Chico Salmon

Chico Salmon never played for the 1969 Seattle Pilots but was one just long enough to have his Pilot baseball card printed. Taken from Cleveland in the expansion draft, Salmon was traded by the Pilots to Baltimore before spring training ended for Gene Brabender, one of the comedic aces if not pitching aces of Jim Bouton’s book Ball Four. Salmon might have fit right in with Ball Four: after going 4-for-4 against the Pilots in August, hitting two of his three 1969 home runs and knocking six runs, Salmon and the Orioles arrived at the stadium the next night to see a line for tickets, according to Salmon’s bio at SABR.org. Said Salmon, according to the bio, “They coming out to catch my act again.” Oriole teammate Elrod Hendricks, according to sabr.org, said Salmon was one of the three funniest teammates he played with. A native of Panama, Salmon was a utility player for Cleveland (’64-68) and Baltimore (’69-72), playing every position but pitcher and catcher and never appearing in more than 126 games. Lou Piniella, also traded by the Pilots in spring training ’69, said to Salmon a year later, according to sabr.org: “I’ve been in this league only two years, but I’ve never seen you play, Chico. What do you do for a living?” Salmon hit .256 in 422 at-bats for the ’66 Indians, with seven homers and 10 steals; he hit .297 in 91 at-bats fir the ’69 Orioles. In his only World Series at-bat, Salmon pinch-hit for reliever Tom Phoebus in Game 2, starting a five-run fifth-inning rally that gave the Orioles a 6-5 win over the Reds. It was Salmon’s only appearance in the Series won by the Orioles in five games; Salmon’s lifetime Series average is 1.000. Career numbers: .249 average, 31 home runs, 415 hits, 46 steals,.658 games, 644 OPS, 84 OPS+, 1.0 WAR>

Chico Salmon