Don Carlsen
American baseball player (1926–2002)
Donald Herbert Carlsen (October 15, 1926 – September 22, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Carlsen was signed by the Cubs as an amateur free agent in 1944 at age 17. After one season as a fielder, he spent two years in military service. Afterward, he pitched at Pepperdine University and the University of Denver and worked his way through the minor leagues until he got promoted to the Cubs in 1948. He made his one and only appearance for Chicago on April 28, allowing 4 earned runs in just one inning of relief work as the Cubs lost 8–1 to Johnny Vander Meer and the Cincinnati Reds. From 1948 through 1950, Carlsen pitched in the Cubs' minor league system. On December 21, 1950, he was purchased from the Cubs by the Hollywood entry in the Pacific Coast League. He was promoted to the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the start of the 1951 season but split the year between the Pirates and the minors.
With the Pirates in 1951, Carlsen appeared in seven games, starting six. He earned his first major league win on August 19 against his former club, the Cubs, and won his second six days later against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The public source identifies “Don Carlsen” as american baseball player (1926–2002). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Carlsen, American and baseball.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5292388. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2002, 1944 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Don Carlsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.