Toby Harrah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Toby Harrah | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Third baseman / Shortstop | |
| Born: October 26, 1948 Sissonville, West Virginia |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| September 5, 1969 for the Washington Senators | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 4, 1986 for the Texas Rangers | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .264 |
| Home runs | 195 |
| Runs batted in | 918 |
| Teams | |
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As player
As manager |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
Colbert Dale (Toby) Harrah (b. October 26, 1948 in Sissonville, West Virginia) is a former professional baseball player who played with the Texas Rangers both before and after their 1971 franchise shift before later being traded to the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. In 1993, he briefly managed the Rangers.
He played high school baseball in his hometown of LaRue, Ohio and was scouted out but was not signed at graduation as most scouts thought he planned to attend college on a baseball scholarship. A few months later, Tony Lucadello followed up and found that Harrah was not attending school, but was instead working in a factory in nearby Marion, Ohio. Lucadello signed Harrah for the Philadelphia Phillies in December, 1966.
After one year in the Phillies organization, Harrah was drafted by the Washington Senators in the fall of 1967. He advanced to the major league club in 1971; the next year the franchise relocated and became the Texas Rangers. He was the regular shortstop through 1976, then moved to third base, although he still saw some action at short. He was selected to the American League All-Star team in 1972, 1975, and 1976. He had a career best 93 RBIS in 1975.
In 1978, Toby was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Buddy Bell, a player thought to be fairly similar in many respects. He was the Indians regular third baseman through 1983 and made the All-Star team in 1982. That year he had 100 runs and a career best .304 batting average.
In 1984, Harrah was traded to the New York Yankees, where he was a part time player, then he was traded again to the Rangers, where he played regularly again for the 1985 and 1986 seasons, primarily at second base. With the retirement of Jeff Burroughs in 1985, Harrah became the last active major leaguer to have played for the Washington Senators franchise. He was also the last player to see a pitch for the Senators in their final game on September 30, 1971 when Tommy McCraw was caught stealing during his plate-appearance for the Senators final out in the bottom of the 8th.
Harrah was noted for his good eye at the plate, regularly in the top ten in the league for bases on balls, and often among the leaders in reaching base safely. He also had better than average power for a defensive infielder, hitting 195 career home runs.
He is currently the hitting coordinator for the Detroit Tigers.
[edit] Unusual baseball feats
Harrah was involved in three of the most unusual feats in Major League baseball history.
On June 25, 1976, he played an entire doubleheader without taking a single fielding chance. What was most unusual about this was that he managed to do so while playing shortstop, given the predominance of right-handed hitters in a baseball lineup (who will usually hit the ball to the left side of the infield).
Just over one year later, on August 27, 1977, Harrah and teammate Bump Wills would hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs, the only time this feat has ever occurred in a Major League Baseball game.
On August 6, 1986, Harrah hit a second inning grand slam for the Rangers, while Baltimore Oriole players Larry Sheets and Jim Dwyer both went deep for grand slams in the Orioles' nine-run fourth, establishing a new record for bases-full homers in one game (Texas beat Baltimore, 13-11).
[edit] See also
- Top 500 home run hitters of all time
- List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
- List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
| Preceded by Bobby Valentine |
Texas Rangers Manager 1992 |
Succeeded by Kevin Kennedy |
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