Bob Didier

Who is Bob Didier?

Robert Daniel Didier is a former catcher in Major League Baseball who played for three different teams from 1969 through 1974. Listed at 6 feet, 190 pounds, he was a switch-hitter who threw right-handed.

Didier was a talented catcher whose promising career was cut short by a litany of injuries. He entered the majors in 1969 with the Atlanta Braves, playing for them four years before joining the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. In his rookie season, Didier appeared in a career-high 114 games, helping his team win the National League West Division title. At the end of the season, he finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year vote and also was named to the 1969 Topps All-Star Rookie Roster. After that, he suffered arm and back problems and played only in 133 games over the next five seasons. While in Atlanta, he became the preferred catcher of knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

In a six-season career, Didier was a .229 hitter with 32 RBI and 32 runs without home runs. As a catcher, he collected 1276 outs, 119 assists, and committed only nine errors in 1404 chances, for a solid .994 fielding percentage.