Keith Martin Comstock (born December 23, 1955) is an American baseball coach and former

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

. He 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 parts of six seasons, spending time with the Minnesota Twins,

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

, and

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

. He also played for the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

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) and several Minor League Baseball teams in various countries, and is currently the rehab pitching coordinator for the Texas Rangers. He is known for appearing on a memorable 1989 baseball card pretending to be hit in the crotch by a ball.

Life

Comstock was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and went to high school in San Carlos, California. He was drafted by the California Angels in 1976 and played for their minor league affiliate, the

Idaho Falls Angels Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

. He spent the next eight years in 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 ...

. According to a 1990 article in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', in 1983 the Oakland Athletics organization sold him to the Detroit Tigers for $100 and a bag of balls, which he had to deliver himself. In 1984 he was called up to the majors by the Minnesota Twins. From 1985 to 1986 he played in Japan for

, and from 1987 to 1991 he played for the

, the

and the

as well as minor league teams. In 1989, while playing for the Las Vegas Stars Triple-A team, Comstock appeared on a memorable

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stad ...

pretending to be hit in the crotch by a ball.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

called it "the funniest baseball card ever made." From 1989 to 1991 he played for the

. By the end of his career, he had played in teams across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, and Puerto Rico. He subsequently went into coaching, and is currently the rehab pitching coordinator for the Texas Rangers. Comstock is the great-grandson of the former United States Postal Inspector and politician

Anthony Comstock Anthony Comstock (March 7, 1844 – September 21, 1915) was an anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector, and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV), who was dedicated to upholding Christian morality. He o ...

. He lives in Arizona with his wife, Kathleen Comstock. He has three children, Christine Fox, Daniel Comstock and Alexandria, three granddaughters, and three grandsons.

References

External links

Keith Comstock
at Baseball Biography 1955 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from California Birmingham Barons players Calgary Cannons players Cañada Colts baseball players El Paso Diablos players Idaho Falls Angels players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Major League Baseball pitchers Minnesota Twins players Minor league baseball managers Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Phoenix Firebirds players Quad Cities Angels players Salinas Angels players San Diego Padres players San Francisco Giants players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Tigers players Toledo Mud Hens players Yomiuri Giants players West Haven A's players West Haven Whitecaps players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub