Jeffrey Carver Barkley (born November 21, 1959) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who played for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

for two seasons from 1984 to 1985. Barkley played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for The Citadel where he set a school record in strikeouts with 237. He was inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame in 2002. Barkley made his Major League debut on September 16, 1984, against the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

. Manager

Pat Corrales Patrick Corrales (born March 20, 1941) is an American former professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1964 to 1973, primarily for the Cincinnati Reds as well as the Philadelphia Phillies, S ...

made the unconventional choice to pull pitcher

Tom Waddell Tom Waddell (born Thomas Flubacher; November 1, 1937 – July 11, 1987) was an American physician, decathlete who competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and founder of the Gay Olympics (later known as the '' Gay Games''). Early life Waddell was b ...

in the middle of a

plate appearance In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

and insert Barkley, who had been called up from the Maine Guides only two days earlier. Barkley inherited a two-strike count against Mike Davis and struck him out on the first pitch he threw in the Major Leagues. Barkley never won a game at the major league level, but did pick up one career save. It came on July 1, 1985, against the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

. Barkley pitched perfect innings to close out a 5-2 Indians victory. He saved the game for starter Vern Ruhle.

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1959 births Living people Major League Baseball pitchers Cleveland Indians players Batavia Trojans players Portland Beavers players Waterloo Indians players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Oklahoma City 89ers players Maine Guides players Charleston Charlies players The Citadel Bulldogs baseball players Baseball players from North Carolina People from Hickory, North Carolina {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub