#53 JOE CISTERNA
Right-hander Pitcher
What came before: This a salute of one of the tragic near-misses. Cisterna, signed by the Braves in 1963, won 14 games in a workhorse 45-game effort, setting him up to be one of the next guys called up over the next two seasons.
It did not happen.
That 1966 season: He was 8-8 at Class AA Austin and 1-3 at Richmond, but with a superb combined ERA of 2.59. But the call never came as the young pitchers arleady in Atlanta came together for a strong finish to the season.
What came next: He was bumped back to Double-A in 1967, where he was even more dead-on. He was 11-6, 3.00 in 150 innings in 39 games (15 starts). He was likewise a swing man for Richmond in 1968, going 5-6, 3.32 with 13 starts out of 33 appearances. But Cisterna lost it all in 1969, his ERA soaring over 7.00 due to arm problems – something apparent in brief stops with Montreal and San Diego;s farm clubs in 1970.
By 1971, he had become a scout for the Cincinnati Reds. In March of 1972, at the age of 29, he was killed in a head-on collision in San Diego.
