Former MLB player and manager Bill Plummer passed away yesterday after complications of a heart attack he suffered last week. Plummer died 9 days shy of his 77th birthday. His death comes less than a month after the passing of his longtime Cincinnati Reds teammate Don Gullett.
Originally signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1965, Plummer would reach the big leagues in 1968 with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs acquired Plummer as a Rule 5 pick which meant he had to be kept on the big league roster the entire season. However, Plummer only played 2 games the entire season. Following the season, Plummer was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds along with two other players in exchange for veteran reliever Ted Abernathy.
After spending all of the 1969 season the minors, Plummer would have cups of coffee with the Reds in 1970 and 1971. Beginning in 1972, after the Reds traded future big league manager Pat Corrales to the San Diego Padres, Plummer would inherit baseball's most thankless job - being Johnny Bench's backup catcher.
Between 1972 and 1977, Plummer only played in more than 60 games once. Although Plummer was a member of a NL pennant winner in 1972 and earned back-to-back World Series rings in 1975 and 1976, he never appeared in a single post-season game. In a 1977 Sports Illustrated profile of Plummer, Barry McDermott described his fate in this manner:
Bill Plummer of the Cincinnati Reds is diligent and conscientious about his work. He gets to the park early, takes batting and infield practice, runs in the outfield, sings The Star-Spangled Banner, then sits down and spends the rest of the game trying to steal signs. Bill Plummer is the replacement for Johnny Bench, on the bench.
Of course, Plummer has the satisfaction of being in the major leagues, but only as the equivalent of the piano tuner at Carnegie Hall. He can count on the fingers of one hand the games he has started when Bench was not hurt or not being rested. All told, Pete Rose had 695 at bats last year. Plummer has batted only 682 times in seven major league seasons. The pattern was set from the start. In 1968, when he broke in with the Cubs, he went to the plate twice, once in April and once in May. He was playing in the minors in 1969.
No records are kept for games not started, career, but surely Plummer would be among the leaders. The problem is that unlike many utility players, he is bound to only one position—he is too ungainly for the outfield and almost as uncomfortable at the snug harbor of first base. So Bill Plummer sits and waits, resigned to his role. He knows this is all there is. "I'm almost a player without a function," he sighs.
What worked against Plummer is he didn't hit at the major league level. In four of the six seasons, Plummer was Bench's backup he hit below .200 four times. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .188. Perhaps Plummer would have hit better had he had more of an opportunity to play. But, as it stood, Plummer made Mario Mendoza look like George Brett.
But every dog has his day. On June 8, 1974, Plummer had a rare start behind the plate while Bench played third base. The Reds were facing the Philadelphia Phillies with future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton on the mound. Plummer hit not one, but two HRs off the four time NL Cy Young winner. His 3 RBIs that game was his first 3 RBIs of the 1974 season and those 2 HR were the only ones he hit in that campaign. Despite taking Carlton deep twice, Carlton managed to pitch a complete game against the Reds striking out 10 batters in a 6-5 Phillies win.
Plummer would have another career day almost exactly two years later on June 6, 1976. During a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Plummer went 3 for 5 hitting a single, triple and a HR plating a career high 7 RBIs as he was a double short of hitting for the cycle as the Reds routed the Redbirds 13-2.
But these were exceptions to the rule. As longtime Reds manager Sparky Anderson told McDermott in the Sports Illustrated profile, "He's a man. He doesn't like what he does. Nobody would like being a caddie. But he handles it."
Prior to the 1978 season, the Reds released Plummer as the team tabbed Don Werner to be Bench's new caddie. Days later Plummer would be signed by the Seattle Mariners. In their second year of existence, the Mariners in no way resembled the Big Red Machine. In fact, the Mariners would lose 104 games that year in what remains their worst ever season. Bob Stinson was no Johnny Bench, but Plummer backed him up just the same.
1978 proved to be Plummer's last season as a big-league player as he would spend all of 1979 playing for the Mariners Triple-AAA affiliate in Spokane. In 367 games, Plummer collected 168 hits for a lifetime batting average of .188 with 14 HR and 82 RBI.
Still, Plummer enjoyed a 10-year MLB career despite not playing a great deal. Perhaps because of this suffering, Plummer would spend nearly the rest of his life employed in baseball in one capacity or another. Plummer would spend the 1980s and early 1990s managing in the Mariners' minor league system and on the big-league coaching staff. In 1992, the Mariners hired Plummer to be their new manager succeeding Jim Lefebvre. Unfortunately, the Mariners went 64-98 while Plummer feuded with future Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson. Plummer would be dismissed at the end of the season and would ultimately be replaced by Lou Piniella.
Plummer would have stints as a minor league manager and coach in the Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations as well as in the independent leagues and in winter ball in both Mexico and Venezuela. Between 2018 and 2023, Plummer was a member of the coaching staff of the Redding Colt 45s, a collegiate baseball team.
Bill Plummer's big league playing career might not have turned out as he hoped, but he got to spend nearly 60 years in the field of dreams. R.I.P.
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