Don Blasingame

Don Blasingame
Second baseman
Born: (1932-03-16)March 16, 1932 Corinth, Mississippi
Died: April 13, 2005(2005-04-13) (aged 73) Fountain Hills, Arizona
Batted: Left Threw: Right
debut
September 20, 1955, for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last appearance
August 27, 1966, for the Kansas City Athletics
Career statistics
Batting average	.258
Hits	1,366
Runs batted in	308
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1955-1959) San Francisco Giants (1960-1961) Cincinnati Reds (1961-1963) Washington Senators (1964-1966) Kansas City Athletics (1966) Nankai Hawks (1967-1969) (NPB)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star selection (1958)

Don Lee Blasingame (March 16, 1932 – April 13, 2005) was a second baseman in Major League Baseball who played with the St. Louis Cardinals (1955–1959), San Francisco Giants (1960–1961), Cincinnati Reds (1961–1963), Washington Senators (1963–1966) and Kansas City Athletics (1966). Blasingame batted left-handed and threw right-handed. His father-in-law, Walker Cooper, also was a major leaguer.

Nicknamed “Blazer”, Blasingame was a second baseman with five MLB teams in 12 seasons, but he was best known for becoming only the third American (after Wally Yonamine and Joe Lutz) to manage in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

Blasingame was a .258 career hitter with 21 home runs and 308 RBI in 1444 games.

A classic line drive hitter, Blasingame was also a skilled bunter and a fast and smart runner. In 1956, he started as a regular with the Cardinals replacing Red Schoendienst. In his career, Blasingame was particularly fast getting down the line, hitting into fewer double plays (one in every 123 at-bats) than anyone in major league history except Don Buford.

Blasingame enjoyed his best season in 1957, when he hit .271 and posted career-highs in home runs (8), RBI (58), runs (101), hits (176) and stolen bases (21). In 1958, he followed with .274, 19 doubles, 10 triples and 20 steals, and also was named to the National League All-Star team. In 1959, Blasingame hit .289 with 26 doubles, both career highs.

After twelve seasons with the Reds, Giants, Senators and Athletics, Blasingame finished his major league career at the end of the 1966 season.

Opting to continue his playing career in Japan, Blasingame joined the Nankai Hawks in 1967, playing as a second baseman for three years until 1969, and recorded .274 average with 15 home runs and 86 RBI in 366 games. At the time, Blasingame was registered officially as his nickname, "Don Blazer", till his leaving from Japan. And, he joined the team's coaching staff for the next eight seasons. This was the condition of what Katsuya Nomura accepted to become the playing-manager of the Nankai Hawks, and Blasingame made the basis of using intelligence and data, so called "ID Baseball" theory with Nomura.

In 1978, according to the out of Nomura from the Nankai Hawks, Blassingtame was moved to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp as the head coach of for just one season. Blasingame then managed the Hanshin Tigers for one and a half seasons before returning to the Nankai Hawks from 1981 to 1982. At the Tigers, he was troubled because of his opinion as negative for promoting rookie star player Akinobu Okada, and finally, he resigned the positon. As manager for the two teams, he compiled a record of 180-208-28 (ties are played in Japanese baseball).

Blasingame died in Fountain Hills, Arizona at the age of 73.

Trivia

• Five times, César Tovar and Eddie Milner collected their teams' only hit in a single game, an MLB record. Blasingame is the runner up, with four.
  • July 13, 1962: Cubs pitcher Cal Koonce one-hits the Reds, a single by Blasingame, to win, 1–0.
  • August 6, 1963: Yankees Stan Williams one-hit the Senators, giving up a double to Blasingame.
  • August 20, 1963: Blasingame singled off the A's Moe Drabowsky for the only hit for the Senators in a 9–0 loss.
  • September 25, 1965: Twins hurler Mudcat Grant one-hits the Senators to win, 5–0. Blasingame's double in the third inning is the only hit against Washington.
• Married the daughter of St. Louis Cardinal teammate Walker Cooper Sara (Miss Missouri 1957), to which Cooper responded, "You know you are getting too old when your daughter marries one of your teammates." Cooper was kidded by old friend George Munger, "The only way that Sara could have ever become Miss Missouri is because she takes after her Mom and not you."

External links

• Baseball Library
• Baseball Reference
• Historic Baseball