Richard Lee Kenworthy (April 1, 1941 – April 22, 2010) was a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

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), ...

who played for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

(1962, 1964–1968). Listed at 5' 9", 170 lb., Kenworthy batted and threw

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

. He was born in

Red Oak, Iowa Red Oak is a city in, and the county seat of, Montgomery County, Iowa, Montgomery County, Iowa, United States, located along the Nishnabotna River, East Nishnabotna River. The population was 5,362 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, a d ...

, United States. Kenworthy was signed by the White Sox in 1961 out of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. He was assigned immediately to Class-A

Clinton C-Sox Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, where he hit 22

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, a season team-record since then. Although Kenworthy finally caught on in the majors, he had to endure five more failed tryouts with Chicago, serving as a backup for

Don Buford Donald Alvin Buford (born February 2, 1937) is an American former professional baseball player scout, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from through , most notably as the leadoff hitter for the Baltimore Oriol ...

and

Pete Ward Peter Thomas Ward (July 26, 1937 – March 16, 2022) was a Canadian-born professional baseball player who appeared in 973 games over nine seasons in Major League Baseball as a third baseman, outfielder and first baseman for the Baltimore Oriol ...

. In a six-season career, Kenworthy was a .215 hitter (54-for-251) with four home runs and 13 RBI in 125 games, including 12 runs, six doubles and 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 * ...

. Kenworthy died in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

at the age of 69.

External links

Baseball in Clinton, IowaBaseball ReferenceBaseball Reference (Minors)ObituaryVenezuelan League
1941 births 2010 deaths Baseball players from Iowa Chicago White Sox players Clinton C-Sox players Eugene Emeralds players Hawaii Islanders players Indianapolis Indians players Industriales de Valencia players Lynchburg White Sox players Major League Baseball third basemen Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela People from Red Oak, Iowa Tidewater Tides players Tucson Toros players University of Missouri alumni Visalia White Sox players {{US-baseball-third-baseman-stub

See also

External links