Ronald Ray Fairly was born July 12, 1938 in Macon, Georgia.
A competitive player and highly disciplined hitter, Fairly had a short and compact swing with occasional power to all fields. He also walked often enough to post good-to-excellent on-base averages. With his glove, he was a competent first baseman and outfielder.
Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 09 of the 2010 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 4 week of February.
February 24
1977 The Oakland A’s trade Ron Fairly to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor leaguer Mike Weathers and cash. The Macon, Georgia native, who played with the Montreal Expos from 1969 to 1974, becomes the first major leaguer to appear with both Canadian teams.
Ronald Ray Fairly was born July 12, 1938 in Macon, Georgia.
A competitive player and highly disciplined hitter, Fairly had a short and compact swing with occasional power to all fields. He also walked often enough to post good-to-excellent on-base averages. With his glove, he was a competent first baseman and outfielder.
Fairly was a good hitter whose talents were sometimes overshadowed by a stunning lack of speed. When asked in his final season if he’d lost any speed, he replied, “There was nothing to lose.” In both 1963 and 1967 he tied a Major League record by having no triples in 150 or more games. He was a consistent hitter who hit at least 10 home runs 14 times in his career.
In 1958 Fairly played varsity baseball for Rod Dedeaux at the University of Southern California, and made the most of it. He hit .348 with team highs of nine home runs and 67 Runs Batted In while lettering as a sophomore center fielder. That season the Trojan baseball team won USC’s second College World Series championship. There he was a teammate of future baseball executive and General Manager Pat Gillick. 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.
Versatile enough to play the outfield despite his lumbering style, the steady Fairly was better suited to first base. He took over at first base for the Dodgers in 1962, but surrendered the position to Gold Glover Wes Parker in 1966; Fairly returned to the outfield.
Fairly hit two home runs in the 1965 World Series when the Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins.
After several years of declining batting averages, Fairly was traded to the expansion Expos in 1969 in the deal that returned Maury Wills to Los Angeles. After he escaped the vastness of Dodger Stadium, Fairly’s batting average and power rebounded.
Starting in 1974 he was less of a full-time player as he played for the Cardinals, Athletics, Blue Jays, and Angels.
With Toronto in 1977 he played more than 110 games mostly DHing for the expansion Blue Jays; that season he hit a career-high 19 Home Runs.
He was named to two All-Star teams; the first as an Expo in 1973 and then as a Blue Jay in 1977. Fairly is the only player to be named an All-Star with both Canada-based Major League teams.
In a 21-season career Fairly was a 266 hitter with 215 home runs and 1044 Runs Batted In.
He retired at age of 40 after the 1978 season.
After his playing days, Fairly began a broadcasting career in 1979 for the California Angels.
In 1987, he moved up the coast and could be heard 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.
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.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: S
Slide
1. To throw oneself along the ground toward a base to avoid being tagged out or overrunning the base. Contact with the base is made with a hand or a foot, which offers a much smaller target for the defender to tag.
2. The act of sliding. Slides are performed either feet first or, more daringly, headfirst.
3. A slump; for example, “With 0 for 20, Smith’s batting average took a slide.
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