Victor Cole

Victor Cole (born January 23, 1968 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a former professional baseball pitcher, the first player born in the Soviet Union to play in Major League Baseball. Cole was the 5th player to be born in what is now Russia.

Cole appeared in eight games for the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates, with an 0–2 record, 12 strikeouts and allowing 14 earned runs.

Cole attended Santa Clara University in California. Cole's father, from Sierra Leone, studied medicine in Russia and married a Russian woman.

Cole was taken by the Kansas City Royals in the 14th round of the 1988 amateur draft. He was traded to the Pirates May 3, 1991 for Carmelo Martinez.

Cole played in the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 1994 and the San Diego Padres organization in 1995 and 1996. He then went to play in the Taiwan Major League for Kaoping Fala in 1997. Cole returned to the minors in 1998 and 1999 with the Chicago Cubs. He spent 2000 with the Memphis Redbirds, a AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization. Cole spent 2001 and 2002 with the KBO's Doosan Bears before retiring. In his ten seasons in the minor leagues, he had a record of 37 - 36 with an ERA of 3.70.

In 2003, Cole joined the Russia national baseball team. He also joined the team on its tour of the North American-based independent Northeast League. Cole was with the team again in 2007. He did not play in the European Championship either year as he did not have a Russian passport.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Retrosheet, or Baseball Reference (Minor, Mexican, Independent and Korean leagues), or Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
• CPC Baseball trivia
• New York Times mention