Chris Chambliss | |
---|---|
First baseman | |
Born: Dayton, Ohio, U.S. | December 26, 1948|
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
May 28, 1971, for the Cleveland Indians | |
Last MLB appearance | |
May 8, 1988, for the New York Yankees | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .279 |
Hits | 2,109 |
Home runs | 185 |
Runs batted in | 972 |
Teams | |
As player
As coach | |
Career highlights and awards | |
|
Carroll Christopher Chambliss (born December 26,1948) is an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball from 1971 to 1988 for the Cleveland Indians,New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves. He served as a coach for the Yankees,St. Louis Cardinals,New York Mets,Cincinnati Reds,and Seattle Mariners.
Chambliss won the American League Rookie of the Year Award with the Indians in 1971. He was an All-Star with the Yankees in 1976,the same year he hit the series-winning home run in the 1976 American League Championship Series. He was a member of the Yankees' 1977 and 1978 World Series championship teams,both against the Los Angeles Dodgers,and won the Gold Glove Award in 1978. Chambliss went on to win four more World Series championships as the hitting coach for the Yankees in 1996,1998,1999,and 2000.
Chambliss was born in Dayton,Ohio,on December 26,1948. He was the third of four sons born to Carroll and Christene Chambliss. His father was a chaplain in the United States Navy,leading the family to relocate many times during Chris' childhood. They settled in Oceanside,California,where Chris attended high school. [1] Chris and his brothers all played baseball on the Oceanside High School baseball team. [2]
Chambliss enrolled at MiraCosta College,a junior college in Oceanside,where he played college baseball. Despite being selected in the Major League Baseball (MLB) drafts of 1967 and 1968 by the Cincinnati Reds,he opted not to sign with the Reds on either occasion. He transferred to the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA),where he continued his college baseball career in 1969. That season,he led the Bruins with 15 home runs and 45 runs batted in. During the summer,he played collegiate summer baseball for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots of the Alaska Baseball League,which won the National Baseball Congress (NBC) championship. Chambliss had a .583 batting average in the NBC tournament and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. [1]
The Cleveland Indians selected Chambliss with the first overall pick in the January 1970 Major League Baseball draft, [1] [3] and assigned him to the Wichita Aeros of the Class AAA American Association,their most advanced minor league baseball affiliate. With the Aeros,Chambliss batted .342,which led the league. [1]
With Ken Harrelson serving as the Indians' first baseman,the Indians had Chambliss play in the outfield for Wichita in 1971,in order to have both players in their lineup at the same time. [1] He debuted in the majors in 1971,and was named AL Rookie of the Year. Chambliss played first base and was known as a great clutch hitter throughout his career.
Chambliss was traded along with Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw from the Indians to the New York Yankees for Fritz Peterson,Steve Kline,Fred Beene,and Tom Buskey on April 26,1974. The Yankees were criticized for giving away four pitchers as opposed to the two it got in return and a failure to land a starting second baseman. [4]
Chris Chambliss was once quoted as saying,"If you're not having fun [in baseball],you miss the point of everything." [5]
During the 1976 season,Chambliss appeared in the All-Star Game. [6]
In the deciding Game 5 of the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals,Chambliss hit Mark Littell's first pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning over the right field wall for a game-winning home run,giving the Yankees their first pennant since 1964. [7]
Chambliss was the hitting star of the 1976 ALCS,as he also hit a two-run homer in Game 3 to help the Yankees win that game 5–3. He hit an ALCS record .524 (11-for-21) with 2 home runs and eight RBIs. In the four-game World Series against the Cincinnati Reds,Chambliss hit .313 (5-for-16) with one RBI.
Chambliss played three more seasons with the Yankees,helping lead them to the World Series title in 1977–their first in fifteen years–and winning a Gold Glove for his fielding prowess in 1978.
Immediately after that 1976 walk-off home run,thousands of fans stormed the Yankee Stadium field to celebrate. Chambliss was mobbed on the basepaths and did not make an attempt to touch home plate. Instead,he ran straight toward the dugout and the safety of the Yankee clubhouse. Chambliss was then asked by Graig Nettles if he had touched home,and responded that he had not because too many people were in the way. Nettles then told him that home plate umpire Art Frantz was waiting for him to touch home so that the home run could be ruled official. He was then escorted back out onto the field to touch home,but the plate had been stolen,so he touched the area where the plate had been.
Said Chambliss:
"I just kind of reacted like I always did. I wasn't trying to hit a home run. Sometimes when you react to a high fastball it works out that way. Then,when I was running around the bases,fans were coming at me from everywhere,grabbing me,pounding me on the back. I was just trying to get around the bases and into the dugout---I ran at least one guy over---but I never made it to home plate. Later,after I got to the clubhouse,[Graig] Nettles said I should return to the field and touch home plate,just to make it official. But when we got back out there,home plate and all the other bases were gone,stripped from their moorings and confiscated by the delirious Yankee fans." [8]
Kansas City manager Whitey Herzog could have appealed the play,as Major League rules state that a player must touch all bases on any hit or when running the bases. However,the mayhem on the field made this task impossible,and given the magnitude of the game,Herzog would have never tried to have it restarted or protested due to a technicality. In any event,the umpires had already decided to let the run count given the circumstances of the situation. [9]
As a result of this incident,Major League Baseball changed the rules to allow the umpire to award any base runner or batter a run when he cannot reach the plate due to fans rushing the field. [10] This had the effect of codifying the decision made by the umpires in Game 5.
After the 1979 season,the Yankees traded Chambliss to the Toronto Blue Jays with Damaso Garcia and Paul Mirabella for Rick Cerone,Tom Underwood,and Ted Wilborn. The Yankees hoped that Cerone would replace the late Thurman Munson as their starting catcher. [11] Later that offseason,the Blue Jays traded Chambliss with Luis Gómez to the Atlanta Braves for prospects Barry Bonnell,Joey McLaughlin,and Pat Rockett. [12]
Chambliss played for the Atlanta Braves from 1980 through 1986. He had one at-bat with the Yankees in 1988 and struck out. Lou Piniella claimed this at-bat earned Chambliss about $20,000,since he had to be paid the minimum player salary for the season once he was activated for that at-bat. [13] He retired with a career .279 batting average and 185 home runs. [14]
After his playing days,Chambliss was a hitting instructor for several teams and was talked about as a possible managerial candidate.
In 1989,Chambliss became the manager for the Double-A London Tigers of the Eastern League,an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. The London Tigers won the Eastern League title in 1990,playing out of Labatt Park. That same year Chambliss was named Minor League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News.
Chambliss was also a hitting coach with the Yankees,and has the distinction of being one of two men who wore a Yankees uniform (player or coach) during each of the Yankees' last six World Series Championship seasons prior to 2009 (1977,1978,1996,1998,1999,and 2000)—the other is former New York Mets manager Willie Randolph. Chambliss was also the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, [15] New York Mets [16] and Cincinnati Reds. [17]
For many years,Chambliss was a leading candidate to manage a major league team. [18] He was considered for manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1991, [19] the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1996, [20] the Mets in 1999,the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000, [21] and the Mets again in 2002. [22]
Chambliss was the manager of the Triple A Charlotte Knights prior to joining the Seattle Mariners in November 2010 as hitting coach. [23] At the conclusion of the 2012 season,the Mariners announced that Chambliss would not be returning as their hitting coach in 2013. [24]
Chambliss' cousin is former NBA player Jo Jo White. [25]
His son Russell is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis,and currently hitting coach with the Peoria Chiefs. [26]
Louis Victor Piniella is a former professional baseball player and manager. An outfielder, he played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees. During his playing career, he was named AL Rookie of the Year in 1969 and captured two World Series championships with the Yankees.
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will not have an opportunity to score any more runs, there is no need to finish the inning and the teams can walk off the field immediately. The winning runs must still round all three bases and be counted at home plate. A variant of the walk-off home run, the walk-off grand slam, occurs when a grand slam exceeds the opponent's score in the bottom of the final inning and ends the game.
The 1977 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1977 season. The 74th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees and the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees defeated the Dodgers four games to two to win the franchise's 21st World Series championship, their first since 1962, and the first under the ownership of George Steinbrenner. Played from October 11 to 18, the Series was televised on ABC.
The 1976 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1976 season. The 73rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Cincinnati Reds and the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees. The Reds swept the Series in four games to repeat as champions, avenging their 1939 and 1961 World Series losses to the Yankees. The 1976 Reds became, and remain, the only team to sweep an entire multi-tier postseason, one of the crowning achievements of the franchise's Big Red Machine era. They also became the third NL team to win consecutive World Series, and remain the last to do so.
Christopher Michael Woodward is an American former professional baseball utility player, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners, and Boston Red Sox, from 1999 through 2012. He then served as a coach for the Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers, from 2014 through 2018 and managed the Texas Rangers from 2019 to 2022. He is currently a special assistant and roving instructor for the Dodgers.
The 1977 American League Championship Series was a five-game series played between October 5 and 9, 1977, between the Eastern division champion New York Yankees and the Western division champion Kansas City Royals.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1976 throughout the world.
David Joseph Magadan is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He retired as an MLB player after a 16-year career as an above average hitting first and third baseman. He is the cousin and godson of former manager Lou Piniella; Piniella was also Magadan's manager during his stint with the Seattle Mariners in 1993.
The 1976 American League Championship Series was a best-of-five playoff pitting the New York Yankees against the Kansas City Royals for the American League pennant and the right to represent the American League in the 1976 World Series. The Yankees defeated the Royals in five games to advance to win their first pennant in twelve years.
Rafael Francisco Santana de la Cruz is a Dominican former Major League Baseball shortstop who won a World Series ring with the 1986 New York Mets. He currently serves as the Dominican Republic scouting and player development supervisor for the Chicago White Sox.
Iván Alvarez DeJesús, is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball shortstop and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, and Detroit Tigers, for 15 seasons (1974–1988).
The 1999 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.
The 1974 New York Yankees season was the 72nd season for the team. The team finished second in the American League East with a record of 89–73, two games behind the Baltimore Orioles in Bill Virdon's first season as manager. The Yankees played at Shea Stadium due to the ongoing renovation of Yankee Stadium.
The 1976 New York Yankees season was the 74th season for the Yankees. The team finished with a record of 97–62, finishing 10½ games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles to win their first American League East Division title.
The 1988 New York Yankees season was the 86th season for the Yankees. The team finished with a record of 85–76, finishing in fifth place, 3.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Lou Piniella and Billy Martin, with the latter managing the team for the fifth and final time. The Yankees played at Yankee Stadium.
The following are the baseball events of the year 2008 throughout the world.
The 1977 Major League Baseball season saw the American League (AL) having its third expansion, as the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays began play, with Seattle returning to the MLB fold after a seven-year absence when the Pilots relocated to Milwaukee to become the Brewers. However, the National League (NL) did not expand, remaining at 12 teams compared to the AL's 14, until the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins joined the NL in 1993.
The 1976 Major League Baseball season ended with the Cincinnati Reds winning their second consecutive World Series championship.
The following are the baseball events of the year 2009 throughout the world.
John Francis "Jay" Ward was a Major League Baseball player and coach. He was also a manager in the minor leagues.
Sporting positions | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | New York Yankees hitting coach 1988 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by first manager | London Tigers Manager 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Greenville Braves Manager 1991 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Richmond Braves Manager 1992 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach 1993–1995 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | New York Yankees hitting coach 1996–2000 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Calgary Cannons Manager 2001 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | New York Mets hitting coach 2002 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Cincinnati Reds hitting coach 2004–2006 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Charlotte Knights Manager 2009–2010 | Succeeded by Joe McEwing |