John Sanders

Who is John Sanders?

John Frank Sanders is an American professional baseball scout. He is a former player and manager at the pro level and college baseball coach. He was the longtime head baseball coach of the University of Nebraska, where his teams won a school-record 767 games.

Sanders was a four-sport star at Grand Island High School, before he was signed to his first professional contract as an outfielder with the Kansas City Athletics by A's scout Whitey Herzog. Sanders threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 200 pounds.

In his rookie season in the Appalachian League, Sanders batted only 30 times, but collected 13 hits for a .433 batting average. He was then kept on Kansas City's Major League roster at the outset of the 1965 season under the terms of the bonus rules then in force. During that time, he appeared in his only Major League game, on April 13, 1965 as a pinch runner in an 8-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers. On May 4, 1965, the A's lost Sanders on waivers to the Boston Red Sox when they attempted to send him to the minor leagues for more seasoning.