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Jim Gentile
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Birthdate: 6/3/1934    
Height / Weight: 6' 4" / 215 lbs. Place of Birth: San Francisco, CA, USA
Bats / Throws: L / L

Baseball Historian Biography

Every major league team has a long ball hitter in its farm system, that languishes for years in the minors, maybe because the parent club has an All-Star at a certain position or because the minor league slugger lacks speed and is just an average fielder. Brooklyn had Jim Gentile in the Dodgers' minor league system during the 1950s. With All-Star Gil Hodges manning first base, and a promising all-around minor leaguer in Norm Larker, Gentile was burning up the minors with homers. And at age 26, had already collected 208 minor league homers before he was purchased by the Baltimore Orioles and given his big-chance to show just what he could do. After playing with the Dodgers in just 4 games in 1957 and 12 games in 1958 - the big 6'4", 210-pounder walloped 21 homers with 98 RBIs and batted .298 in his rookie year in Baltimore.

When Maris and Mantle ended one/two in the MVP balloting in 1961 by hitting 61 homers (Maris) and 54 homers (Mantle), Gentile lined 46 homers 141 RBIs (more 20% of the Orioles' totals) and was third in the MVP balloting. He set a new AL record with five grand slam homers in a single season - including two in one game and 30 of his 46 shots were hit on the road. Gentile collected 75 homers in his first 1,000 at bats - the highest total in the quickest time ever in major league history. Baseball History


Pitching Statistics
Year Team G GS W L SV CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WP HBP BK ERA
11 years   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
Batting Statistics
Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS IBB HBP SH SF AVG OBP SLG
1957 BRO (NL) 4 6 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167 .286 SLG
1958 LAD (NL) 12 30 0 4 1 0 0 4 4 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 .133 .235 SLG
1960 BAL (AL) 138 384 67 112 17 0 21 98 68 72 0 0 5 7 0 5 .292 .403 SLG
1961 BAL (AL) 148 486 96 147 25 2 46 141 96 106 1 1 5 11 0 8 .302 .423 SLG
1962 BAL (AL) 152 545 80 137 21 1 33 87 77 100 1 0 16 7 0 10 .251 .346 SLG
1963 BAL (AL) 145 496 65 123 16 1 24 72 76 101 1 0 9 6 1 3 .248 .353 SLG
1964 KCA (AL) 136 439 71 110 10 0 28 71 84 122 0 0 6 4 1 5 .251 .372 SLG
1965 HOU (NL) 81 227 22 55 11 1 7 31 34 72 0 0 7 5 2 1 .242 .352 SLG
1965 KCA (AL) 38 118 14 29 5 0 10 22 9 26 0 0 1 1 0 0 .246 .305 SLG
1966 CLE (AL) 33 47 2 6 1 0 2 4 5 18 0 0 1 0 0 0 .128 .212 SLG
1966 HOU (NL) 49 144 16 35 6 1 7 18 21 39 0 0 3 4 1 0 .243 .355 SLG
11 years   936 2922 434 759 113 6 179 549 475 663 3 1 54 45 5 32 .260 .368 .SLG



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