Maglie, 75, Dies of Pneumonia : Baseball: Former curveball specialist of the Giants was known for his knockdown pitch.

Sal (the Barber) Maglie, the menacing-looking pitcher who earned his nickname for giving batters close shaves with his brushback pitches, died Monday of pneumonia. He was 75.

Maglie died at Niagara Falls Memorial Nursing Home, where he had been confined since May of 1987 after a stroke, nursing home spokesman Timothy Gleason said.

A curveball specialist with pinpoint control, Maglie was the loser of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the fifth game of the 1956 World Series. His skill was working the inside part of the plate, which he called his “bread and butter.”

When he pitched for the New York Giants, he was the nemesis of the rival Brooklyn Dodgers. But when his career was winding down in 1956--he was 39--he joined the Dodgers and helped pitch them to the National League pennant during the last 10 weeks of the season.

He won nine of 11 games for Brooklyn, including a no-hitter against Philadelphia on Sept. 25. In the 1956 World Series, he won the opening game against the New York Yankees, but lost, 2-0, to Larsen while giving up only five hits.

Maglie’s best years were with Giants. In 1950, he led the league with an an .818 percentage on an 18-4 record. He pitched four consecutive shutouts, including 45 scoreless innings in a row, 1 1/3 innings short of Carl Hubbell’s league record at the time.

In 1951, Maglie led the league with 23 victories while losing six as the Giants won a memorable three-game playoff against the Dodgers, capped by Bobby Thomson’s home run that has become known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, a teammate with the Giants, said Maglie was underrated.

“During those years, if I wanted a ballgame won, I wanted Sal Maglie pitching,” Irvin said. “He was a money pitcher. He had that great curveball. And when you started looking for the curve, he would come in with the fastball, keeping you completely confused.”

Maglie had three types of curves--a slider, a roundhouse curve and a sharp breaking one. Once, Irvin recalled, he used each of them to strike out Pee Wee Reese three times in a game.

“Pee Wee said to Sal, ‘I’m glad you didn’t have a fourth kind of curveball because you would have struck me out four times,’ ” Irvin said.

Salvatore Anthony Maglie was born at Niagara Falls on April 26, 1917. He worked as a pipe-fitter before signing a contract for $275 a month with Buffalo of the International League and pitched six minor league seasons before making it to the major leagues with the Giants in 1945.

But in 1946, he jumped to the newly formed Mexican League, signing a contract with Puebla for $5,000. It was there, under the Manager Dolph Luque, a former big league pitcher, that Maglie mastered his craft.

All the Mexican League jumpers were suspended from professional baseball in the United States until baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler lifted the ban Nov. 10, 1949. Maglie rejoined the Giants in 1950.

From 1950 through 1952, Maglie won 59 games while losing 18. In 1954 he helped the Giants to the pennant with a 14-6 record.

Troubled by a bad back, he was waived out of the NL on July 31, 1955, and sold to the Cleveland Indians for $25,000. He signed with the Dodgers in May of 1956.

The New York Yankees purchased Maglie from Brooklyn during the 1957 season and in 1958 he was sold to the St. Louis Cardinals. He worked as a minor league instructor for the Cardinals and a pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox.

Maglie later was general manager of the Niagara Falls franchise in the New York-Penn League.

Maglie was one of 15 players who played for the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants in New York. The others were Waite Hoyt, Zack Taylor, Rosie Ryan, Willie Keeler, Lefty O’Doul, Bobo Newsom, Fred Merkle, Tony Lazzeri, Ernie Kruger, Burleigh Grimes, Lonny Frey, Jack Doyle, Johnny Allen and Pete Kilduff.

Maglie had a 119-52 record and a 3.15 earned-run average during his career. He pitched 25 shutouts and played in three World Series.

Maglie is survived by his second wife, the former Doris Ellman; a son, Joseph, who is serving in the U.S. Air Force in Little Rock, Ark.; a sister, Carmen Mancuso of Niagara Falls; a stepdaughter, Holly Fuhr of Grand Island, and one granddaughter.

Maglie was a long-time resident of Niagara Falls and attended Niagara University.