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American baseball player (born 1956)
Baseball player
Robert Henry Kearney
(born October 3, 1956), is an American former
professional
baseball
player.
[1]
He played in
Major League Baseball
as a
catcher
for the
San Francisco Giants
,
Oakland Athletics
, and
Seattle Mariners
from
1979
to
1987
.
[1]
Major League career
[
edit
]
Kearney was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the fourteenth round of the
1977 Major League Baseball Draft
out of the
University of Texas
.
[2]
He made his major league debut with the Giants late in the
1979
season, but returned to the
minor leagues
for the following season.
[1]
Kearney was drafted by the Oakland Athletics from the Giants in the
1980
minor league draft.
[3]
Kearney's strong throwing arm was made evident in a game against the Tacoma Indians in
1981
when, he threw
out
five baserunners attempting to
steal
second base.
[4]
He was selected as the catcher for the 1981
Pacific Coast League
Northern Division
All-Star
team.
[5]
Kearney began the
1982
season with the Athletics when regular catchers
Mike Heath
and
Jeff Newman
were sidelined by injuries but, would later be sent back to the minor leagues.
[6]
In September, he was recalled to the major leagues after hitting for a .253
batting average
in Tacoma.
[7]
He shared catching duties with Heath in
1983
, posting a .255
batting average
with 8
home runs
and 32
runs batted in
.
[8]
Kearney was named as the catcher for the
1983
Topps All-Star Rookie Team
and was also named the
Baseball Digest
All-Star
Rookie
Catcher Of The Year.
[9]
[10]
Kearney was traded to the Seattle Mariners before the
1984
season, replacing
Rick Sweet
as their starting catcher.
[3]
[11]
Despite his strong throwing arm, he developed a reputation for poor
pitch-calling
skills.
[12]
During the 1984 season, Mariners pitchers
Salome Barojas
and
Mike Moore
both demanded to have
Orlando Mercado
as their catcher.
[13]
This lack of pitch-calling skills along with his light-hitting caused the Mariners to trade for veteran catcher
Steve Yeager
before the
1986
season.
[12]
Yeager was expected to catch the majority of the Mariners' games however, he had a disappointing season and Kearney would eventually lead the team's catchers by appearing in 81 games.
[14]
In
1987
, he was displaced by
Scott Bradley
as the Mariners' starting catcher and was released in July of that year after posting a .170 batting average in 51 games.
[1]
[3]
Career statistics
[
edit
]
In an eight-year career, Kearney played in 479
games
, accumulating 316
hits
in 1356
at bats
for a .233 career batting average along with 27
home runs
and 133
runs batted in
.
[1]
He ended his career with a .987
fielding percentage
.
[1]
Kearney led
American League
catchers in
1984
with 823
putouts
, and in
1985
, he led the league in fielding percentage with a .995 average, committing only three
errors
in 108 games.
[15]
[16]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]