Cleveland Indians.

Date of birth: October 26, 1949 Perryton, TX

High School:  Perryton HS (Perryton, TX)

College: Northwestern Oklahoma State University

Nickname: The Human Rain Delay. Wow, not the most glorious nickname. My recall is that he took forever in the box. Per the wiki*… He irritated pitchers by stepping out of the batter’s box after each pitch and starting his routine, which consisted of (1) adjusting his helmet, (2) adjusting his batting glove, making sure it was tight on his hand and especially the thumb, (3) pulling each sleeve on his uniform up about an inch, and (4) wiping each hand on his uniform pants – and then sometimes repeating the whole process — before finally settling back into the box. 

First Impression; Another class photo. They should have gotten him batting, they would have had a lot of time to get him in focus.

Career stats player: Hargrove’s career was within my universe of knowledge at the time because I was a stat guy, loved trivia and he won Rookie of the Year, so that always stood out. He was an All-Star the year after his ROY award. Those first two seasons he hit .323 and .303. Maybe all his antics just got pitchers tired and his good eye and bat fouling pitches off paid off as he walked 965 times in his career, leading the league twice and walking over 100 times in a season 4 times. His career average was a stellar .290 and his OBP was .396.

All Time Stat: From 1974 to 1985, players with least 1000 Games; he is 3rd in OBP behind Rod Carew .407 and Joe Morgan .399.

Career stats manager: 1188-1173. Mike Hargrove’s managerial career was well in my universe because he managed the Indians in the same division as the White Sox. The Indians in that time frame were stacked. All of the years of being bad finally turned around and they were great. They won 471 games from 1995-1999 and lost two World Series. Their pitching never kept up with the hitting. All that winning and Hargrove never won manager of the year.

In 2000 he would manage the Orioles. And they were no Indians squad, and his losses look like the weekly highs in a summer week in Baltimore, 88, 98, 95, and 91. Hargrove would be replaced by Lee Mazzilli.

Finally the Rain Delay made it over to Seattle appropriately, and the Mariners were in no shape to be led by a B-C type manager rather than an A-B type manager. See Doug Collins, NBA for the reference. After two and a half years the Rain stopped and Mike was done managing.

Fun Fact: He once delayed a game so long during an at‑bat that the stadium organist started playing “The Minute Waltz.” “Documented in multiple game‑day reports from the late 1970s.” Per coPilot who I am glad is not the co-pilot of any plane that I’m on.

Ever a Future Star?  No but 1975 Topps All-Star Rookie gold cup.

Rookie or final card? No and manager cards in 1992-1993, 2001-2004, as well as 2006-2007.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? Cleveland Hall of Fame

Links to stories including Mike Hargrove.

*wikipedia