Joe Zapustas

{{Short description|American baseball player (1907–2001)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Joe Zapustas

|position=Outfielder

|image=Joe Zapustas.JPG

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{birth date|1907|7|25|mf=y}}

|birth_place=Liepāja, Russian Empire{{cite web|last1=Glaser|first1=Kyle|title=Dovydas Neverauskas Is The First Of His Kind|url=https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/dovydas-neverauskas-is-the-first-of-his-kind/|website=BaseballAmerica.com|accessdate=April 27, 2017|date=April 25, 2017}}

|death_date={{death date and age|2001|1|14|1907|7|25}}

|death_place=Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=September 28

|debutyear={{By|1933}}

|debutteam=Philadelphia Athletics

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=September 30

|finalyear={{By|1933}}

|finalteam=Philadelphia Athletics

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.200

|stat2label=Home runs

|stat2value=0

|stat3label=RBI

|stat3value=0

|teams=

• Philadelphia Athletics (1933)

|highlights=

}}

Joseph John Zapustas (July 25, 1907 – January 14, 2001){{cite web |title=Joe Zapustas - Society for American Baseball Research |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ca182ee9 |website=sabr.org |accessdate=February 17, 2019}}{{cite book|last1=Rose|first1=George|title=One Hit Wonders: Baseball Stories|date=April 2004|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9780595318070|pages=6–7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-k0Ylqf4cQC&pg=PA6|accessdate=April 27, 2017|language=en}} was a professional baseball player. He appeared in two games in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the Philadelphia Athletics during the 1933 Philadelphia Athletics season. He had one hit in five at bats. He also played for the New York Giants of the NFL in 1933. He is the first, and as of 2025, only Major League Baseball player to be born in Latvia.

After retiring from football and baseball in 1939, Zapustas taught science and mathematics at high school, along with coaching the Quincy Manets semi-professional football team. Zapustas also became a boxing referee, officiating in bouts featuring Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson. Zapustas was the Director of Recreation for Randolph, Massachusetts between 1951 and 1991, and was honoured in 1998 by the local ice hockey rink being renamed the Joseph J. Zapustas Arena.