1955 N.L. Rookie of the Year, Bill Virdon, was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1965 season and became a minor league manager in the Mets organization. He returned to the Pirates in 1968 as a player/coach. He appeared in 6 games and had 1 hit in 3 at-bats. That one hit was a 2 run homer. He became a full time coach with the Pirates the following season and was named manager in 1972.
The story behind that is this... Virdon was already a full time coach in '68. When Fred Patek went on the DL, rather than call someone up, they activated Virdon. For what reason, no one knows. He did indeed hit a pinch-hit game-tying homer during that stint
ReplyDeleteCool. Thanks for that added insight.
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