20dec Today is the birthday of the wearer of baseball’s ultimate Afro, and maybe the best in any sport; he’s at least in that discussion: Oscar Gamble…he played 17 years, 1969-1985, 7 teams, second hitches with 2; the Rangers were his 7th but both second hitches came after his time here…he was drafted in the 16th round, 1968 by CC out of high school in Montgomery, AL, and debuted in the major leagues the next year…he was an outfielder by trade but his bat kept him in the majors and somebody always wanted him…he moved around a lot; he was traded 6 times…but I never heard anything about him being bad news or any kind of a troublemaker; by all accounts, he was a fun-loving guy who never rubbed anybody the wrong way…he had to wait until 1973 to get into 100 games in a season…by then he was on his third team, Cle, and in 1974 he had his first really good year, hitting .291/.363/.469/.833, 19 HR, 59 RBI in 135 games and a career high 509 PA as the Indians’ primary DH; that was the only year of his career where he was anybody’s primary anything…he put up an .815 OPS the next year with 100 fewer PA…at the end of that season he was traded to NYY and was on their World Series team in 1976…right before the start of 1977 he was on the move again, to CWS with LaMarr Hoyt, a minor leaguer and $200,000 for Bucky Dent…he got there just in time for the White Sox’ South Side Hit Men year and amid that incredible chaos and revelry and fun, he had his best year by far: .297/.386/.588/.974, 31 HR, 83 RBI, career highs just about all across the board…he was a huge part of the chemistry of that club and as far as players went, he was one of the lynchpins of it all (actually, the true lynchpin of it and the guy around whom it all centered seemed to be Harry Caray)…that was a free agent year for him and he signed with SD…he had a solid year with the Padres, but after it was over they traded him, Dave Roberts and $300,000 to the Rangers for Kurt Bevacqua, Bill Fahey, and Mike Hargrove…he made it through 4 months with the Rangers, getting into 64 games, 201 PA and he was great: .335/.458/.522/.979, 8 HR, 32 RBI…but at the traded deadline they traded him back to NYY with Amos Lewis and PsTBNL for Mickey Rivers and PsTBNL…the PsTBNL sent by the Rangers to NYY were Ray Fontenot and Gene Nelson; the PsTBNL sent by NYY to the Rangers were Robert Polinsky, Neal Mersch and Mark ‘Judge’ Softy, none of whom ever saw the light of day in the majors…but the Rangers were obsessed with Mickey and got 1 year of what they traded for out of him…meanwhile, Oscar completed 1979 and stayed the next 5 years with NYY as a productive lefthand platoon bat, by far the longest tenure of his career…his last year was 1985 with CWS and today he’s 65…Jim Norris had 4 years in the majors, 1977-1980, with 2 teams…he spent his first 3 years with Cle and the Rangers were his last…he was a smallish OF who didn’t have much power but could run…the Indians drafted him in the 5th round of the January secondary phase, 1971, out of the University of Maryland…he put up nice years in the minors, spending 2 full years and part of a third at AAA before making the team out of spring training in 1977…he had a fine rookie year as their primary CF, playing full-time and hitting.270/.360/.364/.724, 2 HR, 37 RBI, 23 doubles and 6 triples, stealing 26 bases and playing solid defense…the next year he didn’t play quite as much but was even better: .283/.364/.378/.742, 2 HR, 27 RBI…things fell off a bit the next year and prior to the 1980 season Cle traded him and David Clyde to the Rangers for Mike Bucci, Gary Gray and Larry McCall…he got into 119 games in 1980, 205 PA and hit .247/.327/.276/.603, 0 HR, 16 RBI…he spent the next year with the Rangers’ AAA club and that was it—never in the majors again, no more minor league action, no Mexico, no Japan, no nothing…I liked him, though…he may not’ve been that great but he was a fun, amiable guy…the diminutive lefthand hitter is 66…Mike Hart got into 5 games in 1980 in CF and at DH…he was drafted in the 11th round, 1972 out of Kalamazoo Valley Community College by Mon and worked his way up through their system, tearing it up at AAA in 1978 to the tune of a .969 OPS…after that year he was traded to the Rangers for Jim Mason…he spent 1979 at AAA and had a nice year; he had a little power, could run a bit and had solid plate discipline…but in 1980 he declined; the Rangers brought him up for his 5 games in June of that year and he got 5 PA, going 1-4 with a walk, a single, a run scored and a strikeout…not sure how this happened but he wound up in the KC system that year, and in addition to them, after leaving the Rangers he played in the minor leagues for Balt, Minn, NYY and CWS but never got another look in the majors again…toiling in the minor leagues from 1972-1983 and 5 games on a lousy Rangers team is as close as you get…she can be an evil wench, this baseball…he’s 63…
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 08:21:40 +0000
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