Roy White
White in 1970
Left fielder
Born: (1943-12-27) December 27, 1943
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Batted: Switch
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 7, 1965, for the New York Yankees
Last MLB appearance
September 27, 1979, for the New York Yankees
MLB statistics
Batting average.271
Home runs160
Runs batted in758
NPB statistics
Batting average.283
Home runs54
Runs batted in172
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Roy Hilton White (born December 27, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player and coach.[1] He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the New York Yankees between 1965 and 1979. With the Yankees, he won two championships in 1977 and '78, both over his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers.

White, who came up a year after the Yankees’ final “dynastic” World Series appearance in 1964, is the only player from the franchise's subsequent period of decline during the mid to late 1960s to participate in their championships of the late 1970s.[2]

Baseball career

White, a switch hitter, was named to the American League All-Star team in 1969 and in 1970. In 1971, he set an American League record for most sacrifice flies in a season with 17.[3] White led the American League in walks in 1972 and in runs in 1976. He played on three American League pennant winners (in 1976, 1977, and 1978), and two World Series championship teams (1977 and 1978).

Career statistics

In a 15-year major league career, White played in 1,881 games, accumulating 1,803 hits in 6,650 at bats for a .271 career batting average along with 160 home runs, 758 runs batted in and a .360 on-base percentage.[1] He ended his career with a .986 fielding percentage. An excellent defensive player, White led American League left fielders in fielding percentage for four consecutive years between 1968 and 1971.[1]

Coaching career and retirement

Roy White signing autographs at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on May 12, 2013

After retiring from the major leagues in 1979, he spent three seasons playing in Japan for the Tokyo Giants. He served as a Yankee coach for three seasons in the mid-1980s before returning to the coaching staff at the start of 2004. He also spent time as the minor league hitting coach for the Oakland A's.

In 2002 he established The Roy White Foundation, a charity aimed to help children and young adults in the New York area who would like to attend college, but do not have the financial resources to do so. [4]

White, who is African American, appeared in a 2011 interview for UniWatch on Page 2 of ESPN.com about his time in Georgia with the Yankees’ Double-A farm team, the Columbus Confederate Yankees, during the mid-1960s, which had a patch of the Confederate flag on its uniform. White commented that even at the height of the civil rights movement he didn't notice the patch nor pay attention to its symbolism. Instead, the native Southern Californian was faced with contending with overt racism in the Southern United States at the time.[5]

In 2014, White receive a Special Recognition Award presented by the Order Sons of Italy in America, Columbus Lodge #2143 for his efforts to promote higher education to underprivileged students through the Roy White Foundation.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Roy White statistics". Baseball Reference. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  2. ↑ "Roy White".
  3. ↑ "Washington fans hostile". The Phoenix. Associated Press. 29 September 1971. p. 15. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  4. ↑ "Roy White Foundation". www.roywhitefoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2008-12-25.
  5. ↑ "Uni Watch: Confederate flag investigation". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  6. ↑ Nov-Dec "Navigator" newsletter
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