Rod Miller
From BR Bullpen
Rodney Carter Miller
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lb.
- Debut September 28, 1957
- Final Game September 28, 1957
- Born January 16, 1940 in Portland, OR USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Rod Miller was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent on June 26, 1957. After hitting just .183 at Cedar Rapids of the Three-I League in 77 games the young infielder was brought up to the Dodgers in September of 1957. His entire major league career consisted of one game with the Dodgers, when he was 17 years old. He was the youngest player in the majors, a few days younger than Dave Skaugstad. He had one at-bat, and apparently did not play in the field.
Miller talked about his one at-bat in the majors. "It was the next to the last day of the season in Philadelphia. The Dodgers were up 8-3 in the eighth inning when Walter Alston told me to pinch-hit for Randy Jackson. I had to be coaxed by Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider that he wasn't kidding me. The pitcher for the Phillies was Jack Meyer and the catcher was Joe Lonnett, who was telling me the pitches, but I struck out swinging." In 1936 Alston himself had struck out in his only major league at bat.
Walter Alston was the classiest human being I've ever known giving me a chance to bat. That one at-bat opened more doors for me than I could ever have imagined. - Rod Miller in Once around the bases.
Rodney would spend three more seasons in pro baseball, all in the minors, with five teams in different leagues and ended his career with a .242 hitting average. Miller would leave baseball as he was drafted into the United States Marines for a four year tour of duty. After his tour of duty Miller worked for a steel company in Los Angeles, CA for several years and moved to Reno, NV in 1988 where he was employed with the Athletic Training Equipment Company, a firm that was owned by the late Jack Shepard, a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1953 to 1956, which manufactured baseball pitching machines. Rod retired and moved to Idaho in 2009.
[edit] Sources
[edit] Further Reading
- Richard Tellis: Once Around The Bases, Triumph Books, Chicago, 1998, pp. 193-201.
