Former big league outfielder Tommie Reynolds passed away last week at 83. His obituary is available from a Florida funeral home.
Reynolds signed with the then-Kansas City Athletics as a 21-year-old. He reached the majors that season and appeared in eight games. Reynolds didn’t play much over his first two seasons but got into 90 games in 1965. He hit .237/.327/.311 across 308 plate appearances. The A’s kept him in Triple-A for the entire ’66 season.
The Mets plucked Reynolds in that offseason’s Rule 5 draft. He hit .206 while operating mostly as a pinch-hitter during his lone MLB season in Queens. The situation reversed the following year. New York kept Reynolds in Triple-A throughout 1968. After that season, the A’s brought him back as a Rule 5 pick of their own. The righty-swinging Reynolds had his best season in his return to his original team (then based in Oakland). He hit .257 and reached base at a strong .343 clip over a personal-high 363 trips to the plate.
The A’s dealt Reynolds to the California Angels after the season. He played two seasons there and finished his career with a brief stint for the Brewers in 1972. Reynolds finished as a lifetime .226/.306/.296 hitter over parts of eight MLB seasons.
After his playing days, Reynolds joined Tony La Russa’s coaching staffs in Oakland and St. Louis. He was the bench coach on the A’s 1989 World Series team. According to his obituary, he subsequently spent two decades serving as a deacon in the San Diego area. MLBTR sends our condolences to Reynolds’ family, loved ones, friends and former teammates.
I remember him making a great catch against the outfield wall in Anaheim.
Sad to see yet another player of my youth gone.
Rock stars, athletes…where did the years go?
20 years now, where’d they go?
20 years, I don’t know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they’ve gone
Seger ‘Like a Rock”?
Adjust for context, and his approach profiles like a poor man’s Tony Gwynn.
RIP. Reads like he was a very determined man to keep battling through multiple trades and demotions to finally carve out his dream job.
RIP
I have a few nice cards of Reynolds including a 1971 Topps with him on the Angels.
That set is a bear to put together in high end condition due to the black borders.
RIP Tommie Reynolds.
I had some of his old cards too. Agree about the 1971 black borders. RIP.
Mets history: July 27, 1967 playing the Dodgers… John Sullivan started the game as catcher, He was replaced by Jerry Grote. Greg Goossen was the third catcher, and was used as a pinch hitter. Grote got into an argument with the home plate umpire Bill Jackowski and was thrown out of the game. The Mets had no catcher. Coach Yogi Berra inquired if there was any loophole in a rule that would allow him to catch, and of course there was not. Ed Kranepool volunteered. So did Ron Swoboda. Tommie Reynolds was in the bullpen warming up pitchers. He had never caught before in a game. He caught three innings, and unfortunately in his fourth, it was a passed ball in the 11th that ended the game. Reynolds got a lot of local news coverage for getting into the game, and it took a while for Grote to live the episode down. Reynolds had many brighter moments that year, getting into 101 games, a steal of home, a couple of homers, that were important in some wins. The Mets had Tommy Davis, and since he had ankle issues, Reynolds got in a lot of games in the late innings to replace him. He ended up with 8 seasons in the bigs. He became a manager in the minor leagues for the A’s, so he was able to stay in the game for a while and followed LaRussa around as an MLB coach for many years. He survived his year with the Mets…. and is part of the pre-Hodges Mets folklore.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Pal, great stuff!
The site centerfieldmaz(dot)com had this additional information about his Mets career:
1967: Opening Day 1967, Reynolds debuted for the Mets, entering the game in the 8th inning & playing left field in a 6-3 loss to the Pirates. In the third game of the year, he homered off the Phillies Chris Short, for the only Mets run in a 5-1 loss at Connie Mack stadium.
Walk Off HR: On June 18th, in the first game of a double header at Shea Stadium against the Chicago Cubs, Reynolds came in the 8th inning as a defensive replacement for Ron Swoboda in right field. In the bottom of the 10th inning, he led off the inning with a walk off HR off (future Met) pitcher Cal Koonce.
Three days later his 1st inning sac fly was one of two Mets runs, that helped Jack Fisher beat the Phillies Jim Bunning 2-0 in a tight game at Philadelphia.
Five Hit Double Header: In an August 17th double header, Reynolds collected five hits with a pair of RBIs, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, helping the Mets to a 6-5 win in the first game.
On September 2nd, Reynolds added an RBI base hit in a Mets four run 4th inning, leading them to a 5-4 win at Wrigley Field.
Reynolds finished the year batting .206 with two HRs, one double 16 runs scored & nine RBIs. He posted a .278 on base % & .535 OPS. He saw action in 101 games 72 as an outfielder.
Reynolds said he disliked his time in New York because he didn’t get enough playing time.
In 1968 he spent the season at AAA Jacksonville hitting .319, best batting average amongst the regular starting players. He was second to Amos Otis on that club with 18 stolen bases. Reynolds hit 9 HRs with 16 doubles with 50 RBIs. In the off season he was drafted away (Rule V) by the Athletics who were now relocated in Oakland.
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The Jacksonville Suns was the Mets affiliate when Reynolds played there. Look at the roster and you’ll see a lot of big league Mets and others statscrew.com/minorbaseball/roster/t-js12210/y-196…
A San Diego product of sorts. He had to be sharp to have stayed around the game and dealing with LaRussa so long. Hope he had a wonderful life.
After his big league days, in the mid 70s, Tommie played for Sacramento in the PCL.
Because the city lacked a suitable baseball stadium, the first year team played at an old college football stadium. Due to space restraints, the Solons had a ballpark with a ridiculously short 233 foot left field fence and a 40 foot high screen.
The team hit 305 homers, including two players with 50-plus.
Tommie hit 32, and his homers were referred to as ‘Reynolds Raps.’
It’s odd what you learned and retain from reading the Sporting News as a kid.
My dad had a subscription to The Sporting News when I was a kid and I spent many hours poring over each article.
I loved our limited baseball media we had years ago. I prefer it to the round the clock coverage we get in today’s game.
The Sporting News was great and one of my personal favorites was watching Saturday afternoons… “Hello everybody, I’m Mel Allen and welcome to This Week in Baseball”
From Mel Allen’s iconic voice to that epic theme song I was drawn in the first time I seen it.
Another classic baseball show was the 1960 tv show, Home Run Derby. There were only 26 episodes but it had most of the best sluggers of the 60’s (Nine future Hall of Fame members) competing against each other in a one on one matchup at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.
Thanks, more great stuff
Never heard of him but RIP
RIP Tommie…..
Played 8 years in the Big Leagues and lived t9 83…not a bad life..
RIP, Mr. Reynolds. Not an All-Star but a career to be proud of.
seemed like he was a real gentleman married 62 years, serving his country, being a ballplayer and a coach. the third in the Athletics outfield along with Rick Monday and Reggie Jackson. God speed, Mr Reynolds– R.i.P.
Arguably a top 10 OF of all time
Arguably, one of the top ten classless comments of all time.
A Class Act, may he rest in peace