John Edward Briggs (born March 10, 1944) is an American former

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 ...

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

who played 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), ...

(MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (–), Milwaukee Brewers (–), and Minnesota Twins (1975). He batted and threw left-handed, and was listed as tall and . Briggs was born in Paterson, New Jersey, where he played high school baseball at Eastside High School. He then moved on to

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the ...

. Signed by the Phillies in , he broke into pro baseball with the

Bakersfield Bears Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley (California), Central Valley r ...

of the Class A California League that season. Briggs batted .297 with 21 home runs, 20 doubles and six triples. His production compelled the Phillies to promote him to their 40-man roster for , then to keep him on their 25-man regular-season squad to prevent Briggs from being nabbed by another MLB club in the first-year player draft in effect from 1959–1964. Although as a 20-year-old, Briggs played sparingly in 1964 (with just 76 plate appearances), he would win a platoon outfield spot with Philadelphia in 1965 and never return to the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

. He appeared in over 100 games from 1967 through his final MLB campaign in 1975. He was traded from the

Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

to the Brewers for Pete Koegel and Ray Peters on April 22, 1971. On August 4, 1973, when, while batting leadoff, he went 6-for-6, with two doubles and two runs scored, to spark the Brewers to a 9-4 road victory, over the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

. He was dealt from the Brewers to the

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

for

Bobby Darwin Arthur Bobby Lee Darwin (born February 16, 1943) is an American professional baseball scout and a former Major League Baseball pitcher and outfielder who played for the Los Angeles Angels (), Los Angeles Dodgers (-), Minnesota Twins (-), Milwaukee ...

on June 14, 1975.McGowen, Deane. "Phils Beat Expos, Oust Mets From 2d," ''The New York Times'', Saturday, June 21, 1975.
Retrieved January 19, 2023. In his 12-season big league career, Briggs posted a .253

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

, a .355 on-base percentage, with 1,041 hits, 170 doubles, 43 triples, 139 home runs, and 507

run 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 bat ...

(RBI), in 1,366 games played. After his last MLB season, he played one season for the

Lotte Orions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB), in .

References

External links

Johnny Briggs
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Johnny Briggs
at Baseball Almanac
Johnny Briggs
at Baseballbiography.com 1944 births Living people African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Bakersfield Bears players Baseball players from Paterson, New Jersey Eastside High School (Paterson, New Jersey) alumni Lotte Orions players Major League Baseball left fielders Milwaukee Brewers players Minnesota Twins players Philadelphia Phillies players Seton Hall Pirates baseball players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{Baseball-left-fielder-stub

See also

References

External links