Chris Palatinus became the sixth Challenger to have his number retired, as he was honored at the 2011 General Assembly at the restaurant Linde Oberstrass in Zurich.
New Challengers president and former teammate Adrian Kämpfer made a speech in honor of Palatinus, who was presented an illustration from a 1928 ballgame between the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators with Palatinus replacing Babe Ruth on the picture.
Palatinus concluded his 17-year career with a .316 batting average, 443 hits, 35 homeruns, 349 RBI’s and 404 runs scored as a batter and a 6.11 ERA with 9 wins, 2 saves and 115 strikeouts in 191.1 innings on the pitcher’s mound.
He set a club record for walks with 241 and is second on the all-time list for runs scored, RBI’s and hits only topped by Thomas Landis.
The 2011 Challengers MVP award winner finished his playing career in style, as he belted a homer in his second to last at bat in his farewell game against the Luzern Eagles. He also added an RBI-single in his 1402nd and last at-bat.
Palatinus won five Swiss championship titles with the Challengers in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004 and two Swiss Cup trophies in 2004 and 2007.
In 2004 he won the double as the Challengers’ playing coach. He was not only the C’s head coach for several years, he was also in the driver’s seat for the Swiss National Team for a couple of years.
Palatinus is also known for his off-the-field merits, as he was a member of the board of the Challengers for more than 10 years, head of the National League commission for the Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation and founding member of the International Spring Tournament at the Heerenschürli ballpark in Zurich, which took place for the 14th time in 2011.
As a professional web designer he is also responsible for several websites across the Swiss baseball and softball community including the homepage of the Challengers. Over the last couple of years Palatinus also developed EasyScore, a software application to score games and to compute box scores, game logs and game and season statistics.
Palatinus’ number 42 joins the retired numbers of Marianne Blickenstorfer (no. 1), Dany Spiegelberg (no. 8), Thomas Landis (no. 34), Werner Zingg (no. 41) and Enrico Zingg (no. 44).