Brian Harper

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Brian David Harper (born October 16, 1959 in Los Angeles, California) is a former catcher in Major League Baseball who played for teams in both the American and National Leagues during his 16-year career (1979 - 1995).

Harper was drafted by the California Angels in the fourth round of the 1977 amateur draft. In 1981, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he played for three seasons until being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals after the 1984 season. He played a season each with the Cardinals (1985), Detroit Tigers (1986), and Oakland Athletics (1987) before signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Twins in 1988.

Harper was the primary catcher for the Twins team that won the memorable 1991 World Series in seven games over the Atlanta Braves. He endured a violent play-at-the-plate collision with Ron Gant early in the Series, holding onto the ball to preserve a run. In particular, he caught the Game 7 masterpiece of Jack Morris, who threw 10 innings of shutout baseball against the Braves in one of the most intense ballgames ever played. In the top of the 8th inning, Harper teamed up with first baseman Kent Hrbek to execute an outstanding 3-2-3 double play that prevented the Braves' Lonnie Smith from scoring while also nabbing Sid Bream at first, ending the Braves' most credible scoring threat in the game with heart-stopping suddenness (the Braves would return the favor in the bottom half of the inning, when second baseman Mark Lemke snagged a weak liner off of Hrbek's bat and stepped on the bag to retire Chuck Knoblauch). The game was won in the bottom of the 10th inning when Gene Larkin cracked a bases-loaded single to left field, scoring Dan Gladden.

After the World Series win, Harper re-signed with the Twins for another two years. He joined the Milwaukee Brewers for the strike-shortened 1994 season, and then wrapped up his career in Oakland the next year, having played only two games for the A's.

Throughout his career, Harper was a difficult strike-out. He averaged a league-leading one strikeout per 25 plate appearances throughout his time in the AL.

Harper now manages the Salt Lake Bees, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

[edit] Sources

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis