John Szajna

Top Reading High School athlete (1940). Won Class of 1921 Award. Four-sport athlete in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Received Astor Theatre Award as top R.H.S. football player (1939). Named All-State second team tackle. Played three years of baseball for Gregg Post American Legion team. Member of the PA State Championship Legion team (1940). National Honor Society student. Signed by the New York Yankees and attended Fordham University (paid for by the Yankees). Top hitter at Fordham for two years as a third baseman. Played basketball at Fordham (1943). Played in college summer leagues for Saranac Lake, Bendix Aviation, and Bushwick (Brooklyn). Played baseball two years during WWII at Sampson Training Center. After the war, played for Sunbury and Newark in the Yankees farm system. Led the Interstate League in pitching with a 19-7 record and 134 strikeouts (1946). Played local amateur baseball in the 1950s and 1960s for Bowers Battery, Terre Hill, and Schoeneck. Had an 18-1 pitching record for Terre Hill and a combined pitching record of 103 wins and 16 losses in six years of amateur baseball in Berks, Lebanon, and Lancaster counties. Pitched two no-hitters. Recorded 24 strikeouts in one game.

Deceased