1929-1931

Milt Gaston was born in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey on January 27, 1896. He attended a number of schools in New York City and New Jersey, and completed one year of high school at Ridgefield Park, but then left school and went to work.

During the First World War, he served in the United States Navy from June 1917 to October 1919 and was stationed on the battleship  U.S.S. Texas, serving in the North Sea, sailing out of England, and was later stationed in Cuba. 

After the war, he returned to his position as a clerk in a New York county clerk’s office. On his days off, he pitched in semipro baseball for the highly-regarded Paterson (New Jersey) Silk Sox. He made an impression as early as 1921, but particularly in 1923, so several teams expressed interest in him.

In November 1923, he signed with the New York Yankees. He would never spend a day in the minor leagues, before, during, or after his time in the majors.

The 1924 Yankees came in second, behind a dominant Washington Senators team and Milt was the team’s top reliever, appearing in 29 games. At the very end of the year, he was included in a December trade that sent him to the St. Louis Browns.

Starting 29 games in 1925, he was 15-14, his last season with a winning record in the majors. In 1926 he led the league with 18 losses and 10 wins. In 1927, he gave up a league-leading 18 home runs (four of them were among the 60 hit that year by Babe Ruth).

In October, he was traded to the Senators and pitched for Washington in just one season, 1928. His ERA climbed to 5.51 and was traded to the Red Sox. The move united Milt with his brother Alex, a catcher, who’d spent 1927 and 1928 with St. Paul, but was brought up to Boston for 1929.

The two brothers were battery-mates for the 1929 Red Sox numerous times. After the season, Alex was sent down and never played in the majors again.

Milt was 12-19 in 1929, 13-20 the next year, and then a dismal 2-13 for the Red Sox in 1931. The year he lost 20 in 1930, actually saw him with a 3.92 ERA, the best on the Red Sox. 

He was then traded to the White Sox in December 1931 and from 1932 thru 1934, his ERA increased more from the year before. In December 1934, he was given his outright release by the White Sox and worked out for the Browns as late as May 1935, but didn’t catch on anywhere.

Milt moved to Florida and worked in Tarpon Springs as the manager of a filling station and later became deputy sheriff in Hillsborough County, Florida.

In retirement, Milt Gaston moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On his 100th birthday, he was only the eighth major league player to make it to that age. A few months later, he died after a spill on April 26, 1996, at age 100, in a rehabilitation center in Hyannis, Mass.