John Thomas O'Brien (born December 11, 1930) is a former backup second baseman and

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 ...

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), ...

who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1953, 1955–58),

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

(1958) and Milwaukee Braves (1959). O'Brien batted and threw right-handed. His twin brother,

Eddie Eddie or Eddy may refer to: Science and technology *Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle * Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...

, was also a major league infielder. O'Brien attended Saint Mary's High School in South Amboy, now

Cardinal McCarrick High School Cardinal McCarrick High School (CMHS), later known as Cardinal McCarrick/St. Mary's High School, was a Catholic secondary school located in South Amboy, New Jersey, that operated under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen. ...

, where he has been inducted into the school's sports hall of fame. O'Brien attended Seattle University, where he played on the basketball team for the Chieftains (along with his brother Eddie) and scored 43 points in a stunning 84–81 upset over the Harlem Globetrotters on January 21, 1952. In 1953, O'Brien became the first player in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

history to score 1,000 points in a season. O'Brien would be the shortest NCAA All-American player to be named until 2016 when the similarly

Tyler Ulis Tyler Ulis (born January 5, 1996) is an American professional basketball coach who is an assistant coach for the Kentucky Wildcats of the SEC. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. At Kentucky in 2015, he led his team in ass ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

was named a member of the first team. Later he and Eddie were drafted by the NBA's

Milwaukee Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

in 1953, but the twins never played in the NBA. In a six-season career, O'Brien was a .250

hitter In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, to driv ...

(204-for-815) with four

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 59 RBI in 339 games played. From 1956 to 1958, he also doubled as a pitcher, appearing in 25 games (all but one in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

) and 61 innings, surrendering 61 hits,

walking Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an ' inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults ...

30 and

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

35. He lost three of four decisions (.250) with an

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 ...

of 5.61. While in Pittsburgh, Johnny and Eddie O'Brien became the first twins in major league history to play for the same team in the same game. They are also one of only four brother combinations to play second base/shortstop on the same major league club. The others are Garvin and Granny Hamner, for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945;

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

and

Milt Bolling Milton Joseph Bolling (August 9, 1930 – January 19, 2013) was a shortstop in Major League Baseball who played from 1952 through 1958 for the Boston Red Sox (1952–1957), Washington Senators (1957) and Detroit Tigers (1958). Bolling batted a ...

, with the Detroit Tigers in 1958, and Billy and

Cal Ripken Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. (born August 24, 1960), nicknamed " The Iron Man", is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001). One of his posit ...

, for 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 ...

during the 1980s. In retirement, O'Brien worked variously as a city councilman in

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 ...

, a sportscaster of Seattle University basketball games along with Keith Jackson, the head of security, sales and promotions at the Kingdome and an energy consultant for the Alaskan shipping industry.

References

External links

Johnny O'Brien
- Baseballbiography.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Johnny 1930 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Baseball players from New Jersey Basketball players from New Jersey Houston Astros scouts Major League Baseball second basemen Milwaukee Braves players Milwaukee Hawks draft picks People from South Amboy, New Jersey Pittsburgh Pirates players Seattle Rainiers players Seattle Redhawks baseball players Seattle Redhawks men's basketball players Sportspeople from Middlesex County, New Jersey St. Louis Cardinals players