Leslie Ferdinand "Buster" Narum (November 16, 1940 – May 17, 2004) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. Listed as tall and , he was a right-handed starting pitcher in

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), ...

for the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

() and Washington Senators (–). Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Narum graduated from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Clearwater, Florida. He signed with Baltimore at age 17 in 1958 and debuted with the Orioles early in the season, finishing with no decisions in nine innings of work. The next year, he was sent to the Senators in the same trade that brought

Lou Piniella Louis Victor Piniella ( usually ; born August 28, 1943) is a former professional baseball player and manager. An outfielder, he played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and ...

to Baltimore. On May 3, 1963, Narum became the first-ever Oriole player to hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat, connecting off

Don Mossi Donald Louis Mossi (January 11, 1929 – July 19, 2019) was an American major league pitcher from 1954 to 1965. He was a left-handed control pitcher whose strikeout-to-walk ratio was regularly among the league leaders (he led the league in 1961 ...

of the Detroit Tigers in an 8–5 Baltimore triumph. Narum had a career batting average of .059 (7-for-118), though three of Narum's seven lifetime hits were home runs. In 96 career games Narum compiled a 14–27 record, with 220 strikeouts, a 4.45

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, two

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s, and nine complete games in 396 innings pitched. He allowed 398 hits and 177 bases on balls. Buster Narum died in Clearwater at the age of 63.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Narum, Buster 1940 births 2004 deaths Aberdeen Pheasants players Amarillo Gold Sox players Ardmore Rosebuds players Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from Philadelphia Bluefield Orioles players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Fox Cities Foxes players Hawaii Islanders players Major League Baseball pitchers Rochester Red Wings players Sportspeople from Clearwater, Florida Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Victoria Rosebuds players Washington Senators (1961–1971) players

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