Paul Michael Edmondson (February 12, 1943 – February 13, 1970) was an American

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)

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. Born in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, the right-hander was drafted by 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 ...

out of

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

in the 21st round (419th overall) of the first-ever MLB amateur entry draft in June, 1965. In his major league debut on June 20, 1969, Edmondson pitched a complete game two-hitter in a 9–1 White Sox victory over the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

. Edmondson started thirteen of the fourteen games he appeared in during his MLB career. He had the second-best

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(3.70) of any of the six White Sox pitchers who started ten or more games during the 1969 season. Some of Paul Edmondson's efforts in 1969: *9 innings, 0 earned runs vs.

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

—NO DECISION (September 13) *9⅓ innings, 1 earned run vs. California—NO DECISION (September 6) *8 innings, 1 earned run vs.

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

—NO DECISION (September 25) *7 innings, 1 earned run vs. Oakland—LOST 2-1 (July 8) *6⅔ innings, 1 earned run vs. California—NO DECISION (July 4) *7⅓ innings, 3 earned runs vs.

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

—NO DECISION (August 6) *6 innings, 3 earned runs vs.

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

—LOST 3-1 (June 25) While traveling south on rain-soaked

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

near

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

on February 13, 1970, the day after his 27th birthday, his automobile skidded and crashed into oncoming northbound traffic, killing Edmondson and his passenger, Lauraine Leas, 22, of Simi Valley, California. They had traveled from Simi to San Luis Obispo where Lauraine would be attending Cal Poly the following semester. The tragedy occurred only two weeks prior to

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

, and the White Sox had hoped that Edmondson would become the fourth starter in the rotation.Lindberg, Richard. ''Who's on 3rd?: The Chicago White Sox Story''. South Bend, Indiana: Icarus Press, 1983.

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Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmondson, Paul 1943 births 1970 deaths Sportspeople from Kansas City, Kansas Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Kansas Cal State Northridge Matadors baseball players Evansville White Sox players Lynchburg White Sox players Columbus White Sox players Hawaii Islanders players Road incident deaths in California ca:Paul Edmondson

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