Randy O'Neal
Randall Jeffrey O'Neal
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 195 lb.
- School Palm Beach Community College, University of Florida
- High School John I. Leonard High School
- Debut September 12, 1984
- Final Game October 2, 1990
- Born August 30, 1960 in Ashland, KY USA
Biographical Information[edit]
Pitcher Randy O'Neal made his major league debut as a September call-up for the Detroit Tigers during their World Series-winning campaign in 1984. With the division title practically already clinched, he made 3 starts in 4 appearances, going 2-1, 3.38. He was the winning pitcher in the game that clinched the title on September 18th, tossing 7 scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Because the Tigers were such a big story that year after starting the season on a tremendous hot streak, he was talked up as a major prospect, but it was not really the case. He was drafted five times before finally signing with the Tigers after being taken in the secondary phase of the 1981 amateur draft out of the University of Florida. He was a starting pitcher in the minors and was coming off a season of going 9-10, 3.57 for the AAA Evansville Triplets before joining the Tigers. While he did not appear in the postseason, he was with the team as part of its taxi squad, ready to step in in case of injury, but his services were not required. In those days, not everyone who played for a championship team received a commemorative ring, and he was left out, a snub that was only corrected 41 years later when the Tigers handed him one on the anniversary of his big league debut during the 2025 season.
The rest of Randy's major league career was as a journeyman. He split the 1985 season between the Tigers and their new AAA affiliate, the Nashville Sounds, going 5-5, 3.24 in Detroit and 5-4, 3.59 for Nashville. In 1986, he pitched only 4 games for Nashville, spending the rest of the season with Detroit, where he went 3-7, 4.33 in 37 games as a swingman. His 122 2/3 major league innings that season were a career high.
Before the 1987 season, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves with P Chuck Cary for OF Terry Harper and a minor leaguer. He only spent half a season with the Braves, being traded again at the end of July in return for P Joe Boever. He pitched for both major league teams and for their AAA affiliates that season, going 4-2, 5.32 in 17 games in the majors, and 3-2, 4.47 in 8 AAA games. The Cardinals made it to the 1987 World Series, but once again he did not play in the postseason. In 1988, he again split his time between the majors and AAA, going 2-3, 4.58 for St. Louis and 3-5, 3.71 for the Louisville Redbirds.
He became a free agent after the 1988 season and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for 1989, going 0-1, 6.23 in 20 games as a reliever for the Phils, and and 4-4, 2.53 for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. In 1990, he moved to the San Francisco Giants as a free agent, and, in a familiar pattern, split his time between the big league team (1-0, 3.83 in 26 games) and their AAA farm team, the Phoenix Firebirds (5-0, 2.97 in 7 games). He signed with the Kansas City Royals for 1991 but spent that season down in AA with the Memphis Chicks, going 1-4, 4.33 in 12 starts. He was out of baseball for the next two seasons, but came back when the independent leagues started booming in the mid-1990s, pitching for a couple of seasons with the Corpus Christi Barracudas of the Texas-Louisiana League in 1994 and 1995.
In retirement, he worked with a bat manufacturing company that he purchased with some friends, then sold it to sporting goods firm Easton. He coached baseball for a while and was a regular participant in Tigers fantasy baseball camps.
Notable Achievements[edit]
- Won one World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 1984 (he did not play in the World Series)
Further Reading[edit]
- Jason Beck: "Rookie Randy O'Neal finally receives his Tigers World Series ring ... 41 years later", mlb.com, September 17, 2025. [1]
- Charles Faber and Paul Geisler: "Randy O'Neal", in Mark Pattison and David Raglin, ed.: Detroit Tigers 1984: What A Start! What A Finish!, SABR Publications, Phoenix, AZ, 2012, pp. 133-135. ISBN 978-1933599441
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