Del Unser

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Delbert Bernard Unser (born December 9, 1944 in Decatur, Illinois) is a former starting center fielder and later a utility player with a 15-year major league baseball career from 1968 to 1982. His father was MLB catcher Al Unser. Del played for the Washington Senators (1968-1971) and Cleveland Indians (1972), both of the American League, and the Philadelphia Phillies (1973-1974, 1979-1982), New York Mets (1975-1976), and Montreal Expos (1976-1978), all of the National League. In 1977 he began to be used often as a pinch-hitter, and also to split time between the outfield and first base.

He led the American League in triples in 1969 with 8.

Other regular season highlights include:

• one 5-hit game...four singles and a home run vs. the Oakland Athletics (August 20, 1968)
• seven 4-hit games, with the most impressive being a single, two doubles, and a home run good for 4 RBI and 2 runs scored vs. the Cleveland Indians (July 5, 1971)
• seven 4-RBI games, including a game against the St. Louis Cardinals when he hit a 3-run homer off Bob Gibson and a run-scoring single against Al Hrabosky (June 26, 1973)
• hit a combined .384 (73-for-190) against All-Stars Ray Culp, Larry Dierker, Mike Krukow, Milt Pappas, Gary Peters, and Mel Stottlemyre
• hit a combined .432 (16-for-37) against Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Ferguson Jenkins, and Nolan Ryan
• homered in his third consecutive pinch-hit appearance on July 10, 1979, tying the major-league record set by Lee Lacy the previous season

Unser's career totals include 1,799 games played, 1,334 hits, 87 home runs, 481 RBI, and a lifetime batting average of .258.

To read about Unser's TSN award and post-season heroics, see [1]

[edit] See also

• List of Major League Baseball triples champions
• List of second generation MLB players
• Montreal Expos all-time roster

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Retrosheet

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