Pitler began his professional playing career in at Jackson of the Class CSouthern Michigan Association. When that league disbanded in, Pitler was picked up by the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class ASouthern Association. He was batting a healthy.364 in 42 games when his contract was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the midseason of during the World War I manpower crisis. He played in 109 games for Pittsburgh that season, and two contests in, compiling a.232 average in 383 at bats with no home runs and 23 runs batted in. He then joined the war effort. During much of the 1920s, Pitler was out of "organized" minor league baseball, playing in semi-professional or "outlaw" leagues. But in, he joined the Binghamton Triplets of the New York–Pennsylvania League and became a fixture in that circuit, playing also for Elmira and Hazleton, and beginning his managing career in with Scranton. In, Pitler joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as a minor league manager, winning back-to-back pennants with the Olean Oilers of the PONY League in 1939–40. He was promoted to the Dodger coaching staff in and served through the end of the team's stay in Brooklyn in — through six National League championships and Brooklyn's lone world title, which came in. Pitler usually served as Brooklyn's first-base coach, and worked under Dodger managers Leo Durocher, Burt Shotton, Chuck Dressen and Walter Alston. He appeared in Roger Kahn's memoir The Boys of Summer as a somewhat obsequious aide to Dressen. But with his minor league managing background, he was also hailed as a fatherly figure to Dodger rookies and young players. He was cited for that role in poet Marianne Moore's paean to the 1955 champions, Hometown Piece for Messrs. Alston and Reese. After retiring as a coach after the season rather than moving with the Dodgers to Los Angeles, Pitler continued his association with the team as a scout. He died in Binghamton, New York, in at the age of 73. In 1991, he was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pitler holds the record for most putouts in a game by a second baseman, with 15, made in a 22 inning game on August 22, 1917.
