Greg Blosser

At age 17, outfielder Greg Blosser was a prime prospect. The Boston Red Sox made him their first selection in the June 1989 draft, ahead of both Mo Vaughn and Jeff Bagwell. Scout George Digby said of the Sarasota (Florida) High School product, “He’s the best hitter to come out of this state since Mike Greenwell. At this stage of their development, he’s as good a hitter, if not better, than Greenwell.”1 Among Digby’s other signings for the Red Sox (in addition to Greenwell) were Wade Boggs and Jody Reed.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Blosser was coming off a highly successful three seasons of high school ball. He was a big part of the Sarasota High teams that won state championships in 1987 and 1989. In the latter year, the Sailors went 32-1 and were ranked #1 in the country by USA Today.2 The previous summer, Blosser had been named to the U.S. Junior National team.

His high school coach, Clyde Metcalf, said of Blosser, “People talk about his towering home runs and power. But he was a tremendously pure hitter. He had a great approach at the plate.”3 Yet as it developed, he appeared in just 22 games in the majors, all for Boston, in 1993 and 1994. He was only 22 when his big-league days were done.

Nonetheless, the tall blond lefty played on in the minors through 2000, with a stint in Japan in 1999. He stayed active in the Atlantic League in 2000 and 2001, making brief comebacks in that indie circuit in 2003 and 2008.

***

Gregory Brent Blosser was born on June 26, 1971, in Manatee, Florida. His father was Brent Blosser (1955-2015). Brent was a sheriff’s deputy and wound up serving for 30 years in the Sarasota Police Department. He was a homicide investigator later in his time with the department; he also worked for FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) as a pharmaceutical diversion unit head.

Brent and his wife Cindy (née Disbrow) raised two boys, Greg and Doug, who was five years younger. They also had two daughters named Amy and Laura.4 Cindy Blosser, Greg said in a March 2023 interview, “was a homemaker. She worked as a secretary for a construction company. It was a pretty basic middle- or lower-middle-class upbringing.”5 Doug was a third-round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1995, He had played three seasons as a professional ballplayer when his life was cut short by an automobile accident at age 21.

There was quite a tradition of baseball in the Blosser family. Brent Blosser coached Little League and Babe Ruth ball and also served as hitting coach for Sarasota High for many years. “He taught both me and my brother,” Greg said. “He was there with Scooter Gennett. Ian Desmond was there. A lot of those good players, my dad brought through high school as a hitting instructor. He was very simple. Old school. Try to drive the ball through the middle.”

Brent Blosser had won a state championship with Sarasota High in 1973. Also an outfielder, he had the winning base hit in the Sailors’ 1-0 victory in the deciding game.6 In addition to Greg’s two state championship teams, Doug was on two more in 1993 and 1994 – for a Blosser family total of five.7

Growing up in Sarasota, Greg played for his father in Little League and Babe Ruth baseball. In July 1985, he was part of the state Babe Ruth All-Star team – pitching or playing outfield.

He then went to Sarasota High, where in addition to baseball, he was quarterback, tight end, and wide receiver on the football team. In 1987, Blosser led the Sailors in batting at .433 as they won another state championship. Greg’s younger brother Doug was batboy on the team. Father Brent, in addition to his coaching, also handled the public address announcements for team games. Sarasota again won on their home field, Payne Park; Greg Blosser both drove in the team’s first run and, on defense, made the final out.8 Sarasota had a record of 36-1. Greg was named to Florida’s Class 4A All-State team.9

Sarasota was 25-5 in 1988, losing the state title in the final championship game. In 1988, Greg was part of the National Junior Baseball Championship team (the Junior Olympic team) which competed in South Dakota. Since his sophomore year, he had attracted the attention of baseball scouts.10

In December 1988, Greg traveled to Sydney, Australia for the World Youth Championship. He hit .526 with two home runs in the tournament, and the U.S. team beat the Cuban squad 8-1 in the final game to win the gold medal.11 He said he might well have played for Team USA four years later as well: “I was slated to go to the ’92 Olympic team if I had gone to college, but I went to go play pro ball.”

In his senior year, Greg struggled early in the season, hitting below .300. Coach Metcalf (who had been a teammate of Brent Blosser in high school) said, “Greg is so competitive, so driven, that he eats himself up sometime. I’m sure the slump had something to do with that.”12

But Blosser worked his way out of it, finishing at .381 with 32 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 33 games.13 As a right fielder, he threw out seven runners at home plate.14 He helped the Sailors reclaim the state title from Jacksonville Sandalwood, the team that had beaten them the year before. In the six games of the 1989 state finals, he hit .574 with eight RBIs. He was 4-for-4 with a 400-foot two-run homer in the final game.15 In addition to USA Today, Collegiate Baseball Magazine also ranked the Sailors #1 in the nation.16

Coach Metcalf said that Blosser had committed to go to Mississippi State on a full scholarship, but that he was ready to turn pro if the offer was good enough.17 It was – reportedly the bonus was around $185,000, making him “Boston’s biggest bonus baby ever.”18

In 1989, no longer playing with an aluminum bat, Blosser hit .288 in 40 games of rookie ball for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox and .255 in 28 games for the Winter Haven Red Sox of the Florida State League (Class A). Mike Greenwell had sent Blosser a package of batting gloves and the like, and what he hoped might be some useful advice.19 In September, Blosser was named to the GCL All-Star team.

Greg married young; he and his first wife, Tiffany, had their first child – Bobbi Lynne – in 1990. A son, Brandon, was born in 1992. There later was a second marriage, in 2000, to Kelley Aderhold. They divorced seven or eight years later.

Blosser’s first full year in professional baseball was in 1990. He played in 119 games for the Lynchburg Red Sox, in the Class-A+ Carolina League. In the year he turned 19, he hit .282 with a league-leading 18 homers and 62 runs batted in.

After he was advanced to Double-A and the New Britain Red Sox in 1991, his season started with a “dreadful April”: 22 strikeouts in 51 at-bats and an .078 average.20 He recovered to a degree, but it was a very disappointing year overall, ending with a .217 batting average in 520 plate appearances. He walked 63 times but had 114 strikeouts.21

Blosser built on some lessons learned and bumped his average up to .242 in a second season with the BritSox. The strikeouts remained high (122) and the walks were almost identical (64). It was his fourth year as a pro and he was still in Double A – but he looked around and realized that most of the players on the team were 25 or 26, and he had just turned 21. “That’s when I slap myself and say, ‘Hey, you’re still young.’” He was learning, he said, to be a power hitter but “not a swing-for-the-fences, Canseco power hitter. I can hit the ball a long way, but I want to hit .280 every year.”22 Despite hitting in spacious Beehive Field, he homered 22 times, a franchise record and three behind the league leader. Baseball America named him the top power hitter in the Eastern League.23 He had one plate appearance at Triple-A Pawtucket in 1992 and drew a base on balls.

In 1993 Blosser was with the PawSox for the full season. One thing noted was his improved outfield defense after hard work on it during 1992.24 In 130 games, his batting average was a disappointing .228, but he hit 23 homers and drove in 66 runs. Strikeouts were still high, but his 58 walks bumped up his on-base percentage to .312.

After the PawSox season concluded, Blosser was called up to Boston. His debut was at Fenway Park on September 5. With the Royals ahead 5-1, manager Butch Hobson had Blosser pinch-hit for Tony Peña in the bottom of the seventh. He grounded out to third base. On September 8, he got his first starting assignment, as the designated hitter in Chicago. He was 0-for-4. On September 11, playing left field on the road in Cleveland, he recorded his first base hit: a single through the hole and into left field. He stole second base but was out on the next play, when he was doubled up, 6-7-4, after Peña hit a pop fly to the shortstop.

Blosser appeared in 17 games, entering nine of them as a pinch-hitter. He had just one other hit, an October 1 double to right field at Fenway against the Brewers. He was sacrificed to third base and scored on a wild pitch. It was the only run he scored. He was 2-for-28 (.071) with a pair of walks. He’d handled 12 chances in the field without an error.

After some extra work in the Arizona Fall League, Blosser started the 1994 season with Boston. There was some optimism; sportswriter Joe Giuliotti even ventured that “If he gets a chance to play on a semi-regular basis, Blosser may swing himself into the Rookie of the Year race.”25 Giuliotti said he was “a different hitter than he was last season when he had only one extra-base hit in spring training and just two hits…after a September call-up. He learned not to try and hit a home run on every pitch.”26

He appeared in five April games. The first was in Boston on April 7. Starting in right field, he singled into left off Detroit’s Tim Belcher in the bottom of the second inning, driving in John Valentin with the first run in a 9-6 win. He walked to lead off the fourth and came around, scoring on a bases-loaded walk to Andre Dawson. In his first two starts, he committed three errors. In his third start, in Kansas City on April 12, the Red Sox beat the Royals, 22-11. He walked twice, scoring one of those times on a Mo Vaughn home run.

Blosser was 1-for-11 (.091), with one RBI and two runs scored. He was 23 years old, but as things transpired, his time in the major leagues had ended. He was sent to Pawtucket on April 20 so he could get more work. He played for the PawSox over the rest of 1994, hitting .260 with 17 homers and 54 RBIs. The players strike that prematurely ended the 1994 season prevented another callup, and the late start to the 1995 season discouraged another look in April.

He hit .200 in 17 games with Pawtucket, but contracted chicken pox. “I was at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre one day and I woke up and I had dots. They quarantined me. I think at that time Clem [Roger Clemens] was coming down for a rehab. They didn’t want me in the clubhouse. I literally stayed in a hotel room in Pawtucket for two weeks with my wife and two kids, and chicken pox. Then I went down to Trenton and, you know, sometimes psychologically as a player, if you’re kind of wiped out a little mentally, it’ll show.”

At the end of May 1995, to make room for pitcher Mike Maddux on the 40-man roster, Blosser was designated for assignment. In 1995, Greg’s younger brother Doug was drafted by the Royals; that news was reported on the very same day that Greg was DFA’d.27

The strike really hurt him financially. “I still had another callup that could have happened. That hurt me with my pension, too. I fell under the 43 days [the yearly minimum needed to qualify for a stepped-up payout]. In ’94, I had a decent enough year to probably get another callup again. I think I hit like 17 home runs. The strike year cost me part of my pension, for sure. I had 30 or 31 service days and 43 is the threshold.”

Clearing waivers, Blosser remained in the Boston organization, reporting to extended spring training in Fort Myers. He spent the bulk of the year in Double A with the Red Sox affiliate in the Eastern League, the Trenton Thunder, batting .246 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs in 49 games.

He was glad when the Red Sox released him in October. “Tell you the truth, by the time the season ended I knew they didn’t give a damn about me, and I didn’t care about them.”28

In November, Blosser signed with the Baltimore Orioles and joined them for spring training. However, he had some problems with his back and appeared in only 38 games in 1996, all with the Orioles’ Triple-A club, the Rochester Red Wings. He hit .235 with two homers and 12 RBIs before being released in June.29 “What was the problem? The problem was he wasn’t hitting,” said Orioles GM Syd Thrift. “He gave everything he could for us. He worked hard in the off-season, he worked hard in spring training. But he just didn’t hit, and we don’t know why.”30

Years later, Blosser himself said, “I just wasn’t able to fit in there. They had Mark Smith there, and Joe Hall, for outfielders. It would have been better if I had gotten out of the American League East and would have went somewhere like the National League Central, to a team that really had nobody. Looking back, I really should have gotten out of the American League East. So ’95 was kind of a wasted year for me.”

It was a difficult year on other fronts. He and his wife Tiffany divorced, after several separations, and Blosser had to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy.31

In 1997, he became the first player with major-league service time to sign with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays (who began play in 1998). He agreed to a two-year minor-league contract and played 52 games in the Advanced-A Florida State League for the St. Petersburg Devil Rays, hitting .312 while being named to the FSL All-Star team. The Tampa Bay organization was still building its own system – at that point, it did not yet have a club above Single A.

Thus, to get him some higher-level playing time, Blosser was loaned to a Texas Rangers affiliate, the Oklahoma City 89ers, for 1997. There he hit .303 with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs in 54 games. He played so well that he might have been called up to the majors, had he been with the Rangers, but given the two-year deal, Tampa Bay owned his rights.

On January 24, 1998, Doug Blosser was killed in an automobile accident in Sarasota. Doug had been living with Greg at the time. Around 3:00 A.M., the younger Blosser lost control of the car he was driving. Also killed in the crash was Doug’s friend and Sailors teammate Todd Sigler. Police said it was an alcohol-related accident.32 “He was a hell of a ballplayer,” Greg said in March 2023. “A first baseman. I loved him very much. It was a very difficult thing to get through.” Just a few months earlier, in September, Doug’s Sarasota High teammate Doug Million – a left-handed pitcher, first-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies, and the 1994 USA Today Player of the Year – had died of an asthma attack.33

Doug Blosser had played 50 games in the short-season rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 1995. He then spent two seasons (1996 and 1997) in Class A ball, playing each year for both Lansing (Midwest League) and the Spokane Indians (Northwest League).

Greg Blosser returned to the Tampa Bay organization in 1998. He joined them for the major-league team’s very first spring training but did not make the cut and spent the year with the Durham Bulls (Triple-A International League.) He homered 25 times with 72 RBIs and a .253 batting average. Add in 73 bases on balls and he had a .374 on-base percentage. Durham won the South Division and Blosser was kept on for the playoffs (Durham lost to Buffalo in the final round) rather than being called up in September to the parent club.

Japan beckoned and Blosser played for the Seibu Lions in 1999, but only for 34 games, batting .198. The pay was as much as three times better than he would have been likely to get at home, and he had two children to look after. Both of his parents and children visited for a month, but for the rest of the time it was a difficult experience. “I’d play one day and then sit for two. I don’t know if I fit in.”34 He also had a wrist injury that hampered him badly.35

Blosser’s final association with organized baseball was in 2000. He signed a minor-league deal to play for the Fresno Grizzlies of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, then the San Francisco Giants’ top farm club. He hit .159 in 18 games and was released in early May.

He wound up in Bridgewater, New Jersey, signing in June to play independent baseball for the Atlantic League’s Somerset Patriots. At the time he signed, he said, “I don’t care whether it’s independent ball or backyard Wiffleball, I’m going to play hard. I can’t say I’m satisfied with my career, but there were a lot of special things. If it’s all over tomorrow, I’ll have no regrets.”36

In 2000, Blosser hit .303 with 20 homers in 85 games. He played in 97 games for the Patriots in 2001, batting .270 with 21 homers. He was with them for 12 games in 2003. What had happened in 2002? “I went into real estate and we were doing really good. At that point in time, I was a little frustrated with organized ball. I’d had some good years and I felt like maybe I could have advanced more but maybe I was with the wrong team.” But he had turned 31 years old and had two children to help support. “I was making three grand a month. I could do way better than that in private business. I decided to go into real estate.” In May 2003, the Patriots announced his retirement. “It’s something I regret. I think I had a few more good years, maybe a shot at making a roster. But at that point in time, I’d been playing for so damn long…

“I understood it was over at that point. I had fallen enough out of shape. I was getting hurt. This is a game where at that age, you don’t really take a year or two off. You just can’t get back in playing shape again. I was trying to do both and it wasn’t working. Like my dad always told me, you’ve got to keep blinders on. If you’re playing the game, you’ve just got to live it and eat it and drink it. I kind of lost the eye of the tiger.”

Even so, five years later, in 2008, he gave it a last shot in the Atlantic League, playing for the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Barnstormers. By then 36, he hit .192 in 14 games. “I always felt like I didn’t finish. So I went back and played for Lancaster – which was great. But I’d get a base hit and I’d be running down to first base and I’d ping a calf, and I’d be out for three days. Things like that. It’s a young man’s sport. Once you get into your thirties…things start hurting a lot more. I could still hit but running around the bases and shagging fly balls got to be a little bit tough.”

Looking back, Blosser named some of the bigger influences on his life and baseball career. “My father, of course. One who comes to mind right away – one of my favorite men of all time – was Jim Rice. Jim was such a good man. Gary Allenson [his skipper at Lynchburg and New Britain] was great. A lot of guys as I came up. Big Jim Bibby [a Lynchburg coach]. Butch Hobson was great to me.”

After his retirement, Blosser devoted time to other ventures. He and his father had started Blosser and Blosser Investigations, a private investigation company, in November 2000. He continued to sell real estate. There was a rough stretch around 2008. Real estate had begun to crash in Florida. His father went back to work with FDLE, and thus could not continue as a private investigator at the same time.

“It was kind of a tough time for me. I went back into doing lessons. I ran a couple of travel ballclubs.” For several years, that was with a company he started named West Coast Baseball.

Over time he developed a range of talents, freelance and otherwise. He has a Class A commercial drivers license and works with a transportation company driving large trucks. Since 2015, he has worked on occasion with Assets Under Management, a real-estate driven company. “Somebody might have a property that they want to sell or want to lease out a warehouse. I’ve always been involved in little entrepreneurial things like that. I also do private investment-type things. I’ll get ex-players – for instance, today I got a call from an ex-player looking to build a facility. He’ll send over a prospectus, what he wants. When I retired, I had a lot of friends in this area that were real estate guys, stockbroker guys, money guys. They might have a product or property they might want to pitch to an athlete or anybody I might know. You just try to get in between a deal. I’ve always been that kind of way. I can’t really nail it down. I do quite a few things.”

In a 2014 article, Blosser stated, “I wish I could have played longer. But I am proud to have been a first-rounder. There was a lot of pressure and you always wonder if you could have done more. But as I look back over the past few years I realize what a blessing it was. I have no regrets at all. It was a great ride.”37

In 2023, he added, “I have two granddaughters. My son had a child, and my daughter has a child. They’re fantastic. Both my kids are off doing their thing. I couldn’t be happier.”

Last revised: July 1, 2023

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Sources

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

Notes

1 Marvin Pave, “Sox pick outfielder,” Boston Globe, June 6, 1989: 74. Blosser was selected with the 16th overall pick, an additional first-round selection the Red Sox had as compensation for the San Diego Padres’ signing of Bruce Hurst. Seven picks later, the Red Sox used their other first-round pick to draft Mo Vaughn. See “Red Sox,” The Sporting News, June 19, 1989: 39. The Sox selected Jeff Bagwell in the fourth round.

2 Pave.

3 Mic Huber, “Blossers synonymous with Sailors,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 20, 2014: 1C.

4 Brent L. Blosser obituary, Dignity Memorial, April 2015 (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/sarasota-fl/brent-blosser-6391257).

5 Author interview with Greg Blosser on March 15, 2023. Unless otherwise attributed, all direct quotations from Greg Blosser come from this interview.

6 Mic Huber, “Blossers Keep State Title in Family,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 19, 1987: C1.

7 Huber, “Blossers synonymous with Sailors.”

8 Huber. “Blossers Keep State Title in Family.”

9 “Showalter, Blosser 1st Team All-State,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 6, 1987: 5CS.

10 “Blosser Is Selected for National Team,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 21, 1988: 5CTC.

11 John Brockmann, “Blosser Swings into Senior Season with Worldly Clout, Bright Future,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 5, 1989: C1.

12 Martin Fennelly, “Blosser: A Sweet Swinger,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 13, 1989: 1C, 5C. Coach Metcalf retired in 2022.

13 Michael Vega, “Greenwell lends Blosser a hand,” Boston Globe, July 5, 1989: 69.

14 Nick Cafardo, “Sox’ No. 1 early hit,” Boston Globe, March 13, 1990: 65.

15 Mic Huber, “Sarasota Sailors Are No. 1,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 14, 1989: E1.

16 “Baseball All-Star Games Begin Today in Charlotte,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 16,1989: 5CTC.

17 Pave.

18 Cafardo, “Sox’ No. 1 early hit.”

19 Vega.

20 Mike Eisenbath, “In Mussina’s mind, it’s a simple game,” The Sporting News, May 20, 1991: 33.

21 A lengthy late July article in the Hartford Courant detailed his struggles, and his positive attitude. Don Amore, “Britsox’ Blosser: executive decision,” Hartford Courant, July 23, 1991: D3.

22 Mike Eisenbath, “Not many cobwebs on these suitcases,” The Sporting News, August 24, 1992: 29.

23 Paul Doyle, “Power to turn it around,” Hartford Courant, August 16, 1922: E12.

24 Sean Horgan, “Blosser shows improvement in the outfield,” Hartford Courant, March 5, 1993: E8.

25 Joe Giuliotti, “Boston Red Sox,” The Sporting News, April 4, 1994: 72.

26 Giuliotti.

27 Mic Huber, “Royals draft Blosser” and Doug Fernandes, “Red Sox Free Up Blosser,” both on page 1C of the June 2, 1995, Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

28 Bob Dick, “Blosser: Sox Didn’t Care,” Patriot-Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), November 23, 1995: 51. Blosser said that while he’d been holed up with the chicken pox at Pawtucket’s Comfort Inn with his wife and kids for 19 days, he had only two phone calls from the ballclub. After he was designated for assignment, he said they didn’t tell him until five days later.

29 Buster Olney, “Mussina, Mills, Rhodes take some cuts, too,” Sun (Baltimore), June 11, 1996: 6D.

30 John Brockmann, “Blosser Let Go by O’s,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 3, 1996: C1.

31 Mic Huber, “Blosser Starts on the Long Climb Back,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, April 6,1997: C1.

32 Marc Topkin, “Blosser experiences a rebirth,” Tampa Bay Times, February 16, 1998 / updated September 12, 2005. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1998/02/16/blosser-experiences-a-rebirth/ Accessed March 18, 2023.

33 Jerry Crasnick, “Asthma takes Rockies lefty,” Denver Post, September 25, 1997: D, 1:5.

34 Dennis Maffezzoli, “Blosser Fitting Like a Glove in Independent League,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 25, 2000: 5C.

35 Blosser talked at some length about his time in Japan. See John Brockmann, “Heading for home,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, November 28, 1999: C1, C13.

36 Maffezzoli.

37 Mic Huber, “Sarasota High Star was a Pure Hitter with Tremendous Power,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 20, 2014: C1, C2.