Ron Fairly

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Ronald Ray Fairly (born July 12, 1938 in Macon, Georgia) is a former Major League Baseball player and broadcaster. He has either played in or broadcast over 7,000 major league games from 1958 through 2006.

[edit] College career

Fairly played varsity baseball for Rod Dedeaux at the University of Southern California (1958), and he made the most of it. He hit .348 with team highs of nine home runs and 67 RBI while lettering as a sophomore center fielder on the 1958 Trojan baseball team which won USC's second College World Series championship. An All-District 8 selection that season, he was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent. After two brief minor league stops, he made the big club late in September 1958.

[edit] Professional career

A competitive player and highly disciplined hitter, Fairly had a short and compact swing with occasional power to all fields. With his glove, he was a competent first baseman as well as all three outfield positions, being best suited for right field. His talents were overshadowed by a notorious lack of speed.

Fairly hit two home runs in the 1965 World Series when the Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins.

Ron Fairly as a Montreal Expos player at Jarry Park Stadium in 1969.

In 21-season career, Fairly played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-69), Montreal Expos (1969-74), St. Louis Cardinals (1975-76), Oakland Athletics (1976), Toronto Blue Jays (1977) and California Angels (1978). He owns the distinction of being the first player to play for both Canadian-based Major League franchises and the only player to ever become an All-Star for each club.

A career .266 hitter with 215 home runs and 1044 RBI in 2442 games, Fairly was selected an All-Star in 1973 and 1977. He also played in four World Series. He retired at age of 40 after the 1978 season.

[edit] Broadcaster

After his playing days, Fairly began his broadcasting career in 1979 at KTLA in Los Angeles and later joined Bob Starr in the California Angels radio/television booth. In 1987, Fairly moved up the coast and could be heard on KNBR as the voice of the San Francisco Giants. In 1993, he went further north as a broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners, where he stayed through the 2006 season. Fairly served primarily as a color commentator, but occasionally stepped in to do play-by-play as well.

In 1997, Fairly was selected to the USC's Athletic Hall of Fame. He joined former Trojans inductees as Marcus Allen, Buster Crabbe, Charles Dumas, Frank Gifford, Ronnie Lott, Fred Lynn, Tom Seaver and O.J. Simpson, among others.

On September 21, 2006, the Mariners announced that Ron Fairly had decided to retire his post as team broadcaster after 14 seasons, ending a 27-year career in Major League broadcasting. Coupled with 21 years as a player, Fairly spent 48 years in the Major Leagues.

From June 15 to June 17, 2007, Fairly briefly came out of retirement to work as a television analyst for the Mariners during a three game interleague series against the Houston Astros, in Houston, due to broadcaster Mike Blowers being on vacation.

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Baseball Library.com - Ron Fairly
• USC Athletic Hall of Fame inductees (1994-2005) - Ron Fairly - 1997
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Fairly to retire from Mariners booth - 22-Sep-2006