Rollie Stiles

Rolland Mays Stiles (November 17, 1906 – July 22, 2007) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the St. Louis Browns from 1930 to 1933. Born in Ratcliff, Arkansas, he batted and threw right-handed, and was 9–14 with an earned run average of 5.92 in his three seasons. Rollie attended Southeastern State Teachers College. His first game in the major leagues was on June 19, 1930, and his last game was October 1, 1933. Stiles' nicknames when playing baseball were "Leapin' Lena", "Lena", and "Rollie", all typical of how he signed autographs for baseball fans.

Stiles made an appearance and gave a speech at the St. Louis Browns Reunion dinner held at the Missouri Athletic Club on June 8, 2006, in St. Louis, Missouri. He died in his sleep at age 100 on July 22, 2007, at the Bethesda Southgate Nursing Home in St. Louis.

Stiles was the last living person to have pitched to Babe Ruth. While he was the oldest living major league ballplayer at the time of his death, Stiles was not the oldest living professional baseball player; that distinction was held by Emilio Navarro of the Negro leagues, who turned 103 years old in 2008.

See also

• List of centenarians (Major League Baseball players)
• List of centenarians (sportspeople)

Sources

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• SABR Biography Project
• Photograph of Rollie Stiles age 99 in 2006
• Article about Rollie Stiles and Babe Ruth
• Video interview with Rollie Stiles discussing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
• Rollie's 100th birthday in the St. Louis newspaper