#CardCorner: 1979 Topps Thad Bosley

In an era where many teams employed pinch-hitting specialists, Thad Bosley was one of the best. His ability to come off the bench and deliver in the clutch kept Bosley in the big leagues for 14 seasons – with almost half of his 784 games coming as a pinch-hitter.

Thaddis Bosley Jr. was born Sept. 17, 1956, in Oceanside, Calif.  The San Diego Padres debuted in the National League when Bosley was 12, and he watched the new expansion team as he grew into a formidable player on the diamond and the basketball court.

As a senior in 1974, Bosley was named to the Escondido (Calif.) Daily Times-Advocate first team Avocado League basketball squad after averaging 14.8 points per game for Oceanside High School. He was a first-team Avocado League baseball pick later that spring but was not considered the top talent in the North County area, a region located north of San Diego that regularly produced baseball prospects.

That honor went to Oceanside teammate Frank Ciammachilli, a pitcher taken in the third round by the Phillies in the 1974 MLB Draft. Ciammachilli pitched for five seasons in the Philadelphia organization but never got above the Double-A level. Bosley, meanwhile, was selected by the Angels in the fourth round of the 1974 Draft and sent to Idaho Falls of the Pioneer League, where he hit .242 with 71 walks (good for a .424 on-base percentage) and 27 steals in 68 games.

In 1975, Bosley spent the season with Quad Cities of the Class A Midwest League, batting .298 with 37 steals and 73 walks in 108 games. Then in 1976, Bosley set the Class A California League on fire by hitting .325 with 105 runs scored, 86 walks and 90 stolen bases in 134 games.

The Angels promoted Bosley to Triple-A in 1977, and he was hitting .326 with 55 runs scored and 23 stolen bases through 69 games in Salt Lake City when the Angels brought him to the big leagues. He was informed of the promotion in the early afternoon of June 29, 1977, by Salt Lake City manager Jimy Williams after the Angels learned outfielder Joe Rudi would be sidelined by a broken finger.

“He knocked at the door (of Bosley’s Salt Lake City apartment),” Bosley said of Williams in an Orange County Register story, “and he told me I was gone.”

Bosley made a beeline for Southern California, arriving at Anaheim Stadium at 7:15 p.m. and learned that manager Norm Sherry had penciled him into the starting lineup, hitting seventh against the Royals. Bosley broke open a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a two-run triple off Jim Colborn that scored Dave Chalk and Ron Jackson and scored when Kansas City first baseman John Mayberry was charged with an error on a ground ball off the bat of Rusty Torres.

Then in the fifth, Bosley singled off Doug Bird to score Jackson and give the Angels a 6-0 lead. It was more than enough for Nolan Ryan, who started that night and went the distance – striking out 12 batters in a 7-0 shutout win. It was the 96th time Ryan had recorded a double-digit strikeout game, one fewer than Sandy Koufax’s then-record.

A photo of Ryan and Bosley shaking hands ran in the next day’s edition of the Orange County Register.

Bosley’s performance drew a standing ovation from the crowd of 17,550 fans.

“I’m sitting here thinking maybe it’s a dream,” Bosley told reporters. “If I hit myself on the head, maybe I’ll wake up. I’ve never received a standing ovation before.”

Unsurprisingly, Bosley remained in the lineup and was hitting .351 in mid-September before finishing with a .297 batting average in 58 games.

“If he hits like that, we’ll keep him,” Sherry told reporters after Bosley’s debut but before he was dismissed as manager less than two weeks later. “And he runs like the wind.”

But on Dec. 5, 1977, Bosley’s career took an unexpected turn when the Angels and White Sox agreed to a blockbuster trade that sent Bosley, Bobby Bonds and Richard Dotson to Chicago in exchange for Brian Downing, Dave Frost and Chris Knapp.

“To be honest, the first time I was traded I didn’t understand what it meant,” Bosley told the North County Times in 1989. “I was 20 years old, I had just been named the Angels Player of the Month for September and I got traded with Bobby Bonds… so I didn’t feel too bad.

“I don’t think the teams I’ve played for didn’t want me. It’s just that another team wanted me more.”

Bosley reported to Spring Training with the White Sox in 1978 and garnered much attention as Chicago prepared to move on from a 90-win team that had lost free agents Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble. Bosley also drew notice due to his musical ability, which he demonstrated on the piano – an instrument he formally began exploring at age 17.

“Of the two things, baseball and music, I love music more,” Bosley told the Chicago Tribune, noting that his mother played piano in church concerts and his father was a drummer in the Marines. “All us kids were given the chance to take piano lessons, and I did for a while. But then it would be time for practice and I’d always have a baseball game to go to, and I’d always choose baseball.”

Bosley was sent to Triple-A Iowa to start the season before being recalled in late May. He hit .290 over 19 games before being sidelined with a groin injury. When that healed, the White Sox sent him to Triple-A to regain his timing. He was reportedly playing piano in the ballroom of the Fort Des Moines Hotel at 2:30 a.m. when manager Joe Sparks informed him he had been recalled to Chicago.

“Bosley has that intangible of being able to motivate people with his enthusiasm,” White Sox manager Larry Doby told the Des Moines Register. “You know, the last time we put him in the lineup, before he got hurt, we won 17 of 19 games.”

Doby’s math was a little off – the White Sox won 13 of the 19 games – but nonetheless Bosley was back in Chicago for the rest of the year, spending most of his time as the White Sox’s center fielder. He hit .269 in 66 games with 12 stolen bases – a steals total that turned out to be a career-high.

In 1979, Bosley made Chicago’s Opening Day roster as a reserve outfielder but was optioned to Triple-A in early May after appearing in just 16 games, including only two as a starter. He spent most of the summer with Iowa – hitting .264 in 95 games – before being recalled to the White Sox in September.

In 1980, Bosley again made the Opening Day roster but once again was limited to bench duty.

“Someday, Thad is going to be an everyday ballplayer,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa told United Press International after Bosley’s 10th-inning RBI pinch-hit single – Bosley was hitting for Bruce Kimm, who already had three hits on the game – gave Chicago a 6-5 win over Milwaukee on May 13. “But for now, he knows the rules on this team. It does no good to save your ballplayers.”

On April 1, 1981, the White Sox traded Bosley to the Brewers for outfielder John Poff. The Brewers immediately assigned Bosley to Triple-A Vancouver, where he hit .320 in 34 games before being recalled to the majors in June. He appeared in 42 games for Milwaukee that season, batting .229, and then was involved in another Spring Training deal in 1982, going to the Mariners on March 5 in exchange for pitcher Mike Parrott.

Bosley played in only 44 games between Triple-A Salt Lake City – then the Mariners’ top farm team – and Seattle in 1982, and it seemed his career was at a crossroads. But after signing with the Athletics on Feb. 14, 1983, Bosley had his contract purchased by the Cubs with just four days left in Spring Training.

It would mark the start of the best stretch of Bosley’s career.

“The White Sox are a part of my life I don’t understand,” Bosley told the Des Moines Register in 1983. “I had success at a very young age, and now I’m starting over. I know one thing: This has made me a stronger man. I have a much deeper appreciation for the game now.

“As long as you’re playing, you still have a chance to reach your dreams.”

The Cubs had no roster space when they acquired Bosley, so they loaned him to the Mexico City Tigers of the Mexican League. He hit .327 in 31 games but also lost 23 pounds and had been sidelined for three weeks before the Cubs reassigned him to Triple-A Iowa. He hit .290 in 39 games before the Cubs brought him back to Chicago in July, deploying him in 43 contests down the stretch where he hit .292 and recorded four pinch-hits.

He returned to the Cubs as a non-roster player in 1984 and again began the season in Triple-A, this time returning to Chicago in June as the Cubs were gearing up for a second-half sprint to the National League East title. Bosley recorded a pinch-hit home run on Aug. 19 (a three-run shot that gave Chicago a 9-6 win over Cincinnati) and finished the season with six pinch-hits.

The Cubs advanced to the NLCS vs. the Padres, winning the first two games against San Diego. Bosley pinch-hit in Game 3 – his first postseason appearance since pinch-running in Game 2 of the 1981 ALDS for the Brewers vs. the Yankees – and struck out while batting for pitcher George Frazier in the eighth inning of a 7-1 loss at Jack Murphy Stadium.

“Hey, they are a good team and so are we,” Bosley told the North County Times after the Padres won Game 3 to avoid a sweep and take back some momentum. “Their game is a lot like ours. They want it to be close in the late innings. And they also had 60,000 people cheering them on.”

The Padres won Game 4 on a Steve Garvey walk-off home run, setting up a winner-take-all Game 5. The Cubs jumped out to a 3-0 lead but fell behind 6-3 when San Diego scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh. Cubs manager Jim Frey called on Bosley to pinch-hit for Larry Bowa to lead off the eighth – but Bosley struck out against Goose Gossage. The Padres won the game to advance to the World Series.

Thanks to his 1984 heroics, however, Bosley had no trouble finding work for the rest of the decade. He appeared in 108 games for the Cubs in 1985, hitting .328 with seven homers and 27 RBI to go along with a .902 OPS. He earned a standing ovation and a curtain call from the Wrigley Field faithful on Aug. 12 when he homered twice and drove in five runs to lead Chicago to an 8-7 win over the Expos.

One of the home runs came as a pinch-hitter, leaving him with an NL-leading 14 pinch-hits. He finished the season on top of the leaderboard with 20 pinch-hits.

“It was a very unique experience,” Bosley told the AP of his eighth-inning home run off Jeff Reardon that gave Chicago an 8-7 lead.

Bosley hit .275 in 87 games in 1986 before another Spring Training deal – this time on March 30, 1987, sent him to Kansas City along with Dave Gumpert in exchange for Jim Sundberg.

“You know how a song just pops into your head? I was singing ‘Kansas City, here I come’ when I walked out onto the field this morning,” Bosley told the Chicago Tribune at the Cubs’ facility in Mesa, Ariz. “Little did I know that I was Kansas City-bound.”

Bosley totaled 46 pinch-hits for the Cubs, at the time tied atop the team’s all-time leaderboard with Larry Biittner, Phil Cavarretta and Bob Will.

“Thad Bosley is a quality person,” Cubs general manager Dallas Green told the Tribune. “He’s made himself into a pretty darn consistent performer (who) wants to play a little more.”

But even with the designated hitter available in Kansas City, Bosley appeared in just 80 games in 1987, hitting .279 in his usual bench role. Then in 1988, Bosley tore his right hamstring and suffered through a bone spur in his elbow, limiting him to 15 games with the Royals. Kansas City released him in May and he joined the Angels in June, finishing the season with a .260 batting average in a combined 50 games.

Bosley went to Spring Training with the Astros in 1989 but declined their request for him to return to the minors and became a free agent. He signed with the Rangers on June 8 and spent three weeks in the minors before returning to the MLB level, hitting .225 in 37 games off the bench before being released following the season.

“I seem to have fallen into a role of a guy that doesn’t get to play much,” Bosley told the North County Times during the 1989 season. “I don’t think it’s because I don’t have everyday ability, but I think it’s like anything you do in life or business. You fall into a role and you’re successful in that role, then people want you to stay in that role.”

Bosley’s role as a pinch hitter was a successful one. He ranked in the Top 15 all-time for batting average among pinch-hitters during the 1989 season with an average that nearly reached the .300 mark. He returned to the Rangers as a free agent for the 1990 season and appeared in 30 games before drawing his release on June 2. He would not play in the major leagues again.

He joined the A’s as their first base coach in 1999 and took over as hitting coach in 2000, a position he would hold into June of 2003 when he was dismissed. After working at the collegiate level, Bosley returned to the majors as the Rangers hitting coach in 2011 before he was replaced midway through the season.

Over 14 big league campaigns, Bosley hit .272 with a .330 on-base percentage. And though his final totals may not have lived up to his early status as a phenom, Bosley’s reliable bat kept his big league dream alive for parts of three decades.

“When I can’t play and they kick me out and tell me not to come back, or I try to come back and the door slams, then it’s time to say it’s over,” Bosley told the North County Times in 1989. “I’ve had some ups and downs, but all in all, I’ve grown from my experiences. That’s what life is all about.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum