Major League Baseball Player. He played Major League baseball as a pitcher for fourteen seasons (1927 to 1928, 1930 to 1933, 1936 to 1942, 1945) with the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, and St. Louis Browns. Born Peter William Jablonski, he legally changed his name to the less-ethnic sounding “Appleton” in 1933. A journeyman hurler who pitched mostly in relief with occasional spot-starting duties, he arrived in the Majors in 1927 with the Reds, and pitched well in 6 Games, winning 2 and losing 1 with a 1.82 ERA. That was good enough for the Reds to add him to their bullpen staff for the 1928 season. However, in 31 appearances (3 as a starter) he won 3, lost 4 and his ERA ballooned to 4.68. That season typified most of his career – pitching well enough to hang around the Major Leagues, but never outstanding enough to become a valued commodity. Sent to the Minors for 1929, he came back with the Indians in 1930, and pitched for Cleveland for the next few years before being traded to the Red Sox during the 1932 season (his ERA during his time in with the Indians was never below 4.00). In 1933 he pitched a single game for the Yankees in his only appearance of the year, then toiled in the Minors again until 1936. When the Washington Senators brought him back into the Major Leagues that year, they gave him the opportunity to be a starting pitcher, and he responding with his only truly successful season. He won 14 games, lost 9, and his ERA was 3.53, the only time in his career it would be below 4.00 in a full season. The next year he achieved two distinctions, one noteworthy, one a foot note. On May 30, 1937, in a game against the Red Sox, he tied the then-record for RBIs by a pitcher in a game when he knocked in 6 with two bases-loaded clearing hits (he would co-hold the record until 1953). On August 31 against the Detroit Tigers he served up rookie hitting sensation Rudy York’s 17th and 18th Home Runs of the month, which set the record for most Home Runs hit in a single month that stood until 1998. Falling to 8 wins and 15 losses that year, he would pitch for the Senators until 1939, and mostly in relief. In December 1939 Washington traded him and outfielder Taffy Wright to the White Sox for Gee Walker. He pitched exclusively in ineffective relief in 2 ½ seasons with Chicago, and finished out the 1942 season with the Browns. Out of the Majors for the next two years, he briefly returned in 1945 for the Browns and Senators before retiring for good. His career totals were 57 Wins, 66 Losses, 341 Games Pitched, 26 Saves, 420 Strikeouts, and a career 4.30 Earned Run Average. (bio by: Russ Dodge)