Tito Nanni

Tito Angelo Nanni (December 3, 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a former professional baseball player. Over his career, Nanni primarily played first base and outfield. Nanni played in the Seattle Mariners organization for the majority of his career, but also spent part of a season in the California Angels organization, and the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Despite playing for the aforementioned organizations and being a high draft pick, Nanni never made an appearance in Major League Baseball. He is considered to be one of the worst first-round draft picks of all-time.^[1][2] Nanni played seven seasons in minor league baseball, and had a career batting average of .253 with a .384 slugging percentage, 701 hits, 122 doubles, 22 triples, and 66 home runs in 2775 at-bats.

Amateur career

For high school, Nanni attended Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nanni is a hall of fame member at his school.^[3] During his athletics career at Chestnut Hill, Nanni played baseball, basketball, and football.^[3] He was captain and the most valuable player for each sport he played.^[3] He was an All-City selection if football, an All-Inter-Ac for basketball, and All-City and All-American for baseball.^[3]

Professional career

Seattle Mariners

1978–1980 seasons

Nanni was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the first round (sixth pick overall) of the 1978 Major League Baseball Draft.^[4] He was signed on August 22, and was assigned to the Arizona League Mariners.^[5][6] The chief scout for the Seattle Mariners who signed Nanni, Mel Didier, was later fired because the Mariners claimed Nanni's $100,000 contract violated Major League Baseball regulations.^[7] Nanni began his professional career with the Class-A Alexandria Mariners of the Carolina League in 1979. He batted .226 with 91 hits, 19 doubles, 1 triple, and 6 home runs. The next season, 1980, Nanni batted a combined .229 between the Class-A Wausau Timbers and the Class-A San Jose Missions. With the Missions, Nanni batted .199 with 38 hits, 6 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 home runs. With the Timbers, he batted .253 with 60 hits, 8 doubles, and 12 home runs. His 12 home runs that year were tied for third on the Wausau club with Jim Presley.^[8]

1981–1984 seasons

On March 27, 1981, after spring training, Nanni was assigned to the Triple-A Spokane Indians,^[9] however, he played only for the Double-A Lynn Sailors that season. With Lynn, Nanni batted .249 with 90 hits, 14 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs, 40 RBIs, and 20 stolen bases in 116 games. On March 11, 1982, the Mariners re-signed Nanni.^[10] That season, Nanni continued to play for the Double-A Lynn Sailors. He batted .293 with 71 runs scored, 139 hits, 25 doubles, 5 triples, 16 home runs, 77 RBIs, and 32 stolen bases in 134 games. He was first on the team in hits; tied for first in doubles; second in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored; and was third in triples.^[11] In 1983, Nanni was promoted to the Triple-A Salt Lake City Gulls of the Pacific Coast League. He batted .240 with 100 hits, 18 doubles, 5 triples, 11 home runs, 52 RBIs, and 28 stolen bases in 122 games. Nanni's last season in the Mariners' organization would come in the 1984 season with the Triple-A Salt Lake City Gulls. He batted .273 with 127 hits, 23 doubles, 7 triples, and 6 home runs in 135 games. Nanni was tied for first with Jamie Allen in doubles; and was third in hits, and triples.^[12]

Later career

In 1985, Nanni spent spring training with the Chicago Cubs and on March 22, he was reassigned to their minor league camp.^[13] On April 2, before the start of the season, Nanni was traded to the California Angels for pitcher Ángel Moreno.^[14] California then assigned Nanni to the Double-A Midland Angels of the Texas League. He batted .263 with 44 hits, 6 doubles, and 4 home runs in 53 games with Midland that season. Nanni later wound-up in the Toronto Blue Jays organization where he was assigned to the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs. He finished out the 1985 season with the Chiefs batting .200 with 12 hits, 3 doubles, 1 triple, and 1 home run in 18 games.

Legacy

Alan Schwarz, special reporter to ESPN.com, rated Nanni as the sixth worst baseball draft pick of all-time, and claimed that Jerry Krause, a scout for the Mariners at the time of the draft, insisted the Mariners pick Kirk Gibson.^[1] On June 5, 2006, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named Nanni was the worst pick of all-time made by the Mariners citing the fact that they could have chosen Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, Jr., Kirk Gibson or Dave Stieb, all of whom were in the same draft and were selected after Nanni.^[2] Larry Stone, writer for The Seattle Times, described Nanni and players Stone claimed were like Nanni, including Bucky Jacobsen, Jim Maler, and Paul McAnulty, as "...guys that can hit the ball a mile, that put up tremendous minor-league statistics, but for some reason or another...can't make their mark in the major leagues."^[15]

Personal

Tito Nanni is the uncle of Ryan Nanni who played for the University of Delaware baseball team.^[16]

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)