Bobby Bonner

Robert Averill Bonner

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.
• School Texas A&M University
• High School C.E. King High School
• Debut September 12, 1980
• Final Game September 28, 1983
• Born August 12, 1956 in Uvalde, TX USA

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Biographical Information

Bobby Bonner was a good glove, no hit infielder who was touted as the Baltimore Orioles shortstop of the future in the early 1980s, before they installed a future HOFer named Cal Ripken.

Bonner was drafted in the third round of the 1978 amateur draft by the O's out of Texas A&M, another infield selection for the club after taking Ripken in the second round of the same draft. By all accounts, he was a sensational defensive player. Some indication of this was his selection as the International League Rookie of the Year and team MVP by his Rochester Red Wings teammates in 1980 - a season in which he hit just .241 with 2 home runs. As Ripken ascended through the Orioles' system as a third baseman, there was speculation that Bonner and Ripken would man the left side of the Orioles' infield for the next 10 years, in the tradition of Brooks Robinson and Mark Belanger.

However, Bonner was never able to develop at the plate, hitting just .229 for Rochester in 1981. The Orioles' shortstop position opened up when Belanger left as a free agent before the 1982 season, but the team originally sought to fill the position with a trade and then gave the starting job to utilityman Lenn Sakata with the backup job to Bonner. Bonner hit .169 and fielded .959 in limited playing time. With the Orioles' season sputtering, on July 1st, Earl Weaver wrote Ripken's name in as the Orioles' starting shortstop, a position the Iron Man would hold for the next 14 years. Bonner returned to Rochester, where he played for the next two years, and retired following the 1984 season.

Bonner is best known to many fans as one of three players on one of the more valuable baseball cards produced in the 1980s, the 1982 Topps "Baltimore Orioles Future Stars" card. This was Ripken’s first Topps card, and features Bonner, Ripken, and Jeff Schneider.

A devout born-again Christian even before entering Major League Baseball, after retiring, Bonner briefly worked as an announcer for the Red Wings, and then became a Baptist missionary in Zambia, where he trains national preachers.

Related Sites

• Bobby Bonner at the SABR Bio Project