Longtime Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bob Veale, who helped the franchise win a World Series championship in 1971, has died at the age of 89. Veale spent 11 of his 13 seasons with the Pirates, earning back-to-back All-Star nods in 1965 and 1966. He played for the team from 1962 to 1972, posting a 3.74 ERA in his rookie season and a 1.04 ERA in 1963. Veale took on a bigger workload in 1964, pitching 279.2 innings to a 2.74 ERA and going 18-12 that season.
Veale was a dominant left-handed pitcher, earning 1,703 strikeouts over 1,926 innings in his career. He helped the Pirates win the 1971 World Series, pitching against the Baltimore Orioles. Veale was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1972 and played for the team for two-and-a-half seasons.
After his playing career, Veale moved into the scouting department for the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and helped launch the Negro Southern League Museum in his hometown of Birmingham in 2015.
Veale was a great man who will be missed, said Pirates owner Bob Nutting in a statement. “He was an integral member of the Pirates who helped our team capture back-to-back division titles as well as the 1971 World Series. He was one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers in all of Major League Baseball during his remarkable big league career that he proudly spent a majority of as a member of the Pirates.”
