Donnie Lamont Sadler (born June 17, 1975) 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 ...

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, basketball, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water ...

. He played 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 ...

(MLB) from 1998 to 2007.

Career

An alumnus of Valley Mills High School in

Valley Mills, Texas Valley Mills is a city in Bosque and McLennan counties in central Texas, United States. The population was 1,229 at the 2020 census. The McLennan County portion of Valley Mills is part of the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area. History V ...

(where he was an all-state

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

), Sadler is small in stature, standing at 5'6" tall and weighing 175 pounds. His cousin, Ray Sadler, was 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 ...

in the

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organization. Drafted 229th overall by the

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) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

in , Sadler quickly displayed impressive speed in the minor leagues. From 1994 to , for example, he averaged nearly 36 steals per season, while playing in an average of only 95 games each year. He earned a spot on the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

All-Star team in because he not only stole 41 bases, he batted a respectable .283 with nine

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 55 RBI. Sadler made his major league debut at the age of 23 in the second game of the season, April 1. Although Sadler's Red Sox beat the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

2-0 that game, he went 0 for 3 at the plate. After starting the season without collecting a single hit in his first 11

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, ...

s, he was quickly sent down and did not see any major league action until July of that year. The first hit of his career was quite impressive-it came in his second game after being recalled from Pawtucket in July-off of pitcher

Jason Bere Jason Phillip Bere (born May 26, 1971) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and bullpen coach. He played in Major League Baseball for parts of 11 seasons from 1993 to 2003, for the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Bre ...

on July 3, he smacked a

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * I ...

in the sixth inning. He finished the game one for five and scored one

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

as the Red Sox beat 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 ...

15 to 2. For the rest of his career, he went up and down between the minors and majors, spending only one season in the majors for the entire year: . Sadler was involved in a couple of noteworthy transactions in his career. The first occurred on November 16, 2000, when he and Michael Coleman were sent to the

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

for

Chris Stynes Christopher Desmond Stynes (born January 19, 1973) is an American former Major League Baseball utility player.Pete Palmer; Gary Gillette; Stuart Shea. The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia'. Sterling Publishing Company; 1 February 2006. . p. 680. Early ...

. The second came on June 20, 2001, when the Reds traded Sadler to the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

for minor league pitcher Cary Ammons. Sadler finished with a career batting average of .202, and he did not show the speed he displayed in the minors-the highest total of stolen bases he had in a season was seven. Of the six home runs he hit in his career, three of them came in the first 124 at bats of his career. He hit only three more in 643 at bats. His postseason batting average was .500-he has collected one hit (a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

) in two at bats. On July 28, 2007, it was announced that Sadler had tested positive for a drug of abuse and was handed a 50-game suspension. Sadler later served as a hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Career Stats

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadler, Donnie 1975 births Living people Major League Baseball infielders Major League Baseball outfielders Baseball players from Bosque County, Texas Boston Red Sox players Cincinnati Reds players Kansas City Royals players Texas Rangers players Arizona Diamondbacks players Baseball players suspended for drug offenses Gulf Coast Red Sox players Trenton Thunder players Pawtucket Red Sox players Omaha Royals players Oklahoma RedHawks players Charlotte Knights players Tucson Sidewinders players People from Clifton, Texas People from Valley Mills, Texas