Paul Richard Wilmet (born November 8, 1958) is a former professional baseball pitcher. He appeared in three Major League Baseball games for the Texas Rangers during their 1989 season. Wilmet learned a slider from his brother, Steve, who played in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. Wilmet attended

West De Pere High School West De Pere High School is one of two public high schools in De Pere, Wisconsin, USA. Built in 1960, it serves students in the 9th to the 12th grade. The school's mascot is the Phantom. The Phantoms compete in the Bay Conference. History In 20 ...

in Wisconsin and played college baseball at Des Moines Area Community College in Boone, Iowa. Having been undrafted out of college, Wilmet toured as a musician for a few years before focusing on playing amateur baseball in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

. On the strength of his amateur performance, he was offered contracts by the Dodgers and the New York Mets. After

flipping a coin Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air and checking which side is showing when it lands, in order to choose between two alternatives, heads or tails, sometimes used to resolve a dispute betwe ...

, he signed with the Mets. When the Mets released him, he drove to St. Louis Cardinals

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 camped out in the back of his Ford E-Series van until he was offered a contract. In his Major League debut on July 25, 1989, Wilmet helped set a Texas Rangers franchise record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game. After Nolan Ryan recorded 14 strikeouts in six innings and Kenny Rogers added three, Wilmet added the team's eighteenth strikeout in the ninth inning.

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Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
1958 births Living people Arkansas Travelers players Baseball players from Wisconsin Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Harrisburg Senators players Iowa Cubs players Little Falls Mets players Lynchburg Mets players Major League Baseball pitchers Oklahoma City 89ers players Salem Buccaneers players Sportspeople from Green Bay, Wisconsin Springfield Cardinals players Texas Rangers players Tigres de Aragua players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Junior college baseball players in the United States {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub