William Howard Sharp (born January 18, 1950) is a former

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He played for 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) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

and

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...

. Sharp graduated in 1968 from Lima Senior High School where he played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. As a senior basketball player, he led his team in assists en route to an appearance in the state tournament semifinals. He was a member of the school's inaugural athletics hall of fame class in 2018. Sharp earned a scholarship to play

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

. After playing for

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American college football coach and player. He served as the head football coach at Denison University from 1946 to 1948, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio from 1949 to 195 ...

, he suffered a separated shoulder which convinced him to give up football and focus on baseball. He was taken with the first pick of the second round of the 1971 MLB draft by the

. He was the first college player taken and was selected before future Hall of Famers

George Brett George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953) is an American former professional baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hit ( ...

and

Mike Schmidt Michael Jack Schmidt (born September 27, 1949) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who spent his entire 18-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1972 to 1989. Schmidt was a 12-time Al ...

. Sharp made his Major League debut on May 26, 1973, in a 22-

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other tea ...

game at White Sox Park in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He recorded his first hit on May 28, a first inning triple off Dick Tidrow. Sharp became the team's starting right fielder the following season, taking over for Pat Kelly beginning in June. Sharp was traded from the

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 club plays its home games at Rate Fie ...

to the Brewers for

Bob Coluccio Robert Pasquali Coluccio (born October 2, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player. He played all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), between 1973 and 1978, for the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox, and St. ...

on May 8, 1975. He started in center field for the Brewers that night and then again for the majority of the team's remaining games that season. Sharp's least successful Major League season came in 1976 when, in 78 games, he would

slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash th ...

.244/.288/.267. Due in large part to knee injuries, Sharp's professional career ended at age 27 in the minor leagues in 1977 after five games for the Spokane Indians. After retirement, Sharp worked as an executive for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and managed the Dakota Rattlers of the independent Prairie League in

Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck (; from 1872 to 1873: Edwinton) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat, seat of Burleigh County, North Dakota, Burleigh County. It is the state's List of cities i ...

to losing records in 1995 and 1996. He and his wife, Guyneth, had three sons, James, Matthew and Gavin.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Bill 1950 births Living people American businesspeople in insurance Asheville Tourists players Chicago White Sox players Iowa Oaks players Knoxville Sox players Major League Baseball outfielders Milwaukee Brewers players Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players Ohio State Buckeyes football players Spokane Indians players Sportspeople from Lima, Ohio Baseball players from Allen County, Ohio 20th-century American sportsmen