Benny Distefano - Last of Three LH Bucco Catchers.

There have been 30 LH catchers in MLB; the Bucs had three. Yesterday's birthday boy Benny Distefano was the last big league lefty thrower to squat behind the dish, calling three games for six innings in 1989. Old timey players Homer Hillebrand (1905, 3 games/14 IP) & Jiggs Donahue (1900-01, 3 games/18 IP) preceded him on the all-time Pirates southpaw catcher corps. (People also remember Dale Long for the feat, but he caught his two games as a Cubby in 1958, a year after he left Pittsburgh).

Benny Distefano 1989 (photo NY Times)

Benny didn't exactly light it up behind the dish, but he didn't embarrass himself either, allowing one stolen base, one passed ball and one wild pitch in his six frames. The team gave up seven runs while he was wagging his fingers at Bill Landrum, Neal Heaton, Miguel Garcia, Mike Smith, Randy Kramer and Doug Bair. Benny went through an arm an inning, but we're inclined to believe the run totals had more to do the men on the mound than their batterymate.

Jimmy Leyland used him behind the dish for a variety of reasons. In the first outing, pinch hitters for Junior Ortiz and Tom Prince left him as the sole option. He was inserted at catcher as part of a double switch in the second outing and in his final bout, Ortiz was again lifted and replaced by Benny rather than Dann Bilardello. (It should be noted that Benny got his chance because the regular catcher, Spanky LaValliere, was on the DL with a bum knee for all but 28 games during the campaign, leaving the Pirates backstopping crew in choppy waters.)

All three of the Bucco oppo-ball snaggers were, not surprisingly, multi-positional. Distefano was a 1B/OF under normal circumstances. Hillebrand not only caught, he also pitched and manned first base. Jiggs actually was a competent catcher early in his career. He ended up a 1B by trade, but not until he caught 45 games for three teams from 1900-02.

It's been a long time since a lefty caught a game; the book is that it's too hard for them on stolen base tries when RH batters are in the box and that they have to go across their bodies to slap a tag at home; our feeling is that there just aren't any southpaw catchers mitts available in little league, so kids are shunted away from the position from the get-go.

But we know somewhere out there lurks a lefty with a yen to catch...

(sources Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers http://members.tripod.com/bb_catchers/catchers/catchleftlist.htm and Baseball Reference)