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Larry Haney, who was born in Charlottesville in 1942, was mostly a backup as a catcher throughout his Major League career.
But the Orange County High graduate caught some of the best pitchers in the big leagues while playing for the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Pilots, Oakland A’s, St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers from 1966-1978.
Haney turned down an offer to play football at Virginia Tech when he signed out of high school with the Orioles in 1961. “It was probably the best decision I ever made,” he said.
By 1966 he worked his way up to Triple-A Rochester, where he played for a brash young manager named Earl Weaver.
“Earl called me into his office and said you are going to the big leagues,” Haney recalled.
A few days later, Haney made his Major League debut for manager Hank Bauer and the Orioles, on July 27, 1966. Other Orioles in the lineup that day included future Hall of Famers Frank Robinson in left field, Brooks Robinson at third base and Luis Aparacio at shortstop.
Among active pro players, Charlottesville native and former St. Anne’s Belfield standout Nic Kent has been an infielder this season for the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats in the Colorado Rockies farm system. Kent was drafted by the Rockies out of Virginia in 2021 in the 11th round and was .223 in games through Aug. 17 for Hartford.
As for Haney, the Orioles won the World Series a few months after his MLB debut, but he did not see any action as Baltimore swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games in 1966. The long-time resident of Barboursville caught Jim Palmer, the Orioles ace, in Baltimore, and caught Jim Hunter and Rollie Fingers while with the A’s. Palmer, Hunter and Fingers were Cy Young winners who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Haney appeared in two games in the 1974 World Series – without an at-bat – and won a ring as Oakland downed the Dodgers.
While he caught Hall of Famers in regular-season games, Haney also – in keeping with the tradition of those wearing the tools of ignorance – warmed up high school pitchers. That included Hunter Hollar, a graduate of Broadway High in Rockingham County who had a tryout with the Orioles at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in the late 1960s.
After his playing career, Haney spent several years working for the MIlwaukee Brewers, including time as the pitching coach and bullpen coach through 2006.
A two-sports athlete at Orange County, Haney had the chance to contend for the quarterback spot had he gone to Virginia Tech. His competition for the spot most likely would have been with Richmond native and Midlothian High graduate Bob Schweickert, who was drafted by San Francisco 49ers of the NFL and the New York Jets of the AFL and was a backup to Hall of Famer Joe Namath with the Jets in the 1960s.
Haney comes from a baseball family. His brother, George, played in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees, according to baseballreference.com.
Baltimore native Chris Haney, the son of Larry, also went to Orange County High and pitched in the Majors for 11 seasons for several teams, starting with the Montreal Expos in 1991 and ending with the Boston Red Sox in 2002. His son, Jacob, pitched at William & Mary and for the Charlottesville Tom Sox in the Valley Baseball League.
Other major leaguers born in Charlottesville, according to baseballreference.com, were Jesse Baber (1888-1959), who played from 1922-1924; Earl Brown (1900-1980), a pitcher who broke into the big leagues in 1924; Albemarle High graduate Steve Carter, who was drafted out of the University of Georgia by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1987; Lane High graduate Mike Cubbage (1950-2024), who was drafted out of Virginia by the Washington Senators and was an interim manager of the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox after his playing days; Charlie Ferguson (1863-1888), who won at least 20 games a pitcher every season from 1884-1887; Tommy Toms, a graduate of Albemarle High who pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1975-1977; and Dave Willis (1877-1959), a University of Virginia product in baseball and football who played for Louisville in 1899.
The Ferguson story is a sad one.
He once won 30 games in a season, in 1886 for Philadelphia of the National League, but he died about two years later at the age of 25 of typhoid fever in Philadelphia, according to the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR). Ferguson is buried at Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville.
Baber passed in 1959 in Bridgeport, Conn. Brown, who went to Harvard, died in New York City in 1980. Willis was one of at least three future big-leaguers with the Cavaliers in 1899. The others were Nick Carter and Doc Curley, according to SABR.
Toms was a teammate with Pulaski native and infielder Ed Goodson with the Giants. In the last game Toms pitched in the Majors, against the Dodgers in 1977, the catcher for Los Angeles was Virginia Tech Hall of Famer Johnny Oates, who played for the Waynesboro Generals of the VBL.
Among the Charlottesville natives who played or coached at the pro level in the minors, besides Kent, were Scott Breeden (1937-2006), who pitched 12 years in the minors and was then an instructor with the Cincinnati Reds and Toronto Blue Jays; Pat McAnaney, who was born in Charlottesville in 1986 and was drafted out of Virginia by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008; former VMI head coach Tom Slater, an ex-assistant hitting coach with the New York Mets who has been the hitting coach for Double-A Reading in the Phillies’ system this season; and pitcher Tommy Taylor, a second-round pick by the Orioles out of Louisa High who spent 15 years in the minors and overseas. Taylor made it to Double-A Bowie in the Baltimore system in 1993, and had a strong outing that season against the Cleveland farm team. “It was kind of a big one,” he told The Baltimore Sun as the Baysox stayed in second place ahead of the Cleveland affiliate.
McAnaney, who went to high school in upstate New York, ended his pro career as a pitcher in 2010 in the Single-A California League. Slater managed in the Yankees farm system in 2010-2011.
Breeden, who passed in 2006 in Tampa, was the pitching coach for the Reds from 1986-1989, working under managers Tommy Helms and Pete Rose. According to his obituary, he went to high school in Ohio and to college at Miami of Ohio.
Notes
The Virginia native with the most hits in the majors is Paul Hines, who had 2,131 hits in a career that ended in 1891. Baseballreference.com does not list a hometown birthplace for Hines – just that he was born in Virginia in 1855. Hines died in 1935 in Hyattsville, Md., and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in northeast Washington, D.C., just a few miles south of Hyattsville.
Next on the list of hits in the majors among those born in Virginia are Willie Horton (born in Arno, 1,993 hits); David Wright (Norfolk, 1,777); Justin Upton (Norfolk, 1,754); and Steve Brodie (Warrenton, 1,728). Horton and Upton each hit 325 homers – the most among Virginia natives – and Wright is third at 242. Todd Hundley is fourth at 202 and Michael Cuddyer is fifth at 197. Hundley and his father, Randy, were both born in Martinsville and both were All-Star catchers. Randy Hundley, an All-Star with the Chicago Cubs in 1969, was born in 1942 and went to Bassett High, while Todd Hundley went to high school in Illinois. Todd Hundley’s last season with the Mets was in 1998. Virginia high school products who played for the Mets that season were Williamsburg native Wayne Kirby; Stuart native Brad Clontz (Virginia Tech); and Bill Pulsipher, who went to Fairfax High.
David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU (one light-hitting season) and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com.