Pete Naton
American baseball player (1931-2013)
Peter Alphonsus Naton (September 9, 1931 – December 10, 2013) was an American professional baseball catcher who appeared in six Major League games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1953. He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).
Naton played in the third annual Hearst Sandlot Classic in 1949 and in the 1952 College World Series for the victorious Holy Cross Crusaders. On June 12, 1953, shortly after graduating from Holy Cross, Naton signed with the Pirates. Four days later, he made his MLB debut as the starting catcher in the second game of a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Naton was hitless in three at bats against Chicago left-hander Howie Pollet. Naton appeared as a pinch hitter three days later, going hitless, and then spent the middle of the season in the minor leagues before his recall to Pittsburgh in September. On September 13, Naton collected his first Major League hit, a single off Ken Raffensberger of the Cincinnati Redlegs. He also drew two bases on balls and recorded his only MLB run batted in. All told, he came to bat 12 times for the Pirates, with two hits — both singles.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7172173. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2013, 1953 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pete Naton” 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.