Turk Lown

Omar Joseph "Turk" Lown (born May 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American former professional baseball player. He was a right-handed pitcher over parts of eleven seasons (1951–1954, 1956–1962) with the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox. The 6 ft (1.8 m), 180 lb (82 kg) Lown got his nickname as a child because of his fondness for eating turkey.

For his career, he compiled a 55–61 record in 504 appearances, mostly as a relief pitcher, with a 4.12 earned run average, 73 saves and 574 strikeouts. In 1959, he led the American League in saves and games finished to help lead the White Sox to the pennant. Lown did not give up a run in three appearances in the 1959 World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also led the National League in successive seasons (1956–1957) in games finished, while topping the NL in games pitched (67) in 1957.

Omar Joseph (Turk) Lown celebrated his 90th birthday with Violet, his wife of 65 yrs., their three sons, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and many close friends, on Memorial Day 2014, in Pueblo, Colorado, where he played minor league baseball after serving heroically in WWII and before moving to the majors. adWhile in Pueblo, he met Violet Krizman, who, "became his best friend for life." They returned to Pueblo, where he worked as a mail carrier for 23 years, after he retired from professional baseball. (excerpted from an article by Woody Paige, in the Denver Post - http://www.denverpost.com/paige/ci_25831076/paige-pueblos-turk-lown-defines-honor-and-off.