baseball.
“It was a great experience, because Yogi knew all of the batters in the American League at that time,” Schallock said. “He knew how to pitch to them and what their weaknesses were. Yogi never wrote anything down; it was all up there in his head. He knew his stuff and I learned a lot from him. People used to joke about Yogi being not that smart, but he was sharp as a tack and a wonderful guy.”
Schallock and the Yankees won three straight World Series titles from 1951 through 1953. The undersized, 5-foot-9, 160-pound southpaw pitcher pitched in 28 games across four-plus seasons with the Yankees before being placed on waivers by the team in April 1955. Schallock was picked up by the Orioles and pitched in 30 games, including six starts, for Baltimore during the 1955 season, his final in MLB.
Schallock finished his five-year MLB career with a 6-7 record and 4.02 ERA in 58 games pitched, including 14 starts. He inherited the title of oldest living MLB player in July 2022 when former St. Louis Browns outfielder George Elder died at age 101.
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