Mackey Sasser
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Mackey Sasser (born August 3, 1962 in Fort Gaines, Georgia) is a former professional baseball catcher, who played from 1987 to 1995 for the New York Mets, the San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Seattle Mariners.
Sasser is known for the difficulty he regularly encountered in returning balls to the pitcher that had been thrown to him, although he performed competently as a catcher otherwise.[1] He appeared in 534 games in his career, getting 317 hits with sixteen home runs, 156 RBI's and a career .267 batting average.
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[edit] Early career
Sasser played college baseball at Troy State University and was drafted in the fifth round of the 1987 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco Giants. He came up in the Major Leagues with the Giants on July 17, 1987 playing in two games before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates with cash for pitcher Don Robinson where he played 12 games for the remainder of the 1987 season.
[edit] Mets career
On March 26, 1988, Sasser was traded to the New York Mets with pitcher Tim Drummond for former Mets prospect first baseman, Randy Milligan and a minor league player. With the Mets he was used as a backup for future Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter for two seasons before playing 100 games in the 1990 season. That year he had 83 hits and an .307 batting average. In 1991, he played 96 games for an .272 batting average and in 1992 he went back to a backup role where he played in 92 games for only 141 at-bats and a .241 batting average.
[edit] Later career
Sasser was granted free agent status after the 1992 season where he signed a two year contract with the Seattle Mariners.[2] He appeared in 83 games as a backup in the 1993 season where he only hit for a .218 batting average. Seattle demoted him to third-string backup catcher after that season, and he appeared in only three games with them in the 1994 season, going hitless in three games before getting released. Sasser then signed a contract with the San Diego Padres on May 20, 1994 but was released a month later without ever playing a game with them. Sasser signed with the Pirates for the 1995 season but only played in fourteen games, getting four hits in 26 at-bats before getting released in Mid-May and retiring for good.
[edit] Legacy
Sasser's difficulty with the ostensibly simple task of returning a pitched ball back to the pitcher provided the inspiration for the character of Rube Baker, a catcher who struggled against the same problem, in the movie Major League II.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Livingstone, Seth Baseball's head cases often proved baffling USA Today 11/05/01 Retrieved on 2006-07-01.
- ^ Mackey Sasser baseball library profile Retrieved on 2006-07-01
