Saturday, April 12, 2008

Larry Cox

Here is Larry's 1981 Topps card. Career stats: 341 G, 808 AB (at bats), 179 H (hits), 12 HR (home runs), 85 RBI (runs batted in), .222 AVG. (average). Born 9/11/47 in Bluffton, Ohio.

Larry, seen here as a Catcher, was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as a Pitcher in 1966. So Larry was both a pitcher and a catcher. In 1975 the Phillies got tired of Larry's services and dumped him. So '76, despite the Bi-Centennial, was not a good year for Larry. It's unknown if he stuck around for the festivities in Philly or if he went back home to Ohio. What is known is that he took some time away from baseball that year. But in 1977 he was back in the bigs as a catcher playing for the Seattle Mariners in their inaugural season (they finished with a 64-98 record). Larry found his stroke that year because he hit 2 HRs and had a .247 average. In 1978, Seattle did not need Larry as their backstop anymore and sent him to Chicago to play for the Cubs, and with a "I'll show them" attitude went on to hit for a .281 average. So in 1979, with their hat in their hand, Seattle brought Larry back. He then rewarded the Mariners fans with a .215 average that year.

On the back of this card it notes that he once hit 2 Grand Slams with 12 RBIs in a High School game.

Unfortunately, Larry passed away on February 17, 1990 at the young age of 42.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.