Samuel Esposito (December 15, 1931 – July 9, 2018) 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 ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

and

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

. 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 10 seasons on 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 ...

(1952, 1955–1963) and

Kansas City Athletics The Kansas City Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1955 to 1967, having previously played in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the Philadelphia Athletics. After moving in 1967, the team became the ...

(1963). In 1959, he helped the White Sox win 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 ...

pennant. He was the head baseball coach at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

from 1967 to 1987. He was also an assistant coach on the North Carolina State basketball team that won the 1974 NCAA Championship. He graduated from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

's Christian Fenger High School and attended briefly Indiana University. Esposito threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed . In ten MLB seasons, he played in 560 games and had 792 at bats, 130 runs, 164 hits, 27 doubles, 2 triples, 8 home runs, 73 RBI, 7 stolen bases, 145 walks, a .207 batting average, .330 on-base percentage, .277 slugging percentage, 219 total bases, 21 sacrifice hits, 8 sacrifice flies and 4 intentional walks. Esposito replaced starting third baseman

Billy Goodman William Dale Goodman (March 22, 1926 – October 1, 1984) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) infielder who played 16 seasons for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, and Houston Colt .45s, from 1947 through 1962. Go ...

and batted twice in Game 1 of the

1959 World Series The 1959 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1959 season. The 56th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the ...

against the

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

, going 0-for-2.

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1931 births 2018 deaths Baseball players from Chicago Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Chicago Chicago White Sox players Indiana Hoosiers baseball players Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Kansas City Athletics players Major League Baseball shortstops Major League Baseball third basemen Memphis Chickasaws players NC State Wolfpack baseball coaches NC State Wolfpack men's basketball coaches Waterloo White Hawks players American men's basketball players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-infielder-stub