Bob Randall (baseball)

Robert Lee Randall (born June 10, 1948) is a former professional baseball second baseman. He played five seasons in Major League Baseball from 1976 until 1980, all for the Minnesota Twins.

Randall was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in three separate drafts: 1966, 1968, and finally the 2nd round in 1969, after which he signed. For the next five and a half years, he worked his way through the Dodgers' farm system, never playing at the major league level. Then, he got his first break, being traded to the Twins in exchange for reserve outfielder Danny Walton.

Randall's second, and even more important, break was the Twins' decision to move future Hall of Famer Rod Carew to first base, opening up second base for Randall, who beat out Jerry Terrell for the job in spring training. Randall capitalized on the opportunity, batting .267 in 153 games in 1976 while finishing 4th in the American League in sacrifice hits.

That turned out to be the high mark of Randall's career. He spent the next two seasons splitting time at second base with Rob Wilfong, losing the starting job to the lefty-hitting Wilfong entirely in 1979. The following spring, he was released by the Twins, but was re-signed in May. He played in just five games in the majors in 1980, going 3-for-15, before being released, and Randall retired soon afterwards.

Following Randall's major league career, he turned to the college coaching ranks. He was head baseball coach at Iowa State University from 1985 until 1995, and at the University of Kansas from 1996 until 2002. He is currently the assistant baseball coach and a professor of economics at Manhattan Christian College.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)