Keith Martin Comstock (born December 23, 1955) is an American baseball coach and former

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

. 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) for parts of six seasons, spending time with 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) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

, and

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

. He also played for the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They h ...

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB) and several

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

teams in various countries. Comstock has served as the rehab pitching coordinator for the Texas Rangers since 2007.

Playing career

Comstock was drafted by 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 ...

in 1976 and played for their minor league affiliate, the Idaho Falls Angels. He spent the next eight years in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

. According to a 1990 article in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', in 1983 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 ...

organization sold him to the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

for $100 and a bag of balls, which he had to deliver himself. In 1984, he was called up to the majors by the

. From 1985 to 1986, he played in Japan for

, and from 1987 to 1991 he played for the

, the

and the

as well as minor league teams. In 1989, while playing for the Las Vegas Stars Triple-A team, Comstock appeared on a memorable

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, s ...

pretending to be hit in the crotch by a ball.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

called it "the funniest baseball card ever made." From 1989 to 1991, he played for the

. By the end of his career, he had played in teams across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, and Puerto Rico. He subsequently went into coaching, and is currently the rehab pitching coordinator for the Texas Rangers.

Personal life

Comstock was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and went to high school in

San Carlos, California San Carlos (Spanish language, Spanish for "St. Charles") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population is 30,722 per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Native Americans Prior to the Spain, Spanis ...

. Comstock is the great-grandson of the former United States Postal Inspector and politician

Anthony Comstock Anthony Comstock (; March7, 1844 – September21, 1915) was an American anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector, and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian mo ...

. He lives in Arizona with his wife, Kathleen Comstock. He has three children, Christine Fox, Daniel Comstock and Alexandria, three granddaughters, and three grandsons.

References

External links

1955 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from San Francisco Birmingham Barons players Calgary Cannons players Cañada Colts baseball players El Paso Diablos players Idaho Falls Angels players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Major League Baseball pitchers Minnesota Twins players Minor league baseball managers Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Phoenix Firebirds players Quad Cities Angels players Salinas Angels players San Diego Padres players San Francisco Giants players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Tigers players Toledo Mud Hens players Yomiuri Giants players West Haven A's players West Haven Whitecaps players Baseball players from San Mateo County, California People from San Carlos, California 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub