On November 29,1965,the Cleveland Indians selected Closter in the Rule 5 Draft. A few months later,on April 6,1966,before ever playing a game in the Indians organization,the Washington Senators purchased Closter's contract. He played only one game in the Senators organization,pitching 1⁄3 of an inning against the Baltimore Orioles in his MLB debut, before being purchased again by the Yankees on May 3, 1966.[4] After returning to the New York Yankees organization, Closter finished the season with the Greensboro Yankees.
In 1968, Closter began the season with the Single-A Fort Lauderdale Yankees of the Florida State League. Playing only five games there, he was quickly promoted to the Triple-ASyracuse Chiefs of the International League. For the rest of his career with the Yankees, Closter would bounce between Syracuse and the Major Leagues. Between 1968 and 1973, Closter played in 249 games for Syracuse, with a 69–58 record.[3]
Major leagues
After making his Major League debut with the Senators in 1966, Closter wouldn't pitch again in MLB until 1971, when he made occasional relief appearances for the Yankees. Closter made one start in 1971 against the Detroit Tigers on September 4. He pitched 5 innings and allowed 5 hits and 5 earned runs, two of which were home runs.
In his remaining two seasons in the MLB, Closter only made 6 appearances between the Yankees and Braves, pitching 6+2⁄3 innings in relief.[4]
Post-retirement
After retiring, Closter lived in Richmond, New York. He worked for Philip Morris International for 30 years, focused on product development in Latin America. In 2006, Closter was elected to the Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame.[5]
↑Cava, Pete (1991). "Baseball at the Olympics". Citius, Altius, Fortius. 1 (1): 13. Archived(PDF) from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
