Toby Harrah

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Colbert Dale (Toby) Harrah (b. 26 October 1948 in Sissonville, West Virginia) was a professional baseball player who played with the Texas Rangers both before and after their 1971 franchise shift before later being traded to the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. In 1993, he briefly managed the Rangers.

He played high school baseball in his hometown of La Rue, Ohio and was scouted out but was not signed at graduation as most scouts thought he planned to attend college on a baseball scholarship. A few months later, Tony Lucadello followed up and found that Harrah was not attending school, but was instead working in a factory in nearby Marion, Ohio. Lucadello signed Harrah for the Philadelphia Phillies in December, 1966.

After one year in the Phillies organization, Harrah was drafted by the Washington Senators in the fall of 1967. He advanced to the major league club in 1971; the next year the franchise relocated and became the Texas Rangers. He was the regular shortstop through 1976, then moved to third base, although he still saw some action at short. He was selected to the American League All-Star team in 1972, 1975, and 1976. He had a career best 93 RBIS in 1975.

In 1978 Toby was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Buddy Bell, a player thought to be fairly similar in many respects. He was the Indians regular third baseman through 1983 and made the All-Star team in 1982. That year he had 100 runs and a career best .304 batting average.

In 1984 Harrah was traded to the New York Yankees, where he was a part time player, then he was traded again to the Rangers, where he played regularly again for the 1985 and 1986 seasons, primarily at second base. With the retirement of Jeff Burroughs in 1985, Harrah became the last active major leaguer to have played for the Washington Senators franchise.

Harrah was noted for his good eye at the plate, regularly in the top ten in the league for bases on balls, and often among the leaders in reaching base safely. He also had better than average power for a defensive infielder, hitting 195 career home runs.

He is currently the hitting coordinator for the Detroit Tigers.

[edit] Trivia

Harrah was involved in two of the most unusual feats in Major League baseball history.

On June 25, 1976, he played an entire doubleheader without taking a single fielding chance. What was most unusual about this was that he managed to do so while playing shortstop, given the predominance of right-handed hitters in a baseball lineup (who will usually hit the ball to the left side of the infield).

Just over one year later, on August 27, 1977, Harrah and teammate Bump Wills would hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs, the only time this feat has ever occurred in a Major League Baseball game.

Toby is one of a select group of major league players to have a palindromic surname. (Mark Salas is another.) Harrah is also the only American League third baseman to be named to the all-star team with a palindromic surname.