Up on the blog today we have a “not so missing” pre-rookie for versatile infielder/outfielder Alan Bannister, who was beginning a nice 12-year Big League career with just over two dozen games in 1974:
Bannister hit only .120 over his 26 games of the 1974 season, collecting
three hits in 25 at-bats with four runs scored and a run batted in for
the Philadelphia Phillies.
After another small showing in 1975 when he played in 24 games for
Philadelphia, he was sent over to the Chicago White Sox where he would
play for the next four and a half years, playing well when he was
healthy, hitting as high as .285 in 1979 and .275 in 1977, setting
career-highs in pretty much everything between the two full seasons.
He would go on to play for the Cleveland Indians in the middle of the
1980 season where he’d play for three and a half years, before splitting
1984 with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, for whom he’d play his
last year in 1985, still only 33 years of age.
Over his 12 Big League seasons Bannister hit a very respectable .270,
with 811 hits in 3007 at-bats in 972 games between 1974 and 1985, with
430 runs scored and 288 RBIs and 108 stolen bases.
