Hargrove was coming off of an excellent freshman campaign, batting .323 with 66 runs batted in and an on-base-percentage hovering near .400 (of course).
Not yet labeled “The Human Rain Delay” for his approach to an at-bat, he already gave the Big Leagues a look at what would become a steady player who’d make it on base 40% of the time through hits and walks.
He would eventually go on to have a very nice 12-year Major League career that saw him tops 100 walks four times, while leading the league twice, while also finishing up with a .290 batting average with 1614 hits over 5564 at-bats in 1666 games.
Of course, he would then go on to have a very nice 16-year managerial career that saw him win two pennants with the Cleveland Indians, including their incredible 1995 season in which the Indians went 100-44 during the strike-shortened season.
While managing the Indians, Hargrove led them to five straight first-place finishes between 1995 and 1999, before moving on to manage the Baltimore Orioles for four years and Seattle Mariners for three.
A baseball lifer for sure.
