Dooley Womack

Horace Guy Womack

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 170 lb.
• High School Brookland-Cayce High School
• Debut April 14, 1966
• Final Game September 27, 1970
• Born August 25, 1939 in Columbia, SC USA

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Biographical Information

Dooley Womack was traded for Jim Bouton on August 26, 1969, thereby earning mention in Bouton's Ball Four: "I'd hate to think that at this stage of my career I was being traded even-up for Dooley Womack."

His brothers Alfred and Larry were minor league pitchers.

Womack spent quite a while in the minors before making his big league debut on April 14, 1966 for the New York Yankees against the Detroit Tigers in relief of pitcher Bob Friend. Womack pitched three solid innings, allowing a base hit and hitting two batters, but walking away unscathed. His collected his first career strikeout in that game - he struck out feared slugger Norm Cash.

While normally a baseball player's sophomore season is worse than his debut season, Womack bucked the trend and actually had the best year of his career in his second season in 1967. That year he had career highs in appearances, saves, innings pitched, strikeouts and ERA. Overall, he posted a 5-6 record with a solid 2.41 ERA. Again he led all the pitchers on his team with at least 40 appearances in ERA. In 1967, he was second in the American League in games finished with 48, and fourth in the league in appearances and saves, where he had 65 and 18, respectively. He also had his best season at the plate that year: in 14 at-bats, he collected 4 hits for a .286 batting average. Womack led all the pitchers on his team with at least 40 appearances in ERA in 1967 and 1968.

On May 14, 1967, he won the game in which Mickey Mantle hit his 500th career home run. He struck out the final batter he ever faced, Jim Fregosi of the California Angels, pitching for the Oakland Athletics on September 27, 1970. His career was cut short by a torn rotator cuff.

According to the Similarity Scores method, he is most similar to pitcher Frank Funk (as of 2007).

Related Sites

• Dooley Womack at the SABR Bio Project