Douglas Lee Griffin (June 4, 1947 – July 27, 2016) was an American 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 ...

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

who played for the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. Since 1966, the team has pl ...

and

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 ...

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).

Early life

Griffin played high school baseball at

El Monte High School El Monte High School in El Monte, California, is a public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a differe ...

in California, graduating in 1965, where he achieved All-Pacific League, All-Valley, and All-California Interscholastic Federation honors. He also lettered in basketball, football and track.

Professional career

Griffin was drafted in the 21st round of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft by the California Angels, and played in their minor league organization until his call-up in 1970. After 18 games with the Angels, in which he hit .127 with four RBI in 62 games, he was traded to the Red Sox in a six-player trade that sent popular outfielder

Tony Conigliaro Anthony Richard Conigliaro (January 7, 1945 – February 24, 1990), nicknamed "Tony C" and "Conig", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the Boston Red Sox (1964–1967, 1969–1970, 1975) and C ...

to the Angels. Griffin was the Red Sox' regular second baseman from 1971 until mid-1975. He was not a particularly good hitter, posting modest

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 ...

s with few walks and very little power, but instead he was an excellent fielder, winning a

Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual Fielding (baseball), fielding performances. It is awar ...

in 1972. In June 1975, the Red Sox acquired veteran second baseman

Denny Doyle Robert Dennis Doyle (January 17, 1944 – December 20, 2022) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, California Angels, and Boston Red Sox. Listed at and , h ...

from the Angels, and for the rest of the season, the left-handed-hitting Doyle was the Red Sox's primary second baseman, with the right-handed-hitting Griffin starting only against left-handed pitchers. Griffin did not appear in the

American League Championship Series The American League Championship Series (ALCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) postseason. The winner of the ALCS wins the AL pennant and ...

against 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 ...

, and made only one brief appearance in the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

against 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 ...

. Griffin suffered numerous injuries during his professional career. On April 30, 1974, Griffin was beaned by a

Nolan Ryan Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. (born January 31, 1947), nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Ryan pitched for the New Yo ...

fastball, knocking him unconscious. The beaning left him with a concussion and temporary hearing loss. On August 30, 1975, he was beaned again, this time by Oakland's Dick Bosman. Griffin experienced hearing and equilibrium problems, but recovered very quickly. This time he had been wearing an ear flap with his protective helmet. Griffin played only sparingly in 1976, and was released after playing in only five games in 1977.

Later life

After baseball, Griffin worked in construction. First with his father in the 1970s, and later for Buddy LeRoux in the 1980s. On July 27, 2016, Griffin died after a long illness.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Doug 1947 births 2016 deaths Boston Red Sox players California Angels players El Paso Sun Kings players Gold Glove Award winners Hawaii Islanders players Idaho Falls Angels players Major League Baseball second basemen Sportspeople from South Gate, California Baseball players from Los Angeles County, California Quad Cities Angels players 20th-century American sportsmen