“The first game that Jackie Robinson played in 1946 in Jersey City, I was there,” Picone said. “He had a bad day (laughs). He had a single, a double, a triple, a home run, and I think he walked. Isn’t that something? He was great. Exactly the way he broke in...It seemed like the people were watching, yet they didn’t know what to expect. He showed them. He sure did!”

Mario Peter Picone (b. July 5, 1926 in Brooklyn, NY – d. October 23, 2013 in Brooklyn, NY), nicknamed "Babe", was an Italian American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Giants and the Cincinnati Redlegs in part of three seasons spanning 1947–1954.

Babe was a Brooklyn-born pitching prospect when he was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Giants before the 1944 season. The Giants farmed him out to the Bristol Twins of the class D Appalachian League and on June 15th, on his way to a 11-10 season, he struck out 28 batters in a 19-inning 3-2 victory over the Johnson City Cardinals. As of that date, this was considered to be a record in organized ball.

During that game, Babe remembered that “In those days, you tried to finish everything... It got to be the 9th inning, 10th inning, 11th inning … It was a 2-2 tie. Hal Gruber was the manager. He came to me and said, ‘I’m going to take you out.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. I’ll stay right here. If you take me out because you think I’m tired, I’ll be on the bus tomorrow and I’ll go home.’ Sure enough he left me there. We went 19 innings. Art Fowler came in the bottom of the 19th and pinch hit for me, he got a single, we scored the run and we won 3-2.”

In a 13-game MLB career, Picone posted a 0–2 record and a 6.30 ERA in 13 pitching appearances, including three starts, allowing 28 earned runs on 43 hits and 25 walks, while striking out 11 in 40 innings of work.

Two of his starting assignments accounted for the two losses on his MLB résumé. On September 27, 1952, he opened for the Giants and lasted eight innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, allowing six runs (five earned), in a 7–3 defeat at the Polo Grounds.

Then, on June 13, 1954, in his first appearance for Cincinnati, he faced his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers at Crosley Field and lasted only 41⁄3 innings, giving up five earned runs, including home runs by Duke Snider and Jim Gilliam. Brooklyn eventually won, 14–2.

Picone spent a total of 13 seasons in the Minor leagues, playing from 1944 through 1956 for 11 different clubs. His most productive season came in 1952, when he combined a record of 21–8 with a 2.94 for Sioux City and Minneapolis. Besides, he won 19 games in 1945 and amassed four seasons with at least 14 wins. Overall, in the minors, he went 129–98 with a 3.95 ERA in 186 pitching appearances (82 starts) over 1975.0 innings.

Picone died on October 23, 2013 in Brooklyn at the age of 87.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)