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What were you doing with your free time   when you were in high school?

Most boys between the ages of 15-17 are getting their first part-time jobs, learning to drive, getting into trouble around town or gathering up the gumption to start talking to girls.

When you were 15 you were likely worrying about what bullshit they were going to teach you in Algebra that day or if you were going to be able to round up enough friends to play a good game of Wiffle Ball after school.

What you sure as hell weren’t doing was pitching to Stan Musial or any other Major League stars in an actual baseball game that counted.

That is, unless you’re Joe Nuxhall.

Nuxhall remains the youngest player to ever play in a Major League game, a record he set when he took the mound for the Reds in 1944 at the age of 15. He faced nine St. Louis Cardinals, including the iconic Musial. Nuxhall walked five of the batters he faced and allowed two hits and five earned runs in the 2/3 of an inning he pitched.

Tommy Brown, who just passed away at the age of 97, was the youngest position player to play in the Majors, debuting at 16 years old, seven months and 28 days.

Altogether, there have been less than 50 players who have debuted in the Major Leagues before turning 18. Some familiar names in that group include Hall of Famers Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx and Bob Feller who all debuted at 17. Tim McCarver, Ed Kranepool, Phil Cavaretta, Larry Dierker and Joey Jay are some other youngsters who were Major Leaguers at an age when most are still trying to navigate high school.

In addition, Roy Campanella turned pro in 1937 at the age of 15 when he was signed by the Washington Elite Giants in the Negro National League. He served as a backup catcher to Hall of Famer Biz Mackey and stuck with the franchise through the remainder of his teenage years.

Teenagers are less likely to show up in Major Leagues games in current times. In five of the past 12 seasons, nobody under the age of 20 has appeared in an MLB game. The last time someone as young as 18 appeared in a game was Alex Rodriguez in 1994. Prior to that, you have to go back to Brian Greer (1977) and Alfredo Griffin (1976) to find an 18-year-old to play in the Majors.

But this week we’re focusing on Joe Nuxhall, who should come up the next time you have a discussion about Major League records that will never be broken. We’re not going to be seeing a 15-year-old in the bigs during any of our lifetimes.

Before we move on to this week’s edition of The Stud 400, here’s a look at the last five entries as we count down the 400 greatest moments in Major League Baseball history:

120: Billy Martin pulls Reggie Jackson (1977)

119: Game 162 (2011)

118: Chris Chambliss ALCS HR (1976)

117: Mickey Mantle injures his knee (1951)

116: Cuban defection of the 1990s (1991)

And now, here’s Episode LXV of The Stud 400.

115. Joe Nuxhall makes MLB debut (1944)

The depletion of Major League rosters—and the general United States male population—during World War II forced teams to become creative when filling out their rosters. Many franchises turned to retired players and amateurs just to be able to field teams while the country was fighting overseas.

Because most able-bodied men who were of military age were serving, most franchises had to go outside the boundaries of military guidelines. One way to do that was to sign someone who was too young to be fighting in World War II. Joe Nuxhall fit that bill.

The Reds were actually scouting Nuxhall’s father, Orville, when they became aware of his 14-year-old son Joe. Orville turned down the opportunity to pitch for the Reds because he needed to take care of his family, but they gave Joe a chance. Joe only pitched in one Major League game and one minor league game in 1944 at the age of 15, but that was enough to get him into the record books. Nuxhall spent 1945 in the minor leagues but then returned home to finish high school the next year. Eventually, he made his way back to the majors with the Reds and went on to win 135 games over 16 Major League seasons, before becoming a beloved broadcaster.

Nuxhall finally retired from the Reds in 2004, an incredible 60 years after he debuted as the youngest player in Major League history.

114. Jackie Robinson steals home (1955)

So, was Jackie out or safe?

That’s a question that is still being asked 70 years after one of the most iconic plays in Major League history. For the first half of the 20^th century, the Dodgers just couldn’t get over the hump. Between 1941-1953, the Dodgers won five National League pennants, but failed to win a single World Series, losing to the Yankees each time. In 1955, the Dodgers absolutely dominated the National League and the Yankees held off the Indians to capture the American League title. The heated rivalry begat an intense Game 1 that saw Whitey Ford face off against Don Newcombe. The teams traded runs in the early going and as the game went to the eighth, the Yankees were up 6-3 in a crucial matchup. A Don Zimmer sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers their fourth run and moved Jackie Robinson, who had reached on an error, over to third base. We’ve all seen what happened next.

Robinson, as he was wont to do, danced off third base dramatically as the tension of the situation built. As Ford went into his full windup, Robinson dashed for home. Yogi Berra calmly stood up from him stance and took a step forward to receive the pitch as Robinson began his slide. A freeze frame of the most famous angle of the play shows the ball hit Berra’s glove before Robinson was even in the frame. However, the hard-charging Robinson was already in his slide and extended his right leg out to the front corner of the plate, catching it before Berra could slap down the tag. Home plate umpire Bill Summers immediately signaled that Robinson was safe, setting off a wild tantrum from Berra.

The run made the score 6-5, but the Yankees would hold on for a victory. The Dodgers recovered to win the series in seven games in one of the most historic Fall Classics ever played. The play remains one of the enduring clips of the entire era of the Boys of Summer and Berra insisted to the day he died that Robinson was out. There is an alternate angle that provides a better look showing pretty definitively that Summers was correct on his safe call, as the arbiter claimed for the rest of his life. The other enduring part of all of this was Jackie Robinson’s wife Rachel greeting Yogi Berra with, “He was safe,” every time she saw him later in their lives. Berra, of course, would counter, “He was out,” before they laughed and hugged.

113. Tony Conigliaro beaning (1967)

The 1967 Boston Red Sox season is known as the Impossible Dream season, and for good reason. Going into the season, Boston had finished in ninth place out of ten teams in the American League in each of the previous two seasons, finishing a combined 66 games out of first place. They had finished no better than seventh the five previous seasons and in the timeframe between 1919-1966, the Red Sox won exactly one pennant. Literally nobody saw it coming that they could put together a run that would conclude with a World Series berth. Hence, The Impossible Dream. While the season was a banner year for the Red Sox, it was a nightmare for their budding young slugger, Tony Conigliaro.

Conigliaro came up to the Red Sox in 1964 as a 19-year-old and immediately started mashing balls over the Green Monster. Like first at bat at Fenway Park immediately. He didn’t stop either. Over his first three seasons, Conigliaro had 84 home runs and 227 RBIs and he hadn’t yet turned 22. In 1965 he became the youngest American League home run champion and halfway through the 1967 season, Conigliaro became the youngest American League player ever to reach 100 career home runs. He was named to the All-Star team for the first time that July and was perhaps the most exciting young player in baseball.

Then tragedy struck. On August 18, Jack Hamilton of the Angels threw a pitch high and tight and the riding action on the fastball made it impossible for Conigliaro to get out of the way of the pitch. It hit him squarely in his cheekbone, essentially shattering his face, dislocating his jaw and severely damaging his retina. Conigliaro appeared on a Sports Illustrated cover in 1970 and the photo showcased the gruesome shiner he got from the injury.

Miraculously, Conigliaro returned a year and a half later and managed 20 home runs in 141 games. Then in 1970, Conigliaro had his best season when he hit 36 home runs and drove in 116. Conigliaro was shockingly traded to the Angels after the 1970 season and after he flamed out there partially due to the return of symptoms from his beaning, it was rumored that the Red Sox knew a swift downfall was coming. Amidst headaches, devolving eyesight and a string of other ailments, Conigliaro retired from baseball in July of 1971. He tried a brief return with the Red Sox in 1975 but retired for good after 21 games.

112. David Cone perfect game (1999)

Going back to David Cone’s first professional season as an 18-year-old in 1981, it was clear that he was a supremely talented pitching prospect with unlimited potential. A year later he went 16-3 with a 2.08 ERA in A Ball and that potential was manifesting itself in real time. He had an injury setback that cost him his 1983 season, but by the time he was traded to the Mets in 1987, word was that they were getting a pitching prospect with perhaps the best stuff in minor league baseball. When Cone had all—or even just some—of his pitches working, he was damn near impossible to hit. That was the case on July 18, 1999.

Baseball, like all sports, has its share of coincidences, but for our money at The Stud 400, there was no bigger coincidence than what happened on this day. July 18, 1999 was to be a special day at Yankee Stadium, even before Cone threw his first pitch. Yogi Berra and George Steinbrenner had buried the hatchet from past tribulations and that was the day the Yankees chose to honor Berra with his own day. As part of the ceremonies, Don Larsen threw out the first pitch to Berra, recreating the ending to the only perfect game in postseason history. The fact that Cone went right out and threw his own perfect game on that day, is beyond comprehension.

At the time, Cone’s gem was just the 16^th perfecto in Major League history. Cone’s ninth inning provided a few dramatic seconds as Ricky Ledee seemed to lose out number two in the sun and later admitted he wasn’t sure how he made the catch. Orlando Cabrera popped out to Scott Brosius for the final out of the game, sending Cone to his knees and his teammates streaming to the mound in celebration. When he got back to the clubhouse, Larsen and Berra were waiting for Cone to congratulate him as well. Cone needed just 88 pitches, the second lowest number besides Addie Joss who needed just 74 pitches to throw a perfect game in 1908.

111. Mickey Lolich tops Bob Gibson in Game 7 (1968)

When talking about the greatest pitching seasons of all time, you can start with Bob Gibson’s 1968 season when he went 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA, 13 shutouts and 268 strikeouts. Gibson’s Cardinals romped to the National League pennant by nine games and they were set to take on the Tigers, who were even more dominant in the American League, in the World Series.

The classic showdown saw St. Louis win three of the first four games, but the Tigers won games five and six to set up one of the all-time great pitching showdowns. Gibson, who had just authored a season for the ages and was 2-0 in the World Series was going to face off against Mickey Lolich, who had already won games two and five for the Tigers. Gibson and Lolich traded zeroes through the first six innings, but when the game moved to the seventh, Detroit finally broke through against Gibson. With two outs and nobody on, Norm Cash and Willie Horton singled and Jim Northrup and Bill Freehan followed with a triple and double and just that quick, the Tigers had a late 3-0 lead. The Tigers added a run in the ninth and the Cardinals didn’t get to Lolich until Mike Shannon hit a two-out solo homer in the ninth. Tim McCarver popped out for the final out, giving the Tigers their first World Series title since 1945 – and dealing a bitter ending to Gibson’s historic 1968 season.

Stay tuned for the next episode of The Stud 400 when we try to get one past the hardest player to ever strike out. We’re sharpening our cleats and hanging out with murderers in a dangerous installment next week. But no fear, we’ll all be first-time All-Stars as long as you visit BallNine for next week’s episode of The Stud 400.