In the history of Major League Baseball, a sport that lends itself to trivia, the list is short when it comes to Lima-born players who have played baseball at its highest level. And, on that list that includes, according the “The Baseball Almanac,” just six names- Jimmy Walsh, Jim Mertz, Brad Komminsk, Paul Shuey, Bill Sharp and Gene Stechschulte- it is Sharp that can lay claim to have counted among his teammates four future Hall of Famers during his four-year career, a career cut short by knee injuries in 1976.
The former Lima Senior Spartan standout in football, basketball and baseball earned a scholarship to play football at Ohio State for Woody Hayes before a separated shoulder on the gridiron got him thinking more about baseball as a possible career choice. After honing his skills under the watchful eye of Buckeye baseball coach Marty Karow, Sharp was taken as the 26th player of the 1971 Major League Draft. He actually was the first college player taken, ahead of future Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett.
The fact that Sharp had even made it that far seemed unlikely a few years before, when, at fifteen and a Spartan sophomore, he sustained a ruptured patellar tendon and was told there was a good chance his athletic career was over.
That may be why while recently reflecting back on his professional baseball career Bill Sharp values his time in the sport so deeply.
“I can honestly say that I never took even one of my 1,104 at bats as a White Sox and Brewer for granted. I knew as a young player how hard it was to be just one of 600 to play the sport at its highest level. And, I think as the years have past now that I’m 65 I appreciate it even more.”
Sharp now lives in the Chicago area where he and his wife Guyneth, a former Lima Senior Spartan as well, raised three sons, James, Matthew and Gavin, who inherited their musical ability from their Mom and their athletic ability from their Dad, since they were excellent baseball players growing up.
Still working as an executive for Blue Cross Blue Blue Shield of Illinois, Sharp recently reflected back in a phone interview from his office on a number of his most memorable teammates, some Hall of Famers, and some who had long and distinguished careers but have fallen short in gaining the 75 percent of votes needed to be enshrined.
One such former teammate not currently in the Hall of Fame but one many feel is richly deserving is Dick Allen, who was the reigning MVP of the American League when Sharp was first called up to the White Sox in 1973.
“I remember seeing Allen when I was a kid at Crosley Field in 1963 when his Phillies came in to play the Reds. Little could I have ever known I’d be a teammate of his just ten years later.
“I hit right in front of Allen a lot of times, and I’ll tell you he had the greatest ability to play situational baseball I’ve ever seen, absolutely fundamentally sound. He really was a five-tool player, and when he hit a ball, there was just a different sound when it came off the bat.
“He had a mental book on every pitcher he would face, and unlike some veterans who were reluctant to have much to do with rookies and young guys that may one day take their jobs, Dick helped me a lot.”
Sharp is quick to remind people that he played in an era with some very good American League players like Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew but remains adamant that Allen was as good as any of them, if not better.
“I once saw him check his swing and the torque he generated snapped the bat off right at the handle. He was tremendously strong.”
Sharp’s roommate on the road during his White Sox time was none other than Hall of Famer Goose Gossage, who has told Bill during frequent conversations he’s had over the years that, despite his time playing in Pittsburgh with the likes of Willie Stargell and Dave Parker and his time playing with Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson in New York, Dick Allen was the best player he’d ever seen.
As for his former roommate Gossage, Sharp also feels his Hall of Fame induction in 2008 was long overdue.
“I believe greatness is consistency over a long period of time, and Goose pitch 22 seasons and never had a sore arm. He had such strong legs, and that’s where he generated such power to throw that high riding fastball. There were no frills about him. He’d just say, ‘Here it is. Hit it. And, if you get me today, I’m coming right back after you tomorrow.’ That’s the kind of mindset a closer has to have, and he had it in spades.
“I honestly think there were only two guys in my era who threw harder, Vida Blue and Nolan Ryan. You could actually hear the ball sort of sizzle before that explosive pop when it hit our catcher Eddie Hermann’s mitt.”
As for players who came up with Sharp through the minors, including the likes of Pete Varney, Brian Downing and Jerry Hairston, one of the more memorable was Bucky Dent, the shortstop who Sharp remembers well.
“Listen, Bucky wasn’t a flashy player and had some range limitations, but he caught everything he could reach and had a knack for the big hit. He may only go one for four, but, chances are, that one hit drove in a key run and then he’d somehow work his way around the bases and score himself.
“He was also very ambitious and made it known he’d love to play for the Yankees. Somehow Yankee owner George Steinbrenner became aware of that, and, wouldn’t you know, George went out and got him in a trade! Few fans will ever forget that homerun Bucky hit in the one-game playoff in Fenway to beat the Red Sox and send the Yankees to the World Series.”
Certainly three more memorable White Sox teammates, all veterans and all far older Sharp recalls as well. Two he recalls as very nice to young players like Sharp and Dent and one was anything but.
Sharp remembers the knuckleballer Wilbur Wood as very approachable and also someone who just loved the baseball environment.
“No matter how early I got to the park, Wilbur would already be there, often sitting in long johns and cutoff sleeves, playing cards with the clubhouse attendants. He just loved the environment of the clubhouse and the stadium, one of the very first to get there and one of the last to leave.”
Wood was one of the few knuckleballers around and learned his quirky pitch from the venerable godfather of the knuckleball, Hoyt Wilhelm. Sharp’s former teammate went on to pitch 19 seasons and routinely threw well over 300 innings a year, including a jaw-dropping 377 in one season.
Sharp also recalls another veteran pitcher fondly, Jim Kaat. “He was very inclusive with the younger players. As a matter of fact, he lived in the same apartment complex as a lot of us younger guys, and he’d offer us all rides in to Comiskey Park.
“At that point, in his late thirties, he didn’t throw as hard as he once did back in his Twins day, but he really knew how to pitch and could really command the ball and work both sides of the plate. He also was a terrific fielder. Hey, you don’t pitch in the Majors 25 years and not know what you’re doing.”
Kaat, who pitched until he was 44, has long been in the conversation as a potential Hall of Fame inductee. He won 283 games, including twenty or more in a season three times, and also won sixteen consecutive Gold Gloves for being the league’s best-fielding pitcher.
As for that third White Sox veteran who Sharp feels either looked down on young players or right through them, that would be Ron Santo, who was elected posthumously to the Hall of Fame in 2012.
Recalls Sharp, “While I got to know Ron and learned to like him much later after he retired and I’d see him at MLB golf outings and such, back when I played with him in what turned out to be his last season, he really, I felt, had a big ego and had no time for the younger guys.”
Sharp was traded in mid-season in 1975 for outfielder Bob Coluccio, and actually found much more playing time in his new home, County Stadium, the home field of the Milwaukee Brewers. And, during his time there, he played with two more players that would one day be honored with enshrinement in Cooperstown, one on his way up and one on his way out.
At just 19, Robin Yount was in just his second year of an eventual 20-year career, one that would see him earn MVP honors in addition to collecting over 3,000 hits.
Recalls Sharp, “Robin looked so young, really like a child. He was really a remarkable athlete, a former motocross racer and a terrific golfer. There are so many adjectives that I could use to describe Robin, who, like Goosage, I have on my speed dial and still talk to frequently. He was funny, friendly, upbeat, humble and, of course, off-the-radar athletic.”
Perhaps the most obvious trait Sharp sees in Robin today when he sees him at fundraisers for the many charities former Major Leaguers support is his congeniality.
“People who think most athletes are unapproachable and arrogant should see Robin’s willingness to really work a room at an event, sitting and talking baseball with fans for long periods of time.”
The fourth and final Hall of Famer who was in the final two years of his brilliant career during Sharp’s two season in Milwaukee was one of the game’s iconic figures, Hank Aaron, the man many feel remains baseball’s all-time homerun champ considering the link between steroids and the man who later passed him, Barry Bonds.
Recalls Sharp, “It’s a little hard to explain my relationship with Hank since I was just nine years old when Hank and my manager Del Crandall were teammates together in 1958 on the World Series-winning Milwaukee Braves. Because he was such a legend, I viewed him differently, partly because of the fifteen-year age difference and partly because of his accomplishments. At that point, he was both the sport’s all-time homerun champion and all-time RBI champion as well.”
Like Allen, Sharp recalls, even in his forties, Aaron hit balls, creating a different sound coming off the bat.
“He had such incredibly strong hands, which I think, allowed him not to roll over on balls he pulled down the line. That means they didn’t hook foul because he was so good at keeping his hands inside the ball.”
According to Sharp, in those last two years, Aaron seemed a bit tired of all the travel and seemed like a player yearning to get to the finish line, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t push back when aroused.
“I remember one game in particular in his final year, and Frank Tanana, who was drafted thirteenth overall in my 1971 draft class, and, at that time in his career, could really throw hard, busted a fastball up and in and put Hank on the seat of his pants.
“Hank got up, dusted himself off, glared out at Tanana, dug back in and, BOOM, the next pitch, he deposited 24 rows deep in the leftfield stands.”
While the years have rolled by for the one-time fleet outfielder for the White Sox and Brewers, the memories remain so very salient, especially memories of the players who once surrounded him in the clubhouse.
And, while there are many words Bill Sharp could use to describe his brief time in the Majors, so brief because his knees betrayed him, the word “bitter” wouldn’t be one of them.
Says the former Spartans three-sport standout, “If anyone asks me to sum up my four years in the Majors in a single word, I’ll answer immediately, ‘grateful.’”
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Lima Senior graduate Bill Sharp appears on a Topps baseball trading card for the 1975 season for the Chicago White Sox.
