Recently a man named Joseph Pepitone played a big role in my life that I am very grateful for. When he learned that I love baseball he told me a story: one time someone learned his last name was Pepitone and treated him unfairly simply because he shared the name of this baseball player. I had never heard of Joe Pepitone so I decided that when I got my phone back I would do some research to learn about the baseball player with the same day. So this blog post is dedicated to that man even though he’ll never know about it or read it but it will tell you about what I learned about Joe Pepitone.

Joseph Anthony Pepitone was signed by Yankees as an amateur free agent in August 1958 but he didn’t play his first major league game until 1962 as a first baseman. In 1963 Yankees management traded their primary first baseman, Moose Skowron, to the Dodgers, making Pepitone the primary first baseman. He was an average player that first season with a .271 average, 27 home runs and 89 RBIs. The next couple years his average went down slightly but stayed pretty steady. Things went downhill in 1969 however. He fought with the team and even went as far as to leave the team without permission for two days in August. He managed to win a Gold Glove that year, but his actions towards the team resulted him being traded to the Astros. That didn’t last long; Pepitone was displeased with the way he was treated by the Astros, so he threatened to retire in July 1970, which resulted in him being sold to the Cubs on waivers just one week later. In May 1972 he retired from baseball because he was “no longer interested in playing professional baseball.” However, you guessed it, this was one of his dramatics and he returned to the Cubs a few weeks later. Great “retirement!” A year later the Cubs traded Pepitone to the Braves. After just three games he decided to retire again before deciding to continue his career in Japan.

Overall, the guy kind of just seems like a jerk, he was one for the dramatics, leading to him getting traded around a lot. Although this Joe Pepitone was not the best guy, my Joe Pepitone was pretty great at his job, so that’s the one I’ll choose to remember:)