Robert Harvey Baldwin (June 9, 1948 – June 28, 2011) was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

with the 1975 Detroit Tigers and the 1976 New York Mets. Listed at , 175 lb., he batted and threw left-handed. Baldwin was born in

Tazewell, Virginia Tazewell () is a town in Tazewell County, Virginia, United States. The population was 4,627 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA micropolitan area, which has a population of 107,578. It is the county seat of Tazewell County. ...

, and attended

Southern University and A&M College Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

on a scholarships for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

, football and soccer. He signed with the Detroit Tigers as an undrafted free agent in 1972, and received his first call to the majors in 1975 when a thumb injury ended Tigers outfielder

Mickey Stanley Mitchell Jack "Mickey" Stanley (born July 20, 1942) is an American former professional baseball player. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Stanley signed with the Detroit Tigers organization in 1960. After four years in the Tigers' minor leagu ...

's season. He batted .221 with four home runs and eight

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

filling in at right field and

center field A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

. He was traded with

Mickey Lolich Michael Stephen Lolich (born September 12, 1940) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1963 until 1979, almost entirely for the Detroit Tigers. A three-time All-Star ...

to the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

for

Rusty Staub Daniel Joseph "Rusty" Staub (April 1, 1944 – March 29, 2018) was an American professional baseball player and television color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball for 23 seasons as a right fielder, designated hitter, and first basem ...

and

Bill Laxton William Harry Laxton (born January 5, 1948) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Laxton pitched in all or part of five seasons in the majors between 1970 and 1977. Early career Laxton grew up in Audubon, New Jersey and attended Audubon H ...

on December 12, 1975. He spent the 1976 season with the Mets triple-A affiliate, the

Tidewater Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesap ...

, and joined the Mets when rosters expanded that September. He batted .292 over nine games with the big league club. Though he remained in the minors with the Mets through 1978, he would never see Major League action again. In a two-season career, Baldwin batted .231 (27-for-117) and five home runs, driving in 13 runs while scoring 12 times in 39 games. He also collected four

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

s, one

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

, and two stolen bases. Baldwin died in

Hudson, Ohio Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,110 at the 2020 census. It is a suburban community in the Akron metropolitan statistical area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, t ...

, in 2011.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Billy 1951 births 2011 deaths African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baseball players from Virginia Clinton Pilots players Columbus Clippers players Detroit Tigers players Evansville Triplets players Lakeland Tigers players Major League Baseball outfielders Montgomery Rebels players New York Mets players People from Tazewell, Virginia Plataneros de Tabasco players Tidewater Tides players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people