Benny Distefano was born on Tuesday, January 23, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York. Distefano was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on May 18, 1984, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Benny Distefano baseball stats page.
"Major league teams have been panting for more catchers since shinguards, begging for mothers to allow their sons to play there, and yet they cut off an entire stream of talent that happens to throw left-handed. In the last 100 years, Dale Long caught two innings for the Chicago Cubs in 1958, Mike Squires the same for the 1980 White Sox. And since Aug. 18, 1989, when Distefano caught for the last time, baseball has embraced retro uniforms and even revenue sharing—but not the likes of Distefano. The minor leagues do not have one left-handed catcher right now. 'It's a slow-changing game,' said Distefano, now the hitting coach of the West Michigan Whitecaps, a Detroit Tigers Class A affiliate. 'It takes a creative manager that's willing to go with something that might be a little outside the box.'" - New York Times Staff Writer Alan Schwarz (08/15/2009, 'Left-Handed and Left Out', Source)
Benny Distefano![]() Benny Distefano Autograph on a 1985 Donruss (#166) |
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| Biographical Data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Benny DistefanoBenny Distefano Pitching Stats |
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| Year | Age | Team | G | GS | GF | W | L | PCT | ERA | CG | SHO | SV | IP | BFP | H | ER | R | HR | BB | IBB | SO | WP | HB | BK | HLD |
| - | - | Did Not Pitch | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Career | G | GS | GF | W | L | PCT | ERA | CG | SHO | SV | IP | BFP | H | ER | R | HR | BB | IBB | SO | WP | HB | BK | HLD | ||
Benny DistefanoBenny Distefano Hitting Stats |
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| Year | Age | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | GRSL | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | SH | SF | HBP | GIDP | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| 1984 | 22 | Pirates | 45 | 78 | 10 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .167 | .226 | .346 |
| 1986 | 24 | Pirates | 31 | 39 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .179 | .190 | .282 |
| 1988 | 26 | Pirates | 16 | 29 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .345 | .394 | .621 |
| 1989 | 27 | Pirates | 96 | 154 | 12 | 38 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 17 | 3 | 30 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 | .247 | .333 | .338 |
| 1992 | 30 | Astros | 52 | 60 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .233 | .303 | .300 |
| Career | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | GRSL | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | SH | SF | HBP | GIDP | AVG | OBP | SLG | ||
| 5 Years | 240 | 360 | 35 | 82 | 13 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 42 | 31 | 6 | 66 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 11 | .228 | .296 | .350 | ||
Benny DistefanoBenny Distefano Fielding Stats |
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| Team | POS | G | GS | OUTS | TC | TC/G | CH | PO | A | E | DP | PB | CASB | CACS | FLD% | RF |
| 1984 Pirates | 1B | 17 | 2 | 180 | 63 | 3.7 | 62 | 55 | 7 | 1 | 5 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .984 | 9.30 |
| 1984 Pirates | LF | 7 | 1 | 78 | 10 | 1.4 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .900 | 3.12 |
| 1984 Pirates | RF | 15 | 10 | 255 | 28 | 1.9 | 27 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .964 | 2.86 |
| 1986 Pirates | 1B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .000 | 0.00 |
| 1986 Pirates | RF | 9 | 5 | 135 | 13 | 1.4 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 2.60 |
| 1988 Pirates | 1B | 5 | 5 | 108 | 41 | 8.2 | 41 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 10.25 |
| 1988 Pirates | RF | 2 | 1 | 39 | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 2.08 |
| 1989 Pirates | 1B | 48 | 30 | 852 | 324 | 6.8 | 318 | 302 | 16 | 6 | 21 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .981 | 10.08 |
| 1989 Pirates | C | 3 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 0.7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.00 |
| 1989 Pirates | RF | 1 | 1 | 27 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .000 | 0.00 |
| 1992 Astros | 1B | 6 | 2 | 69 | 25 | 4.2 | 25 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 4 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 9.78 |
| 1992 Astros | LF | 7 | 3 | 81 | 13 | 1.9 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 4.33 |
| 1992 Astros | RF | 5 | 2 | 63 | 4 | 0.8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1.000 | 1.71 |
| Career | POS | G | GS | OUTS | TC | TC/G | CH | PO | A | E | DP | PB | CASB | CACS | FLD% | RF |
| 1B Totals | 77 | 39 | 1,209 | 453 | 5.9 | 446 | 418 | 28 | 7 | 31 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .985 | 9.96 | |
| RF Totals | 32 | 19 | 519 | 48 | 1.5 | 47 | 45 | 2 | 1 | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .979 | 2.45 | |
| LF Totals | 14 | 4 | 159 | 23 | 1.6 | 22 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | .957 | 3.74 | |
| C Totals | 3 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 0.7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.00 | |
| 5 Years | 126 | 62 | 1,905 | 526 | 4.2 | 517 | 486 | 31 | 9 | 32 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .983 | 7.33 | |
Benny DistefanoBenny Distefano Miscellaneous Stats |
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| Baserunning Statistics | Other Positions | Common Hitting Ratios | Common Pitching Ratios | |||||||||
| Team | SB | CS | SB% | PH | PR | DH | AB/HR | AB/K | AB/RBI | K/BB | K/9 | BB/9 |
| 1984 Pirates | 0 | 1 | .000 | 18 | 5 | n/a | 26.0 | 6.0 | 8.7 | - | - | - |
| 1986 Pirates | 0 | 0 | .000 | 24 | 0 | n/a | 39.0 | 7.8 | 7.8 | - | - | - |
| 1988 Pirates | 0 | 0 | .000 | 10 | 0 | n/a | 29.0 | 7.3 | 4.8 | - | - | - |
| 1989 Pirates | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 52 | 1 | n/a | 77.0 | 5.1 | 10.3 | - | - | - |
| 1992 Astros | 0 | 0 | .000 | 36 | 0 | n/a | 0.0 | 4.3 | 8.6 | - | - | - |
| Career | SB | CS | SB% | PH | PR | DH | AB/HR | AB/K | AB/RBI | K/BB | K/9 | BB/9 |
| 5 Years | 1 | 1 | .500 | 140 | 6 | n/a | 51.4 | 5.5 | 8.6 | - | - | - |
Benny DistefanoBenny Distefano Miscellaneous Items of Interest |
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| Team | Roster | Uniform Numbers | Salary | All-Star | World Series |
| 1984 Pittsburgh Pirates | 10 | $43,200.00 | - | - |
| 1986 Pittsburgh Pirates | 31 | $66,100.00 | - | - |
| 1988 Pittsburgh Pirates | 30 | $82,500.00 | - | - |
| 1989 Pittsburgh Pirates | 30 | $85,000.00 | - | - |
| 1992 Houston Astros | 30 | $93,222.00 | - | - |
| Benny Distefano Stats by Baseball Almanac | ||||

Being left-handed in baseball, except in rare cases, means exclusion from the position of catcher. This is due in large part to the game's counterclockwise flow. There have only been 28 left-handed throwing players who caught in at least 1 defensive inning. Did you know that Benny Distefano is one of those rare left-handed catchers?
Left Handed Catchers |
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| Name | Games Caught | Fielding % |
| Jack Clements | 1,073 | .973 |
| Sam Trott | 272 | .906 |
| Pop Tate | 202 | .905 |
| Sy Sutcliffe | 186 | .887 |
| Bill Harbridge | 128 | .855 |
| Mike Hines | 99 | .896 |
| John Humphries | 75 | .876 |
| Fred Tenney | 71 | .936 |
| Art Twineham | 52 | .936 |
| Phil Baker | 50 | .911 |
| Jiggs Donahue | 45 | .943 |
| Dave Oldfield | 35 | .857 |
| Charlie Householder | 34 | .895 |
| Fergy Malone | 21 | .780 |
| Jack McMahon | 16 | .900 |
| Charlie Krehmeyer | 12 | .864 |
| Joe Wall | 7 | .903 |
| Benny Distefano | 3 | 1.000 |
| Homer Hillebrand | 3 | .899 |
| Jim Egan | 2 | 1.000 |
| Dale Long | 2 | 1.000 |
| Mike Squires | 2 | 1.000 |
| Charlie Eden | 1 | 1.000 |
| John Cassidy | 1 | 1.000 |
| John Mullen | 1 | .714 |
| Lefty Marr | 1 | .000 |
| Martin Powell | 1 | .000 |
| Billy Redmond | 1 | .000 |
On April 28, 1992, David Cone of the New York Mets was pitching a no-hitter that Benny Distefano broke up with an infield hit in the eighth inning. Author Roger Angell wrote the following (A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone, Grand Central Publishing, April 1, 2002) about that moment in Cone's Career:
Cone, one could say, was ready and then some. His coup, which he pitched at the Stadium on July 18, 1999, is only the sixteenth perfect game in a century of major-league ball, but was also his own first no-hitter of any description. On three occasions in his fourteen-year career in the majors, he carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, only to be foiled. He remembers those scenes, too - in particular a wrong-field dribbler cued toward third with one out in the eighth by a Houston batter named DiStefano in 1992, when Cone was pitching for the Mets; the ball died just in front of Dave Magadan's frantic late charge from third. A Met's teammate of Cone's, the great reliever John Franco, thinks back to that injustice - and to DiStefano's lifetime .228 batting record - every time Cone's name comes up in conversation. "I was even in school with the guy," he says disgustedly, "Benny DiStefano, behind me at Lafayette High in Brooklyn, and he kills Coney that way." He could be talking about Lee Harvey Oswald. The real enemy here - for Franco and every pitcher - is luck, which stalks the field in ever low-scoring game, guiding this rocketed line drive in the third baseman's mitt or nudging that bloop into an unreachable few inches of terrain, but which perversely must be given a secret save in every no-hitter.
When Benny Distefano made his Major League debut on May 18, 1984, he hit a triple in his first big league at-bat. The last time a Pittsburgh Pirates player did the same thing was on September 19, 1967, by Bob Moose - the starting pitcher. No Bucs player has matched the feat since.

Benny Distefano | The Indiana Gazette | May 19, 1984 | Page 21