Gene Taylor Hiser (born December 11, 1948) 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 ...

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 ...

who played five seasons 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 a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

from through . He was drafted in the 1st round (19th pick) of the 1970 amateur draft out of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. Hiser was an

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All-American in and a

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First-Team All-American selection in 1970. Hiser went right to the Triple-A Cubs affiliate in

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

in 1970, hitting .250 in 232 at-bats. He played briefly with Tacoma in 1971, and spent a portion of the season on active military duty prior to joining the Cubs for 17 games, hitting .207. Hiser split his time in 1972 between

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...

in Chicago and in Triple-A Wichita, hitting just .192 in 56 big-league at-bats. 1973 was his first and only full-season in the majors, as Hiser saw action in 100 games, batting .174. Hiser was back in the minors for most of 1974 with Wichita, hitting .282 with 10 home-runs in AAA baseball, but did get a September call-up to Chicago, batting .235 in 17 games. 1975 found Hiser bouncing again between Wichita and Chicago, playing in 45 games in the majors with a .242 average. Hiser was sold to 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 ...

after the season and spent 1976 with the Iowa Oaks, the White Sox AAA affiliate. The White Sox released him at the end of the 1976 season. Hiser went through spring training in 1978 with the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent but was released before the season started. Hiser also played professional softball with the Chicago Storm of the American Professional Slo-Pitch League (APSPL) during their inaugural 1977 season. Former Cub teammate

Milt Pappas Milton Steven Pappas (May 11, 1939 – April 19, 2016) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from through . Nicknamed "Gimpy", the 17-year veteran pitched for the Baltimore Ori ...

served as the Storm manager. After retiring from the field, Hiser joined the

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company. MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, Disability insurance, disability income ins ...

in Chicago as an agent, and in 1983 partnered with fellow agent James Barrett to found the Barrett and Hiser Financial Group based in

Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 78,723, making Schaumburg the most populou ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiser, Gene 1948 births Living people Chicago Cubs players Baseball players from Baltimore Maryland Terrapins baseball players Tacoma Cubs players Sumter Astros players Wichita Aeros players Iowa Oaks players All-American college baseball players 20th-century American sportsmen