Hairston played in 44 games for the Chicago White Sox during the 1976 season, good for a .227 batting average based on his 27 hits in 119 official at-bats.
He was just in his fourth of what would end up being 14 years in the Major Leagues, with a three year gap between 1978 and 1980 before playing out the next nine years with the White Sox after a short stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the tail end of 1977.
Though never a full-time player I always remember him as a solid guy off the bench in a pinch-hitting role with the Sox in the early ‘80’s.
In his 14 years as a big leaguer, the most games he appeared in was 115 in 1984, and the most plate appearances he ever collected in any one campaign was 274 back in 1975.
Also, for those of you not familiar, Hairston was part of some true family baseball lineage, as his father Sam, brother John and two sons Scott and Jerry Jr were all also Major League ball players. Pretty amazing stuff.
