Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Player Profile: Floyd Bannister


I have 44 cards of Floyd Bannister. This one is from 1983 Topps.

Playing career: Floyd Bannister was the #1 pick in the 1976 draft, and made it to the majors the next season with Houston. After two seasons in Houston he was traded to the Mariners for Craig Reynolds. In 1982 Bannister led the American League in strikeouts. The following season he signed with the White Sox as a free agent and helped lead them to the playoffs, going 16-10 with a 3.35 ERA. As the White Sox descended into mediocrity so did his won-loss records, though his other numbers stayed decent.

My memories: I remember him on the bad White Sox teams of the mid-80s, and didn’t realize that he was actually a very good pitcher, just had the bad luck to pitch for bad teams.

Interesting facts: Bannister put up insane numbers in his senior year of high school, going 15-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 112 innings, striking out 196 and walking 17.

Where he is now: He manages Loft 19, the photography studio owned by his son, former major leaguer Brian Bannister.

Google Autocomplete results: He is fifth when you type Floyd Ba, between Floyd Banner Gangster, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd, and Floyd Bailey, a US Navy veteran who died in August. There do not appear to be any other prominent Floyd Bannisters.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Travis Baptist.

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