Jess Dobernic

Dobernic was born in a Yugoslavian family in Mount Olive, Illinois. His first organized baseball was for Rayne, Louisiana in the Evangeline Baseball League in 1937. For the next four years, he was in the Chicago White Sox system including the St. Paul Saints, Waterloo Hawks and the major league team. But difficulty controlling his pitches largely kept him out of the major leagues.\n', '

During World War II, Dobernic spent three years in the United States Army Air Forces including Africa and Italy. He returned in the summer of 1945 and pitched for an Army team in Texas, winning 19 consecutive games despite his continued wild pitching.\n', '

Lee Grissom and Burgess Whitehead suggested changes in Dobernic\'s pitching style which helped, and his Los Angeles Angels manager Bill Sweeney made him a relief pitcher. In a 1945 game against the San Francisco Seals, he entered the game with the ba…