Floyd Franklin Bannister (born June 10, 1955) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

left-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

, who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the Houston Astros (–),

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

(–),

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

(–), Kansas City Royals (–), California Angels (), and Texas Rangers (). Bannister also played for the

Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Yom ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB), in .

History

In 1973, as a high school senior, Bannister led his Kennedy High School team to a state championship, pitching 15 wins and 0 losses with a season

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

of 0.00. Seattle Times, 2003 May 29
"Seasons in the sun: Prep athletes who have left indelible marks"
/ref> Bannister went on to attend Arizona State University, where he was named college player of the year by

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as a junior. This led to his selection by the Houston Astros as the first overall pick of the 1976 amateur draft. After pitching just seven games in the minors in , Bannister opened the season with the Astros. He appeared in 24 games with an 8-9 record and a 4.04

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. He spent one more season with the Astros before being traded to the

. He spent four years in Seattle, with his last year there being perhaps his best. Bannister was selected to the 1982 All-Star Game and led the American League with 209 strikeouts, his career best. In 1983 and 1985, he led the American League in strikeouts per nine innings with averages of 8.0 and 8.5, respectively. After the 1982 season, Bannister became a free agent and signed with the

. He spent five seasons there as a solid starting pitcher, averaging 13 wins each year. He then moved on to the Kansas City Royals, where he had another solid season in . However, in June he suffered an injury which knocked him out for the rest of the year. Finding no takers on the free agent market, Bannister went to Japan in , playing for the

. He signed a minor league contract with the California Angels in , where he was converted into a

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather ...

. After one last season with the Texas Rangers in , Bannister was released in August, ending his professional career. Armed with a strong

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thr ...

, an excellent

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, and above average curveball, Bannister recorded an average of 6.49 strikeouts per nine innings in his career, but was also shuffled between six different teams in his 15-year career. He gave up more than 30 home runs in four different seasons and was followed by criticism for a reluctance to move hitters off the plate by pitching inside. In a 15-year major league career, Bannister compiled a 134-143 record, with a 4.06

in 431 games (363 starts). He had 62 complete games in his career, along with 16

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s. He amassed 1723 strikeouts over his career, averaging 147 a year. His son, Brian Bannister, pitched for five seasons for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

and the Kansas City Royals. Floyd ("Flo B") now manages Brian's professional photography studio in

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References

Floyd Bannister
- Baseballbiography.com *"...Floyd Bannister Named To National College Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2008

External links

: {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Floyd Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from South Dakota Houston Astros players Seattle Mariners players Chicago White Sox players Kansas City Royals players California Angels players Texas Rangers players American League All-Stars American League strikeout champions Arizona State Sun Devils baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Yakult Swallows players Covington Astros players Memphis Blues players Columbus Astros players Palm Springs Angels players 1955 births Living people People from Pierre, South Dakota National College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees All-American college baseball players Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players

History

See also

References

External links