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Posted
4 hours ago, natureboy said:

Those guys were multi-sport athletes in HS/College. Some former pros in other sports try to become pro golfers: http://www.pgatour.com/content/pgatour/players/player.26920.rick-rhoden.html/career

That's actually pretty impressive, with 3 PGA Tour top 10's after being a professional athlete in another sport. Especially going from baseball, where the batting motion actively sabotages your golf swing.

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, The Recreational Golfer said:

... except Rhoden was a pitcher, so I doubt his batting interfered with his golf that much.

And as starter, that also gave him lots of time during his baseball years to work on his game.

Edited by natureboy

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Posted
3 hours ago, The Recreational Golfer said:

... except Rhoden was a pitcher, so I doubt his batting interfered with his golf that much.

Pitchers still have to be able to bat generally in the National League I thought, and Rhodes played for the Dodgers who are in the National League West.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Pretzel said:

Pitchers still have to be able to bat generally in the National League I thought, and Rhodes played for the Dodgers who are in the National League West.

He spent most of his career with the Pirates, but your point stands - he played nearly his entire career in the NL.

Perhaps not coincidentally, some of the other really good golfers from MLB that come to mind for me were national league starting pitchers; John Smoltz, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, Mark Mulder

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Posted
6 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

He spent most of his career with the Pirates, but your point stands - he played nearly his entire career in the NL.

Perhaps not coincidentally, some of the other really good golfers from MLB that come to mind for me were national league starting pitchers; John Smoltz, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, Mark Mulder

It's wonder the Braves ever won any games!

3&2 count. Men on second and third with two outs. Glavine shakes off the sign. Pulls out a 3 iron. Strike three!

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Posted (edited)

Rick Rhoden was one of the best hitting pitchers in recent baseball history. The dodgers and pirates used to pinch hit him. The guy was just a supreme athlete, which i think aided him in his transition to golf. 

Edited by Groucho Valentine

Posted
2 hours ago, Groucho Valentine said:

Rick Rhoden was one of the best hitting pitchers in recent baseball history. The dodgers and pirates used to pinch hit him. The guy was just a supreme athlete, which i think aided him in his transition to golf. 

As a humorous aside ... [Unfortunately, I think you and I are probably getting a little older than we'd like to admit ... I don't think the word "recent" can be used anymore to describe the 80's. :-P  (I try and think back to when I was a kid in the 80's and what I considered really, really old.  1986 is as long ago now as 1956 was to me then, and pretty much anything before the 70's was freaking ANCIENT)]

However, you are totally correct.  Rhoden won 3 Silver Slugger awards, and it seems to be highlighted by 1984 when he batted .333 in 84 at bats.

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Note: This thread is 3480 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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