Pete Whisenant
Pete Whisenant (December 14, 1929 – March 22, 1996) was an American baseball outfielder and later coach. He was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and was 6 ft 2 in tall, weighed 200 pounds, and batted and threw right-handed.
Whisenant played in Major League Baseball from 1952 to 1961 for several teams, including the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Redlegs/Reds, Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins. He appeared in 475 games, collecting 221 hits in 988 at-bats for a .224 batting average, with 37 home runs and 134 RBIs.
His best season came in 1956 with the Cubs, when he played 103 games, hit 11 homers, drove in 46 runs, and posted a .239 average.
A famous odd moment in his career happened in 1960. After being traded from the Indians to the Senators, he was announced as a pinch hitter for Cleveland in a game against the White Sox. Cleveland hadn’t yet been informed of the trade, so he went to bat for Cleveland before Tito Francona replaced him, and Cleveland won 6–3 in extra innings. This is often noted as a box-score oddity.
Whisenant later served as a coach for Cincinnati in 1961–62 under Fred Hutchinson. He then managed in the Oakland Athletics’ farm system in 1982–83, with the Modesto A’s winning 94 games and the 1982 California League title. He also founded the Holiday Baseball Clinic for boys in Punta Gorda, Florida, in the late 1960s and 1970s, which drew famous players such as Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle, Tommy Helms, Clay Carroll, Wayne Garrett, Don Zimmer, and Dave Bristol.
Whisenant died in Port Charlotte, Florida, at age 66.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:07 (CET).