Hometown Headliners
Material for these vignettes was gathered from various sources including Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.
1932 — June 22, 2002Ron Kline was a professional baseball pitcher born in Callery in 1932 and known as the “Callery Hummer.”He graduated from Evans City High School in 1950.Upon graduation, Kline signed a contract to play professional baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He debuted in the major leagues with the Pirates in 1952 at the age of 20 and pitched in 27 games.In 1953 and 1954, Kline served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and did not play professional ball.He returned to the majors in 1955 as a 23-year-old.
He would pitch in the majors for the next 16 years, playing for the Pirates until 1959, then the St. Louis Cardinals in 1960, the Los Angeles Angels in 1961, the Detroit Tigers in 1962, the Washington Senators from 1963-66, the Minnesota Twins in 1967, the Pirates again in 1969, the Pirates, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox in 1969 and the Atlanta Braves in 1970.His best statistical season came when he rejoined the Pirates in 1968 at 36. He pitched 112.2 innings in 56 games with a 12-5 record and an ERA of 1.68.In his career, Kline pitched in 736 games, 203 starts, pitched 2,078 innings with 108 saves and 989 strikeouts. After his retirement from professional baseball following the 1970 season, Kline would eventually serve one term as the mayor of Callery.
