Toby Harrah

Toby Harrah
Detroit Tigers – No. 87
Third baseman / Shortstop
Born: (1948-10-26) October 26, 1948 Sissonville, West Virginia
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 5, 1969 for the Washington Senators
Last MLB appearance
October 4, 1986 for the Texas Rangers
Career statistics
Batting average	.264
Home runs	195
Runs batted in	918
Teams
As player Washington Senators / Texas Rangers (1969–1978) Cleveland Indians (1979–1983) New York Yankees (1984) Texas Rangers (1985–1986) As manager Texas Rangers (1992) As coach Detroit Tigers (2013-present)
Career highlights and awards
4× All-Star selection (1972, 1975, 1976, 1982) Texas Rangers Hall of Fame

Colbert Dale (Toby) Harrah (born October 26, 1948) is a former professional baseball player who played with the Texas Rangers both before (Washington Senators era) and after their 1971 franchise shift. He also played for the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. In 1992, he briefly served as manager of the Rangers. Harrah currently serves as assistant hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers.

Playing career

Harrah played high school baseball in his hometown of LaRue, 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. He was also the last player to see a pitch for the Senators in their final game on September 30, 1971 when Tommy McCraw was caught stealing during his plate-appearance for the Senators final out in the bottom of the 8th.

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.

Coaching career

Following his playing career, Harrah moved on to coaching in professional baseball. From 1987-1988 he managed the Triple A Oklahoma City 89ers. From 1989-1991 he served as the first base coach for the Texas Rangers under manager Bobby Valentine. In 1992 he shifted to bench coach under Valentine, and then replaced him as manager with 76 games left to go in the season. As interim manager, the Rangers under Harrah went 32-44.

In 1995 Harrah managed the Triple A Norfolk Tides to an 86-56 record, finishing in first place in the International League East Division. In 1996 he served as the third base coach for the Cleveland Indians under Mike Hargrove, replacing Buddy Bell, who had been named manager of the Detroit Tigers. In 1997, he served as a minor league hitting coach within the Tigers organization. In 1998 he joined the Tigers major league club as hitting coach, serving under manager Bell and interim manager Larry Parrish, both teammates of Harrah on Rangers in the mid 1980s. When Bell was hired as the manager of the Colorado Rockies in 2000, Harrah joined him once again by serving as bench coach through the 2002 season.^[1]

In 2004, Harrah was named minor league hitting coordinator for the Tigers, where he worked with players at all levels as a roving instructor. He remained in that position until partway through the 2012 season.^[2]

In June 2012, Harrah joined the Detroit Tigers major league coaching staff in an unofficial capacity.^[3] Tigers manager Jim Leyland noted that with so many players struggling at once, hitting coach Lloyd McClendon had been stretched thin. The notion of two hitting coaches had been recommended to Leyland by friend and former colleague Tony LaRussa.^[4] LaRussa had been the first to adopt a two-coach system when he named an assistant hitting coach (John Mabry) with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011.^[5] In the month following his arrival, the Tigers offense increased their average runs per game from 4.3 to 5.6.^[6]

Following the 2012 season, Harrah was officially named assistant hitting coach by the Tigers for the 2013 season.^[7]

See also

• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube