Archie Amerson

Archie Jerome Amerson

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 165 lb.
• High School Samuel F. B. Morse High School

• Born February 28, 1955 in Wichita Falls, TX USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Archie Amerson played minor league baseball from 1973 to 1980, mainly in the Minnesota Twins organization. He was drafted by the Twins in the 12th round of the 1973 amateur draft, out of a high school in San Diego, CA, and started his pro career that year by batting .302 in 21 games for the Geneva Twins of the New York-Penn League. He would never match that batting average again, but was a good player for a number of years, developing some power as grew older, reaching double figures in five seasons.

He hit .247 with 13 homers and 48 RBIs for the Wisconsin Rapids Twins in 1975, then .293 with 18 homers and 95 RBIs for the Reno Silver Sox of the California League in 1976. He reached AAA by the end of the following season, 1977 with four games for the Tacoma Twins of the Pacific Coast League, and then spent all of 1978 and 1979 at the level. For part of the 1978 season, he was on loan to the Seattle Mariners organization, playing with the San Jose Missions of the PCL, because the second-year team still did not have enough players under contract to fill a competitive AAA team by itself. Such an arrangement is almost unheard of today, but was relatively common back then. The Twins let him go after he hit .231 in 103 games for the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association in 1979.

He played one final season of pro ball, returning to AA with the Jackson Mets of the Texas League in 1980. He did well, batting .281 with 11 homers and 64 RBIs in 103 games, but at 25 he was no longer a prospect. It was there that his name made the news for his role in a highly unusual play that occured in a game against the Tulsa Drillers on July 3rd. Ron Gooch of Tulsa hit a fly ball in his direction with the bases loaded. he caught it and threw home in an attempt to cut off Mike Jirschele, who was trying to score from third base, but his throw bounced away from C Stan Hough. George Wright scored when Hough's throw back to P Tom Thurberg, who covering homer, hit on-deck batter Phil Klimas. That second error allowed Mel Barrow to score all the way from first base and Tulsa went on to win the game, 7-1.

His son, also named Archie Amerson, was a successful running back in college and played nine professional seasons in the Canadian Football League; another son, Andrew, also played college football. After baseball, Archie Sr. owned and operated a gym in San Diego.