David Bell

Longtime fans of the Indians know that the team did not appear in postseason play from 1954 to 1995. The 40 years in between were difficult for baseball in Cleveland. During that time, there were three waves of major-league baseball expansion into new cities with new teams finding success before the Indians returned to the postseason. The club was not the top team in Ohio during those lean years either as the Reds made it to the World Series in 1961, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, and 1990 while the Tribe languished as a second-tier club. However, many exciting players and traditions engaged the fans throughout these years.

For example, on April 15, 1972, David Gus Bell, better known as Buddy, made his major-league debut as a right fielder for the Indians in a 5-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He went hitless in three at-bats. The lineup for the Tribe in the losing effort included notable players such as Greg Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Ray Fosse, and Gaylord Perry. The first three went on to have careers with championship teams outside Cleveland in New York (Nettles and Chambliss) and Oakland (Fosse). Perry won the Cy Young Award that season for the Indians. The team had good players in 1972 and a rising star in Bell, but they finished in fifth place in the American League East Division, 14 games behind the Detroit Tigers.

Buddy Bell became an above-average player and a fan favorite in Cleveland. He was the Tribe’s third baseman for six seasons before a trade to the Texas Rangers, for whom he earned multiple Gold Gloves for another seven seasons. He finished off the productive part of his career with three years in his adopted home town of Cincinnati. Buddy’s father, David Russell “Gus” Bell, played in the major leagues from 1950 to 1964, most notably with the Cincinnati Reds from 1953 to 1961, the last of them a pennant-winning season for the club. Gus was a popular outfielder for the Reds splitting his time between center and right fields throughout his career. This introduction tells a story of a father/son combination of baseball players who both spent time in Cincinnati as major leaguers, but it is not where the family success in the major leagues, or ties to baseball in Ohio, ended.

On September 14, 1972, almost five months to the day after his major-league debut, Buddy Bell and his wife, Gloria (née Eysoldt), had a son named David. Buddy took that day off from the Indians, but he started and played center field the next day. The Indians lost to the Red Sox, 4-3, and Buddy went hitless in five at-bats from the leadoff spot in the order. However, this day became a link to a special moment in major-league history 23 years later and ironically at the start of a season in which the Indians broke their long postseason drought, and which moreover saw them win the American League pennant for the first time since 1954.

Gus Bell had moved his family to Cincinnati after a trade from the Pirates to the Reds in 1952. Cincinnati became home for the next few generations of the Bell family. Buddy had been born in Pittsburgh, but he was raised in Cincinnati and maintained his home there during his playing days in Cleveland and Texas. David was born and raised in Cincinnati.1 He remembered being thrilled to be in and around major-league clubhouses and traveling with his father since he was 6 years old.2 He loved the fact that his father was a major-league player, setting the stage for his future vocation.3 David always felt that he would never be as good as his father, who he thought was a great player. His admiration for his father as a player helped mold the young David as a player and a person. The Bell family was very close and all three of Buddy’s sons went on to be professional baseball players.4

However, before following their father’s footsteps into professional baseball, David (the eldest) followed his father’s lead to stardom in basketball and baseball at Cincinnati’s Archbishop Moeller High School. The school often known for football success has also won seven state baseball championships, with its first in 1972, the year David was born. Seventeen years later, as a junior at Moeller, David led the team to the state title in 1989.5 David was a three-year starter at Moeller and is the school’s all-time leader in doubles.6 Hall of Famers Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. both starred at Moeller. However, the school did not win state championships during either of their baseball careers, which preceded David’s career at the school.

David had two brothers who also starred at Moeller. Michael Bell was three years younger than David and Ricky was seven years his junior. The Bell brothers starred in both baseball and basketball as did their father.7 After David graduated from high school in 1990 (a year the Reds won the World Series), he had a baseball scholarship waiting for him to attend the University of Kentucky, which he declined when he signed with the Indians after being a seventh-round draft pick in the June amateur draft.8

Bell batted and threw right-handed. He stood 5-feet-10 and weighed 170 pounds during his playing career. He made his professional debut with the Gulf Coast Indians in the rookie league at age 17 in 1990. He did well, moving up to the Burlington rookie league team later that year. This began a slow but steady progression throughout the minor leagues. He spent the next two years with Columbus of the Class A Sally League and then the next season with Kinston in the Class A Carolina League. In 1993, Bell moved to Canton-Akron of the Double-A Eastern League, where his batting average for the first time rose above .260 in his minor-league career – finishing with a .292 average, 9 home runs, and 60 RBIs. His career was progressing and he seemed to be playing the game the way his father had as a good-fielding infielder, while developing in a solid, if not spectacular, fashion at the plate. In 1994, he played the entire year at Charlotte of the Triple-A International League, where he blossomed into a bona-fide major-league prospect. He hit .293 with 18 home runs and 88 RBIs. This made him a player to watch by long-suffering Indians fans, especially in a year when the major-league team was developing into a contender. However, with the Indians in contention, only one game behind the American League Central Division leading Chicago White Sox, the season abruptly ended with the players strike on August 11, 1994.

It felt unbelievable in the first year of three-division play in each league, with the Indians in the leading spot for a postseason berth as a wild-card team that the season could end in this manner. However, the future looked bright with the nucleus of star players forming what became a powerhouse of an offensive team for years to come. Additionally, there were stars in the minor leagues ready to make it to the majors and contribute to what held promise of the best baseball played in Cleveland in over four decades. Longtime fans hoped Bell would contribute to the future and follow Bell’s father’s example as a fan favorite in Cleveland.

Winter was somehow much longer that year; baseball had ended in August and uncertainty for the opening of the 1995 season loomed into the spring. The 1995 season opened later than usual on April 25 and with the season shortened to a 144-game schedule. As the season drew near, there was great anticipation that the Indians would reach the postseason. In addition, Bell earned the final spot on the Opening Day roster. It was a very exciting time for Indians bench coach Buddy Bell, who was able to be with his son as he made the major-league club.9 David made his major-league debut on May 3, 1995, at the age of 22. That night the Indians trounced the Tigers, 14-7, with their high-powered offense and just enough pitching to hold them close until the offense got in gear. This was the formula for success for the Tribe, who improved to 4-2 in the young season. Bell pinch-hit for Jim Thome and replaced him at third base. Bell was hitless in his only plate appearance.

With Bell’s appearance in this game, a historic achievement occurred as the Bells became only the second family ever to have three generations of major-league players. Only the Boone family had three generations of players appear at the major-league level – with Ray, Bob, Bret, and Aaron – before David helped put the Bell family in the major-league history books.

Bell’s only other game for the Indians in 1995 came on May 7, when he pinch-hit for Thome in a 17-inning, 10-9 victory over the Minnesota Twins. This was Bell’s only game before the home crowd in Cleveland that year. He went hitless and played third base, replacing Thome. More importantly than the Indians’ victory in the Bell family that day was the sad news that Gus Bell had died at 67 in Montgomery, Ohio.

Bell did not play again that season for the Indians after a demotion to Triple-A Buffalo for more playing time. Then, on June 27, 1995, he was traded with Pepe McNeal and Rick Heiserman to the St. Louis Cardinals for starting pitcher Ken Hill. Indians fans were ecstatic to receive Hill, who had won 16 games for the first-place Montreal Expos the prior year until the strike hit. Fans were sad to see Bell go to another team without having much of a chance to prove himself in an Indians uniform. It seemed he might not assume his father’s role in Cleveland as many had hoped, but the team was on its way to the pennant and he was not going to supplant Thome, Omar Vizquel, or Carlos Baerga for playing time in the Indians infield any time soon.

Bell spent the rest of the 1995 season splitting his time between Louisville of the American Association and the Cardinals. He hit .250 for the Cardinals with 2 home runs and 19 RBIs in 39 games. He played second base in 37 games and three games at third. Playing second for the Cardinals was a treat for Bell because his keystone combination partner was future Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, whom many consider the best fielding shortstop of all time. Bell’s first major-league hit came on August 19, 1995, in St. Louis. He doubled to left field on the first pitch from reliever Brad Clontz in a 5-4 win over the first-place Braves.

On August 30, 1995, Bell played his first game in his hometown of Cincinnati at Riverfront Stadium. Many friends and family attended that game to see him play (the extended Bell family is huge; Buddy was one of seven children) and he delivered his first major-league home run, a two-run shot off Mark Portugal. Bell was able to obtain the ball, which he hit over the left-center-field seats, with a little help from Reds center fielder Darren Lewis, who exchanged another ball with a fan in the outfield seats for the one that Bell hit. Bell gave that home-run ball to his mother after the game. The Cardinals finished in fourth place that year with a 62-81 record and 22½ games behind the division champion Reds. Both Ohio teams fared well that season; the Indians ran away with the American League Central Division, finishing at 100-44. Each team eventually was eliminated by the Braves. The Reds were swept in the National League Championship Series, and the Indians lost to the Braves in six games in the World Series.

Bell continued to go back and forth between the minors and majors the next two years. He spent 62 and 66 games with the Cardinals in 1996 and 1997. He hit only .214 and .211. He was not faring much better in the minors, where his offensive struggles continued in limited playing time. In 1997 the challenges for Bell continued as he spent time back at Arkansas of the Double-A Texas League as the Indians went to another World Series. He began the 1998 season with the Cardinals and played in four games with limited productivity until he was released. The Indians claimed him off waivers on April 14, 1998. It was an exciting time to be coming back to Cleveland as a player even though his father was no longer the bench coach. The next day, April 15, 1998, Bell started at second base and hit the first inside-the-park home run ever at Jacobs Field and the first for the Indians in nine seasons. The historic hit came off future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson in the first inning with no one on base and one out giving the Tribe a 1-0 lead in an eventual 5-3 loss.

Once he rejoined the Indians, Bell was in the majors for good. He played in 107 games with the Indians, mostly as a second baseman, and began to break out as a player offensively and defensively. He hit .262 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs. However, his big break as a major-league player came later that year when the Indians traded him to Seattle for Joey Cora on August 31, 1998. The Indians were again in the midst of a pennant race and they felt Cora brought veteran skills to the club for the playoff drive. The team won the Central Division by nine games before beating the Red Sox in the American League Division Series. They ultimately lost to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series in six games. Cora struggled in the postseason, going 1-for-17 and played in only two games against the Yankees. His playing career was over and Bell’s was just beginning.

The Mariners had strong teams in the mid- to late 1990s with Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Álex Rodríguez on the roster. When Bell joined the team, Johnson was gone, but the other stars remained and the future looked great. Bell hit .325 in 21 games for the Mariners to finish out the 1998 season and was primed to compete for the second-base job in 1999. He was competing with promising rookie infielder Carlos Guillén for that spot when Guillén was lost for the season with an injury. Bell became the everyday second baseman and had his true breakout year. He established career highs in home runs (21), runs (92), and RBIs (78) while batting .268. Bell led the league in putouts (313) and double plays (118) from his second-base position. The Mariners finished 79-83 and in third place in the American League Western Division, but 16 games behind division winner Texas. It was a disappointing outcome relative to the talent on the team under manager Lou Piniella. In the offseason, David married Kristi Kimener, of Cincinnati, on November 27, 1999.10

In 2000 Bell got his first taste of playoff baseball as the Mariners won the American League wild card with a record of 91-71 only a half-game behind the division-winning Athletics. They swept the White Sox three games to none in the Division Series before losing to the Yankees in six games in the ALCS. Bell did not repeat the success of his 1999 campaign, batting .247 with 11 home runs. Mark McLemore joined the team that season and Guillén returned from injury, forcing Bell to split playing time in the Mariners infield. This began a streak of three straight postseason appearances for Bell.

The Mariners tied the record for regular-season wins in 2001 with 116 against only 46 loses. They acquired Bret Boone (of the other three-generation family) and he exploded on the Seattle baseball scene with 37 home runs and a team-leading 141 RBIs. Guillén moved to shortstop and Bell became the starting third baseman and batted 260 with 15 home runs and 64 RBIs. Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki hit .350 and center fielder Mike Cameron had a breakout season with 25 home runs and 110 RBIs. The ever-steady Martinez hit over .300 with 23 home runs and 116 RBIs as the designated hitter. The Mariners beat the Indians, three games to two, in the Division Series before surprisingly losing to the Yankees four games to one in the ALCS. It was surprising because they had won 21 more regular-season games than the Yankees, but they were flat in four out of five games against a team that subsequently lost the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The loss to the Yankees for the second consecutive year, after the record-breaking regular season, was stunning to everyone.

Bell was solid in the ALDS against the Indians with five hits in 16 at-bats for a .313 average. He hit his first postseason home run in Game Two of the series. It was a solo drive to left field off Tribe starter Chuck Finley. However, Bell struggled, as did most of the team, in the Yankees series, hitting a paltry .188, but with four runs batted in. He became a free agent after the season, but re-signed with the Mariners in December. The Mariners traded him in January to the San Francisco Giants for Desi Relaford and cash. Bell said his time in Seattle and the lifelong friendships made there were some of the most memorable points of his career.11

Bell was the starting third baseman for the Giants in 2002 and played in 154 games, batting.261 with 20 home runs and 73 RBIs while playing a solid infield defense. He was a steady performer much like his father before him. He was overshadowed by monster seasons from Barry Bonds (.370, 46, 110) and Jeff Kent (.313, 37, 108), but the Giants made the playoffs, finishing 95-66-1 under the guidance of Dusty Baker. They were 2½ games behind the division-winning Diamondbacks, but they beat the Braves in the Division Series, three games to two and the Cardinals, four games to one, in the NLCS to advance to Bell’s first and only World Series. He struggled in the Division Series but had an outstanding Championship Series that saw him go 7-for-17 (.412) with his second postseason home run. Bell scored the winning run in the pennant-clinching Game Five against the Cardinals. He coming home from second base on a hit by former Indians teammate Kenny Lofton.

Bell described playing in the World Series against the Angels as his career highlight. “It was that feeling” of playing in a World Series “that is the thing, I think about the most, by a long shot.”12 The Angels beat the Giants in seven games.

The Giants had all the momentum after a 16-4 bombing of the Angels in Game Five. They did not win another game. With their backs to the wall, the Angels made a historic comeback in Game Six, then bested the Giants in Game Seven for the title. Bell started all seven games at third base in the series. He won Game Four with an eighth-inning RBI single that scored J.T. Snow. He hit .304 with one home run and four RBIs, continuing his above-average postseason play. His World Series home run, in Game Two at Edison Field in Anaheim, was a solo shot off Kevin Appier to center field in the second inning of a frustrating 11-10 loss. In the most famous play from this World Series, Bell was sprinting home with a run in the Game Five blowout after a triple by Lofton. Snow had already scored and as he crossed the plate, he grabbed Giants manager Dusty Baker’s 3-year-old son, batboy Darren Baker, who was retrieving Lofton’s bat, and carried him off the field, avoiding a potential serious injury. After the season, Bell won the Willie Mac Award (named after Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey), as voted by his teammates and the coaching staff, for team spirit and inspirational leadership.

Bell became a free agent in October 2002 and he signed a contract with the Phillies in December 2002. His first year in Philadelphia (2003) was a bust; he played in only 85 games and batted.195. He rebounded in his second year with the Phillies, hitting .291 with 18 home runs and 77 RBIs. He reunited with Jim Thome in Philadelphia in 2003 and 2004. On June 28, 2004, Bell hit for the cycle in a 14-6 Phillies rout of the Expos. He doubled in the second, homered in the fourth, and singled in the sixth. His seventh-inning triple was controversial: The ball appeared to hit of the hands of a fan in deep center field before bouncing away from the Expos’ Brad Wilkerson. Expos manager Frank Robinson protested the call and the umpires met while Bell stood on third base, but the umpires ruled it a triple, much to Robinson’s chagrin. Bell said he “was unaware that he hit for the cycle until third-base coach John Vukovich told him to enjoy the moment.”13 It was the first time in major-league history that a grandfather and grandson had both hit for the cycle. Gus Bell had accomplished the feat on June 4, 1951, for the Pirates. Bell said he was happy to have hits in a game his team won and that he “realized that hitting for the cycle is something that doesn’t happen very often.”14

Bell’s next two years with Phillies saw his offensive productivity in moderate decline though he remained the starting third baseman. The team was up-an- coming (once again in David’s career), but it failed to make playoffs by very close margins in 2004 and 2005, finishing in second place each of those years behind the Braves. Ryan Howard had replaced Thome at first base and Chase Utley was emerging along with Howard and Jimmy Rollins as superstars in the Phillies infield. In 2006 the Phillies once again finished frustratingly second, this time to the Mets, and just three games off the wild-card pace. He spent 3½ years playing third base for the Phillies until a trade to the Brewers for Wilfrido Laureano on July 28, 2006.

Bell’s career ended after he played out the 2006 season with the Brewers. He became a free agent and retired with an eye toward coaching and managing, once again following in his father’s footsteps. He finished his 12-year career with a .257 batting average, 123 home runs, and 589 RBIs. In three trips to the postseason with the Mariners and Giants he batted.282 with three home runs. Bell certainly had a solid, if unspectacular, playing career in terms of productivity.

Bell managed the Double-A Carolina Mudcats, a Reds affiliate, from 2009 through 2011. He then managed the  Louisville Bats of the Triple-A International League in 2012, an affiliate of the Reds He spoke hopefully about continuing to manage in the Reds’ system and eventually perhaps coaching or managing with the big-league club in his hometown.15 He spent 2013 as the third-base coach with the Chicago Cubs while his father was assistant general manager of the White Sox.16 Bell was with the Cardinals in 2014 as an assistant hitting instructor before a promotion to bench coach for the 2015 season.17 After spending three years as a bench coach for manager Mike Matheny’s Cardinals, Bell accepted the role of vice president of player development for the San Francisco Giants after the 2017 season.18 The position allowed Bell to be closer to his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he and Kristi live with their daughter, Brogan, and son, David, whom they call “Gus” just like his great grandfather.

But on October 22, 2018, Bell’s career took another turn. He returned home to Cincinnati as he was named the new manager of the Reds. He succeeds interim manager Jim Riggleman, who took over for Bryan Price who was dismissed in April when the Reds broke out of the gate with a 3-15 record.  Bell is the 52nd manager in Cincinnati Reds history. “It’s what I always wanted and what I dreamed of,” said Bell. “To have an opportunity to work with people you respect and like and truly are in it to be all together with one goal, this is what I was hoping for.”19

The Bell family now joins another exclusive club. They are the fourth family in major-league baseball history to have a father and son who served as managers. Buddy Bell managed in Detroit, Colorado and Kansas City. They join George and Dick Sisler, Bob and Joel Skinner, and Bob and Aaron Boone. 20 

Notes

1 Chadwick Fischer, “Q&A with New Bats Manager David Bell,” MiLB.com, January 31, 2012, milb.com/milb/news/q–a-with-new-bats-manager-david-bell/c-26525502.

2 “David Bell,” Baseballlibrary.com, accessed November 25, 2014, baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=David_Bell_1972.

3 “David Bell.”

4 “2009 Cincinnati High School Sports Hall of Fame — Bell, Bell, Bell, Mitts, Richter, Coaches Russo,” Larosas MVP.com, accessed November 25, 2014, larosasmvp.com/fame/2009_inductees.htm.

5 “2009 Cincinnati High School Sports Hall of Fame – Bell, Bell, Bell, Mitts, Richter, Coaches Russo.”

6 “2009 Cincinnati High School Sports Hall of Fame – Bell, Bell, Bell, Mitts, Richter, Coaches Russo.”

7 “2009 Cincinnati High School Sports Hall of Fame – Bell, Bell, Bell, Mitts, Richter, Coaches Russo.”

8 “David Bell Minor Leagues Statistics & History,” Baseball Reference.com, accessed November 25, 2014, baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bell–004dav.

9 Derrick Goold, “Baseball Is Family Tradition for Cards’ Bell,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 19, 2016, stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/goold-baseball-is-family-tradition-for-cards-bell/article_644365cf-04d4-5c88-b2ab-bf8d80ecfc63.html.

10 “2009 Cincinnati High School Sports Hall of Fame – Bell, Bell, Bell, Mitts, Richter, Coaches Russo.”

11 Nick Piecoro, “What’s Up: Ex-MLB Player David Bell,” Arizona Republic, October 21, 2009, sec. Sports, archive.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/2009/10/21/20091021spt-whatsup.html.

12 Piecoro.

13 “Like His Grandfather, Bell Hits for the Cycle,” New York Times, June 29, 2004: D6.

14 “Like His Grandfather, Bell Hits for the Cycle.”

15 Fischer, “Q&A with New Bats Manager David Bell.”

16 Toni Ginnetti and Gordon Wittenmyer, “David Bell and Father Buddy on Opposite Sides of City Rivalry,” Chicago Sun Times, May 27, 2013.

17 Jon Doble, “David Bell Named Bench Coach; Cardinals Roster Moves,” Redbird Dugout, November 3, 2014, redbirddugout.com/david-bell-named-bench-coach-make-roster-moves/.

18 Jenifer Langosch, “Bench Coach David Bell Departs Cardinals,” MLB.com, October 20, 2017, mlb.com/news/bench-coach-david-bell-departs-cardinals/c-259191112.

19 Mark Sheldon, “Reds name David Bell new manager,” https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/reds-select-david-bell-as-teams-new-manager/c-299427658, October 22, 2018,  accessed October 23, 2018.

20 Associated Press, “New manager David Bell tasked with turning around Reds,”  http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25054877/new-manager-david-bell-tasked-turning-cincinnati-reds October 22, 2018, accessed October 23, 2018.

This biography was published in Two Outs, So What!: The 2001 Seattle Mariners (SABR, 2026), edited by Steve Friedman, Eric Vickrey, and Bill Nowlin. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download a free e-book edition or save 50% off your purchase of the paperback edition.

The first American to win both a World Series ring and an Olympic gold medal, Pat Borders played parts of 17 major league seasons (1988-2005) for nine different teams.1 When the Blue Jays won consecutive championships in 1992 and 1993, he caught more innings than any American Leaguer both years and earned 1992 World Series MVP honors.

Patrick Lance Borders was born on May 14, 1963, in Columbus, Ohio. His parents, Mike and Donna (Holbrook) Borders, taught social studies and math, respectively, and later had another child, Todd. Mike played softball into his 60s, and competed against his sons in basketball, Wiffle Ball, and baseball. “He was the biggest influence on me for learning the game,” Borders said.2 Pat attended his first big-league game at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium and saw his favorite player, Reds star Pete Rose.3

When Pat was 9, his family moved to Lake Wales, Florida, about 60 miles east of Tampa.4 He often attended weekend ballgames at a local park, though he said, “I was more interested in chasing after the foul balls and then practicing with them afterward.”5 With his father pitching to him nearly every day, Borders developed his aggressive batting style. “I’d swing at every pitch because there wasn’t any backstop, and if I didn’t swing at it and hit it, I’d have to go chase it.”6

At Lake Wales High School, Borders was an all-state quarterback and football defensive end.7 He also played basketball for the Highlanders before baseball season. Initially, Pat was a designated hitter, as coach Don Bridges recalled that he had “hands of stone.” Following a teammate’s injury, however, Borders switched to third base as a sophomore.8 “He practiced until it was dark. He could never get enough,” Bridges said. Borders also worked hard off the field, describing his early occupations as “[a] lot of shovel work. Digging footers for houses, setting rebar, working a lot of construction jobs and agricultural jobs.”9

As a senior, Borders drove in 36 runs in 25 games and batted .513 with 10 home runs.10 His 29 career homers tied Glenn Davis’s state high-school record.11 Borders played in the 1982 Florida Athletic Coaches Association North-South All-Star Game, where three of his teammates, Dwight Gooden, Ron Karkovice, and Rich Monteleone, became first-round picks in the June amateur draft.12 Borders, on the other hand, planned to attend Mississippi State on a football scholarship.13 That changed after he ripped a series of line drives in front of a Blue Jays scout that spring. Tim Wilken was in Kissimmee only because Toronto had other scouts at the first contest he’d visited in Tampa.14 On Wilken’s recommendation, the Blue Jays drafted Borders in the sixth round.

Borders signed quickly and joined Toronto’s rookie-level Pioneer League club in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He batted .304 with 5 homers in 61 games to help them win the championship. In 1983 he advanced to the Florence (South Carolina) Blue Jays of the Class-A South Atlantic League and rapped 31 doubles to tie for second in the circuit while hitting .274 in 131 contests. Back at Florence in 1984, Borders increased his home-run output from 5 to 12, tied for the SAL lead with 85 RBIs, and was named MVP of the league’s All-Star Game.15 He received the R. Howard Webster trophy, awarded to the top prospect at each Toronto affiliate.16 Realistically, however, Borders’s .864 fielding percentage through three seasons at the hot corner clouded his future. “It became apparent to us he would be a defensive liability at third base in the big leagues,” said Blue Jays GM Pat Gillick.17 Borders wasn’t much better in the outfield and finished 1984 playing first base.

Although Borders led the Kinston (North Carolina) Blue Jays with 60 RBIs in the Class-A Carolina League in 1985, his .261 batting average, 10 homers, and 116 strikeouts in 127 games didn’t impress, considering the Toronto organization’s talented collection of first baseman. “I didn’t think I could compete with Cecil Fielder, Fred McGriff, and Willie Upshaw in home runs,” Borders conceded.18 “I never thought I’d make it to the majors, to tell you the truth.”19 Gillick acknowledged, “We were going to release him. It was (Blue Jays VP Bobby) Mattick who suggested that …we might try him behind the plate.”20 Mattick said Borders “called me in the winter of ’86 and said he would like to try it.”21

That offseason Borders asked former Dodgers and Senators backstop Doug Camilli for assistance. “He had the talent, and he had the desire,” Camilli recalled “Here was a complete athlete who was willing to do whatever it took to get to the majors.”22 Borders said, “The position itself didn’t hold any allure for me, especially getting beat up like catchers do. Once I got into it, I had more fun than any position I ever played.”23 Borders began the 1986 season in Florence but was promoted to the Double-A Southern League in mid-May. In six weeks with the Knoxville Blue Jays, he didn’t play much, and he returned to the Carolina League on June 22 to finish the year with Kinston, now a co-op team featuring players from different organizations. Between three clubs, he hit a combined .339 with 11 homers in 77 games. Borders had caught in only 18 contests prior to joining Kinston, but manager Dave Trembley deployed him behind the plate 27 times and had him block countless balls in the dirt during drills.24

Borders gained more experience in the Florida Instructional League before beginning a fifth straight season at Class A in 1987.25 After only three games with the Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League, however, he returned to Knoxville to replace Jeff DeWillis, who’d been summoned to the majors because of Matt Stark’s injury.26 In 94 Double-A games, Borders hit .292 with 11 home runs and caught 77 times as he learned to call pitches and discern hitters’ weaknesses.27 “The whole thing was a lot more complex than I thought,” he admitted.28 The Blue Jays added him to their 40-man roster and sent him to the Dominican Republic for winter ball, where he batted .290 in 56 contests for the Caimanes del Sur.29

In spring training 1988, Borders and four other catchers competed for the chance to back up veteran Ernie Whitt. While Stark and Greg Myers had already tasted the majors, Borders, Francisco Cabrera, and Carlos Diaz were in big-league camp for their first “Class for Catchers” with Blue Jays coach John Sullivan. “[Borders] has impressed me,” Sullivan said. “He receives well, has a strong arm, and has been good in the throwing drills.” Hitting coach Cito Gaston reported, “Bobby Mattick had the catchers working on fielding bunts and he said Borders was the best of the young ones.”30 In Grapefruit League play, Borders hit .373 and gunned down nine of 17 opposing basestealers to win the job as Whitt’s platoon partner.31

Borders debuted on April 6, 1988, at Royals Stadium, and lined a two-run triple to right-center off Kansas City southpaw Charlie Leibrandt in his first at-bat. Although he was charged with a throwing error and a passed ball, he also cut down speedster Willie Wilson trying to steal third and went 3-for-4 with five RBIs in Toronto’s 11-4 victory. “[Borders] definitely has the attitude to be a good one for a long time,” remarked winning pitcher Mike Flanagan.32 On April 14 Borders hit his first homer, a solo shot off the Yankees’ Al Leiter.

“I suppose my one big shock about the big leagues was how quickly the opposition picks up on your weaknesses,” Borders said.33 Nevertheless, he did a solid job, batting .276 with five homers in 41 games before pulling a rib-cage muscle prior to a July 7 exhibition.34 After healing, he spent more than a month on a rehab assignment with the Syracuse Chiefs in the Triple-A International League before rejoining the Blue Jays in September.

Next, Borders joined the Cardenales de Lara for winter ball in Venezuela, explaining, “I wanted to work on picking off runners, being more selective at the plate, and improving things like blocking the plate.” In one game, he picked off three runners – one at each base.35 After hitting .283 with 7 home runs in 60 games, he returned to the United States and worked out with his brother Todd, who’d been drafted as a catcher by the Cubs.36

In 1989 the Blue Jays fired manager Jimy Williams after falling 12 games below .500 by mid-May. During the skipper’s final series in Minnesota, Borders made throwing errors in consecutive losses and deepened a slump that grew to 4-for-46. “That affected my catching, or maybe my catching affected my hitting.” he said. “I was pretty much a wreck mentally.”37 He temporarily lost his platoon job under new manager Cito Gaston, and Toronto still had a losing record when Borders blasted a game-winning eighth-inning grand slam off Willie Hernández on July 7 in Detroit. He finished with a .257 batting average and 3 homers in 94 games as the Blue Jays rallied to win the AL East. In Borders’ only postseason at-bat, he stroked an RBI single, but Toronto lost the ALCS to the Athletics in five games. Four weeks later, Pat married Kathy Sellers, a former college softball and basketball recruit whom he’d first met at a Knoxville Pizza Hut. “Kathy understood me and understood sport,” he said.38

The Blue Jays traded Whitt before the 1990 season. “I like Ernie; he helped me a lot, personally,” Borders said.39 Third baseman Kelly Gruber said Borders deserved to start: “There’s no question in my mind that Pat can play every day.”40 Gaston, however, planned for the lefty-hitting Myers to take over the busier side of the catching platoon. “Greg and I are friends and it’s fine with me,” Borders insisted.41 Borders enjoyed his only career four-hit game on April 30 and started 20 consecutive contests when Myers went on the disabled list in May. On September 2 in Cleveland, he caught Dave Stieb’s no-hitter. By season’s end Borders had started more than half of Toronto’s games and batted .286 in 125 contests. His 15 home runs were his most ever as a professional.

“[Borders] is getting to where he’s an above-average catcher,” remarked Sullivan. “He’s one of the best throwing catchers in the league.”42 Through his first three seasons, Borders had nabbed 41.2 percent of attempted basestealers and gained confidence handling pitchers. “We came up at the same time and we roomed together, so Pat never had a problem coming to me and saying do this or do that,” observed Todd Stottlemyre. “But I think it took a little longer for him to go to [veterans] Jimmy Key or Dave Stieb and tell them what they should be doing.”43 In 1991, however, Borders began the season 0-for-21 at the plate and cost Toronto a game on April 17 with a 10th-inning throwing error and passed ball. He also missed time after being steamrolled by Robin Ventura in a home-plate collision and entered the All-Star break batting .213 without a home run.44 Borders rebounded to finish at .244 in 105 games and claimed the full-time job with a strong second half. Four of his five homers came in the final month, including a three-run shot off California’s Jim Abbott to snap a scoreless tie in the 10th inning on September 24. The Blue Jays won their division and Borders started all five games of their ALCS loss to the Twins.

Borders made his first Opening Day start in 1992 and went deep in Detroit. In Toronto’s home opener, he blasted a game-tying homer off Baltimore closer Gregg Olson in the bottom of the ninth. Nevertheless, for the second straight season, his name was mentioned in trade rumors involving the Padres Gold Glove catcher Benito Santiago. “Last year, it bothered me a lot,” Borders confessed in the summer of ’92. “But his year, it kind of helped me, knowing that someone else might want me. I learned not to let that stuff bother me.”45 In 138 games, he batted .242 with 13 homers and 53 RBIs as the Blue Jays repeated as division champs.

In October Borders caught every postseason inning for Toronto. He hit .318 in the six-game ALCS as the Blue Jays bested the Athletics to claim the franchise’s first pennant. With the pivotal Game Three tied, 2-2, in the fourth inning, Borders leaped to corral right fielder Joe Carter’s throw and complete a momentum-shifting double play by holding onto the ball when 6-foot-5 Mark McGwire crashed into him attempting to score. “That was really the difference in the ballgame,” Carter said.46 In the World Series against the Braves, Borders batted .450 (9-for-20), including a homer off Tom Glavine in Toronto’s 2-1 victory in Game Four, and a game-tying RBI double against John Smoltz in Game Five. Although Atlanta baserunners swiped 15 bases in 18 tries, Borders cut down pinch-runner Brian Hunter with Game Three deadlocked in the ninth inning and threw out the fleet Otis Nixon with Toronto protecting a one-run advantage in Game Six. Borders was voted the Most Valuable Player after the Blue Jays prevailed in six games.

Lake Wales erected “Home of Pat Borders” signs around town, but the catcher nixed the idea of a welcome-home parade in his honor, agreeing to a ceremony to have a youth field named after him instead. “He hasn’t changed a bit,” remarked Bridges, his high-school coach. “He’s a very soft-spoken and withdrawn type.”47 Borders lived next to his parents and drove the same 1980 Ford Bronco that he’d owned since high school. He donated the van that he received for his MVP performance to his local YMCA.48 “Winning the MVP goes way beyond anything I ever thought I’d accomplish,” he said.49 In January the Blue Jays rewarded him with a two-year contract for $5 million.50

By appearing in 138 games, Borders was the AL’s busiest catcher for the second straight season in 1993, and he hit .254 with career highs in RBIs (55) and doubles (30). In the ALCS against the White Sox, he extended his record postseason hitting streak for catchers to 16 games.51 The Blue Jays repeated as champions, with Borders batting .304 (7-for-23) in six World Series games against the Phillies. “The best thing about Pat is that when you have a runner on third and the score tied in the ninth inning, he will call for a pitch in the dirt, because he has confidence he can block it,” Stottlemyre observed. “A catcher like that gives a pitcher confidence that he can throw any pitch at any time.”52 Borders insisted, “I’m average. If I don’t block pitches, they’ll find someone else who can. It’s more like I’d better do it.”53

Toronto had younger, cheaper options available – including power-hitting backup Randy Knorr, lefty slugger Carlos Delgado, and defensive specialist Sandy Martínez – and assistant GM Gord Ash acknowledged, “We believe that catching is a position we can trade.”54 Borders retained his job in 1994, but the Blue Jays finished under .500 for the first time in a dozen years. He was batting .247 with 3 homers in 85 games when the season ended prematurely in August because of a players strike. That offseason, although it meant they would not receive any compensation when Borders left, Toronto declined to offer him a contract because, Ash explained, they knew he would accept anything to remain with the Blue Jays. “I was very happy here,” Borders confirmed.55

When the strike was finally settled in April 1995, Borders signed a one-year, $310,000 deal with the Royals on the first day that camps opened to returning regulars to platoon with lefty-hitting Brent Mayne.56 In 52 games for a poor Kansas City club, he hit .231 with four homers before he was traded to the contending Astros on August 11. With Houston, Borders hit .114 in 35 at-bats, but he appeared only once in the last 23 contests after lefty-hitting Rick Wilkins joined the team in September.

A free agent again, Borders signed with the Cardinals for 1996 and started on Opening Day. He’d slipped to third string behind Tom Pagnozzi and Danny Sheaffer by June 15, however, when he was traded to the Angels. On June 29 Borders enjoyed his only two-homer game in the majors, but he was traded again on July 27 – to the White Sox to replace injured catcher Chad Kreuter. Overall, Borders appeared in 76 games for three teams in ’96 and batted .277 with 5 home runs. He said that his bat speed and arm strength had finally recovered from his heavy workload of 1992 and 1993. As for playing for five teams in two years, he remarked, “It’s educational. You learn a lot. It helps you as a player.”57

Borders joined the Indians in 1997, a strong club that already had All-Star backstop Sandy Alomar. “I knew what my role was going to be,” Borders said. “I’ll take anything I can get.”58 Cleveland advanced to the seventh game of the World Series before falling to the Marlins, but Borders didn’t see any postseason action after batting .296 with 4 homers in 55 regular-season contests.

He returned to Cleveland in 1998 and appeared in 54 more games, including both ends of a July 21 doubleheader when Alomar was hurting. “I don’t think it even crossed his mind that he would be playing 18 innings, but that’s his mentality,” observed Indians second baseman Jeff Branson.59 Cleveland made the playoffs again, but Borders was left off the postseason roster in favor of rookie Einar Díaz. When manager Mike Hargrove asked him to remain with the team anyway, Borders agreed.60

Once a devoted weightlifter, Borders stopped in his mid-30s. “It was starting to hurt me,” he explained. “I think it was slowing me down, slowing down my arm and my swing.”61 To extend his career, Borders retuned to the minors for the first time in 11 years, spending most of 1999 with the Buffalo Bisons of the Triple-A International League, other than a half-dozen July appearances for the Indians. After he was released on August 31, he signed with the Blue Jays and started at DH the following night in Toronto. Borders homered off the Twins’ Eric Milton in the seventh inning, prompting the fans at SkyDome to demand a curtain call. “It’s really not my style,” he said after tipping his cap. “I’m embarrassed about it.” In six games for the Blue Jays, he went 3-for-14.62

Borders considered retirement, but his family encouraged him to keep playing. “It’s a game you can never master or conquer,” he reflected. “Every situation presents a different challenge. You’re always making adjustments either as a hitter or calling a game as a catcher. That’s what makes it so interesting.” Although he didn’t appear in the majors for the first time in 13 years in 2000, the 81 games he caught for Tampa Bay’s Triple-A Durham Bulls affiliate were his most since his first stint with Toronto. Bulls outfielder Jim Buccheri observed, “He’s 37 going on 19.”63 Devil Rays minor-league director Tom Foley said, “Having Pat Borders is like having an extra coach.”64

When Borders was invited to try out for the United States Olympic baseball team that summer, he recalled, “I wasn’t gonna go, but Kathy kicked my butt and said I should just go do it. And she was right.”65 Professionals were allowed to play in the Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, but with the big-league season ongoing, clubs were reluctant to send stars or top prospects. Other than manager Tom Lasorda, Borders was one of the United States’ more recognizable names. In the Americans’ only loss, to the favored Cubans, Borders was hammered in a thunderous home plate collision.66 He batted .429 (6-for-14) in the Olympics, including 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI in the Gold Medal game, when the USA defeated Cuba, 4-0.67 “I’ve never had more fun than that time,” Borders said. “It really was not like anything else I had ever been a part of.”68

Borders could have retired to his farm home with orange groves, 200 cattle, and 100 acres of strawberries and vegetables.69 He and Kathy already had five children: Lindsay, Levi, Luke, Laura Beth, and Leah. (By 2021, their brood would grow to nine with the additions of Lance, Lily, Livia, and Landy Kate).70 Every winter the family voted whether or not Pat should keep playing, and every year the consensus was yes. He spent most of 2001 in Durham but was sold to the Mariners on August 27 and appeared in five games for Seattle in September. From 2002 to 2004, Borders mostly played for Seattle’s Tacoma Rainiers affiliate in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He could still hit, as evidenced by a 6-for-6 performance against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox on May 8, 2003.71 Occasionally the Mariners summoned him to the majors: four games in 2002, a dozen the next year and 19 in 2004. On August 31, 2004, Borders was dealt to the Twins at the trading deadline. In 19 September contests, he batted .286 to help Minnesota win the AL Central. He went 0-for-2 in the Twins four-game ALDS loss to the Yankees to finish his 32-game postseason career with a .315 average.

Borders began 2005 with the Brewers’ PCL Nashville Sounds affiliate but the Mariners purchased his contract on May 19 – five days after his 42nd birthday – after losing former All-Star catcher Dan Wilson to a torn ACL and backup Wiki González to a hamstring injury. Mariners skipper Mike Hargrove had managed Borders in Cleveland and was happy to have him back. “Pat just absolutely loves the game, that’s what I think is cool about him,” said Hargrove. “You get someone like him, with such a positive attitude, and he’s so willing to teach. You talk to him, and he’s willing to give all the information he has. He’s a great presence to have around.”72

When Borders caught Jamie Moyer on May 25 in Baltimore, it marked the first time in major-league history that a team started a battery of 42-year-olds. It would not be the last. Seattle went 8-3 when the ancient Mariners teamed up. In a little more than two months with the team, Borders started 37 games, though Hargrove insisted, “He can’t and won’t play every day. That’s from me. Pat would go out there every day on bloody stumps.”73 On July 27 Borders played his 1,099th and final big-league contest, catching Moyer’s 9-3 victory over the Tigers at Safeco Field. He was released two days later when González returned from the DL. Borders finished his career with a .253 batting average and 69 home runs, and threw out 35 percent of opposing basestealers. “Had it not been for catching, I’d have never made it as far as Double A,” he reflected.74

The Dodgers invited Borders to spring training in 2006, but when he didn’t want to leave home, he realized that he no longer had the desire to play.75 At Los Angeles’s request, he filled in for a few weeks: 20 games with Vero Beach in the Class-A Florida State League and six with the Triple-A PCL’s Las Vegas 51s before retiring on May 26.

Borders assumed full-time father duties, including coaching the baseball team at Lake Wales High School during his son Luke’s senior season. He was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015 Borders became the manager of the Phillies’ Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Crosscutters affiliate in the short-season New York-Pennsylvania League. He led the Crosscutters to 186 victories over the next five seasons, more than any other skipper in team history. When Borders announced that he would leave to manage the full-season Class-A Clearwater Threshers in 2020, Williamsport surprised him by retiring his number 10. “I’m speechless,” he said.76 Clearwater, merely 85 miles west of Lake Wales, was a welcome destination for Borders, but the Threshers’ 2020 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, Borders was part of the inaugural Highlander Athletic Hall of Fame induction class organized by the community of Lake Wales. That fall, he left the Phillies’ organization after serving as the bench coach for Philadelphia’s Triple-A Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania) IronPigs farm club for one season.  

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.ancestry.com, www.baseball-reference.com, and www.retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Baseball was a demonstration sport at both the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, so official medals were not awarded. As of 2021, Doug Mientkiewicz (2000 Olympics; 2004 Red Sox) is the only other American to win both an Olympic gold medal and a World Series ring. Three Cubans —Orlando Hernández (1992 Olympics; 1998-2000 Yankees), José Contreras (1996 Olympics; 2005 White Sox) and Yuli Gurriel (2004 Olympics; 2017 Astros) – have also achieved the feat.

2 Godfrey Jordan, “Thanks, Dad,” Toronto Star, June 19, 1993: F1.

3 Pat Borders, 1993 Donruss Studio Baseball Card.

4 Russ White, “Borders Avoids Celebrity Status,” Orlando Sentinel, January 24, 1993: C10.

5 Jordan, “Thanks, Dad.”

6 “Borders Has Proven He’s Jays’ Top Catcher,” Toronto Star, March 27, 1991: C4.

7 Russ White, “Rising Star: Pat Borders,” Orlando Sentinel, April 2, 1989: C9.

8 Gare Joyce, “The Lifer,” August 2018, https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/pat-borders-blue-jays-williamsport-crosscutters-profile/ (last accessed March 5, 2021).

9 Tom Weir, “Borders, Nearly 42, Awaits Another Big-League Shot,” USA Today, April 12, 2005: C6.

10 Pat Borders, 1988 Topps Traded Baseball Card.

11 In 1986 St. Cloud’s Bruce Kiser hit 34 home runs to establish a new mark. Paula J. Finocchio, “St. Cloud’s Kiser Smashes HR Mark,” Orlando Sentinel, March 25, 1986: B4.

12 Mel Antonen, “Catchers Give GM Hart Coaching Flashback,” USA Today, February 16, 1998: 6C.

13 Joyce, “The Lifer.”

14 Brian Schmitz, “Borders Is Crossing from Obscure to Hero,” Orlando Sentinel, October 24, 1992: B1.

15 “Reds Say Goodnight to Day,” The Sporting News, July 30, 1984: 38.

16 Paul Patton, “Losing Record with Syracuse Prompts Firing,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), September 6, 1984: M10.

17 Milt Dunnell, “Catching Switch Saved Borders from Early Firing,” Toronto Star, August 11, 1990: B3.

18 Larry Millson, “Borders Relaxed More with Each At-Bat,” Globe and Mail, April 8, 1988: A18.

19 Schmitz, “Borders Is Crossing from Obscure to Hero.”

20 Dunnell, “Catching Switch Saved Borders from Early Firing.”

21 Neil MacCarl, “Switch to Catcher Could Put Borders on Fringes of Jays,” Toronto Star, February 16, 1988: B10.

22 White, “Borders Avoids Celebrity Status.”

23 John Lott, “Mariners’ Crash Davis,” National Post (Don Mills, Ontario), August 29, 2001: B13.

24 Bob Elliott, “An Unforgettable Journey,” Toronto Sun, March 22, 2012: S10.

25 Millson, “Borders Relaxed More with Each At-Bat.”

26 “Young Hurler Making Headlines,” Toronto Star, April 21, 1987: F4.

27 Larry Millson, “Borders Bids for Backup Job,” Globe and Mail, February 22, 1988: E8.

28 Campbell, “In Only Three Seasons, Pat Borders Has Progressed.”

29 Pat Borders’ Dominican League Statistics from https://stats.winterballdata.com/players?key=436 (Subscription service. Last accessed March 17, 2021).

30 Neil MacCarl, “Jays Need Major Graduate from Class for Catcher,” Toronto Star, March 2,1988: B2.

31 Neil MacCarl, “Big Test Tonight for Pat Borders,” Toronto Star, April 6, 1988: G2.

32 Millson, “Borders Relaxed More with Each At-Bat.”

33 Frank Orr, “Pat Borders Proves He Belongs in the Big Leagues,” Toronto Star, June 23, 1988: C1.

34 Larry Millson, “Borders Adjusted to Stint in Minors,” Globe and Mail, September 7, 1988: A18.

35 Neil MacCarl, “Winter Ball Helps Jays’ Pat Borders,” Toronto Star, January 24, 1989: C4.

36 Pat Borders’ Venezuelan Statistics from http://www.pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/mostrar.php?ID=bordpat001 (last accessed March 17, 2021).

37 Dave Perkins, “Borders is Armed with All the Tools Except Confidence,” Toronto Star, June 8, 1989: B3.

38 Joyce, “The Lifer.”

39 Neil MacCarl, “Blue Jays’ Borders Looks Out for No. 1,” Toronto Star, January 4, 1990: B4.

40 Marty York, “New Looks for Jays Tailored to Skydome’s Vast Expanse,” Globe and Mail, March 26, 1990: C1.

41 Larry Millson, “Jays Crush Birds for Best Season Start,” Globe and Mail, April 18, 1990: A13.

42 Neil A. Campbell, “In Only Three Seasons, Pat Borders Has Progressed,” Globe and Mail, March 5, 1991: D10.

43 Campbell, “In Only Three Seasons, Pat Borders Has Progressed.”

44 Dave Perkins, “Cheap Shot Adds to Jays’ Injury Woes,” Toronto Star, May 21, 1991: D1.

45 “Blue Jays’ Borders Emerges as Majors’ Ironman Catcher,” Ottawa Citizen, September 5, 1992: H6.

46 Larry Millson, “Borders Helps the Jays Hold On,” Globe and Mail, October 12, 1992: D4.

47 Marc Topkin, “Blue Jays’ Borderline Hero,” Ottawa Citizen, April 1, 1993: D2.

48 Bob Elliott, “An Unforgettable Journey,” Toronto Sun, March 22, 2012: S10.

49 Pat Borders, 1993 Stadium Club Murphy Baseball Card.

50 “Borders Gets $5 Million,” Globe and Mail, January 20, 1993: C8.

51 Allan Ryan, “Borders Huge Hit in Series Showdown and Gets MVP Nod,” Toronto Star, October 25, 1992: E5.

52 Bill Jauss, “Borders’ Hit String Cut Short,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1993: 5.

53 Jack Curry, “Border’s Bat Is Doing the Talking,” New York Times, October 25, 1992: S3.

54 “Borders is Expendable, Blue Jays Say,” Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario) Record, December 2, 1993: C6.

55 Steve Milton, “Borders Says He’s Ready to Adapt to a Life After the Blue Jays,” Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, January 16, 1995: C3.

56 Ben Walker, “Borders Goes to KC in Major Scramble,” Globe and Mail, April 8, 1995: A19.

57 Larry Millson, “Borders’ Crossings Take Him to Cleveland,” Globe and Mail, March 18, 1997: D13.

58 “Borders Fills In, Indians Roll On,” Washington Post, July 6, 1997: D6.

59 Liz Robbins, “Borders Steps Up to Double Duty,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 22, 1998: 5D.

60 Paul Hoynes, “Borders Will Stay for Postseason,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 24, 1998: 2D.

61 Tom Weir, “Borders, Nearly 42, Awaits Another Big-League Shot,” USA Today, April 12, 2005: C6.

62 Geoff Baker, “New and Old Lead Way,” Toronto Star, September 2, 1999: 1.

63 Tom Casey, “Having a Blast: Borders Shows How Game Is Played,” Ottawa Citizen, May 24, 2000: C6.

64 Rodney Page, “Coaching May Be in the Future for Borders,” St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, May 31, 2000: 5C.

65 Joyce, “The Lifer.”

66 Bill Glauber, “Cubans Snap Back at Lasorda, US, 6-1,” Baltimore Sun, September 2, 2000: 22D.

67 Mel Antonen, “Play’s Still the Thing for Borders,” USA Today, May 30, 2001: C8.

68 Joyce, “The Lifer.”

69 Lott, “Mariners’ Crash Davis.”

70 Vinnie Portell, “A Bond Between Brothers,” Oracle (University of South Florida), April 27, 2017, http://www.usforacle.com/2017/04/27/a-bond-between-brothers/ (last accessed March 5, 2021).

71 “Borders Perfect in Rainiers’ Win,” Seattle Times, May 9, 2003: D7.

72 Nick Daschel, “Catcher Knows No Borders,” Vancouver (Washington) Columbian, May 24, 2005: C5.

73 Phil Rogers, “Borders, Moyer: Battery for the Aged,” Chicago Tribune, May 29, 2005: 3-2.

74 Campbell, “In Only Three Seasons, Pat Borders Has Progressed.”

75 Lisa Coffey, “Lake Wales, Family Now Borders for Ex-Catcher,” Lakeland (Florida) Ledger, April 30, 2007, https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20070430/News/608141511/LL (last accessed March 5, 2021).

76 “Cutters Manager Borders Has Jersey Retired,” Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Sun-Gazette, January 16, 2020, https://www.sungazette.com/sports/local-sports/2020/01/cutters-manager-borders-has-jersey-retired/ (last accessed March 18, 2021).

Jay Campbell Buhner was born August 13, 1964, in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents, David Carl Buhner and Kay Cantrell Rose Buhner, were both graduates of the University of Kentucky who married in 1961.1 David passed his love of hunting, fishing, and baseball on to his three sons: Jay, Ted, and Shawn.2 David and Kay, and Jay’s maternal grandfather, C.C. Rose, were instrumental in Jay’s development as a baseball player. “Without my parents and my grandparents,” Buhner said, “no way I would have made it to the major leagues. No way. They were the batting practice pitchers, the shaggers, the car pool leaders, the number one fans. They did everything.”3 Jay wasn’t the only professional baseball player in the family. His brother Shawn had a six-year career in the Mariner minor league system, peaking with one season in AAA.

Jay spent his first 14 years in Louisville before the family moved to Philadelphia and then to Texas, where his father worked as a chemist at Dixie Chemical in Houston.4 He played high school ball at Clear Creek High School near League City, Texas, under coach Jim Mallory. Mallory gave Buhner his nickname, “Bone.” After Buhner took a ball off his head but still made the play, Mallory commented that it was a good thing Jay had a bony head.5 “Bonehead” was shortened to “Bone” and the nickname stuck.

Buhner did not always dream of playing in the big leagues. “When I was younger, I never thought there was life after high school baseball. I never thought about the pros or even college. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a scholarship.” He went to McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, because two of his Clear Creek teammates were going there. McLennan turned out to be a great fit for the sometimes-mercurial Buhner. Head coach Rick Butler was a strict disciplinarian who had a positive influence on Jay on and off the field. Buhner credits Butler with turning him into an excellent defensive outfielder. “If we misplayed a ball in practice, we had to do what we called a supersprint,” Buhner recalled. “You had to drop your glove and run to the opposite foul line and back in less than 60 seconds. That’s where I first took pride in my defense.” Buhner’s contributions on both defense and offense (he batted .327 and led the team in home runs) helped McLennan win the junior college national title in 1983.6

His play at McLennan drew the attention of big-league scouts. Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the ninth round of the 1983 draft, he elected not to sign. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates during the second round of the secondary free agent draft in January 1984, he signed on May 26, 1984. Assigned to Watertown in the New York-Pennsylvania League, he made the league’s All-Star team along with future big leaguers Jamie Moyer and Kevin Elster.7 Following that season, Pittsburgh traded Buhner (along with Dale Berra and Alfonso Pulido) to the New York Yankees for Steve Kemp, Tim Foli, and cash.

Buhner remained in the Yankee minor league system for three-and-one-half seasons before being called up to the big club for seven games in September 1987. After starting the 1988 season in AAA, he returned to the Yankees in May and began playing regularly in the outfield in June. Buhner found his time with the Yankees very rewarding. “The great thing about the Yankees was that every level I played at, we won. Bucky Dent was my manager at every level, and he was awesome. He taught me how to win. Then when I moved up to the big leagues, I was surrounded by veterans who were great to me: Dave Winfield, Jack Clark, Jose Cruz, Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to break in.”8 But the rookie with potential was traded to the Seattle Mariners at the trading deadline for a veteran with power, Ken Phelps. The trade has been questioned ever since, and became famous nationally when on the Seinfeld television show, Jerry Stiller (as Frank Costanza) berates Larry David (as George Steinbrenner) with the line, “What did you trade Jay Buhner for? … You don’t know what you’re doing!”9

Upon joining the Mariners, Buhner was immediately inserted into the lineup, but he struggled at the plate. Although he hit ten home runs in 60 games that year, he batted just .224 and struck out 68 times in 192 at bats. Jay started the 1989 season in AAA Calgary and was asked to work on cutting down his strikeout rate.10 He was called back up to the big club on June 2, but injured his right wrist on June 27 when he slammed into the outfield wall against Kansas City.11 The time in Calgary proved helpful, however. In 58 games he had a .275 batting average, just 55 strikeouts in 204 at bats, and hit nine home runs.

Buhner did not start the 1990 season with the Mariners — but for a different reason. This time he suffered a sprained right ankle on a pick-off play during spring training.12 He was anxious when he returned to the Mariners on June 1. “I’m glad this one is over with. I was so nervous I think I went to the restroom ten times.” The nerves didn’t impact his performance. Buhner hit a grand slam in his first at bat after returning from the injured list. But the injury bug bit him again soon thereafter. He broke a bone in his right forearm when he was hit by a pitch in the June 16 game against the Rangers and was out of action until August 23.13 For the 1990 season, Buhner played in 51 games, hit seven balls out of the park, and had a .276 batting average with 50 strikeouts in 163 at bats.

After four seasons splitting time between the majors and minors, Buhner’s apprenticeship was over. Beginning with the 1991 season, he became the Mariners starting right fielder. On May 30, a first inning, three-run home run off Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers set the stage for a six-RBI game. A couple of months later, he put on an impressive display of power in consecutive series against the Orioles and Yankees. On July 20 in Baltimore, he smashed a home run that travelled 463 feet. Five days later he bettered that mark with a 479-foot blast at Yankee Stadium. Of the home run at Yankee Stadium, Buhner said, “Every player has his career shot and I think that is mine.”14 A few weeks later on August 12, Buhner hit two home runs off reigning Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Bob Welch. He finished with 77 RBIs and a team-leading 27 home runs in 137 games.

Buhner got off to a slow start in 1992. At the end of May he was batting .232 with just five home runs. However, he got hot in late June, and hit nine homers in 19 games to end the first half of the season.15 Buhner hit a grand slam in Detroit on July 3, and two home runs off Scott Sanderson at Yankee Stadium on July 10. Those two homers, and another long ball two days later, gave him a total of seven dingers against his former Yankee teammates since being traded to the Mariners.16 Maybe Frank Costanza was right!

Buhner continued to improve in 1993. He had three games that season with four RBIs. In one of those games, on May 17, he hit a three-run home run and a solo homer against the Rangers in Texas. On June 23 he became the first Mariner to hit for the cycle. His home run that game was a grand slam, and he scored the winning run after a triple in the fourteenth inning. He continued to pound out home runs at Yankee Stadium with two more over the course of the season. He had 17 home runs by the All-Star break, and 27 on the season. He finished the season with new highs in games played (158), hits (153), doubles (28), and RBIs (98). His .272 batting average was just a few points below his career high of .276.

Before the 1994 season, the press focused on the potential offensive production of a Mariner outfield consisting of Buhner, Griffey Jr. and Eric Anthony. As befitted the pride he took in his arm and glove play, Buhner wanted to draw attention to the trio’s defensive prowess. He said, “I wish there was more talk about our defense. All you hear about is how many home runs we’re capable of hitting. I think we’re all capable of winning a Gold Glove.”17 Buhner’s comment proved prescient. Although Anthony never won one, both Griffey Jr. and Buhner won Gold Gloves in 1996. It wasn’t just talk from Buhner, either. On July 1, 1994, with the Mariners leading, 4-3, in the bottom of the ninth, Buhner slammed into the right field wall at Yankee Stadium taking a potential game-tying hit away from Randy Velarde.18 Griffey called it, “The best catch I’ve seen Jay make.” Buhner bruised his pelvis on the play and couldn’t take right field again until after the All-Star break.

In addition to his stellar defense, Buhner’s offense also could not be ignored in 1994. On April 19, he hit two more home runs at Yankee Stadium on the way to another four-RBI game. (He finished his career with 19 home runs in the Bronx ballpark.) His season total of 21 home runs in 1994 was lower than the previous three seasons, but the players went on strike on August 12 (ending the season) so Buhner played in just 101 games that year. At the rate he was hitting long balls, he would have had a career-high 31 homers if he had played in 150 games. He was also on pace to drive in 100 runs, and finished the shortened season with a career high .279 batting average.

The Mariners took advantage of Jay’s popularity with Seattle baseball fans. Buhner’s signature bald head inspired the marketing promotion Buhner Buzz Cut Night from 1994 to 2001. Fans received free admission if they were bald or had their head shaved before the game. Buhner himself would sometimes help shave heads. The number of participants was an indication of the growth of Buhner’s popularity. In 1994, the first year of the promotion, 512 fans (including two women) participated. During the last year of the event, 6246 fans (including 112 women) took part.19 Playing on his nickname, Buhner’s walk-up song before his at bats was “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. And the section of seats behind him in right field was referred to as “The Boneyard.”

Before the 1995 season, Buhner was offered a lucrative four-year $18 million contract by the Orioles. He declined that offer and accepted a three-year $15.5 contract with the Mariners, saying, “We have a chance to win the division next season and hopefully a new stadium. I want to be around to see that.”20 Strong lobbying by Ken Griffey Jr. on Buhner’s behalf helped persuade Mariner management to increase their offer to Buhner. A grateful Buhner offered to pay for all of Griffey’s lunches during the season. Griffey joked, “I will make a list of all the places I want to eat and give them to Jay before each road trip.”21

By 1995, the Mariners and Buhner were both ready to live up to their potential. Buhner entered the season as a 30-year old with eight seasons of big league experience. He was poised for a big season, and he had it. He played in 126 games, drove in 121 runs, and crushed a then career-high 40 home runs, tying Frank Thomas for second place in the American League behind Albert Belle’s 50. Buhner had two games with five RBIs, and six other games where he drove in four runs. In two of his four-RBI games, the four runs came in with a lone swing of the bat as Jay cleared the bases with a grand slam. Buhner placed a career-high fifth in the MVP voting, behind winner Mo Vaughn.

It’s difficult to separate Buhner’s personal accomplishments in 1995 from the Mariners’ success that year. The Mariners were just five games out of first place at the end of June. But sub-.500 play in July left them trailing the Angels by 13 games on August 2 before they started to climb back into contention. By the end of August, they were back in the race, trailing the Angels by only seven and one-half games. For baseball fans in Seattle, the pennant race of September 1995 was unforgettable. Buhner was a key contributor to the Mariners’ campaign during the crucial stretch run. His leadership was also instrumental. In late August, after the team lost four of five games at home, Buhner called a players-only meeting. Jay said, “The session ended with the players committed to putting our guts on the field every day and see what happens.” 22 The team responded with seven wins in the next ten games. In three games September 11-13, he drove in 13 runs. For the month, he hit 14 home runs and had 33 RBIs.

The Mariners slowly closed on the Angels and climbed into a tie for first place on September 20. The two teams stayed close the rest of the month, and finished the season in a dead heat. The Mariners won a coin toss to determine home field, and then won the single game at the Kingdome to decide the division crown behind a pitching gem by Randy Johnson. The Mariners beat the Yankees in the divisional round before falling to the Indians in the ALCS.

To complicate the situation in 1995, the Mariners’ owners were threatening to move the team if a new stadium was not built to replace the decrepit Kingdome. A proposal to fund a stadium with a package of new taxes was put before the Seattle electorate in mid-September. That proposal was rejected by voters in a very close vote. But the success of the team on the field that month, and the groundswell of enthusiasm that accompanied it, compelled the state legislature to authorize bonds for a new stadium.23 Given Buhner’s important contributions to the on-field success of the Mariners that month, it can be argued that he played an essential part in saving baseball for the city of Seattle.

Buhner and the Mariners started the 1996 season just as they had finished in ‘95: Buhner pounding long balls, and the Mariners winning ball games. On May 11 at home against Kansas City, Buhner went four-for-four, hit two home runs, and had another six-RBI game. He also had an early season two-homer game with five RBIs against Milwaukee, and continued to launch rockets at Yankee Stadium, hitting a home run there in May and two more in August. By the All-Star break, 23 of his hits had gone over the fence, and Buhner was selected to the American League All-Star team for the only time in his career. As usual, he was more interested in his defense. When he was selected to the All-Star team, he said receiving a Gold Glove would be a bigger honor.24 He earned that honor after the season ended when he and Griffey were both awarded Gold Gloves. For the season, Buhner finished with career highs in runs (107), hits (153), doubles (29), home runs (44), and RBIs (138). His home run total was tied for seventh highest in baseball. As a team, the Mariners were in the race all season, but finished four-and-one-half games out of first place.

In early 1997, Buhner was pleased to sign a two-year contract extension. He said, “My family and I are extremely happy to be staying in Seattle. We have made the Pacific Northwest our home, and I’m really looking forward to wearing a Mariners uniform when the new ballpark opens.”25 Jay got his wish. He would be in the starting lineup when Safeco Field opened on July 15, 1999.Buhner continued to play well in 1997. He hit home runs in four consecutive games in May, had another five-RBI game in June, and hit two more home runs (one off Mariano Rivera) at Yankee Stadium. He also continued to play terrific defense, making two great catches at Fenway Park in a game against the Red Sox. He hurled his body into the Red Sox bullpen on one of them to steal a home run from catcher Scott Hatteburg. Boston bullpen coach Herm Starrette said, “That was one of the great catches I’ve seen in my 37 years.”26

For the 1997 season, Buhner played in 157 games, scored 104 runs, drove in 109 runs, and banged a total of 40 homers (tied for eighth best in baseball). Buhner was only the tenth player in major league history to hit 40 or more home runs in three consecutive years.27 However, Jay had strikeout issues again as he led the major leagues with 175 Ks. Buhner and Griffey combined to hit 96 homers, still (as of 2020) the tenth highest total ever for a pair of teammates. 28 The Mariners’ potent offense led the team to an AL West division title, but the team lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The next two seasons saw Buhner again beset by injuries. Knee29 and elbow30 injuries limited him to 72 games and 15 home runs in 1998. He also missed time with a right ankle31 injury in 1999. He played in 87 games and had 14 home runs that year. However, his tenth long ball on August 9, 1999, was noteworthy. It was the fifth grand slam hit across baseball that day, the first time in baseball history that five grand slams had been hit in one day.32 The record has since been broken.

In 2000, the Mariners deliberately rested Buhner often.33 He responded with a productive season of 26 HRs, 82 RBIs and a .253 batting average in 112 games. The Mariners won 91 games and beat the White Sox in the division series before losing to the Yankees in the ALCS. The Mariners of 2001, who acquired Ichiro Suzuki before the season started, were one of the greatest teams of all time, tying the record for wins with 116. Buhner was not a significant contributor to the team. He injured his left arch in spring training, and missed most of the season.34 He played in just 19 games during September and October, finishing with two home runs and a .222 batting average. For the second year in a row, the team fell to the Yankees in the ALCS.

After 14 years with the Mariners, the parade of injuries finally forced Buhner to retire following the 2001 season. He finished his 15-year career with a .254 batting average, 310 home runs, and 965 RBIs. Buhner was sorry he didn’t get to 1000 RBIs. He said, “Driving in runs was my game, and I’d surely liked to have reached a grand, but, hey, it’s not meant to be. I think everyone knows I’d have been there except for the injuries.”35 In 2004, Buhner was inducted into the Mariners Hall of Fame. Only Ichiro Suzuki and Ken Griffey Jr. played more games as a Mariner outfielder.36

Jay and his wife, Leah, decided to raise their three children (Brielle, Chase, and Gunnar) in the Pacific Northwest after his retirement.37 His post-retirement activities included color commentary on selected Mariners broadcasts, speaking engagements with corporations and other organizations, minority ownership in Northwest Motorsport, and the charitable work for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that he started during his playing days. When asked why he thinks he’s so popular, he replied, “Really, I was just a Texas boy, blue-collar, shoot from the hip. I would say what was on my mind, and I think people appreciated that. On the field, I had one throttle. I always played the game aggressively, didn’t worry about getting beat up, though the turf would certainly do that. … I think the fans appreciated that, too.”38

Last revised: April 8, 2021

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Tim Herlich for providing the sources of information on Buhner’s parents and to Paul Proia for his careful review. This biography was also reviewed by Norman Macht and fact-checked by David Kritzler.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-reference.com.

Notes

1 Obituaries, The Houston Chronicle, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=kay-cantrell-rose-buhner&pid=134469385&fhid=2698, (last accessed February 1, 2021).

2 Obituaries, The Houston Chronicle, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=david-buhner&pid=159558646, (last accessed February 1, 2021).

3 Rich Bozich, “Local Boy Buhner Was Big Hitter From Start,” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), May 21, 1996.

4 Mark Yuasa, “Ex-Mariner Jay Buhner Scores as Big with Reel as with Bat,” The Seattle Times, October 1, 2011.

5 Gerry Calahan, “A Real Cutup: Seattle Mariners Slugger Jay Buhner May Look Like a Fiend, But He’s Actually a Fun Loving, Fan Friendly Star with Only One Revolting Habit,” Sport Illustrated, March 18, 1996.

6 Calahan, “Seattle Mariners Slugger Jay Buhner May Look Like a Fiend, But He’s Actually a Fun Loving, Fan Friendly Star with Only One Revolting Habit.”

7 Minor Leagues, The Sporting News, September 10, 1984: 29.

8 Calahan, “Seattle Mariners Slugger Jay Buhner May Look Like a Fiend, But He’s Actually a Fun Loving, Fan Friendly Star with Only One Revolting Habit.”

9 Steven Goldman, “There Will Never Be Another Jay Buhner-For-Ken Phelps Deal,”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jp7pyp/there-will-never-be-another-jay-buhner-for-ken-phelps-deal, (last accessed January 9, 2021).

10 Jim Street, “Buhner a Happy Camper Again on Return to M’s,” The Sporting News, July 3, 1989: 20.

11 Baseball, “Mariners,” The Sporting News, July 17, 1989: 21.

12 Baseball, “Buhner is Tipped Off, Picked Off, Ticked Off,” The Sporting News, April 16, 1990: 18.

13 Baseball, “Hard-Luck Buhner Back on Disabled List,” The Sporting News, June 25, 1990: 12.

14 Baseball, “A.L. West,” The Sporting News, August 5, 1991: 30.

15 Baseball, “A.L. West,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1992: 32.

16 Baseball, “A.L. West,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1992: 32.

17 Jim Street, “A.L.,” The Sporting News, March 21, 1994: 18.

18 Jim Street, “A.L. West,” The Sporting News, July 11, 1994: 38.

19 David Andriesen, “It’s Shear Joy for Buhner”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 31, 2001, https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/It-s-shear-joy-for-Buhner-1056190.php, (last accessed January 20, 2021).

20 Jim Street, “A.L.,” The Sporting News, January 2, 1995: 39.

21 Jim Street, “Baseball,” The Sporting News, January 9, 1995: 39.

22 Jim Street, “The Road to Respect,” The Sporting News, September 18, 1995: 14.

23 David Wilma, “King County voters reject a stadium for the Seattle Mariners on September 19, 1995,” https://www.historylink.org/File/3429, (last accessed January 17, 2021).

24 Jim Street, “A.L.,” The Sporting News, October 21, 1996: 23.

25 Jim Street, “A.L.,” The Sporting News, February 17, 1997: 24.

26 Peter Schmuck, “Baseball,” The Sporting News, August 11, 1997: 27.

27 Jim Street, “Baseball,” The Sporting News, June 15, 1998: 40.

28 Sporacle, “Can you name the two teammates with the most home runs?” https://www.sporcle.com/games/rk559/auckland, (last accessed January 18, 2021).

29 Jim Street, “Baseball,” The Sporting News, April 27, 1998: 30.

30 Jim Street, “Buhner Out 6-8 Months After Surgery on Elbow,” The Sporting News, September 21, 1998: 73.

31 Larry LaRue, “Baseball,” The Sporting News, February 28, 2000: 56.

32 This Day in Baseball, “This Day in Baseball August 9,” https://thisdayinbaseball.com/this-day-in-baseball-august-9/, (last accessed January 19, 2021).

33 Larry LaRue, “Healthy, Productive Buhner Likely Will Get Another Year,” The Sporting News, October 2, 2000: 64.

34 Larry LaRue, “Buhner is Aiming for a September Return,” The Sporting News, August 20, 2001: 37.

35 Bob Finnigan, “After 14 years with M’s, Buhner retires,” The Seattle Times, December 18, 2001, https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20011218&slug=mariners18#:~:text=After%2014%20seasons%20patrolling%20the,Buhner%20has%20decided%20to%20retire, (last accessed January 20, 2021).

36 Mariners 2020 Media Guide, page 181, https://www.scribd.com/document/447671525/2020-Media-Guide, (last accessed January 20, 2021)

37 Calahan, “Seattle Mariners Slugger Jay Buhner May Look Like a Fiend, But He’s Actually a Fun Loving, Fan Friendly Star with Only One Revolting Habit.”

38 Brice Cherry, “Where Are They Now? Jay Buhner Enjoyed Time at MCC, Seattle Mariners and Beyond,” Waco-Tribune-Herald, July 25, 2015, https://wacotrib.com/sports/college/mcc/where-are-they-now-jay-buhner-enjoyed-time-at-mcc-seattle-mariners-and-beyond/article_f0d78ef7-e5a4-5c4e-b504-0cb7136ec78a.html, (last accessed January 20, 2021).

This biography was published in Two Outs, So What!: The 2001 Seattle Mariners (SABR, 2026), edited by Steve Friedman, Eric Vickrey, and Bill Nowlin. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download a free e-book edition or save 50% off your purchase of the paperback edition.

When Davis was steps from scoring, Scioscia suddenly received the throw and blocked home plate. Davis, not expecting a play at the plate, attempted a last-second slide and was tagged out, jamming his foot into Scioscia’s shin guard. Davis’ teammate, Norm Charlton, took exception to the way Scioscia deked Davis into the late slide, believing that in doing so, Davis could have been injured. Charlton told his teammates, “If I ever get a chance to get that guy [Scioscia] cleanly, I’m gonna get him.”1

Two nights later Charlton was batting in the seventh inning, with an 8-4 lead, when Dodger pitcher Mike Hartley plunked him on his right calf. He slammed his bat into the AstroTurf at Riverfront Stadium and glared at Hartley as he took his base. The next batter lined a ball into left field. Charlton, in his pitcher’s windbreaker, rounded second base and as he approached third, third base coach Sam Perlozzo raised the stop sign. But Charlton had a score to settle. He raced by Perlozzo, straight at Scioscia. The ball beat Charlton, but Charlton threw his right forearm and shoulder into Scioscia’s neck and knocked him flat before he could secure the ball.2 Charlton was safe, and the pitcher claims that even Scioscia agreed that the play was clean.3

After the game, Charlton admitted that bowling over Scioscia “wasn’t the smartest thing,” but nevertheless “got our point across.”4 That play was emblematic of Charlton’s big-league career. Off the field, nobody had more fun than the good-humored and clever Charlton, who was respected throughout the game for his intelligence and integrity. But at the ballpark, he was an intense competitor who believed, “you have to be going 200 miles per hour with your hair on fire out on the field. You have to put everything into every pitch.”5 That’s how he played. And illustrated by his meting out justice here in defense of Davis, Charlton was prepared to risk suspension, fine, or injury to protect his team. Larry Rothschild, Charlton’s former pitching coach and manager, summed up his former player: “He will stick up for hitters, for his team. He will do whatever he has to.”6

Norman Wood Charlton III was born January 6, 1963, in Fort Polk, Louisiana. As a youngster, after watching Juan Marichal pitch at a Giants-Astros game at the Astrodome, he told his parents that he wanted to pitch in the big leagues.7 In fifth grade, his family moved to San Antonio, where Charlton later attended James Madison High School.

At Madison, Charlton became a standout pitcher. During his junior season, the Mavericks played for the District 13-AAA championship in a best-of-three series against the Tivy Antlers.8 After dropping the first game in the series earlier in the week, the Mavericks needed to sweep a doubleheader to claim the title. The Mavericks turned to Charlton.

In game one of the doubleheader, he delivered a complete-game seven-inning shutout, allowing just two hits and striking out nine in a 1-0 Madison win. With the series now even, Charlton again took the ball to start game two of the doubleheader, a winner-take-all contest. Fueled by adrenaline, Charlton displayed the tenacity and determination for which he would become known as a big-leaguer as he worked into the third inning—his tenth of the day—before being lifted. His Mavericks eventually won the contest, and the district title, on a seventh-inning walk-off home run.

Charlton graduated from Madison in 1981 and initially decided to continue playing in college at Texas A&M. But, after meeting Rice University’s head coach David Hall, he changed his mind and followed the footsteps of his father, Norm Charlton Jr., a 1961 Rice graduate and stand-out hurdler who later became a lecturer in the school’s physical education department.9

At Rice, Charlton excelled both in the classroom and on the field. In 1984, his junior season, he earned a school-record 11 wins and led the nation with a 2.24 ERA, lowering his career ERA to 2.25, another Rice record.10 In 1982, Charlton played on the US National Team at the World’s Fair, and he was selected for the 1984 US Olympic Team, but an injury precluded his participation.

Following his junior year, the Expos drafted him with the last selection in the first round (28th overall) of the 1984 MLB Amateur Draft.11 Charlton, uncertain that he would make it as a professional ballplayer, negotiated a clause in his rookie contract to allow his return to Rice for one last semester in autumn 1985 to earn his degree.12 He thought he may later pursue a legal career.

After that last semester, Charlton had enough credits to graduate with a degree in 1986 majoring in political science, religious studies, and physical education. With his triple major, Charlton’s Cincinnati Reds teammates would nickname him “The Genius.” He later joked, “My degrees were all about the money. Political science, I’ll talk it out of you. Religion, I’ll preach it out of you. And if that doesn’t work, phys ed, I’ll beat it out of you.”13

Charlton’s professional career started slowly. He spent 1984 and 1985 with the Class A West Palm Beach Expos of the Florida State League. There, over two seasons, Charlton started 31 games and compiled an 8-14 record with a 4.57 ERA.

In March 1986, the Expos traded Charlton, along with a player to be named later, to the Reds for Wayne Krenchicki. In 1986, he pitched at Class AA Burlington (Vermont) where he went 10-6 with an impressive 2.83 ERA, winning the Eastern League championship and earning an MVP award for his playoff performance.14 His stellar first season in the Reds’ organization prompted Reds manager Pete Rose to quip the following spring, “I don’t see how anyone could ever trade Norm Charlton for Wayne Krenchicki.”15

By spring training 1987, Charlton was competing for a big-league roster spot. He impressed Rose, who remarked in mid-March that Charlton “looks like a major league pitcher.”16 But ongoing elbow discomfort landed Charlton in AAA Nashville and led to an 81-day stint on the injured list.17

In 1988, Charlton was still competing to make the big-league club. He spent much of the season in AAA before debuting with the Reds on August 19 against the Cardinals. Charlton started each of his ten games for the Reds that year. The following season, he became a dependable reliever in Pete Rose’s bullpen, appearing in 69 games and maintaining a 2.93 ERA. In one standout performance from his 1989 season, on September 14 against the Giants, Charlton worked 4.1 innings in relief, striking out 10 and allowing no earned runs.

By the end of the 1989 season, Charlton was already a seasoned big leaguer, a hard-throwing late-inning stopper and enforcer. In July, he was ejected following a bench-clearing brawl initiated when Reds reliever Rob Dibble drilled the Mets’ Tim Teufel in the back with a fastball. During the melee, Juan Samuel kicked Charlton in the chest and hand. After being sent to the clubhouse, Charlton, with red blotches on his chest and right hand, was still enraged. He phoned the Mets’ clubhouse and challenged Samuel to continue the fight. But, before further fisticuffs could fly, Shea Stadium security intervened.18

In 1990, the Reds had a new manager, Lou Piniella, and a new closer, Randy Myers. The new-look Reds featured a bullpen that now included Charlton, Dibble, and Myers—three highly competitive flame throwers, each an intense intimidator with a short fuse and volatile on-field temper. On Opening Day at Houston, Reds pitchers plunked Astros slugger Glenn Davis three times, tying a big-league record for most HBPs for a hitter in a single game. After the game, as Charlton, Dibble, and Myers enjoyed their opening night win, some Houston reporters suggested that the Astros were unhappy and were discussing retaliation.

Charlton recalls that the three Reds hurlers glanced at the radar gun printouts in front of them—none of them had thrown a fastball under 96 mph that night. Myers remarked that if the Astros “want to start hitting people [in retaliation], we can play that game.”19 A Houston reporter observed, “That’s pretty nasty,” to which Myers responded, “Well, we’re some nasty boys.”20

Before that opening series concluded, Reds relievers were calling themselves the “Nasty Boys,”21 and though initially the moniker referred to the entire bullpen, eventually the nickname became synonymous with Charlton, Dibble, and Myers. The Nasty Boys threw hard, pitched inside, and even threw at opposing hitters when warranted consistent with baseball’s unwritten rules. Charlton expressed in 1990, “[I]f someone on our team gets hit on purpose, I guarantee you we’ll take care of it. Someone’s going down, and they’re going to pay the price.”22 Charlton later explained:

“Intimidation was part of our game. We didn’t actually hit that many batters, but we knocked down a lot of guys, which is harder to find in the stats. The ‘Nasty Boys’ thing played into our reputations well and we played it up, had T-shirts made. It was good for us, because on days when we didn’t have our best stuff, when (manager) Lou (Piniella) was putting us in 3-4 days in a row, it helped to have the ‘nasty’ persona in our backpack, because hitters were never sure how crazy we were, what we were willing to do.”23

Anchored by the Nasty Boys, the gritty 1990 Reds led the NL West from wire-to-wire. They defeated the Pirates for the NL pennant and swept the heavily favored Athletics in the World Series. Charlton was fantastic, working from the bullpen until mid-July when injuries compelled Piniella to move him to the rotation. It was during this stretch in the rotation when, on August 10 against the Giants, Charlton threw his only career shutout, allowing just three hits. Of his 56 games in 1990, Charlton started 16, logging a combined 154 1/3 innings and 2.74 ERA. In the postseason, back in the bullpen, Charlton was even better, pitching six innings over five games, and allowing just one earned run. Reflecting on the 1990 Reds and the Nasty Boys’ tough brand of ball, Charlton said, “We didn’t play dirty, but we got dirty.”24

Charlton began the 1991 season in the Reds rotation and, in the second half of July, moved to the bullpen after spending roughly a month on the injured list with tendinitis in his throwing shoulder. In 28 relief appearances after his injury, Charlton dominated, allowing just four earned runs in 42 2/3 innings (0.84 ERA).

In September, a year after Charlton ran over Scioscia at home plate, he had another incident involving the Dodgers’ catcher. Following a loss to the Dodgers in which Charlton hit Scioscia on the arm with a pitch, Charlton admitted to reporters, “I threw at him. I hit him on the arm, but I didn’t mean to hit him on the arm. He’ll be lucky if I don’t rip his head off the next time I’m pitching.”25 The Reds believed that Scioscia, as a runner on second base, was stealing the Reds’ catcher’s signs and relaying them to Dodger hitters. Charlton then challenged Scioscia, “I don’t care what the repercussions might be. If he wants to dance, he has to pay the fiddler.”26

Ultimately, Charlton’s candor shocked the baseball world. In assessing a seven-game suspension, NL President Bill White found that Charlton’s offense was not intentionally hitting Scioscia, but publicly admitting that he “threw at” Scioscia and threatening to hit Scioscia in the future.27 Reds pitching coach Rothschild observed in 1992, “Norm has a very strong competitive edge. He’s a throwback in that way. If you tread on his territory, he doesn’t like it.”28

Given this history, in April 1991, White called on Charlton and Dibble for a private meeting to chastise their style of play. During what Charlton described as a “heated discussion,” White scolded the Reds pitchers and told them hitting opposing batters was bad for baseball.29 Soon after that meeting, Charlton covered one wall of his clubhouse locker with formal written warnings, reprimands, and notices of fines from White.

The Nasty Boys’ reputation did not concern Charlton as a player, but he was bothered when parents wrote him that their kids were emulating him and throwing at opposing Little League hitters. To Charlton, the Nasty Boys were “the last three guys you’d want to have for a Little League demonstration.”30 He distinguished youth baseball from the big leagues: “Those kids are playing it for fun. I’m playing it for a living. There’s a whole different set of circumstances, a different set of rules.”31 He also lamented how some fans thought the on-field Nasty Boys—cocky, volatile egomaniacs—mirrored their personalities away from the game. Said Charlton, “Let’s face it, the perception we’ve got is that we’re arrogant asses.”32 He clarified, though, that the Nasty Boys were not “complete idiots,” and that they stayed out of trouble off the field.33 Moreover, the on-field hostilities Charlton exhibited toward opposing players during his career were not personal and were confined strictly to the field of play.

By 1992, the Reds’ Nasty Boys troika was no longer. The Reds traded Myers to San Diego before the season, and a shoulder injury sidelined Dibble during spring training. Piniella entrusted the closer role to Charlton, who flourished, converting save after save and earning a NL All-Star selection. That season, in 64 appearances, Charlton saved 26 games with a 2.99 ERA. Though he would have preferred working as a starter, Charlton understood that his greatest value was as a late-inning stopper. He never started another game.

Following the 1992 season, Lou Piniella left the 90-win Reds to manage the hapless Seattle Mariners, who had won just 64 games the prior season. In one of Piniella’s first orders of business in Seattle, the Mariners traded for Charlton, sending slugger Kevin Mitchell to the Reds. Charlton was, at this stage, a proven winner, now in a bullpen that desperately needed his veteran leadership and Nasty Boys attitude. After all, it was Charlton who longtime Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman called the “true” Nasty Boy, saying that opposing players “were legitimately afraid of him.”34

In June 1993, that Nasty Boys attitude that Piniella so valued showed itself when Charlton was ejected from a game for fighting during a bench-clearing brawl in Baltimore.35 Here again, Charlton was tossed for defending teammate Jay Buhner, who Charlton believed had been “cheap-shotted” by an opposing player during the brawl.36

In Seattle, Charlton pitched as well as ever. By August, in 34 games he had collected 18 saves with a 2.34 ERA. Entering ballgames, strolling from the bullpen to the mound, standing tall, with his shoulders back and chest out, Charlton’s Texas-sized confidence was on full display. Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus nicknamed Charlton “The Sheriff” because that slow walk from the bullpen resembled the gait of a Wild West sheriff walking down Main Street. Unfortunately, Charlton’s 1993 season was cut short when, on August 7, he ruptured a ligament in his left elbow while pitching.

Charlton’s elbow injury also cost him the 1994 season. He rehabbed and aimed to return healthy in 1995. He signed an incentive-laden deal with the Phillies, and as the players’ strike continued into spring training 1995, Charlton wished to prepare for the season. In solidarity with his union brethren, Charlton openly refused to train with replacement players who had crossed the players union picket: “I try to be cordial and I try to be polite, but I really don’t have much respect for those guys.”37

At the start of the season, coming off major elbow surgery, Charlton was not the same pitcher he had been before his injury. Just 25 appearances into his comeback, he was still building his arm strength. But the Phillies, struggling and unlikely to contend for a playoff berth, were cognizant of upcoming salary incentives in Charlton’s contract. Rather than allow Charlton to reach those salary incentive milestones, the Phillies released him on July 10.

Almost immediately, an old friend called. Piniella, looking to shore up the Mariners’ faltering bullpen as the team positioned itself for a playoff run, invited Charlton to throw for him at the Kingdome just four days after his release. After ten pitches, Piniella knew Charlton could help his team. Said Piniella, “I called [General Manager] Woody Woodward and said, ‘Let’s get this young man signed.’”38

The Sheriff was back in the saddle in Seattle. On August 3, when Piniella installed Charlton—whose arm was now at full strength—as the Mariners’ closer, Seattle was 13 games back of the Angels in the AL West. Over the next two months, Charlton went 14 of 15 in save opportunities with a stingy 1.51 ERA, and the “Refuse to Lose” Mariners overtook the Angels for their first division title and postseason appearance in franchise history. During this amazing stretch, the dominant Charlton earned AL Pitcher of the Month honors for September.

In the 1995 playoffs, Charlton was Piniella’s go-to arm. In 13 1/3 innings, he shined with a 1.35 ERA. And no game better personified The Sheriff than Game Three of the ALCS in Cleveland. In a tied game, Piniella pulled starter Randy Johnson in advance of the bottom of the ninth inning. The Jacobs Field crowd erupted in excitement as Johnson—who would receive the 1995 AL Cy Young award weeks later—departed.

As AC/DC’s Hells Bells blared through the stadium, The Sheriff sauntered in from the bullpen. Seattle sports journalist Mike Gastineau recounted Charlton’s entry, “Strutting like a rooster, brash and confident.”39 Charlton quieted the crowd, shutting down the Indians for three innings—no hits, no runs—allowing the Mariners to win on a Jay Buhner three-run home run in the eleventh. Said Piniella after the game, “We wouldn’t be here without Norm. No way. Absolutely not.”40

Charlton continued with the Mariners in 1996 and 1997, a workhorse for Piniella, appearing in 70-plus games each season. But his consistency waned and, in 1997, Charlton’s ERA ballooned to 7.27. Some felt that the Mariners had overworked Charlton, but the pitcher made no excuses for what he described as a “sorry season.” 41

Though some in baseball believed Charlton was “finished,” the Orioles signed him for the 1998 season.42 Opening Day portended Charlton’s tenure in Baltimore when he left the game to boos in the ninth after surrendering multiple hits and a run. At the end of July, the Orioles released Charlton. The Braves signed him a week later, and whatever issues plagued him in Baltimore were instantly resolved. With Atlanta, Charlton found his old groove, and in 13 games down the stretch, he allowed just two runs.

In 1999, Charlton signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, managed then by his former Reds pitching coach Rothschild. During his age-36 season, a dependable Charlton appeared in 42 games and served as the club’s primary left-handed reliever. It was observed on Fastball.com that after inconsistent seasons in 1997 and 1998, Charlton had “resuscitated his career.”43 The Devil Rays invited Charlton back in 2000 on a minor league deal, promising him a roster spot so long as he was in game-ready shape by Opening Day. So when the Rays cut him during spring training after allowing four earned runs in nine innings, Charlton was “incensed.”44

In April, after sitting idle for a couple weeks following his release from Tampa Bay and working out at home, Charlton signed a minor league deal with his old team, the Reds. The Reds first sent Charlton to the minors to get some work. When, in mid-April, they added him to the big-league roster, he appeared in just two games and was cut.

Now 37, Charlton was angry. He declined another Reds minor league assignment and instead retired. “It wasn’t tough to retire,” said Charlton. “I was pretty well fed up. I was still extremely mad at what happened in Tampa Bay.”45 But Charlton was restless, unhappy with how things ended in Cincinnati. Looking ahead to 2001, Charlton contacted the Mariners and learned that the team needed a situational lefty. He signed a minor-league deal and figured that if he did not make the club in 2001, he could report to the Mariners’ AA affiliate that had recently relocated to San Antonio—near Charlton’s home—to work with young pitchers and stay in shape in case the Mariners needed him later.

During spring training 2001, Mariners coaches helped Charlton address mechanical issues that had led to inconsistency in recent seasons. Charlton earned a spot with the club, reuniting with Piniella a fourth time; and, at 38, he experienced a late-career renaissance as the second lefty reliever on a Mariners team that won 116 games. He appeared in 44 games, with a solid 3.02 ERA.

Though he did not know it at the time, the 2001 season would be Charlton’s last as a player. While working out at home in January 2002, he injured his shoulder, costing him the 2002 season. Further shoulder injuries also derailed potential comebacks in 2003 and 2004. Finally, in March 2004, facing yet another surgery on his throwing shoulder, Charlton officially retired, saying, “I’m pretty tired of going back under the knife. If [doctors] say my shoulder won’t be strong enough to stand pitching at the major league level, they probably know best.” 46

As a player, he was blessed with obvious talent; but Charlton also possessed the intangibles over which baseball people salivate. Lou Piniella fiercely admired Charlton’s “tenacious competitiveness,”47 naming him “one of the favorites that I ever managed.”48 Rob Dibble described his former roommate as “one of the smartest, most loyal people I’ve ever met in my life.”49 Dibble glowed about how Charlton “always thought things through and did the right thing.”50

And Charlton had fun playing the game. In a 1992 profile, journalist Jerry Crasnick described Charlton as free spirited and a “perpetual teenager.”51 In spring training 1991, Reds pitcher Scott Scudder went to the parking lot in a driving rainstorm to find that Charlton had pranked him, putting Scudder’s jeep on blocks and its tires on the roof. In 1997, Charlton had his head shaved before a game at the Kingdome as part of the Mariners’ Buhner Buzz Night promotion. In 2000, Charlton shared, “I’m one of the few guys in the world who is 37 years old and gets to act like he’s 18. I’m old enough to know better, but since it happens in a baseball clubhouse, I’m young enough to get away with it.”52

Even before formally retiring as a player, Charlton had begun working as a roving coach and taking on special assignments in the Mariners’ organization. The Mariners then hired Charlton in late 2007 to serve as the team’s bullpen coach for the following year. But after a 101-loss season in 2008, the Mariners cleaned house and relieved Charlton of his duties.

The native Texan, Charlton had once owned a working 4,000-acre cattle ranch in south Texas. Now following his baseball career, he returned to Texas with his family in 2009 to be nearer to his parents. He moved to Rockport, 150 miles southeast of San Antonio on the Gulf of Mexico, an offseason haunt where he hoped to spend more time outdoors. Charlton obtained his captain’s license and opened a bustling fishing guide business, where he takes vacationers and other clients on fishing and hunting excursions. He enjoys what he does and hopes to impress upon his own children the value of hard work that his parents had instilled in him.

In August 2017, Charlton and his family watched closely as Hurricane Harvey barreled toward the Texas Gulf Coast. As soon as the hurricane was elevated to Category 3 status, Charlton secured his home in Rockport and packed his truck with his wife and children to evacuate. They waited out the storm 180 miles away, and Charlton returned days later to mass destruction. Though his family’s home and those of his parents and in-laws were spared from major damage, many of Charlton’s neighbors and friends were not as lucky. “It’s devastating to watch,” he said of the catastrophic damage and loss in his community.53

Though typically stoic off the baseball diamond, Charlton was emotionally shaken: “I’m not a guy that cries, but my wife and kids have seen me cry multiple times over the last few days … it’s really sad for the people who live here full-time who are sitting in a hotel room somewhere with no idea of what to do.”54 Charlton joined his neighbors in doing what he could to help the community pick up the pieces and, over time, return to normalcy.

These days, Charlton’s connection with baseball is limited. He still occasionally attends functions hosted by the Reds and Mariners, events attended by fans hoping to get an autograph or photo with The Sheriff. He also makes appearances with the Nasty Boys to sign autographs to raise money for charities. But he does not watch much baseball, nor does he follow the game too closely. When he meets new neighbors in Rockport or takes clients out on his boat, relatively few recognize him as a former All Star; instead, they know him simply as Norm, a local fishing guide. And Charlton seems to prefer it that way. He views himself as a regular guy who just happened to have the talent to play baseball. He adds, “I’ve always been honest. What you see is what you get.”55

Late in his playing career, Charlton remarked, “There’s nobody out there who has a better job than me.”56 Perhaps that’s why he was so reluctant to walk away. After his last pitch in 2001, Charlton had four surgeries on his throwing shoulder to try to prolong his career. But ultimately, Charlton knows he left it all on the field and is satisfied with his baseball resume: Rice University Hall of Fame (1990) and San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame (2013), World Series champion, All-Star, and Nasty Boy. He is also The Sheriff, who shined on baseball’s biggest stage: in 17 career playoff appearances, he pitched 25 innings, allowing just three earned runs for a dazzling 1.08 ERA. Said Charlton, “I told myself that there was nothing else that I could have done. I couldn’t have played the game any harder.”57

Last revised: January 3, 2023

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Brian Wood and Jake Bell and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also relied on Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 “Nasty Boys: The 1990 Reds,” MLB Network, 1997.

2 “Norm Charlton collides with Mike Scioscia at home plate,” Cincinnati Reds YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssq3b3UfDYQ, accessed December 3, 2022.

3 Norm Charlton, telephone interview with author, September 7, 2022.

4 Bob Nightengale, “Trouble in Triplicate: Reds Relievers Are Controversial, but They Have a Hit on Their Hands,” Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1990: 1.

5 John Romano, “For Charlton, game remains child’s play,” Tampa Bay Times, March 6, 2000: 1C.

6 Romano, “For Charlton.”

7 “19th Ceremony – Rice Athletic Hall of Fame and Distinguished “R” Award,” Rice University Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Program, October 19, 1990.

8 “Antlers Lose Two, District Crown to Mavericks,” Kerrville Mountain Sun (Kerrville, TX), May 21, 1980: 8.

9 “19th Ceremony.”; Joseph Duarte, “Norm Charlton talks about his interview for Rice baseball job,” Chron.com, June 8, 2018, https://www.chron.com/sports/rice/article/Norm-Charlton-talks-interview-Rice-baseball-coach-12979481.php#taboola-7, accessed September 28, 2022.

10 Duarte, “Norm Charlton talks.”; “19th Ceremony.”

11 The Reds selected Charlton four players after the Giants selected Terry Mulholland and three players before the Cubs selected Greg Maddux.

12 “19th Ceremony.”

13 “Live Chat with Norm Charlton,” Seattle Times, July 15, 2011, https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/live-chat-with-norm-charlton/, accessed September 28, 2022.

14 “19th Ceremony.”

15 Richard Justice, “Slow Soto Might Spell Reds Fast,” Washington Post, March 15, 1987: D06.

16 “NL Spring Training Report,” San Bernardino County Sun, March 12, 1987: C7.

17 “Charlton shelled in 4-3 loss,” Daily Advocate (Greenville, OH), March 22, 1988: 7.

18 “Teufel-Dibble brawl adds punch to Mets’ one-sided 8-3 victory,” San Bernardino County Sun, July 9, 1989: C4.

19 “Opening Day Interview: Norm Charlton,” Thrillist, April 1, 2011.

20 “Opening Day Interview: Norm Charlton.”

21 Michael A Lutz, “’Nasty Boys’ key win; Reds remain unbeaten,” Daily Advocate (Greenville, OH), April 11, 1990: 7.

22 Nightengale, “Trouble in Triplicate.”

23 Aaron Epple, “Norm Charlton talks glory days prior to Opening Day parade,” Dayton Daily News, April 3, 2015: GO.13.

24 Paul Daugherty, “Norm Charlton defined 1990 Reds’ personality,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 25, 2015, https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2015/04/25/doc-normcharlton-1990-reds-mlb-worldseries-champions/26360875/, accessed September 28, 2022.

25 Jerry Crasnick, “Reds pitcher admits throwing at Scioscia,” Cincinnati Post, September 10, 1991.

26 Crasnick, “Reds pitcher admits.”

27 “White suspends Charlton,” San Bernardino County Sun, September 17, 1991: C2.

28 Jerry Crasnick, “Charlton Has Multiple Personalities,” Baseball America, July 25, 1992: 8.

29 Norm Charlton, telephone interview.

30 Nightengale, “Trouble in Triplicate.”

31 Crasnick, “Charlton Has Multiple Personalities.”

32 Nightengale, “Trouble in Triplicate.”

33 Nightengale, “Trouble in Triplicate.”

34 John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt, The Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World Championship (Clerisy Press, 2010): 11.

35 David Ginsburg, “Big brawl interrupts Mariners-O’s game,” Indiana (PA) Gazette, June 7, 1993: 15.; Also during this brawl, Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., in a pile of players, sprained his knee. The following day, his knee was painful and swollen, jeopardizing his consecutive-games streak. After treating it all day, Ripken was able to play and continue his streak, but the Orioles’ shortstop later admitted that the injury “was probably the closest I ever came to missing a game.” Joe Trezza, “How a Brawl Almost Ended Ripken’s Streak,” mlb.com, September 5, 2020.

36 Mark Maske, “Orioles, Mariners Brawl For 20 Minutes,” Washington Post, June 7, 1993: C01

37 “Detroit leaves the door open for Anderson,” San Bernardino County Sun, February 22, 1995: C4.

38 Ross Newhan, “Charlton Cheered, Then Gets Nasty,” Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1995: 1.

39 Mike Gastineau, “The Best Job in the World,” The Grand Salami (May 2001): 13.

40 Newhan, “Charlton Cheered, Then Gets Nasty.”

41 Mark Maske, “Orioles Get Relief with Charlton,” Washington Post, December 16, 1997.

42 Maske, “Orioles Get Relief with Charlton.”

43 “Reds sign LHP Charlton to minor league contract.”

44 Bob Finnigan, “Charlton: the once and future Mariner?” Seattle Times, February 20, 2001: C6.

45 Finnigan, “Charlton: the once and future Mariner?”

46 “Charlton finally calls it quits,” Seattle Times, March 8, 2004.

47 Newhan, “Charlton Cheered, Then Gets Nasty.”

48 Jerry Briggs, “Tenacious Charlton developed a ‘nasty’ reputation,” San Antonio Express-News, January 26, 2013, https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Tenacious-Charlton-developed-a-nasty-reputation-4226660.php#taboola-2, accessed September 28, 2022.

49 David Sikes, “Nasty Boy No More,” Houston Chronicle, July 21, 2017, https://www.pressreader.com/usa/houston-chronicle/20170721/282608852872401, accessed September 28, 2022.

50 Sikes, “Nasty Boy No More.”

51 Crasnick, “Charlton Has Multiple Personalities.”

52 Romano, “For Charlton, game remains child’s play.”

53 Gabriel Baumgaertner, “Far from Baseball, Norm Charlton Looks to Rebuild His Hometown After Hurricane Harvey,” SI.com, September 8, 2017. SI.com, September 8, 2017.

54 Baumgaertner, “Far from Baseball.”

55 Charlton, telephone interview.

56 Gastineau, “The Best Job in the World,” 19.

57 Briggs, “Tenacious Charlton.”

This biography was published in Two Outs, So What!: The 2001 Seattle Mariners (SABR, 2026), edited by Steve Friedman, Eric Vickrey, and Bill Nowlin. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download a free e-book edition or save 50% off your purchase of the paperback edition.

This biography was published in Two Outs, So What!: The 2001 Seattle Mariners (SABR, 2026), edited by Steve Friedman, Eric Vickrey, and Bill Nowlin. Visit SABR.org/ebooks to download a free e-book edition or save 50% off your purchase of the paperback edition.

Fuentes was born in Merced, California, on August 9, 1975, coming from a Mexican-American heritage. Fuentes’ father, David, was a Merced police officer and the Fuentes family has always been well admired in the town.¹ Fuentes discovered his talent when he attended Merced High School and noticed that he had a talent for pitching – the year after being cut from the team as a junior, while trying to make it as a first baseman and outfielder. “It was like the end of the world, getting cut from the team,” Fuentes said. “I was really embarrassed. I’d never been cut from anything. It was a tough time, but I kind of rode it out. And I’m glad I stuck with it. I was raised not to be a quitter.”²

After graduating from high school, Fuentes found his next path at Merced Community College, where he played three seasons for the Blue Devils. The 6-foot-4 left-handed pitcher was drafted in the 25th round of the 1995 free-agent draft, number 678 overall, by the Seattle Mariners. From 1996 through 2000, he pitched for four different teams in the Mariners’ farm system.

The first team was the short-season Single-A Everett AquaSox, for whom he pitched in 13 games in 1996 with a record of 0-1 and a 4.73 ERA. In 1997 Fuentes was advanced to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the low Class-A Midwest League, where he saw more playing time. Fuentes was the starting pitcher in all 22 of his games with a record of 6-7 and an ERA of 4.39.  

In 1998 Fuentes moved up again, to the Lancaster JetHawks of the high-A California League. Still a starter, he was 7-7 with an ERA of 4.17 and 137 strikeouts. Then he spent two seasons with the New Haven Ravens of the Double-A Eastern League. Over the two seasons, still a starter, he was 3-3 and 7-12, with elevated ERAs of 4.95 in 1999 and 4.51 in 2000. The 2001 season was Fuentes’ final stop in the minor leagues; converted to relief duty with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers (Pacific Coast League). His ERA, at 2.94 in 35 games pitched (52 innings) was below 3.00 for the first time in his minor-league career. In June Fuentes was called up by the Mariners, and on June 2, 2001, he made his major-league debut, retiring two Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a brief relief appearance. After relieving in 10 games (1-1, 4.63 ERA in 11⅔ innings), Fuentes was sent back to Tacoma.

After the season Fuentes was traded to the Colorado Rockies with Jose Paniagua and Denny Stark for third baseman Jeff Cirillo. In his first four years as a major-league player, Fuentes had a record of 8-8 with a 4.04 ERA with only four saves in 163 games. The Rockies planned to make him a closer. His unusual side-arm pitching style was often confusing to hitters, and his slider was especially effective against left-handers. Between 2002 and 2004, Fuentes was shuttled back and forth between the Rockies and Triple-A Colorado Springs. In mid-May of 2005 he took over the closer role for the Rockies after Chin-hui Tsao was placed on the DL with a shoulder injury. He quickly showed enough to be selected for the National League All-Star squad, the first reliever and third pitcher in Rockies history to be named an All-Star. His 31 saves in 2005 matched Dave Veres for the third-highest single-season total, trailing only Jose Jimenez and Shawn Chacon. 

In 2006 Fuentes was chosen to help represent the United States in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. “That’s probably the one memory that sticks out most in my mind,” he said years later. “Probably the proudest moment of my career was pitching in the World Baseball Classic. I remember that first game against Canada. To be out on that line wearing USA on your jersey, surrounded by Hall of Famers, while the national anthem played. It was a special feeling.”³

In 2006 Fuentes totaled 30 saves, and his performance earned him his second All-Star Game appearance. He pitched one inning, the sixth, and retired all three batters.

The 2007 season was one of negatives and positives for Fuentes. His dominance as closer started to fade in late June as he blew four saves in an eight-day period. After the fourth blown game, Fuentes was removed from the Rockies’ closing role and replaced by 24-year-old Manuel Corpas. Corpas continued to close for the rest of the 2007 season and into the postseason. Perhaps because Fuentes’ struggles came so close to the midsummer classic, he was named an All-Star for the third straight season. (He did not pitch in the game.)

Asked about the change in Fuentes’ role, manager Clint Hurdle said, “We are going to keep him in the bullpen, but take him out of the role of closing. We just want to try and get him out of the spotlight a little bit and off the burner. We want him to reacquire his weapons and then get him back involved.”⁴ Hurdle said Fuentes took his demotion with class. “He took it like a pro, he’s a high-character guy. He’s already overcome a lot and this is a bump in the road for him. As I’ve told many of the players, this last week won’t define them. Where he goes from here will define him.”                                                                                                           

As it turned out, Fuentes wasn’t the only one being defined that season. The Rockies wound up going on a historic late-season run, winning 13 of their final 14 games of the regular season and defeating the San Diego Padres in a deciding 163rd game to determine the NL wild card. For Fuentes, his appearance in this game was a frustrating one. He struggled with his command in the bottom of the eighth inning, giving up the tying run on two hits. The Rockies eventually won the game in the bottom of the 13th inning, giving the franchise its second playoff berth.

Fuentes’ struggles still lingered but for the first time in his career he was playing in the postseason. He started strong in the Division Series against Philadelphia. In a three-game sweep of the Phillies, Fuentes worked in all three games, was the winner in the deciding game. In 2⅓ innings pitched in the series, he gave up one hit and struck out four.

In the National League Championship Series against Arizona, Fuentes also worked in every game of the four-game sweep, throwing one scoreless inning in each of the first three games. After working six consecutive games without allowing a run, he gave up a three-run homer to the Diamondbacks’ Chris Snyder in Game Four. After a triple followed the homer, Fuentes was lifted for Corpas, and the Rockies held on to win, 6-4. Fuentes earned holds in Games Two and Three.

In the Boston Red Sox’ World Series sweep of the Rockies, Fuentes pitched two scoreless innings in Game Two, helping keep the game close; the Rockies lost, 2-1. The Red Sox held a 6-5 lead in Game Three; Fuentes gave up three runs. In Game Four, the Red Sox held a 3-1 lead after seven innings. Fuentes was called from the bullpen to hold the lead, but surrendered a leadoff homer to Bobby Kielty. Though the Rockies rallied for two in the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox won. Aaron Cook was the losing pitcher.

The season hadn’t ended the way Colorado and Fuentes wanted, but the Rockies were National League champions and had capped off a season of epic proportions.

About a month into the 2008 season, Fuentes regained the closing role. Corpas had been losing velocity and struggling with inconsistency, and the Rockies felt it was time to make Fuentes the closer again. From April 24 to the end of the season, Fuentes racked up 30 saves.

Fuentes, now 33 years old, chose free agency after the 2008 season and took a two-year, $17.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.⁵ Fuentes left the Rockies as their career saves leader (115) and leader in strikeouts by a reliever as well. “It was a great experience all the way around,” he said of his seven years in Colorado. “I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pitch quite a bit and work my way up. I’m definitely happy to have the opportunity to play for a team that I’ve watched for a long time.”⁶

As for his role with the Angels, general manager Tony Reagins committed to stick with Fuentes as his closer while players Scot Shields and Jose Arredondo would take on the seventh- and eighth-inning roles. Former teammates Darren Oliver and Justin Speier were also on the Angels roster. “It’s going to be nice to have a little bit of a comfort zone,” said Fuentes.⁷

Fuentes led the American League with 48 saves in 2009. He was picked for the All-Star Game for the fourth time. The Angels were champions of the AL West Division and swept the Red Sox in three games in the Division Series. Fuentes got saves in Games Two and Three, pitching 1⅔ hitless innings. The Angels lost the ALCS to the New York Yankees in six games. Fuentes pitched in three of the games and got a save in Game Five. All told, he gave up one hit and one run in three innings of work.    

The following year, 2010, was a different story as Fuentes struggled with his command. Manager Mike Scioscia had to call upon other relievers to help spell Fuentes late in games. In late August he was traded to the Minnesota Twins for a minor leaguer. Because the Twins already had a reliable closer in Matt Capps, manager Ron Gardenhire made Fuentes the eighth-inning setup man. Gardenhire said, “It’s a positive whenever you can acquire a player of his caliber, a closer from another team, to help fill out your bullpen. We knew he was out there, and as all players go through waivers, we put in a claim for him along with everyone else. We got to him first, and he got to us.”⁸ 

As for Fuentes, the trade brought a sense of comfort and relief. Of his Angels experience, he said, “It was funny. I felt like I was pitching on the road quite a bit. I came in to a lot of boos, but the fans here come out in droves. They’re here to be entertained. They’re entertained one way or another, through my frustrations or through my success. I felt like I’ve given them a lot more success than failure.”⁹ 

Fuentes pitched in 9⅔ innings for the Twins in September as they wrapped up the AL Central Division title. They were swept by the Yankees in three games in the Division Series. Fuentes pitched in two of the games, giving up one hit in 2⅔ innings.

Once again Fuentes was on the move when he signed as a free agent with the Oakland Athletics for 2012 and was demoted from being a closer. Released in July, he pitched briefly for the St. Louis Cardinals. (He requested time off in August for personal reasons.) He retired after the season. In the major leagues he had 26 wins and 43 losses, with 204 saves and a 3.62 ERA. He was a four-time All-Star.

As of 2017 Fuentes lived in his hometown, Merced, with his wife and four children.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

¹ Susan Slusser, “Brian Fuentes: From a Modest Start to Bold Relief,” SF Gate, March 8, 2011, sfgate.com/athletics/article/Brian-Fuentes-From-a-modest-start-to-bold-relief-2456206.php.

² Ibid.

³ Sean Lynch, “Merced’s Fuentes Announces Retirement from Baseball,” Merced (California) Sun-Star, November 14, 2012. mercedsunstar.com/news/local/article3271946.html#storylink=cpy.

⁴ Patrick Saunders, “Fuentes Out as Rockies Closer,” June 30, 2007. denverpost.com/2007/06/30/fuentes-out-as-rockies-closer/Notes.

⁵ Associated Press, “Angels Agree to Terms With Brian Fuentes,” ESPN.com, December 31, 2008, espn.com/espn/wire/_/section/mlb/id/3802383.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Mark Saxon, “Twins Get Angels LHP Brian Fuentes.” ESPN.com, August 28, 2010, espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=5504887.

⁹ Ibid.

Mark Langston, Mike Campbell, John Halama, Carlos Guillén, Freddy García, Brad Halsey, Dioner Navarro, Javier Vázquez, Alberto González, Steven Jackson, Ross Ohlendorf, Luis Vizcaíno. These dozen men were traded, in different transactions, for Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. While they share a bond, their major-league careers took different paths. Several would play in the World Series; some in All-Star Games; a few in the Caribbean Series; and others in the World Baseball Classic. Only one – García – would win a game in all four competitions, a feat unmatched as of 2024 by any other player in baseball history.

García was born on October 6, 1976, in Caracas, Venezuela. The year produced four other big- leaguers: Kelvim Escobar, Ramón Hernández, Alex Prieto, and Liu Rodríguez, a bumper crop of talent for the South American nation. Up north, the Cincinnati Reds would win their second consecutive World Series, sweeping the Yankees in their first postseason of the George Steinbrenner era. Fidel Castro’s Cuba had been shut down as a baseball factory; Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic had taken its place. Farther south, agents Peter and Edward Greenberg saw an opening in Venezuela and focused their attention there; at one point, 80 percent of their clients were from the country.1

Two days after turning 17, Freddy signed with the Houston Astros. Unlike many of his peers, García began his professional career not back home, but rather in the United States. The Astros assigned him to the Gulf Coast League; he appeared in 11 games and showcased a 6-3 record with a 4.47 ERA. The team featured seven would-be major leaguers, with García and his countryman Guillén the only ones of consequence. The tandem spent the winter with the Navegantes of Magallanes, for whom García appeared in five games; his statistics were far from inspiring: He allowed 21 baserunners in 13 2/3 innings.

The Class-A Midwest League was García’s home in 1996. Quad Cities won its division, with García providing a sparkling 3.12 ERA in 60 2/3 innings, almost a full run better than the 3.94 league average. At 19, he was more than two years younger than his adversaries, but he handled the pressure quite well; however, his winter experience was not quite as successful; he pitched in only three games, all in relief, allowing six baserunners in 2 2/3 frames.

Houston was inspired by his prior success and sent García to the Florida State League’s Kissimmee club in the spring of 1997. The Cobras won their division and led the league in ERA; Freddy and future big-leaguer Wade Miller provided a formidable one-two punch with a 20-10 combined record. Perhaps concerned with his youth, the Astros kept him at high A rather than promote him to the more advanced circuits. He tasted his first real success with Magallanes, pitching in 17 games (five starts) and allowing 3.20 runs per game. His control was spotty; he walked 19 while fanning 25. Garcia’s “true outcome” (strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed) performance robbed fielders of two out of three chances, raising his pitch count and prompting questions of his focus.

In 1998 García hurled 133 2/3 innings for the Texas League’s Jackson team and the Pacific Coast League’s New Orleans franchise, striking out almost a batter per inning, but his potential was pitted against Houston’s “win-now” mindset. In the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Mariners were a franchise at a crossroads. From their inception in 1977 until 1994, they had enjoyed only two winning seasons. The 1987 draft brought reason for joy as Seattle chose Ken Griffey Jr. with the first pick; “The Kid,” as he would be known, was a blue-chipper; a true “can’t-miss prospect,” and as of 2024, one of only four top selections enshrined in Cooperstown (Harold Baines, Joe Mauer, and Chipper Jones being the others). In 1995 the Mariners overcame a 13-game deficit on August 2 to tie, and then defeat, the California Angels in a one-game tiebreaker for their first Western Division crown. A young core of Griffey and Alex Rodríguez joined veterans Edgar Martínez and Randy Johnson for another two winning seasons before Johnson demanded a trade in the summer of 1998. Seattle had gambled by looking at the cards on its hand – a two-time MVP in Griffey, a two-time batting champion in Martínez, and the third youngest batting champion in history (Rodríguez), two rubber-armed, inning-eating left-handed veterans – Jamie Moyer and Jeff Fassero – and traded Johnson for three rookies (Guillén, García, and Halama).

The Big Unit was an absolute beast for Houston, winning 10 out of 11 decisions down the stretch as the team crossed the century-win mark for the first time. The fairy tale ended against eventual NL champion San Diego, and Johnson bolted for Arizona in the offseason. García, on the other hand, won three games for Tacoma and earned a spot in the Seattle 1999 rotation. He sought more winter work and appeared in 15 games for the Navegantes but again struggled to keep the opposition off the bases, highlighted by a 1.641 WHIP.

Seattle’s future seemed bright, with a brand-new ballpark, Safeco Field (later renamed T-Mobile Park) replacing the monstrous granite monolith known as the Kingdome. Baseball America anointed García as the 61st best prospect entering the 1999 season.2 Manager Lou Piniella entrusted García as the third starter; all García did in return was lead the team in wins (17) and strikeouts (170) and finish second in Rookie of the Year voting and ninth in Cy Young Award balloting. He debuted at home on April 7 against the White Sox in front of 21,050 fans eager to see the centerpiece of the Johnson trade. García did not disappoint; pitching 5 2/3 innings, he scattered seven hits, walked two, struck out five, balked once, and allowed two runs, making for a nice assortment of outcomes from his 94 pitches. He struck out his first batter, Ray Durham, but was harmed by his countryman Magglio Ordóñez’s double to score Frank Thomas in the first. The Mariners provided Garcia with five runs and García earned the win, pitching a perfect fifth inning and getting two outs in the sixth before being replaced by José Paniagua to the cheers of the Seattle faithful.

On August 7 García earned a hard lesson as the defending (and eventually repeating) Yankees visited Safeco. Although García hurled a complete game, struck out 10, and allowed only three hits, he was bested by Andy Pettitte, Mike Stanton, and Mariano Rivera, none of whose 11 baserunners crossed the plate. Scott Brosius’s sacrifice fly to score former Mariner Tino Martínez was the difference in a 1-0 beauty. Although the team dipped to a 79-83 record, optimism was in the air.

García’s April 2000 record (2-1) belied some ugly figures. He gave the team 18 innings but was hit hard; 14 runs were charged to his totals. On April 21 he injured his knee while covering first base and landed on the disabled list; he was far from alone, as the snake-bitten Mariners had previously lost Moyer and Martínez. John Mabry and Mike Cameron would also miss time.3 After 17 strong rehabilitation frames, García returned to Seattle on July 7, delivering six innings in a 3-2 loss to the Dodgers. He was both durable and valuable the rest of the way, ending 9-5 for the 91-71 club. García opened the first game in the Division Series but the White Sox hammered him for four runs on six hits and three walks. In the type of irony only baseball can sometimes provide, the last batter he faced was Durham, whom he had struck out in his first start. The Mariners, however, won both the game and the series in a 3-0 sweep.

The Yankees had been dominated by García’s stuff the prior summer; he was nothing short of spectacular in the Championship Series. In the series opener, he struck out eight and scattered two walks and three hits in 6 2/3 innings. His teammates crossed the plate twice, giving him the needed support, as the Mariners took a one games to none lead. The Yankees won the next three games, putting the Mariners on the brink of elimination, but García was once again on the mound on Game Five in Seattle. Pitching five innings, he allowed two runs and seven hits, leaving the game with a 6-2 lead his mates would not relinquish. The Yankees closed the Series two days later, but the baseball world would take notice of Seattle’s new ace.

Despite the disappointment of the prior October, the Mariners began 2001 on a roll. The team had lost Rodríguez to free agency but landed Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki, who like Madonna, Prince, or Liberace would soon become famous enough to go by one name and win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Awards. The club roared to a modern record 116 wins, with García contributing a career-high 18 wins, 238 2/3 innings, and a 3.05 ERA. He finished third in the Cy Young Award voting, and joined teammates Suzuki, Bret Boone, John Olerud, Martínez, Cameron, and Kazuhiro Sasaki in front of the hometown fans for the All-Star Game. Throwing only seven pitches, García retired Chipper Jones, Jeff Kent, and Rich Aurilia in the third inning. The junior circuit scored in the bottom half, giving him the win while Sasaki earned the save in the ninth.

The juggernaut faced the dangerous Indians in the 2001 League Championship Series and García was given the ball in the first contest. Although he struck out eight, he allowed four runs on a string of seven well-placed singles, two doubles, and two walks. His mound opponent, Bartolo Colón, scattered eight baserunners across eight innings, baffling the Mariners with 10 punchouts. The duo had a rematch in Game Four with reversed roles; although both went six-plus innings, it was García who earned the win by allowing one earned run (an additional one unearned) on four hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. Seattle went on to win Game Five and earn a rematch against New York.

Three runs separated the two franchises but ultimately the Yankees prevailed, four games to one. García was a hard-luck loser in Game Two; the second inning was his downfall, as a Brosius double scored Tino Martínez and Jorge Posada; Brosius himself would score later on Chuck Knoblauch’s single. The Mariners answered with a pair in the fourth but that was all the scoring the game would see.

In 2002 Oakland and New York won 103 games, Anaheim 99. The Mariners won 93 and stayed home during the postseason. A regression from the mean was to be expected, and García was not an exception. He won 16 games, but his ERA grew to 4.39 though he recorded 181 strikeouts; his record through June (11-5) earned him another All-Star nod. While he did not pick up the win, no one else did either; the 73rd midsummer classic ended as a 7-7 tie when both teams ran out of pitchers. García retired the side in the bottom of the 11th to some boos; he had entered the game in the prior inning and had even picked up an at-bat. Perhaps frazzled from the exercise, he went 5-5 the rest of the year as Seattle was surpassed by both Oakland and Anaheim and missed the postseason.

The next year proved to be disappointing as the Mariners again finished 93-69 but failed to reach the playoffs. García experienced his first losing record in the major leagues, winning 12 games but losing 14. His ERA increased to 4.51 and his control was spotty; he hit 11 batters, unleashed 11 wild pitches, and walked 71. The Mariners were inconsistent in their run support; while they averaged 4.41 runs during his starts, they scored two or fewer in 15 of his games while crossing double-digits in five others. Nevertheless, Garcia’s ERA was north of 5.00 for most of the season before he closed September with 27 strong innings (3 runs, 15 hits, 20 strikeouts).

García’s hard luck continued in 2004 as he started 15 games for the Mariners. Despite a 3.20 ERA over 107 innings, he was 4-7 before Seattle traded him to the White Sox. He and batterymate Ben Davis went to Chicago for prospects Mike Morse and Jeremy Reed and catcher Miguel Olivo. Although Garcia allowed more runs with the White Sox, he increased his strikeout performance and went 9-4 the rest of the way, for a combined 13-11 season, his fourth consecutive double-digit-win campaign. Chicago was in its first year with Ozzie Guillén as manager and García felt comfortable with his countryman at the helm. The relationship was beneficial in 2005, when the White Sox broke their 88-year drought atop the baseball world, winning the World Series with a dominating 99 regular-season wins and a 13-1 romp over their October rivals.

García pitched to a 3.87 ERA in 33 starts, picking up 14 victories along the way. The team had solid pitching, with Mark Buehrle, García, Jon Garland, and José Contreras all surpassing 200 innings and 30 starts. Given the team’s dominance, García pitched in only one game in each of the postseason series but grew stronger as the leaves fell. He provided five acceptable innings against Boston (three runs), a complete game against the Angels (two runs), and then a masterful seven frames against the Astros (seven strikeouts, four hits, three walks) in the World Series clincher, winning all three games for a storybook October.

If García was on cloud nine after winning a ring, he soon leapt to a 10th one. After years of discussion, a multinational competition modeled after the soccer World Cup was finally a reality. The World Baseball Classic occupied the attention of the sport’s fans everywhere, and Venezuela was no exception. Twenty-five of the team’s 30 members were current major leaguers; All-Stars were at every position.4 Placed in Pool D, the country dropped its first game against the powerhouse Dominican Republic, 11-5. As Italy had blanked Australia 10-0, the second contest became a must-win, and manager Luis Sojo called upon García. The pitcher dominated the Europeans (and American-born players representing “the old country” like Mike Piazza and Frank Menechino), allowing one walk and one hit while striking out seven in 3 1/3 innings. Under WBC rules, strict pitch counts were in effect, so García picked up the win despite throwing only 61 pitches.5 Venezuela advanced to the second round with a 2-0 victory over Australia but found itself in a proverbial “group of death” with the Dominicans, the Cubans, and the Puerto Ricans. Once again Venezuela dropped the first game, 7-2 against Cuba, but rebounded with a 6-0 win over host Puerto Rico. García took the mound for the series finale, a loser-goes-home affair against the Dominican Republic. Thousands of fans from both sides were present at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium and they witnessed a beauty as the teams were tied, 1-1, after six innings. The starters, Daniel Cabrera and García, were both lifted after four innings. García had allowed one run in the first frame before the Venezuelans tied it. Kelvim Escobar provided a solid three innings but was charged with a loss as Alberto Castillo scored an unearned run.6

The 2006 edition of the White Sox dropped to third place in its division with a solid yet unspectacular 90-72 record. The Twins and Tigers won 96 and 95, respectively, with the latter winning the pennant. García delivered another strong season, leading the team in innings pitched (216 1/3) en route to 17 wins and a 4.53 ERA. Controversy surrounded him in early May, as the Venezuelan newspaper Líder reported that he had tested positive for marijuana during the WBC.7 While this merited a two-year ban from the International Baseball Federation, it had no effect on his major-league status and no action was taken. García did not miss a single start, winning his last four, with a masterful performance on September 13. Facing the Angels on the road, he took a perfect game into the eighth inning before allowing a single to Adam Kennedy on his 100th pitch. García did not second-guess himself: “I threw the right pitch,” he said, noting that his 8-1 career mark at Angel Stadium gave him confidence.8 Although he was not as dominant six days later – this time he allowed two walks alongside one hit – his pristine eight innings helped the White Sox defeat the Tigers and pull his club within 4½ games of the wild-card spot; it was the closest they would get before finishing five games off Detroit’s pace.

On December 6, 2006, the White Sox surprised their fans by trading García to the Phillies for Gavin Floyd and Gio González. Philadelphia was a team on the rise, with a trio of All-Stars in the infield (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jimmy Rollins). The team needed pitching, as the rotation was slated to feature now 44-year-old Moyer and hot 23-year-old prospect Cole Hamels. García had earned a reputation as a big-game pitcher during his stay in Chicago to go along with his durability. He had thrown six consecutive 200-inning seasons, each with 30 starts. Though he would enter the season as a 30-year-old with over 1,600 professional innings pitched, the Phillies allegedly relied on Chicago’s medical staff reports.9 They paid dearly for their oversight, as García suffered through a miserable, injury-riddled campaign, starting 11 games and posting an unsightly 5.90 ERA. Though he attempted to play through his ailments, he eventually capitulated and visited pitching savior Dr. James Andrews to repair his labrum.10 Philadelphia had surrendered two prospects and $10 million for exactly one win.

Since García was set to enter the free-agent market, his arm troubles undoubtedly cost him a fortune. Rehabilitating for most of 2008, he signed a short-term deal with Detroit that showed initial promise: His first game in almost a year yielded five solid innings, facing 18 batters, yielding one run on two hits, striking out three while issuing one walk. Six days later he was rocked by Kansas City, allowing five runs in five innings. A last start against the White Sox was inconclusive; he did not figure in the decision despite hurling five more frames of two-run ball. His season line was 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA on the strength of 206 pitches, and the Tigers declined to bring him back. García sought extra work back home in the 2008-2009 campaign, throwing seven ineffective innings (4 runs, 10 baserunners) for Magallanes.

The New York Mets signed García in early 2009 but released him before the end of April after a disappointing stint with their Triple-A affiliate Buffalo (11 innings, 10 runs). He was at a crossroads but a familiar location would soon beckon him to return. Chicago reached out to García and both sides agreed to a deal. He went back to basics and spent time with Bristol of the Appalachian League, Kannapolis of the South Atlantic League, and Charlotte of the International League before the White Sox recalled him. He appeared in nine games down the stretch, averaging roughly six innings per contest with a respectable 4.34 ERA.

Named the fourth starter, García entered 2010 with certainty for the first time in a few years. He gave the team a solid 157 innings, good for a 12-6 record on a 4.64 ERA. He surpassed 100 pitches five times, including an August 27 matchup against the Yankees (seven innings, one earned run). Little did he know it was far from just a late-season game but rather an unexpected audition. Though the Yankees won 95 games and earned the wild card, their pitching was suspect in the LCS vs. the Texas Rangers. Eager to return to the World Series, the team inked García to a one-year, incentive-laden deal and he proved to be a wise investment for 2011, contributing 12 wins and a 3.62 ERA in 26 games. He was handed the ball in the Division Series, an odd five-game affair that the Yankees dominated batting- and pitchingwise but lost, as Detroit won the close games and New York won the blowouts. García gave up three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings but Max Scherzer dominated the Yankees bats to win the second game of the series. This was a different version of García; on the wrong side of 30, he relied on his other pitches rather than attempt to overpower everyone with his fastball. In a 2011 interview, he cited a “new attitude; you have to, ’cause that’s your job and you gotta get people out.”11 Earlier in his career, Moyer had prompted him to “take it easy, breathe … you got the stuff” but the bravado of youth (and a strong fastball) had carried him to success.12 Guile and experience now accompanied García on the mound.

The Yankees brass eagerly brought García back in 2012, but the magic was gone. He pitched his way out of the rotation with a 12.51 April ERA. His next 10 games as a reliever were the opposite; a sparkling 1.56 ERA in 17 1/3 innings, but injuries to New York starters returned him to the rotation and he opened 13 games with a 4.67 ERA before wrapping up the year in the bullpen. His emotional apex was a July 24 contest against the Mariners; he shared the mound with the young fireballer Félix Hernández, who wore uniform number 34 in honor of García. In an episode pitting the ghosts of Christmas past and Christmas present, the all-time Venezuelan wins leader (García) was bested by the heir apparent (Hernández) in a 4-2 affair.

As 2013 began, García was looking for employment. A few clubs inquired about his services, and the Padres signed him on January 28. He was released at the end of spring training, but quickly found a suitor in Baltimore. He was ineffective as the Orioles’ fifth starter, starting 10 games and allowing 34 earned runs in 53 innings. Atlanta purchased his contract for the stretch run, and his second foray into the National League was much more successful than his first; García allowed five runs in 27 1/3 innings for the Braves, helping them to the division title. He was pitted against Clayton Kershaw in the last game of the LDS, with both pitchers throwing six frames of two-run ball. The Dodgers bullpen proved to be stronger, and Los Angeles won the series.

García still had a lot of baseball left in him. In 2014 He joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan, inking with the EDA Rhinos, following in the footsteps of Manny Ramírez, who had played in 49 contests the prior year.13 The siren song of his homeland proved irresistible, and he suited for the Tigres of Aragua in the 2014-2015 season, his first appearance in six years. He was on the mound for 27 innings (regular and postseason), allowing eight runs en route to a 2-1 mark.14

After a few weeks of rest and eager to prove his value, García signed with the Mexican Baseball League’s Olmecas of Tabasco for the 2015 season, catching the eye of the Dodgers brass, who offered him a contract with its Triple-A affiliate. He performed poorly and returned to Tabasco before turning his season around with the Sultanes of Monterrey. Overall in Triple A he threw 76 1/3 frames with a 4.38 ERA with an impressive 51/11 strikeout/walk split. Perhaps suffering from fatigue, he struggled with Aragua in eight starts, yielding a 5.17 ERA in the regular season. All was forgotten, though, as the Tigres won the Venezuelan title with García starting one game in the playoffs, giving him the opportunity to perform on a grand stage: the 2016 Caribbean Series.

Former major leaguer Eddie Pérez led the Venezuelan team and put great responsibility on the right-hander’s broad shoulders: “Freddy is our guy. To me, he’s the right guy at the right time. Freddy has pitched in situations bigger than this, better and in worse.”15 The Dominican Republic hosted and dedicated the event to Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. García announced his retirement at the conclusion of the series; he started game one against Puerto Rico’s Cangrejeros of Santurce and pitched six innings while allowing only one run to earn a tough victory.16 Aragua met Mexico’s representatives, the Venados of Mazatlán, in the tournament final but lost a heartbreaker when Jorge Vázquez homered to break a 4-4 tie in the ninth inning. García was named to the all-tournament team for his performance, the eldest statesman of the group.

In 2016 Monterrey requested his return, and García appeared in five games. Although his control was impeccable (7/1 K/BB ratio), he was hit hard with a 5.01 ERA. Nevertheless, he won two games as the club was an offensive juggernaut with a league-leading .464 slugging percentage en route to a 72-39 record and the northern division title. He sat out the winter but made a triumphant return to Aragua in November for 2017. At the ripe age of 41, he announced his intention to retire at season’s end and, against all odds, enjoyed his best Venezuelan season. Winning four games with an 11-1 K/BB ratio for Aragua, he earned the Comeback Player of the Year Award.17 Earlier in the season, the All-Star game was dedicated to him; Edgar Navega, president of the Unique Association of Venezuelan Professional Baseball Players (Asociación Única de Peloteros Profesionales de Venezuela), announced the honor by stating, “Freddy García has been a pitcher who has gifted many great moments to both baseball and Venezuela; for a long time he was the pitcher with most major-league wins.”18

The Tigres made the postseason but bowed out during the round-robin; the eventual champion Caribes of Anzoategui picked him up as a reinforcement for the finals and García contributed 8 2/3 innings in two starts. The triumph afforded García another shot at the Caribbean Series title; the bitter taste of the 2016 defeat still stung: “[I]t would be wonderful. … You know, I tried doing it two years back and we lost in the last inning against México. In short series like these, a team can go on a streak. … A lot of things can happen.”19 The event was bittersweet as its original location, Venezuela, was changed to México due to the unrest in Venezuela. García started game two against the Águilas Cibeañas but struggled early, allowing three runs in 4 2/3 innings. He left with the lead and his teammates put on an offensive show, crossing the plate 15 times.

As the seasons changed, Yucatán was impressed and persuaded García to sign with the Leones. Starting five games, he went 2-2. His 5.32 ERA looks lofty, but the league is offense-oriented; the average mark was 5.06 during the 2018 campaign. He followed up his performance with 14 2/3 innings in the 2018-2019 Venezuelan season, although his start in the finals was rocky (two innings pitched, four runs allowed, six baserunners). Upon his retirement from the major leagues, García was the career leader among Venezuelans in wins (156), games started (357), and innings pitched (2,264), but he has since been surpassed by Felix Hernández in all three categories.

García has earned his place in the nation’s Mount Rushmore of pitchers, alongside Santana (51.08 WAR), Hernández (50.34 WAR), and Carlos Zambrano (38.32 WAR).20 García’s numbers were remarkably consistent: His home ERA, 4.13, was a shade lower than his road mark of 4.18. Batters hit .258 off him during both the first and second halves of his seasons. He was very effective when the bases were loaded, limiting hitters to a .521 OPS and no grand slams. In 181 of his career games – almost half of his tally – hitters were less successful on his 101st and subsequent pitches, with their average dropping to .235. Beyond the success against the Angels, he was dominant in interleague games, going 25-11 with a 2.84 ERA in 43 starts.

With over 3,000 career innings pitched in the major, minor, and winter leagues, García appeared on the 2019 National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot but did not garner a single vote, and was dropped from future consideration by the baseball writers.

Last revised: March 1, 2025

Acknowledgments

JJ Montilla, Venezuelan sportswriter, for sharing the Venezuelan Baseball reference site Pelota Binaria, which includes winter league statistics.

Pete Palmer and Jim Wheeler for detailed disabled-list records.

Notes

1 Peter J. Schwartz, “Baseball’s Best Agents,” Forbes, June 22, 2007. https://www.forbes.com/2007/06/20/mlb-greenberg-baseball-biz_cz_ps_0622baseballagents.html#11f2825c19fc.

2 http://www.thebaseballcube.com/prospects/byTeam.asp?T=26&Src=BA.

3 “Mariners Overcome Injuries,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2000. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-apr-22-sp-22373-story.html.

4 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/2006_World_Baseball_Classic_(Rosters)#Venezuela.

5 http://mlb.mlb.com/wbc/2009/stats/boxscore.jsp?gid=2006_03_08_itaint_venint_1.

6 http://mlb.mlb.com/wbc/2009/stats/boxscore.jsp?gid=2006_03_14_venint_domint_1.

7 “Sox Downplay Garcia Marijuana Report,” Chicago Tribune, May 2, 2006. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-05-02-0605020277-story.html, May 2, 2006.

8 Mark Gonzales, “García Flirts with Perfection as White Sox Beat Angels,” Chicago Tribune, September 13, 2006. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-060913soxgamer-story.html.

9 “Freddy García: Damaged Goods?” Seattle Times, June 19, 2007. https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/freddy-garcia-damaged-goods/.

10 “Shoulder Surgery Ends 2007 Season for Phillies’ García,” ESPN, August 30, 2007. https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2997866.

11 Steve Serby, “Serby’s Sunday Q&A with … Freddy García,” New York Post, May 15, 2011. https://nypost.com/2011/05/15/serbys-sunday-q-a-with-freddy-garcia/.

12 Serby.

13 Jay Jaffe, “Former All-Star Freddy García to Play Professionally in Taiwan,” SI.com, April 18, 2014. https://www.si.com/mlb/strike-zone/2014/04/18/freddy-garcia-signs-with-team-in-taiwan.

14 http://www.pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/mostrar.php?ID=garcfre001.

15 “Freddy García Reportedly Will Call It a Career After 15 Major League Seasons,” Fox Sports, February 7, 2016. https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/freddy-garcia-retiring-after-15-seasons-in-the-majors-020716.

16 https://www.mlb.com/gameday/puerto-rico-vs-venezuela/2016/02/01/459926#game_state=final,game_tab=box,game=459926.

17 http://www.pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/premios.php.

18 “Juego de las estrellas será en homenaje a Freddy García,” meridiano.com, November 22, 2017. http://www.meridiano.com.ve/beisbol/beisbol-venezolano/168510/juego-de-las-estrellas-sera-en-homenaje-a-freddy-garcia.html.

19 Rubén Castro, “Freddy García vive su última Serie del Caribe con Venezuela,” ESPN Deportes, February 3, 2018. https://espndeportes.espn.com/beisbol/seriedelcaribe2018/nota/_/id/3945916/freddy-garcia-vive-su-ultima-serie-del-caribe-con-venezuela.

20 As of the end of 2020.