Think long and hard for me. What were you doing as a 15-year-old?

...Don't answer. That was rhetorical. It's unlikely you were doing anything wilder than what youngster Joe Nuxhall was doing for the Cincinnati Reds.

On June 10, 1944, Joe Nuxhall heard his name called by manager Bill McKechnie to pitch the ninth inning of a lopsided affair against the St. Louis Cardinals, and as Nuxhall's left foot made contact with that pitching rubber, a new standard was set for the game.

Still six weeks away from his imminent 16th birthday, Nuxhall did something that no other major leaguer before him or after him had ever done. A mere sophomore in high school had peered down actual major league-caliber hitters. The debut started off promising, with Nuxhall retiring Cardinal shortstop George Fallon on a groundout, but the rest went about as well as it would if you were to throw a 15-year old straight into the fire of a major league: 13-0 blowout.

Fallon would be the only batter that Nuxhall would end up retiring, as two hits, five walks, a wild pitch and five eventual runs spoiled the otherwise monumental occasion.

Nuxhall was quoted after the game as stating the utter obvious: "I was pitching against seventh, eighth, and ninth graders, kids 13 and 14 years old ... all of a sudden, I look up and there's [Cardinal legend and Hall of Famer] Stan Musial and the likes. It was a very scary situation."

Nuxhall had every right to be scared. None of us could even fathom the true emotions stirring inside that Nuxhall must have been feeling that afternoon. Had it not been for the United States being entrenched in World War II, Nuxhall may have never been asked to perform in the big leagues so prematurely. However, with many major league players being called to enlist for the war, teams were left with holes in their rosters that they had to fill quickly, and in this case, not exactly ideally. The Reds organization got word of a very talented pitcher in a semi-pro league near Hamilton, Ohio [Nuxhall], and after one singular showcase in front of a Cincinnati scout, Nuxhall was hired and signed to a contract on the spot. The rest, as we now see, is history.

As for the remainder of Nuxhall's professional career, it came with a leave of absence in between, as Nuxhall left Reds' spring training camp in 1945 to finish out his high school career. Upon receiving his high school diploma, Nuxhall returned to professional ball and pitched in the minor leagues for five years more before returning to the big club in Cincinnati in 1952. Aside from one brief minor league stint in 1962, Nuxhall remained in the Major Leagues until his retirement in 1967, highlighted by two All-Star Game appearances and leading the National League in shutouts in 1955.

Upon retirement in 1967, Nuxhall took to the broadcasting booth for the Reds after mentoring under a Hamilton sports broadcaster named Ray Motley. He was immediately thrust into the role of the Reds' main broadcasting voice in that same year, a position he would sustain and share with other collaborative voices behind the mic up until 2004.

If there were one thing this article should leave you truly amazed about, it should be how wildly different the game of baseball is today, in regards to the use of young talents. Granted, in Nuxhall's defense, a World War sped up his fast-track to the majors by a couple of years, but we can at least assume that with the talent he possessed at the time, and with a couple more years of refinement, he could have been a polished and effective Major League arm at even 18 years old.

In today's game, players get drafted at 18 and are just starting their journey through the Minor Leagues in a quest for the ultimate goal. The majority of debuts for players these days don't come until they are seen as "Major-League ready," by scouts and higher-ups in the player's respective organization. Long gone are the days of players becoming "Major-League ready" while competing at the Major League level. Which, in retrospect, is the only true way to become "Major-League ready." How can one be pegged as "Major-League ready" when one has done nothing but face minor league talent? Alas, that anomaly is for another time, but it is certainly food for thought.

But, I know I've kept some of you waiting, as I know you braggers out there like voicing your opinion. You may still be chomping at the bit to tell me what you were doing at age 15. So go ahead, the floor is yours, impress with me with your endeavors. But just know, you may have been a "cool" 15-year-old, but you were never "I'm Joe Nuxhall, and I went toe-to-toe with Stan Musial" cool.