Cot Deal

Ellis Ferguson "Cot" Deal (January 23, 1923 – May 21, 2013) was a pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball. Listed at 5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m), 185 lb., Deal was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. A native of Arapaho, Oklahoma, he grew up in Oklahoma City and was nicknamed "Cot" for his cotton-top hair color.

Deal had a career in baseball from 1940 through 1989 and interrupted only by military service during World War II (1943–44). He spent 48 years in baseball as a player (20), manager (5), coach (22) and executive (1).

Playing career

As a sixteen-year-old, Deal was invited by the Pittsburgh Pirates to spend in week in Pittsburgh. By then, the club was managed by Pie Traynor, who gave Deal his first baseball tryout. After signing with Pittsburgh two years before his high school graduation, he spent 1940 with the Hutchinson, Kansas team of the Western Association, hitting a .312 average while splitting time between the outfield and third base. The next year he gained promotion to the Harrisburg Pirates of the Interstate League, playing for them two seasons before joining the military. As a physical training instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps, Deal remained stateside until his discharge in 1945. That year, he played in the International League with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he became a pitcher, and was sold to the Boston Red Sox in 1947. Late in the season he was called up to the Red Sox, making his debut on September 11 as a pinch-hitter. In his first major league at bat, he connected a game-winning RBI single off Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Lemon, while posting a 0–1 mark in five appearances.