Tom Waddell (baseball)

Thomas David Waddell (September 17, 1958 – September 14, 2019)[1] was a Scottish Major League Baseball pitcher. One of only eight Scotland natives to ever be a major league ballplayer, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1984 to 1985, and again in 1987.

Tom Waddell
Pitcher
Born: (1958-09-17)September 17, 1958
Dundee, Scotland
Died: September 14, 2019(2019-09-14) (aged 60)
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1984, for the Cleveland Indians
Last MLB appearance
April 20, 1987, for the Cleveland Indians
MLB statistics
Pitching Record15–11
Earned run average4.30
Strikeouts118
Teams

Waddell grew up in Closter, New Jersey[2] and attended Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest.[3]

Baseball career

The right-hander was signed by the Atlanta Braves as an amateur free agent out of Manhattan College in 1981. Hank Aaron was present at Waddell's tryout and credited with signing the young pitcher. After three seasons in their farm system, he was drafted by the Indians in the 1983 rule 5 draft. He made his major league debut on April 15, 1984 against the Baltimore Orioles, facing only two batters and giving up a game tying sacrifice fly and a single.[4] For the season, Waddell went 7–4 with a 3.06 earned run average, 59 strikeouts and six saves in 58 appearances for the Indians, setting a club record for relief appearances by a rookie.

In 1985, Waddell was 4–5 with a 3.88 ERA and nine saves out of the tribe's bullpen when Cleveland manager Pat Corrales converted him into a starter. In his first major league start, Waddell pitched six plus innings to earn the win over Ron Guidry and the New York Yankees.[5] For the season, he made nine starts, including a 7-hit complete game win over Dave Stieb and the Toronto Blue Jays on August 19.[6]

Waddell had shoulder surgery in September 1985 and made only three rehab appearances for Cleveland's triple A affiliate in 1986. He was unsuccessful in a brief 1987 comeback bid, going 0–1 with a 14.29 ERA in six games with the Indians. He signed a minor league contract with the Montreal Expos in 1988, and went 3–2 with a 2.95 ERA splitting the season between their double and triple A affiliates. He split the 1989 season between the Expos' and Milwaukee Brewers' farm system before retiring.

W L PCT ERA G GS CG SV IP H ER R HR BB K WP HBP
15 11 .577 4.30 113 9 1 15 215.1 179 103 106 33 83 118 2 3

Post-baseball career

Waddell became a U.S. citizen in 1990. He held several corporate jobs in Texas and Arizona, including Intuit, the software company that developed Quickbooks and Turbo Tax. Waddell died of cancer in 2019.

References
  1. "Waddell". The Courier. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  2. via Associated Press, "Baseball career good fit for hurler", The Rock Hill Herald, August 3, 1981. Accessed July 28, 2011. "Former clothing salesman Tom Waddell's new career as a baseball pitcher for the Anderson Braves suits him fine.... The Closter, N.J. native signed as a free agent and is now pitching for the Braves' team in the South Atlantic League."
  3. Celizic, Mike. "Surgery Spurs Waddell's Relief", The Record, March 28, 1986. Accessed June 14, 2020 via Newspapers.com. "A big purple scar runs down the inside of Tom Waddell's right elbow. A smaller wound decorates the outside of the joint. 'It was kind of a 20,000-pitch maintenance operation,' the onetime star pitcher at Demarest High School said yesterday as his team, the Cleveland Indians, played the Chicago Cubs in a spring training game."
  4. "Baltimore Orioles 6, Cleveland Indians 5". 1984-04-15.
  5. "Cleveland Indians 6, New York Yankees 5". 1985-07-31.
  6. "Cleveland Indians 5, Toronto Blue Jays 3". 1985-08-19.
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