“[T]he first major-league pitch I ever called for [was] a curve ball to Wally Moon,” recalled catcher Chris Cannizzaro. “I didn’t catch it. Moon hit it over the left [field] screen of the Coliseum in Los Angeles.” “’Young Ideas’ by Dick Young,” The Sporting News, June 30, 1973, 14. Despite this inauspicious debut, Cannizzaro would go on to build a 13-year major-league career and become the San Diego Padres’ first franchise All-Star. A once-prized prospect, Cannizzaro averaged a scant 150 at-bats per season as a journeyman backstop.

Born on May 3, 1938, in Oakland, California, Christopher John Cannizzaro was raised in the neighboring city of San Leandro. The great-grandson of Italian immigrants Angelo and Antonina Cresci Cannizzaro, Chris and his two younger brothers also inherited a strong Spanish heritage from their mother Isabelle Carabello. Their father John was a San Leandro police officer and an accomplished semipro shortstop.

He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1960 to 1974 for the St. Louis Cardinals (1960–61), New York Mets (1962–65), Pittsburgh Pirates (1968), San Diego Padres (1969–71, 1974), Chicago Cubs (1971), and Los Angeles Dodgers (1972–73), making the NL All-Star team in 1969.

Chris was an original member of both the 1962 New York Mets and the 1969 San Diego Padres.

In March 1971, Cannizzaro saved the life of Los Angeles columnist Bud Tucker who was choking on a piece of meat. Chris, using brute strength, lifted Tucker by the ankles and shook him until the meat was dislodged.

(excerpted from SABR, BR Bullpen, and Wikipedia)