Harrah was my favorite player for no particular reason really.
My dad had been a Washington Senators and stayed with the team when they moved to Texas to become the Rangers and even though he would eventually shift to the Orioles as he grew tired of waiting for a baseball return to the District (Ironically, he's never warmed up to the Nationals). when I was picking baseball teams, I selected the teams that he rooted for (Which didn't happen after that except for the Maryland Terrapins) in the Rangers and Pirates.
Harrah was originally drafted by the Phillies. But the Washington Senators were drafted away in the minor league draft, similar to the rule five draft today after his first season.
Harrah made his major league debut with the Senators late in the 1969 season, used mostly as a pinch-runner with only one plate appearance before winning the starting shortstop position for Washington in their final season in 1971.
Harrah would be the final active player to have played for the Washington Senators when he retired after the 1986 season. Still, his rookie season as a Senator was nothing to indicate stardom as Harrah hit just .230 with only one homer in 127 games with 23 errors defensively.
The 1972 move to Texas didn't improve Harrah's numbers appreciably, but a strong first half and the MLB rule to have one player from each team allowed Harrah to make his first of four All-Star teams. For the 1972 season, Harrah's average rose somewhat to .259 and doubled his power numbers to two homers, but in 1973, Harrah's career showed his first signs of being more than an average player as he hit ten homers along with keeping his average in the same area (.260) for the 57 win Rangers in the only season that Whitey Herzog managed in Texas.
It was 1974 that saw Harrah's breakout season as the surprising Rangers under Billy Martin improved their record by thirty games from the previous season (54 to 84 victories) and Harrah was a key player in the upturn as he again finished with a .260 batting average, but hit twenty homers with 74 RBI.
Harrah's time playing under Martin helped him develop as a player, but Harrah also was established as a favorite of Martin's, and seemingly every off-season was filled with rumors and various attempts by Martin's next team in New York trying to acquire Harrah to play shortstop for the Yankees.
It's funny, had the Yankees obtained Harrah, they would have never received the famous 1978 playoff homer from Bucky Dent or if there is a parallel universe somewhere that has Red Sox fans cursing the name Toby Bleeping Harrah!
Harrah continued to improve his game in 1975 with a career-high in RBI (93) and jumping in batting average to. 293 in making his second All-Star team and would be voted to his only starting All-Star spot in 1976 despite a small slide in statistics to .260 with 15 homers.
Yes, for those of you scoring at home, Toby Harrah's batting average was exactly .260 for three out of four seasons!
In 1977, the Rangers moved Harrah from shortstop to third base and Harrah responded with his career-high in homers with 27 and led the league in walks with 109.
Harrah's eye at the plate was underrated, but from 1975 to 1985, Toby never struck out more often than he walked and he was an underrated base stealer as well as he swiped 27 bases in the second of his three 20/20 seasons (also 75 and 79) in 1977.
Harrah didn't make the All-Star team despite the improved numbers due to the competition at third base in the AL at the time, but despite hitting. 263, this was likely his best overall season as a Ranger with his top Texas OPS number as well at .872.
The 1978 Rangers were favored in some quarters to win the AL West as owner Brad Corbett traded for Al Oliver, Bobby Bonds, and Jon Matlack as well as signing free agent Richie Zisk, but even with 87 wins, the Rangers never seemed to jell and finished five games behind Kansas City as crusty veteran manager Billy Hunter battled with his team all season with Hunter being fired on the season's next to last day.
Toby must have struggled with Hunter as he delivered his career-worst season as well (.222, 12, and 59 with only a career-high 31 stolen bases standing out on the stat sheet), although I've never read a particular problem between the two, only the general problems with Hunter and the team.
I've always wondered how Hunter sat his starting third baseman for both games of a 1978 doubleheader, yet he was healthy enough to pinch-run for his only appearance on my tenth birthday which my present was tickets to see the Rangers in Baltimore.
The disappointing season for the Rangers meant another shakeup was in store and the Rangers made several moves that included moving Bobby Bonds after one season and the two most popular Rangers- Mike Hargrove and Toby Harrah.
The three were moved in three different trades, but by June 1979, all three were with the Indians (Hargrove was traded to the Padres over the winter before a June trade to Cleveland).
I've written before about the trade that unofficially sent then ten-year-old Shawn to the Indians as well with the Rangers adding Buddy Bell in the one-for-one trade.
There has been a small myth that the Rangers "won" the trade, but I'd argue that the trade was pretty even.
Bell was the better fielder and the better hitter for average, Harrah was the superior power hitter (Bell finished with only six more career homers, despite playing two more seasons) and was more of a threat to steal a base.
If Texas had an edge, it was that they had Bell for eight years (.293, 87, 499 RBI, and .782 OPS) to Harrah's tenure in Cleveland lasting five ( .281, 70, 324 RBI, and .799 OPS), but via average, it's very even.
The Indians in the '70s and 80s were always a team looking for an identity.
One year they would build around power, another speed, and in others, pitching.
The Wahoo's would also zig-zag between veteran teams and youth so after the Indians had tried to work with youth for the past few years entering 1979, they were attempting to bring in some veterans to lift the team to respectability and despite finishing sixth in the best division in baseball, they were respectable at 81-80 as had they been in the western division, they would have finished fifth, but a half-game (due to a rainout that was not replayed) out of fourth and only a game in a half behind third-place Texas.
Harrah helped those 1979 Indians, an average team long forgotten by all but the most diehard Cleveland fans, to that record with the final of his 20/20 seasons, hitting homers and steals right on the nose with 20 in each column.
Harrah's numbers dropped in 1980 (.267 and 11 homers) and his average improved in the strike season of 1981(.291 and 5 longballs), but his career season was on tap as in 1982, Harrah made his fourth and final All-Star team as he hit above .300 (.304) for the only time in his career, smacked 25 homers (second highest in his career), knocked in 78 runs from the second spot in the batting order, stole 17 bases, finished with a career-high of .888 and played all 162 games- all at the age of 33.
That was his last big season as in 1983, Toby's stats took a fall (.266 and nine homers), and missed a month of the season, so the time was right for the Indians to move him and finally, after all those years, the Yankees got their man as Harrah was sent to Gotham for reliever George Frazier, outfielder Otis "My Man!" Nixon and minor leaguer Guy Elson.
The Yankees would be disappointed as Harrah hit just .217 and one home run in only 88 games as it seemed Harrah didn't care for playing in New York and at the age of 36, looked to be through as the Yankees returned Harrah to Texas for outfielder Billy Sample.
Harrah was moved to second base and played pretty well in 1985 (.270, 9, and an OPS of .820) in 126 games, but he would retire after a weak 1986 season at the age of 37 hitting only .218 with seven homers in 95 games.
Harrah would be elected to the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2009.
Harrah would later manage the Rangers for 76 games in the 1992 season to a record of 32-44, which was disappointing considering he replaced Bobby Valentine, who was canned after a 45-41 start.
Harrah would never manage in the big leagues again, but he would manage in the minors and coach with a few teams in the majors including the Indians with former teammate Mike Hargrove managing and the Rockies with the player that his name is most attached to as the bench boss- Buddy Bell.
Toby Harrah isn't often thought about as a Hall of Fame level player, but by some sabremetricians, Harrah's career is more highly thought of as Baseball Prospectus ranks him as the 25th best third baseman ever ahead of some Hall of Famers and rated near the top of Wins Above Replacement Players or WAR) five times in his career.
Toby Harrah had a pretty solid career and was my favorite player and the latest addition to our Forgotten Superstars Universe.
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