Larry Hisle

Larry Eugene Hisle (born May 5, 1947) is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played with the Philadelphia Phillies (1968–71), Minnesota Twins (1973–77) and Milwaukee Brewers (1978–82). He batted and threw right-handed. A torn rotator cuff suffered in April 1979 severely limited his playing time for the remainder of his career.

Larry Hisle is currently employed with the Milwaukee Brewers and holds the title of Manager of Youth Outreach, and is the President of Major League Mentoring, a youth mentoring program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was formerly the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays helping them to World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. Under his coaching in 1993 Blue Jays John Olerud, (former Brewer teammate) Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar finished 1-2-3 in the American League respectively in batting average.

Career

In a 14-season career, Hisle posted a .273 batting average with 166 home runs and 674 RBI in 1197 games played. He led the American League in RBIs in 1977 with 119 which was 4 more than runner up Bobby Bonds. His best seasons were 1977 (.302 BA, 28 HR, 119 RBI) and 1978 (.290 BA, 34 HR, 115 RBI).

He was the first MLB player to serve as a designated hitter, during a spring training game for the Minnesota Twins in 1973. In his first two at-bats as a DH, he hit a three-run home run, then a grand slam.^[1] Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees would become the first DH in a regular-season game a month after Hisle.

See also

• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Baseball Library
• Hisle goes to bat to help young men
• Ex-Brewer Hisle goes to bat for troubled youth