Curtis Glenn Ford (born October 11, 1960), 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 baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 cat ...

, 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

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 ...

and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, from through .

Career

Ford attended Murrah High School then

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...

and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

Jackson State Tigers The Jackson State Tigers and Lady Tigers represent Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, in NCAA intercollegiate athletics. Conference affiliation Jackson State University's athletic teams participate in the Southwestern Athletic Confe ...

. The

selected Ford in the fourth round of the 1981 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft. He made his MLB debut with the Cardinals on June 22, 1985. He batted .308 in the

1987 World Series The 1987 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1987 season. The 84th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins and the Nation ...

for the Cardinals versus the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

. After the 1988 season, the Cardinals traded Ford and

Steve Lake Steven Michael Lake (born March 14, 1957) is an American former professional baseball backup catcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Ph ...

to the

for Milt Thompson. In his

MLB 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), ...

career, Ford had seven

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, 89

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

, and a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .245. On May 12, 2010, Ford was announced as the new manager of the

Springfield Sliders The Springfield Lucky Horseshoes are a collegiate summer league baseball team of the Prospect League. They play at Robin Roberts Stadium at Lanphier Park and are based in the city of Springfield, Illinois. The team was established in November ...

, a wood-bat collegiate baseball team in the Prospect League. The team plays at Lanphier Park in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

. Ford took over duties from former manager Jack Clark.

Personal life

On March 25, 2015, Ford was punched at a St. Louis gas station by an attacker shouting racial slurs. The following day he said he may move away from the St. Louis area.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Curt 1960 births Living people African-American baseball players Algodoneros de Unión Laguna players Amarillo Dillas players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baseball players from Jackson, Mississippi Baseball players from St. Louis Charlotte Knights players Corpus Christi Barracudas players Diablos Rojos del México players Jackson State Tigers baseball players Jackson State University alumni Johnson City Cardinals players Louisville Redbirds players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball second basemen Major League Baseball replacement players Philadelphia Phillies players Rochester Aces players Saskatoon Smokin' Guns players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Springfield Cardinals players St. Louis Cardinals players St. Petersburg Cardinals players Toledo Mud Hens players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople