Steven Eugene Swisher (born August 9, 1951) is an

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former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player and minor league

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

. He 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 (A ...

as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

, St. Louis Cardinals, and

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

from 1974 to 1982. Swisher was elected to the 1976

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All-Star team with the Cubs but did not play in the game. He is the father of former MLB

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Nick Swisher Nicholas Thompson Swisher (born November 25, 1980) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was a switch hitter who threw left-handed, and played for the Oakland Athletics, Chica ...

College

Swisher attended

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subse ...

for a degree in education and played baseball. During his freshman season, the team went to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

. Swisher was named an all-

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the t ...

player for three of his seasons.

Major league career

Swisher was drafted in the first round in June 1973 by the

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 ...

. He spent his first year of professional baseball with the Knoxville Sox and six games with the Iowa Oaks, batting .211 and .286 respectively. He was traded along with Steve Stone and

Ken Frailing Kenneth Douglas Frailing (January 19, 1948 – August 26, 2022) was an American professional baseball player, a left-handed pitcher who appeared in 116 Major League games for the Chicago White Sox (1972–1973) and Chicago Cubs (1974–1 ...

from the White Sox to the crosstown Cubs for

Ron Santo Ronald Edward Santo (February 25, 1940 – December 3, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) third baseman who played for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 through 1973 and the Chicago White Sox in 1974. In 1990, Santo became a member of the ...

on December 11, 1973.

Jim Kremmel James Louis Kremmel (February 28, 1949 – October 12, 2012) was an American left-handed pitcher who spent two seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Texas Rangers (1973) and Chicago Cubs (1974). Born in Belleville, Illinois, on F ...

was also sent to the Cubs to complete the transaction one week later on December 18."White Sox Finish Trade for Santo," ''United Press International'' (UPI), Tuesday, December 18, 1973.
Retrieved October 30, 2020 Swisher was selected as the Cubs' representative for the 1976 MLB All-Star Game; he hit .236 that season with five

home runs 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 ...

and 42

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

. In a 2014 piece for

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, Jim Caple listed Swisher as one of the "five worst players named All-Stars". Swisher, who had appeared in 109 games in his All-Star season, saw his playing time drop to 74 games in 1977, while batting just .190 with five home runs. In December 1977, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in a four-player deal and played sparingly over the next three seasons. In late 1980, he was sent to the

in a multiplayer trade. Swisher never appeared in more than 45 games in a season with the Cardinals or Padres. He was granted free agency after the 1982 season and never played in the major leagues again.

Managerial career

Swisher spent several seasons as a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

manager. He started in Class A with the Waterloo Indians in 1985 and 1986. He managed Class AA and Class AAA teams in the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

organization through 1988, including the

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen F ...

, Williamsport Bills and

Colorado Springs Sky Sox The Colorado Springs Sky Sox were a Minor League Baseball team in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The team played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and was the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Milwaukee Brewers (2015–2018), Colorado Rockies ...

. Swisher moved to 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 lea ...

organization in 1989, where he managed the Class AA Jackson Mets. In 1991, Swisher was the manager of the

Tidewater Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Ches ...

, and he held the same position with the Binghamton Mets in 1992 and 1993. He subsequently spent single seasons as the manager of the Class AAA

New Orleans Zephyrs New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

(1997) and Class AA

Reading Phillies Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spel ...

(2005). After being hired by Reading in late 2004, Swisher suffered a fall down a staircase and was rendered comatose. He had recovered enough to manage Reading in 2005, but his tenure there was punctuated by personality conflicts and the team did not renew his contract after that season.

References

External links

Steve Swisher Baseball Biography
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swisher, Steve 1951 births Living people Baseball players from West Virginia Binghamton Mets managers Buffalo Bisons (minor league) managers Chicago Cubs players Colorado Springs Sky Sox managers Iowa Oaks players Knoxville Sox players Major League Baseball catchers National League All-Stars New York Mets coaches Norfolk Tides managers Ohio Bobcats baseball players Sportspeople from Parkersburg, West Virginia Reading Phillies managers Richmond Braves players St. Louis Cardinals players San Diego Padres players Wichita Aeros players Williamsport Bills managers Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks players