Minor Leagues
Wensloff began his professional career in the Arizona-Texas League, pitching for the Class-D, El Paso Texans, a team not affiliated with any major league squad, in 1937. The team included future Major League players Bill Bevens and Milo Candini, and one former Major League player, Jimmy Zinn. Wensloff pitched 34 games that season, going 17–10 with a 4.67 ERA in 233 innings pitched. At the end of the season, he was the third most successful pitcher in the league in terms of wins and pitched in the eighth highest number of innings.
In 1938, Wensloff spent his first season in the New York Yankees minor league system, playing for the Class-C Joplin Miners of the Western Association. In an exhibition game with the Miners against the St. Louis Browns, Wensloff allowed eight runs and failed to pitch for a full inning as the Miners lost, 12–5. In 28 games for the Miners in 1938, he won and lost 13 games each and finished the season with a 3.48 ERA. Wensloff continued his tenure with the Miners during the 1939 season. By the end of July, he had a win-loss record of 17–2. In his final season at the Class-C level, Wensloff compiled a 26–4 record in 31 games, pitching 249 innings. At the end of the season, Wensloff had the most wins in the league along with Maury Newlin of the Topeka Owls, and was also third in the league in innings pitched.
In 1940, Wensloff was promoted to the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, a higher level of the Yankees' farm system, where he played alongside Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto, among others who later played in the majors. In his first game at the Double-A level, Wensloff allowed only two hits in a game against the Columbus Red Birds. Wensloff pitched in 35 games, 27 starts, going 13–8 with a 3.19 ERA in 178 innings pitched. The Blues went on to play in the American Association playoffs that season. In the second game of three against the Louisville Colonels, Wensloff shut them out as the Blues won the game, 1–0. Wensloff spent his second season with the Blues in 1941, and went 15–8 with a 3.93 ERA in 36 games, 22 of them starts. He finished the season eighth in the American Association in wins.
Wensloff played his third and final season with the Blues in 1942. That season, he was one of five pitchers named to the American Association All-Star Team, which Kansas City hosted. Wensloff won his 19th game of the season on August 24, 1942, pitching the shortest game of the season, which only lasted one hour and 20 minutes. Wensloff had a 21–10 record with a 2.47 ERA in 33 games, had the most wins in the league, and was sixth in ERA during that season. On September 27, 1942, the New York Yankees purchased nine contracts from their minor league teams, including Herb Karpel and Wensloff's contracts from Kansas City, which placed them on the major league roster.
Read more about this topic: Butch Wensloff
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