Shooty Babitt

If there were a Hall of Fame for baseball nicknames, former Oakland Athletics infielder Mack “Shooty” Babitt would be a strong candidate for induction. Recognized as having “one of the most distinctive names in baseball’s rich tradition of melodious monickers,”1 Babitt deserves mention in the same breath as legends like Chicken Hawks, Pickles Dillhoefer, and Cactus Keck, according to at least one pundit.2

But Babitt’s baseball story goes beyond his catchy nickname. An unheralded A’s farmhand, he capitalized on an outstanding spring training performance in 1981 to earn not only a roster spot but also a starting role on Opening Day for the playoff-bound team. After an up-and-down campaign, he was sent back to the minors in 1982 and never played again in the big leagues. He retired as a player in 1985 and transitioned to a new career as an auto mechanic.

It turned out, though, that what looked like Babitt’s entire baseball story was actually just its opening chapter. In 1994 he began an unlikely second act as a scout after one of his car repair customers helped him land a job with the Atlanta Braves. And once he was back in the game, his baseball savvy and ebullient personality led not only to new scouting opportunities in several organizations but also to an ongoing role as an A’s television analyst. As of 2026, Babitt continues to wear both hats. “I feel blessed,” he said. “I appreciate every day that I get to work in baseball.”3 

***

Mack Neal Babitt was born on March 9, 1959, in Oakland, California, to Mack Sr. and Betty Jean (née Thorten) Babitt, both Louisiana natives. Mack Sr. worked in a General Motors assembly plant before opening his own auto repair shop in Berkeley. He also served as a minister in his local church. Shooty was the oldest of the couple’s three children.

Unlike many ballplayers whose fathers introduced them to baseball, Babitt credits his mother for his first exposure to the game. “My mom taught me. She’d play catch with me, and I caught the bug at a young age,” said Babitt. “I was a good hitter right from the start, and baseball is fun if you can hit.”4

He also got his nickname at an early age. “(My dad) used to listen to a disc jockey who always said something like ‘shooty, rooty, booty.’ He started calling me Shooty.”5 The name stuck.

The Babitts lived near San Pablo Park in Berkeley, where many ballplayers (including Hall of Famer Chick Hafey and Babitt’s future manager, Billy Martin) had honed their skills.6  Shooty spent much of his youth there and got to learn from a generation of talented locals. “I grew up at a great time,” he recalled. “The athletes that came out of Berkeley . . . as a kid at the park I watched Claudell Washington, Ruppert Jones, (future NBA star) Phil Chenier, guys like that.”7

Babitt, who batted and threw right-handed, played Little League, Pony League, and Babe Ruth baseball. In Pony League, he met a fellow teenager from Oakland named Rickey Henderson. “I knew him well,” said Babitt.8

At Berkeley High, Babitt made the varsity baseball squad as a sophomore. He’d played shortstop to that point, but senior Gene Ransom had the position locked down. (Ransom later starred at the University of California, Berkeley, in both baseball and basketball.) Thus, Shooty played left field.

Babitt had a strong high school career and was offered a full-ride scholarship at UCLA, but he also caught the eye of James (J.J.) Guinn, a Berkeley police officer and part-time scout who had signed both Washington and Henderson for the A’s. When Oakland waited until the 25th round of the 1977 June draft to select Shooty, Guinn advised him to go the college route, but Babitt decided instead to begin his professional career. “I was so happy when my name got called,” said Babitt. “You’d have thought I was the No. 1 pick.”9

After the draft, Guinn stopped by the Babitt household to go over the team’s proposed contract. “I’m thinking I’m going to be able to buy my mom a house, a new car,” recalled Babitt with a laugh. “Turns out they only offered me a $5,000 signing bonus. Still, I put that money in the bank, and it helped me buy a little house a few years later.”10

Shortly after his high school graduation, Babitt and another recent A’s signee out of high school, Mike Davis, flew together to Canada for their first taste of professional baseball with Medicine Hat (Alberta) in the rookie Pioneer League. “When Shooty . . . and I would walk down the street people stopped and stared at us,” said Davis. “They had never seen black people on the street before.”11

Playing primarily at third base, the 5-foot-8, 174-pound Babitt hit .300 for Medicine Hat, a performance that—despite his 19 errors in 38 games at the hot corner—earned him a promotion to Modesto in the Class A California League in 1978. Back in his home state he held his own, hitting .263 with six home runs, 55 RBIs, and 18 steals. Elevated to Waterbury in the AA Eastern League in 1979, the 20-year-old was moved to second base. His offensive numbers (.267, six homers, 55 RBIs, and 19 stolen bases) were virtually identical to those he’d posted in Class A. A defensive highlight was his role as the middleman in an around-the-horn triple play against Bristol that warranted a mention in The Sporting News.12 At season’s end, his teammates voted him the club’s Most Valuable Player.13

In 1980, the A’s promoted Babitt to Triple-A Ogden, where for the first time in his young professional career, he struggled offensively. Playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, he batted only .234 with one home run.

At season’s end the A’s sent Babitt to the Arizona Instructional League, where he hit .336, stole 39 bases without getting caught,14 and led the league in runs.15 “That helped me get noticed,” said Babitt. “When Billy Martin heard how many bases I stole, he told them to invite me to big-league camp.”16

The A’s spring training complex in Scottsdale was brimming with optimism in 1981. After losing 108 games in 1979, the club had rebounded under new manager Martin in 1980 to finish second in the American League West with an 83-79 record. Their talented young outfield featured Henderson, Gold Glove center fielder Dwayne Murphy, and power-hitting right fielder Tony Armas. Their strong stable of starting pitchers (Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty, and Brian Kingman) had thrown an astounding 94 complete games.

Perhaps even more significant than the improvements on the field were those occurring in the front office. To the delight of players and fans alike, penurious owner Charlie Finley sold the club in late 1980 to Walter Haas, owner of Levi Strauss. After years of Finley’s penny-pinching ways and his threats to relocate the franchise, Haas’s pledge to keep the A’s in Oakland and to invest in the players and the Oakland Coliseum added to the positive vibe surrounding the club.

Entering spring training, journeymen Brian Doyle and Dave McKay were the only two second basemen on the 40-man roster. Martin gave Babitt regular playing time and Shooty performed admirably, hitting .500 in preseason competition and making only one error in the field.17 He also benefited because third baseman Mickey Klutts reported to camp overweight and out of shape, angering Martin and opening up a roster spot.18 A few days before their opener in Minnesota, the A’s announced that Babitt had not only made the club but also would start at second base on Opening Day.

“I like his aggressiveness and his attitude. He’s a good learner,” said A’s coach Clete Boyer. “Plus he has all the tools.”

For his part, Babitt was thrilled he’d made the big club. “I’m still in the ozone about what’s going on,” he said.19

The A’s opened the season on April 9 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, against the Twins. Among the 42,658 fans in attendance were Babitt’s parents, who made the long trek from Berkeley by car.20 Shooty rewarded them by knocking in a run on his first career hit, a sixth-inning single to right field off Jerry Koosman, in the A’s 5-1 win.

Martin intended to pair Babitt with the left-handed hitting Doyle in a platoon, but when Doyle injured his hamstring a few days into the season, Shooty was suddenly the everyday second baseman. He hit safely in his first seven games, all wins for the A’s, as they raced out to a then-record 11-0 start. By May 9, the A’s boasted a 24-6 mark and led the A.L. West by 7½ games. Babitt’s average sat at .295 to go with a solid on-base percentage of .353.

But along with Babitt’s offensive production came some defensive mistakes that infuriated Martin. One occurred in the first game of a doubleheader against the Yankees on May 3. The A’s failed to turn an easy double play when shortstop Fred Stanley had to sidearm his throw to first base to avoid hitting Babitt, who stood directly in the line of fire. The throw pulled first baseman Jeff Newman off the bag. Instead of the third out being recorded in the sixth inning of a scoreless game, the Yankees’ Dave Winfield scored on the play, and a double by Jim Spencer drove in another to make it 2-0 before the A’s got out of the inning. The Yankees went on to win, 3-2. “Babitt’s inexperience cost us,” fumed Martin.21

When Babitt tripled in the first inning to drive in two in a 6-2 win over the White Sox on June 2, Martin was more positive. Shooty was “just a baby who is eventually going to be a good player,” said Martin. “But he has made a few errors that have cost us a couple of games.”22

Play was halted on June 12 by the players’ strike. When games resumed in August, Babitt got several starts at second base. On August 24, he had his best offensive performance, knocking out three hits (two singles and a triple) in five at-bats as the A’s shellacked Cleveland at the Oakland Coliseum, 16-4. But on September 2 in Cleveland, a couple of defensive miscues by the second baseman prompted Martin to announce Babitt’s benching.23

On September 4, Shooty was inserted as a pinch-runner in the ninth inning of a tie game in Baltimore. He stayed in the game as it went into extra innings and came to bat in the 10th, singling off the Orioles’ Tim Stoddard. Although it wasn’t evident at the time, it turned out to be his final at-bat, not only of the season but of his major-league career. He finished with a .256/.314/.301 slash line in 156 at-bats and tied for fifth place in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

In a 1987 interview, Babitt said that he approached Martin to discuss his benching and what he needed to do to get his job back, but the manager wouldn’t talk to him. “No one ever told me anything,” he said. “That was the hardest thing that ever happened to me.”24

With second base manned by McKay and Keith Drumright, the A’s swept Kansas City in the makeshift Division Series before being swept in turn by the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

During the offseason, the A’s obtained veteran second baseman Davey Lopes from the Dodgers. With McKay tabbed as the backup utility infielder, it was no surprise when both Babitt and Drumright were sent down to AAA Tacoma. There they split time until late June, when the A’s gave Babitt his release.

“We tried to trade Shooty, but we were unable to,” said A’s minor-league director Walt Jocketty. “By releasing him, he has a chance to make his own deal. We felt he wouldn’t be able to help us as much as the guys we’ve got at West Haven (Double A) like Mike Woodard and Mike Gallego.”25

Babitt signed a minor-league deal with the Montreal Expos and was assigned to their AAA affiliate, the Wichita Aeros of the American Association. There, playing for manager Felipe Alou, he hit .282 in 71 at-bats.

In 1983, the Expos reassigned Babitt to the Memphis Chicks in the AA Southern League. After a strong start to the season—a .320 average in 48 games—he was moved back up to Wichita. In a road game versus the Louisville Redbirds, he was surprised to be greeted with banners reading “The Funsters Love Shooty Babitt” and “Shooty Babitt, No. 3 In Your Programs, No. 1 in Your Hearts.” It turned out that—unknown to Babitt—he had a fan club in Louisville.

“Tootie Bauer is a liquor salesman, and he was watching Shooty play for the A’s on TV,” said one of the club’s members. “He loved that name and more or less changed his own name from Tootie to Shooty. Our club meets regularly…and we all came out tonight. This is the first time Tootie ever saw Shooty play.”26

“I just met ’em today, before the game,” Babitt said. “They’re really great people.”27

Babitt rewarded the 30 or so club members with a booming triple and a run scored in the top of the 10th inning. It was one of five triples he whacked for the 1983 Aeros while hitting .284 in 218 at-bats.

But neither Babitt’s offensive consistency nor his popularity with the fans were enough to win him a spot on the Expos’ major-league roster. In retrospect, “I signed at the wrong time with the wrong team,” said Babitt. “They had a lot of talent in their farm system at second base…guys like Jerry Manuel, Wallace Johnson, and Rodney Scott.”28

Back in AAA to start the 1984 season, Babitt played primarily in the outfield. He got off to a slow start, and in mid-June, Montreal released him. After weighing his options, the 25-year-old decided to retire from baseball.

“I knew I had to move on,” said Babitt. “It was the toughest decision I ever had to make in my life, letting my dream go.”29

Babitt returned to the Bay Area and worked as a mechanic at his father’s auto repair shop. In 1985 he married Yvonne Forsythe; over the next several years, daughter Ashley and sons Zachary (who would go on to play in the Dodgers organization) and Myles (who would play in the Diamondbacks chain) were born. By the early 1990s, Shooty’s path as a mechanic/businessman and dad seemed increasingly clear. But things were about to change.

David Wilder was a former teammate of Babitt’s at Berkeley High who, after several years in the A’s minor-league system, had moved into scouting for the Atlanta Braves. By the early ’90s he was the Braves’ west coast supervisor for scouting. Wilder patronized the Babitts’ auto shop, and one afternoon while his car was in for servicing, he and Shooty got into a long discussion about baseball. By the end of it, “he told me that I needed to back in the game,” said Babitt.30 Within a few months the Braves hired him as a scout for Northern California.

Babitt spent the next few years with the Atlanta organization. One of the players he scouted early on was right-hander Joe Nelson, who pitched for the University of San Francisco. Nelson recalled how he learned the Braves had chosen him in the fourth round of the 1996 draft.

“The phone rang around 11:00 A.M. [on the morning of the draft]. My mom answered and was all excited. She said, ‘OK, Shooty, talk to you later.’ I knew it was Atlanta because I knew . . . Shooty Babitt. He called back an hour later and told me, ‘I’m coming tomorrow.’ I said, ‘I’m signing tomorrow, so bring a check.’”31 Nelson ended up pitching for Atlanta and four other clubs during a six-season major-league career.

Another player Babitt was high on was a star shortstop at Encinal High in Alameda. He arranged for the youngster to work out for other Braves officials, but they weren’t as impressed with him as Shooty was and decided to pass on the prospect. “That kid’s name was Jimmy Rollins,” said Babitt.32

In 1998 Babitt joined the Arizona Diamondbacks as a national scout, evaluating prospects around the country. In 2008 the New York Mets hired him as a major-league scout: in that role he attended many big-league games, including contests at the Oakland Coliseum. On one of Babitt’s Oakland visits, Marty Lurie, who hosted a pregame show on the A’s radio network, invited Shooty to come on the program as a guest. Babitt’s insights and love of the game played well, and soon he began appearing on the show whenever his scouting brought him back to Oakland.

By 2014, when the local cable TV station that carried A’s games decided to air a live postgame wrap-up, Babitt had established his broadcasting bona fides and was selected to co-host the program. More than three decades after his last game in an Oakland uniform, he was back in the fold.

For a few years Babitt was associated with two organizations simultaneously, as a Mets scout and an A’s on-air analyst. When the Mets let him go after the 2018 season, A’s executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane offered Shooty a scouting position.

“It’s a perfect situation,” said Babitt of his dual roles with the club. “They’ve gone out of their way to make me feel part of the organization.”33

In 2025, Babitt was one of the evaluators whose input fed into the A’s blockbuster trade of All-Star closer Mason Miller to San Diego for a prospect package headlined by teenage shortstop Leo De Vries. “That was exciting,” said Babitt. “I was one of the first guys with the A’s to see De Vries play.”34

As of 2026, Babitt has no plans to retire. When he’s not on the road or on the air, he spends time with Yvonne, their sons, and their three grandchildren; playing golf; and growing vegetables in the backyard of his home in Richmond, not far from the diamonds in Berkeley and Oakland where he launched his long career in baseball.

Last revised: September 9, 2026

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Shooty Babitt for sharing stories of his baseball journey in two separate interviews.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Mike Eisenbath and checked for accuracy by members of SABR’s fact-checking team.

Notes

1 Larry Stone, “Shooty Babitt’s bitter memories,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, October 4, 1988: 19.

2 Howard Kleinberg, “Odd Nicknames in Baseball,” The Indiana Gazette, August 12, 2001: 6.

3 Shooty Babitt, telephone interview with the author, May 7, 2026 (hereafter “Babitt interview #1.”)

4 Babitt interview #1.

5 Glenn Schwarz, “Spunky ‘Shooty’ set for A’s second base,” San Francisco Examiner, April 1, 1981: F2.

6 Dan Schoenholz, “Emil Mailho,” SABR Baseball Biography Project,  https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/emil-mailho/, accessed August 4, 2026.

7 Babitt interview #1.

8 Babitt interview #1.

9 Babitt interview #1.

10 Babitt interview #1.

11 C.W. Nevius, “The Remarkable Davis Boys – Brothers Hit Bigs,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1985: 89.

12 “Copied Triple Play,” The Sporting News, June 2, 1979: 44.

13 Babitt interview #1.

14 Babitt interview #1.

15 Schwarz, “Spunky ‘Shooty’ set for A’s second base.”

16 Babitt interview #1.

17 Schwarz, “Spunky ‘Shooty’ set for A’s second base.”

18 Peter Gammons, “AL Beat,” The Sporting News, April 25, 1981: 7.

19 Schwarz, “Spunky ‘Shooty’ set for A’s second base.”

20 Babitt interview #1.

21 Glenn Schwarz, “Yankees bring A’s back to earth,” San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1981: 59.

22 Associated Press, “A’s new rotation gets some early support,” Redding Record Searchlight, June 3, 1981.

23 Glenn Schwarz, “Babitt gets Martin’s goat in dual loss,” San Francisco Examiner, September 3, 1981: 67.

24 Stone, “Shooty Babitt’s bitter memories.”

25 Glenn Schwarz, “A’s say goodbye to Shooty Babitt,” San Francisco Examiner, June 24, 1982: 70.

26 Mike Sullivan, “Bombastic boosters watch Aeros’ Babitt shoot down Birds,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 18, 1983: C1.

27 Sullivan, “Bombastic boosters watch Aeros’ Babitt shoot down Birds.”

28 Babitt interview #1.

29 Stone, “Shooty Babitt’s bitter memories.”

30 Shooty Babitt, telephone interview with the author, July 8, 2026 (hereafter “Babitt interview #2.”)

31 “Big Leaguers remember their draft experiences,” USA Today, June 9, 2009: 2C.

32 Babitt interview #2.

33 Babitt interview #1.

34 Babitt interview #1.