Tim Harkness

Who is Tim Harkness?

Thomas William Harkness is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1961 to 1964 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

Harkness was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent before the 1956 season. He was traded by the Phillies on April 5, 1957 along with a player to be named later, Ron Negray, Elmer Valo, a minor league player and $75,000 to the Brooklyn Dodgers in exchange for Chico Fernandez, with the Phillies completing the trade on April 8 when they sent Ben Flowers to the Dodgers.

Harkness made his major league debut on September 12, 1961 against the Phillies, working out a walk in five pitches against pitcher Chris Short as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning in a 19–10 loss at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He finished the 1961 season with four hits in eight at bats, for a .500 batting average. In the 1962 season, he appeared in 92 games for the Dodgers, with nine hits in 62 at bats, and seven runs batted in. He hit the first home run of his career on April 17 in the top of the second inning against Mike McCormick to drive in Daryl Spencer, as part of an 8–7 win over the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park.