William Steven Searcy (born June 4, 1964) 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 ...

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 ...

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 Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies.

Early years

Though he is naturally

right handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or sim ...

, Searcy was born with

osteomyelitis Osteomyelitis (OM) is an infection of bone. Symptoms may include pain in a specific bone with overlying redness, fever, and weakness. The long bones of the arms and legs are most commonly involved in children e.g. the femur and humerus, while the ...

in his right shoulder. Thus, he does some tasks with his left hand, including throwing a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

. Hailing from

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, Searcy attended the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

. With a team leading 2.45

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 ...

(ERA) and 95.1 innings pitched, he led the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

team to a second-place finish in the 1984 Southeastern Conference baseball tournament. Following one more season playing college ball, he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the third round of the

1985 Major League Baseball Draft First round draft picks The following are the first round picks in the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. Supplemental First Round Selections Background Six of the first eight draft picks from the June regular phase had at least one full ...

. In , Searcy went 11–6 with a 3.30 ERA and 139 strikeouts over 27 starts for the

Glens Falls Tigers The Glens Falls Tigers (formerly the Glens Falls White Sox) were an American minor league baseball team from Glens Falls, New York that played in the Eastern League from 1980 until 1988, the team's ballpark was East Field Stadium. The team was fo ...

in their inaugural season. A knee injury limited Searcy to just 53.1 innings in . Injuries aside, however, the Tigers were reluctant to part with their young pitcher at the 1987 trade deadline when they were in need of a veteran arm for the major league club's playoff drive. Instead, they opted to ship fellow minor league pitcher

John Smoltz John Andrew Smoltz (born May 15, 1967), nicknamed "Smoltzie" and "Marmaduke", is an American former baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1988 to 2009, all but the last year with the Atlanta Braves. An eight-time A ...

to the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

for

Doyle Alexander Doyle Lafayette Alexander (born September 4, 1950) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue J ...

. He returned healthy in to go 13–7 with a 2.59 ERA and 176 strikeouts for the

Toledo Mud Hens The Toledo Mud Hens are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Toledo, Ohio, and play their home games at Fifth Third Field. A Mud Hens team has played in ...

to earn International League Most Valuable Pitcher honors and a call up to the majors in late August.

Detroit Tigers

Searcy made his

major league debut 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), ...

on August 29, , against 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 ...

at old Comiskey Park. Starting, he pitched seven plus strong innings, but was tagged with the loss. In his second and final start of the season, Searcy faced six Milwaukee Brewers batters, and gave up three runs (2 earned) while only retiring one batter before being lifted. Arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder kept Searcy off the mound til June of . After eighteen rehab starts for the

Lakeland Tigers Lakeland is primarily a toponym. It may refer to: Places Australia * Lakeland, Queensland Canada * Lakeland (electoral district), a federal electoral district in Alberta * Lakeland County, a former municipal district in Alberta * District of ...

and Toledo, Searcy made his first major league appearance of the season on August 20, starting against the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

. After four relief appearances, Searcy made a second start against the Minnesota Twins on September 17 to earn his first major league win. He split the season between Toledo and Detroit. After winning his first start with the Tigers, his record fell to 1–5 with a 5.43 ERA before he would earn a second win. Searcy won a spot in Detroit's

starting rotation R rabbit ears :Indicates a participant in the game who hears things perhaps too well for their own good. A player who becomes nervous or chokes when opposing players or fans yell at or razz them is said to have rabbit ears. Also, an umpire ...

out of Spring training . After failing to get out of the third inning in three of his five starts, Searcy was demoted to the bullpen. Searcy was still unable to find his groove as a

reliever 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 weather ...

, and was demoted to the minors. With this being his seventh minor league season, he was granted

free agency In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is ...

Philadelphia Phillies

After initially talking with the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

, Searcy signed with the Philadelphia Phillies on July 15, 1991. Coincidentally, his first appearance for the Phillies came against the Dodgers at

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capacities were 65,358 for foo ...

. He entered the game in the fifth inning with the Phillies trailing 6–3, and allowed one

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an erro ...

in two innings. The Phillies, meanwhile, scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth and another in the sixth to earn Searcy the win in his first

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

appearance. His 2–1 record and 4.15 ERA with the Phillies was good enough to earn him a one-year contract for . After ten appearances with no wins or losses and a 6.10 ERA, he was traded to the Dodgers for

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

Stan Javier on July 2. Searcy spent the rest of the season assigned to the Dodgers' triple A Pacific Coast League affiliate, the

Albuquerque Dukes The Albuquerque Dukes were a minor league baseball team based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. History The first Dukes team was formed in 1915 as part of the Class D Rio Grande Association. The team finished in third place with a 32-25 record. Frank ...

. After the season, he signed a minor league deal with the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

with a non-roster invitation to Spring training for the open fifth starter and long reliever spots for season. Unable to land either position, he spent the season with the triple A Rochester Red Wings, where he went 2–1 with a 6.00 ERA in sixteen relief appearances.

References

External links

''Sports Illustrated''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Searcy, Steve 1964 births Living people Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Knoxville, Tennessee Detroit Tigers players Philadelphia Phillies players Albuquerque Dukes players Rochester Red Wings players Glens Falls Tigers players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Bristol Tigers players Toledo Mud Hens players Lakeland Tigers players Birmingham Barons players