Steve Renko, Jr. (born December 10, 1944) is a former right-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 ...

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), ...

. He played for the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

(1969–1976), Chicago Cubs (1976–1977),

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 ...

(1977), Oakland Athletics (1978),

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

(1979–1980), California Angels (1981–1982) and Kansas City Royals (1983).

Career

Renko attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

where he played baseball,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

.Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
/ref> He helped the Angels win the 1982

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

Western Division, with a win/loss of 11-6. He was a 15-game winner in 1971 and 1973. He led the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an erro ...

s allowed (115) in 1971. He led the National League in

wild pitch In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, or the batter (on an uncaught third str ...

es (19) in 1974. He ranks 99th on the career

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s allowed List (248). In 15 seasons he had a 134-146 win-loss record, 451 games, 365 games started, 57 complete games, 9 shutouts, 36 games finished, 6 saves, 2,494 innings pitched, 2,438 hits allowed, 1,233 runs allowed, 1,107 earned runs allowed, 248 home runs allowed, 1,010 walks allowed, 1,455 strikeouts, 22 hit batsmen, 73 wild pitches, 10,704 batters faced, 86 intentional walks, 4 balks and a 3.99

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 ...

. In 1979, he carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Oakland A's in Oakland, only to be broken up by a

Rickey Henderson Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson (born December 25, 1958) is an American retired professional baseball left fielder who played his 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four separate tenures with hi ...

double with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Renko pitched 3 career one-hitters. As a hitter, Renko was above average for a pitcher, posting a .215

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(114-for-531) with 44 runs, 6 home runs, 42 RBI, 3 stolen bases and 25 bases on balls.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renko, Steve 1944 births Living people Sportspeople from Kansas City, Kansas American expatriate baseball players in Canada Major League Baseball pitchers Montreal Expos players Chicago Cubs players Chicago White Sox players Oakland Athletics players Boston Red Sox players California Angels players Kansas City Royals players Baseball players from Kansas Kansas Jayhawks baseball players Auburn Mets players Williamsport Mets players Memphis Blues players Jacksonville Suns players Tidewater Tides players Kansas Jayhawks football players Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball players American football quarterbacks Players of American football from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas American men's basketball players