James Leroy Finigan (August 19, 1928 – May 16, 1981) was an American professional baseball player and Major League

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

. Primarily a third baseman and second baseman, he played for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1954–1956),

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

(1957), San Francisco Giants (1958) and Baltimore Orioles (1959). He threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed . Finigan was a native of

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

, who attended Quincy University and

Saint Ambrose University St. Ambrose University is a private Catholic university in Davenport, Iowa. It was founded as a school of commerce for young men in 1882. History Foundation St. Ambrose was founded as a seminary and school of commerce for young men in 1882, know ...

. He broke into pro baseball in the New York Yankees' organization in 1948. After four seasons in the Yankee system, and two years performing Korean War military service, he was traded to Philadelphia in an 11-player deal that featured

Vic Power Victor Felipe Pellot (November 1, 1927November 29, 2005), also known professionally as Vic Power, was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican professional baseball first baseman. He played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athl ...

on December 16, 1953. Finigan made his major league debut on April 25, 1954 against the Yankees at Connie Mack Stadium, and went on to have a successful rookie season as the A's regular third baseman. He hit .302 in 136 games with 7

home runs 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 ...

, 51 runs batted in, a .421

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

, and finished second to the Yankees' Bob Grim in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. He also was a member of the American League All-Star team. In 1955, now playing in Kansas City, Finigan split time between second base and third base and was again named to the All-Star squad. His batting average dropped but his

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

production increased. In 150 games he hit .255 with 9 home runs and 68 RBI. He also scored 15 more runs than the previous year. His playing time decreased over the next four years, and his days as a regular player were over. His final game in the big leagues was played on July 5, 1959 with Baltimore. His professional career included all or part of 14 seasons. Career totals include 512

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Basebal ...

, 422

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, 19

, 168 runs batted in, 195

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...

, a .264 batting average, and an

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

of .342. Finigan died from a heart attack in Quincy at the age of 52.

External links

Jim Finigan
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