Sad day for Reds Fans- Joe has Rounded 3rd and headed home!Joe passed away overnight

[Topcat]

The voice of the Reds is now silent but it rings forever in my heart. God bless you Joe.

[Danny Serafini]

Per Trent-

The arrangements for Joe Nuxhall have been finalized.

A private funeral will be Wednesday, Nov. 21. A public visitation will be held Tuesday, Nov. 20, from 4p.m. to 8 p.m. at Fairfield High School Arena.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Joe Nuxhall Hope Project,
c/o Fairfield Community Foundation
5350 Pleasant Ave.
Fairfield, OH 45014

[redsmetz]

The NY Times now has their own piece up by their regular obit writer. Isn't that something, a regular guy like Nux in the NY Times:

Joe Nuxhall, Pitcher for Reds, Is Dead
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Joe Nuxhall, who became the youngest player in modern major league history when he pitched in one game for the 1944 Cincinnati Reds at age 15, then went on to spend more than half a century with the Reds as a pitcher and broadcaster, died Thursday in Fairfield, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. He was 79.

His death, at a hospital, was announced by the Reds, who said he had lymphoma.

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 10, 1944, four days after the D-Day invasion, the Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were playing at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as World War II baseball carried on with players rejected for military service or too young or too old for the draft. The Cardinals, en route to a third straight pennant, were leading the Reds, 13-0, in the eighth inning when the Cincinnati manager, Bill McKechnie, beckoned to a young man seated in the dugout. He was 6 feet 3 inches and weighed about 190 pounds, a left-handed pitcher who threw a fastball 85 miles an hour. He had spent the spring in junior high school.

A year earlier, the Reds had scouted a right-handed pitcher named Orville Nuxhall, who was playing in a Hamilton, Ohio, Sunday baseball league. They also noticed his son, Joe, barely in his teens, who was also pitching in that league.

Joe Nuxhall signed with Cincinnati in February 1944, and when his ninth-grade classes in Hamilton let out, he got into uniform on occasion at the Reds’ home games.

Then came the moment in the debacle against the Cardinals when his manager told him to grab his glove and head to the bullpen. Wearing cleats borrowed from a friend, Nuxhall made it as far as the top step of the dugout.

“I was scared to death,” he told The Associated Press 50 years later. “I got all shook up and tripped over the top step and fell flat on my face in the dirt.”

Nuxhall did make it to the bullpen, then entered the game at the start of the ninth inning, arriving in the major leagues at the age of 15 years, 10 months, 11 days. He got the first Cardinal batter, George Fallon, to ground out, then walked the St. Louis pitcher, Mort Cooper. He induced the next hitter, Augie Bergamo, to fly out. While facing Debs Garms, the 1940 league batting champion, when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Nuxhall glanced at the on-deck circle.

Waiting to hit, if Nuxhall couldn’t get Garms out, was Stan Musial, the 1943 batting champion.

An unnerved Nuxhall walked Garms. Musial followed with a line single to right, and then Nuxhall walked three batters, made a wild pitch and gave up another hit. With five runs in, McKechnie took Nuxhall back to the dugout.

“Those people that were at Crosley Field that afternoon probably said, ‘Well, that’s the last we’ll see of that kid,’ ” Nuxhall recalled long afterward.

A few days after his abortive debut, he was sent to the Reds’ Birmingham, Ala., farm team, and in the fall he entered high school, regaining his baseball eligibility when he became a senior. After pitching in the minors for several seasons, Nuxhall returned to the Reds in 1952. He pitched in the major leagues through the 1966 season, nearly all of that time with Cincinnati, and was a two-time All-Star. He led the National League in shutouts in 1955 with 5 and had a career record of 135-117.

Nuxhall broadcast full time for the Reds from 1967 to 2004, teaming for most of those years on radio with Marty Brennaman. He broadcast a few games during the past three seasons.

Nuxhall is survived by his wife, Donzetta, and his sons Phil and Kim.

At the entrance to the Reds’ Great American Ball Park, which opened in 2003, a bronze statue depicts Nuxhall in his pitching motion. There are also likenesses of the former Reds stars Ted Kluszewski, Frank Robinson and Ernie Lombardi.

Kluszewski was known as Klu, and Lombardi was called the Schnozz, for his prominent nose. Nuxhall’s self-descriptive phrase reflected his longevity with the Reds but seemed a bit odd considering the moment he was most remembered for. He signed off on broadcasts by saying: “This is the ol’ left-hander, rounding third and heading for home.”

[redsmetz]

I talked to my dad this afternoon, the same age as Nuxhall was. He too had been a salesman for trucking companies. I asked if he and Joe ever crossed paths. Oh, yeah, he said, they'd see each other making calls, did some golf outings together. Always real pleasant. He talked about Wally Post and Jim O'Toole also being sales reps during the off season.

Well, dang, dad! How come you never brought them around, I asked.

[Krusty]

God bless you Old Lefthander. You were a part of my life as a young teenager back in the 70s right up to today.

Today my heart aches.

[37red]

I hear there's going to be a TV special at 4:30 today.

[BuckWoody]

I didn't figure it would be long before Jim Borgman would have a tribute. Nicely done.

[37red]

perfect

[Matt700wlw]

That's all I have.

[redsmetz]

I figured Borgman would get it right. I've printed it up and will put it on my fridge.

[Tommyjohn25]

Originally Posted by BuckWoody

I didn't figure it would be long before Jim Borgman would have a tribute. Nicely done.

It's really hard to work all day, in retail, with a lump in your throat. Every summer through childhood I went to sleep to Joes voice. It seems ridiculous to say this about someone I never met in person, but a small part of myself died today with the Ol' Lefthander. What a damn fine human being.

[Cedric]

This has been like losing an old friend. I'm crushed today. I'm so emotional I can barely even think, much else write.

Thanks Joe! We will miss you.

[SunDeck]

Whenever I heard his voice I was transported to the back porch of our house when I was a kid. I can see it now- the red transistor radio, my dad's bottle of Burger, and I can hear him still, "the wind and the pitch....swing anna miss."

Nuxhall provided a measure of continuity for Reds fans. My dad had Hoyt and we listened to Marty and Joe together. That's a special thing about those long time radio guys, being more a part of the team they cover than the players and managers.

I'll miss you Joe. A little piece of me is lost now that you're gone.

[TeamBoone]

Originally Posted by Joseph

It was 'Rounding third and heading for heaven'

or so I heard, could be lore already seeping in though.

VP, its a perfect gesture and tribute to a great human being.

No, that's what it was. They actually showed the ball on the local news.

[marcshoe]

I've been putting off coming here because of this. Nothing to say, or at least nothing I can say right now.