Deaths on February 21

Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (b. 1930)

Wilmer David "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, Sr. (August 13, 1930 – February 21, 1999), was an American athlete and politician. From 1952 to 1962, he was a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets of Major League Baseball. Six years after retiring, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th congressional district. He served three terms as a Republican from 1969 to 1975.

Mizell was born in Leakesville, Mississippi, but started playing baseball in Vinegar Bend, Alabama, the town from which he drew his nickname. Signed by the Cardinals in 1949, he debuted with them in 1952, ranking among the Top 10 in the National League (NL) in strikeouts for two years before spending 1954 and 1955 in military service. He returned to the Cardinals in 1956 and was named to two Major League Baseball All-Star Games in 1959, but St. Louis felt like he never attained his full potential. They traded him to Pittsburgh early in the 1960 season, and Mizell led the NL in winning percentage (.636) as the Pirates defeated the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series. He remained with the Pirates until early in the 1962 season, last pitching in the major leagues with the Mets.

While pitching for the Winston-Salem Cardinals in 1951, Mizell had settled in Midway, North Carolina. Six years after he threw his last major league pitch, he was elected to the House of Representatives, serving North Carolina's newly aligned 5th district. In three terms over the next six years, Mizell gained a reputation as a conservative. He opposed the Blue Ridge Power Project, introducing a House Bill in 1974 to add the New River to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Though the bill was unsuccessful at the time, it became law in 1976. Mizell, however, lost his seat to Stephen L. Neal in 1974, also losing to the Democrat when he ran against him in 1976. Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush each appointed him to Assistant Secretary positions within their administrations. After suffering a heart attack in 1998, Mizell died in 1999.