While I was on Facebook, I saw several posts indicating that former MLB player Lenny Randle had passed away yesterday at the age of 75. However, I did not see any kind of official confirmation until I saw the Seattle Mariners' X account.
Randle was a baseball and football standout at Compton High School in Los Angeles. He would be drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 10th round of the 1967 MLB Draft but opted to attend college at Arizona State University where he would play college ball under legendary coach Bobby Winkles and would capture the College World Series title in 1969.
The Washington Senators would draft Randle as a first-round pick in the secondary phase of the 1970 MLB Draft and would make the big-league club the following year with Hall of Famer Ted Williams as his manager. It would be the Senators' last year in D.C. forfeiting their last home game when unruly fans prevented the final out from being played.
Randle moved with the team to Dallas-Fort Worth where they were rechristened the Texas Rangers. As with his rookie season, Randle primarily played at second base. He would spend most of the 1973 season in Triple AAA. But when Billy Martin took over the reins of the club from Whitey Herzog in 1974, Randle got his chance playing a mix of second, third and in the outfield hitting .302 and stealing 26 bases for a team which gave the back-to-back World Series champion Oakland A's a scare in the AL West.
However, Randle's season was overshadowed by an incident in late August against the Cleveland Indians when he bunted off Tribe pitcher Milt Wilcox. But instead of going to first base, he charged Wilcox with a flying tackle precipitating a brawl. Five days later, the two teams would meet with Cleveland during "10 Cent Beer Night". While there was bad blood between the Rangers and Indians, the two teams would need to join forces to fight off drunken fans. For the second time in his career, Randle was part of a forfeited game.
In 1975, Randle drove in a career high 57 runs. He would steal 30 bases in 1976, but his average had dipped to .224. In 1977, Randle would lose his job at second base during spring training to Bump Wills (son of base stealing legend Maury Wills). Randle would confront Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi about the demotion. Lucchesi allegedly responded by calling Randle "a punk" which prompted Randle to beat up his manager. Unfortunately, Lucchesi suffered a broken jaw and would later be fired by the team. Lucchesi blamed Randle for his sacking and sued him. The two settled out of court.
For his part, Randle was suspended without pay and fined $10,000 before being traded to the New York Mets. Randle was one of the few bright spots on a bad Mets ballclub hitting a career high .304 along with a career high 33 stolen bases. Randle's Mets tenure, however, is best remembered for him being at the plate at Shea Stadium against Ray Burris of the Cubs when the New York City blackout hit.
Randle's numbers diminished with the Mets in 1978, and he would be released at season's end. He would start the 1979 season with the San Francisco Giants but would play only at Triple-AAA Fresno before being sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates along with Bill Madlock. Randle could have played on a World Series winner but again Randle was relegated to the minor leagues before being sent to the New York Yankees where he would play only 20 games hitting .179 and not stealing a single base.
In 1980, Randle would join the Chicago Cubs where he would rebound hitting .276 with 5 HR along with 39 RBI and 19 stolen bases. Randle spent the final two seasons of his MLB career with the Seattle Mariners. He is best remembered for a game against the Kansas City Royals at the Kingdome. Playing third base, Amos Otis hit a slow grounder which looked like it would stay fair for a base hit until Randle went down on his hands and knees and blew the ball foul. However, the umpires would reward Otis with a base hit. But Randle got his highlight reel. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Randle also recorded a novelty rap song while with the Mariners called "Kingdome".
In 12 MLB seasons, Randle played in 1138 games collecting 1016 hits for a lifetime batting average of .257 with 27 HR, 322 RBI and 156 stolen bases.
And then his life got really interesting.
Randle ended up playing baseball in Italy and living there on and off for the last four decades of his life.
On a personal note, my parents saw Randle play baseball with his Nettuno based team when they visited France in the summer of 1983. Dad couldn't believe he was seeing baseball in France much less a former big-league player at the center of it.
Through good and bad, Lenny Randle found joy in living while making his own unique contribution to baseball. R.I.P.
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