Thursday, April 27, 2006

Jim Campanis

On December 16, 1968, Los Angeles Dodgers' General Manager Al Campanis did the unthinkable, the unimaginible: He traded James Alexander Campanis, his own flesh-and-blood, to the expansion Kansas City Royals for two minor leaguer players to be named later and cash.

You would expect that this particular holiday season turned out to be especially frigid for the elder Campanis.

But, who (other than his wife) could fault the old man for making this deal?

After all, Jimmy had spent parts of the three previous seasons with the big league club and failed to impress as a hitter.

Heck, there was barely any empirical evidence that the Dodger GM's son actually came to bat for Los Angeles.

You don't expect many scuff marks on a bat when you collect 11 hits in 74 at bats for a paltry .149 batting average, do you?

Obviously, nepotism could only take you so far.

The younger Campanis had two brief stints with Kansas City in 1969 and 1970 before ending his big league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1973.

He never batted above the Mendoza line in any of his big league stops.

5 Comments:

At 2:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who caught the last game Sandy Koufax pitched in the big leagues? Answer: Jimmy Campanis

 
At 10:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

if jim didnt have his dad to get him into baseball.....he would of been a garbage man! and not a very good one.

 
At 9:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

jimmy should of been a hot dog vendor but his dad put him on the team!

 
At 8:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah you two haters on here are what HUGE CEO of a Major League Baseball team... No wait your Fat Ass's are sitting on your Sofa's WATCHING Jimmy Catch... He may not have been the greatest ball player out there but he was a ball player... Not a spectator .. !!

 
At 8:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

For most of his time with the Dodgers, his dad was not GM. Buzzy Bavasi was. When Dad traded him to expansion Royals it got him playing time he wouldn't have gotten in LA. His father did him a favor.

 

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