Richard Walter Zisk (born February 6, 1949) 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 ...

player, coach and

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. 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) as an

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and

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. Unlike other players in a team's lineup, they generally only play as an offensive player and usually do not play defense as ...

for the

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

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 ...

, Texas Rangers 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 ...

. A two-time

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

player, Zisk was named the American League’s 1981 Comeback Player of the Year. He was the first position player in major league history to sign a 10-year contract.

Career

Pittsburgh Pirates

Zisk was drafted by the

out of

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

in the third round of the 1967 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major league debut on September 8, 1971, replacing

Roberto Clemente Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December ...

in right field in the eighth inning of Pittsburgh's 10–1 victory over 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 ...

, and got a single in his first major league at-bat. Zisk also appeared in 17 games with the 1972 Pirates, however, he was not on either team's post-season roster. In Zisk's rookie season, 1973, he batted .324 with 10

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 54 RBI in 103 games. On June 9, 1974, he hit for the cycle in a 14–1 victory over the

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 ...

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. For the season, he hit .313 with 17 home runs and a team-high 100 RBI in 149 games. He made his only post-season appearances with the 1974 and 1975 Pirates. While batting an impressive .400 in the post-season, Zisk only scored one run and had no RBI as the Pirates lost in four games to the Dodgers in the 1974 NLCS and were swept by the Reds in the 1975 NLCS.

Chicago White Sox

Zisk was acquired along with Silvio Martinez by the

from the Pirates for Goose Gossage and Terry Forster at the Winter Meetings on December 10, 1976. His best season was in 1977, his lone year with the White Sox, when he hit 30 home runs and had 101 RBI, both career highs, in addition to a .290 batting average in 141 games. He started in left field for the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

in the 1977 All-Star Game, going 2-for-3 with 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 ...

and two RBIs.

Texas Rangers

Zisk became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

at the end of the 1977 season. On November 9, 1977, he signed a 10-year, $2.75 million contract with the Texas Rangers. This made him the first major league position player to sign a 10-year contract. He batted clean-up, and started in right field at the 1978 All-Star Game at

San Diego Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. Opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium; it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium for sportswriter Jack Murphy (sportswriter), Jack Murphy from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 t ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. For the season, Zisk batted .262 with 22 home runs and 85 RBI in 140 games while splitting time between left field, right field and

Seattle Mariners

After three seasons in Texas, Zisk was traded along with Jerry Don Gleaton, Rick Auerbach, Ken Clay, Brian Allard and minor-league right-handed pitcher Steve Finch from the Rangers to the Mariners for Willie Horton, Rick Honeycutt, Leon Roberts, Mario Mendoza and Larry Cox in an 11-player blockbuster deal on December 18, 1980. His first season in

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, he batted .311 with 16 home runs and 43 RBI in 94 games to earn 1981 AL Comeback Player of the Year honors. After three seasons as the Mariners' designated hitter, he retired after the 1983 season.

Career stats

Personal life

Zisk was raised in Parsippany–Troy Hills, New Jersey, and played baseball at Parsippany High School. The Daytona Cubs retired Richie's number 22 on July 20, 2007, with his family in attendance and on his bobblehead day. His younger brother, John, played a season in the Texas Rangers' organization, and two for the independent Wausau Timbers of 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 ...

. In 2004, Zisk was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. During 2011 and 2012, Zisk was in charge of pro

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

in Florida for the

References

External links

Richie Zisk
at Baseball Almanac {{DEFAULTSORT:Zisk, Richie 1949 births Living people American League All-Stars American people of Polish descent Baseball players from Morris County, New Jersey Baseball players from Brooklyn Charleston Charlies players Chicago Cubs scouts Chicago White Sox players Gastonia Pirates players Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball right fielders Parsippany High School alumni Sportspeople from Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey Pittsburgh Pirates players Salem Rebels (baseball) players Seattle Mariners players Texas Rangers players Waterbury Pirates players 20th-century American sportsmen