Bob Christian

Who was Bob Christian?

Robert Charles Christian was an American professional baseball player who played seven seasons in North America — including parts of three seasons in the Major Leagues with the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox — and two more years in Japan. A third baseman and outfielder, he threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds.

Christian was born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family moved to El Cajon, California, when he was a boy. After attending El Cajon Valley High School and Grossmont College, he signed his first baseball contract with the New York Yankees before the 1964 season. But Christian spent only one season in the Yankee farm system, with the Rookie-level Johnson City Yankees, before he was selected by Detroit in the first-year player draft, and he would play the next four seasons in the Tiger organization. After collecting a career-high 151 hits and batting .319 for the 1968 Toledo Mud Hens, Christian was recalled for his first taste of Major League action after the September 1 roster expansion. The Tigers were breezing to an American League pennant and, ultimately, the 1968 World Series championship, and used Christian in three games as an outfielder, first baseman and pinch hitter. In his second MLB game, he collected his first Major League hit, a double off Camilo Pascual of the Washington Senators. Those three games constituted Christian's entire Tiger career; on September 30, he was sent to the White Sox as part payment for relief pitcher Don McMahon, who had been acquired by Detroit on July 26.