Brian Hanly Asselstine (born September 23, 1953) is an American former professional

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 ...

player. He played all or part of six seasons in

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 ...

, from 1976 until 1981, for the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

, primarily as an

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 ...

. Asselstine was born in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

and attended

Santa Ynez Valley Union High School Santa Ynez Valley Union High School (SYHS) is a public high school in Santa Ynez, California, that serves students in grades 9–12 in the Santa Ynez Valley. As of the 2017–18 school year, 908 students were enrolled at the school. History San ...

then

Allan Hancock College Allan Hancock College is a public community college in Santa Maria, California. It offers associate degrees at its Lompoc Valley campus and at nearby Vandenberg Space Force Base. The college is part of the California Community College System ...

. He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 1st round (15th pick) of the

1973 Major League Baseball Draft The 1973 Major League Baseball draft took place during the 1973 MLB season. The draft saw the Texas Rangers select David Clyde first overall. First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1973 Major League Baseball dra ...

Asselstine won the job as the Braves starting center fielder early in the 1978 season. On May 31, 1978, Asselstine broke the bone just above the ankle in one of his legs as a result of his leaping for a home run hit by Mike Lum. He was out for the rest of the season.

References

External links

Baseball Almanac
Major League Baseball outfielders Allan Hancock Bulldogs baseball players Atlanta Braves players Greenwood Braves players Savannah Braves players Richmond Braves players Phoenix Giants players Baseball players from Santa Barbara, California 1953 births Living people Santa Ynez Valley Union High School alumni {{US-baseball-outfielder-1950s-stub