Eric Byrnes

Eric James Byrnes
(Crash Test Dummy, Pigpen or Captain America)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 205 lb.
• School University of California, Los Angeles
• High School St. Francis High School (Mountain View)
• Debut August 22, 2000
• Final Game May 2, 2010
• Born February 16, 1976 in Redwood City, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Eric Byrnes earned the nickname "Captain America" while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic for his throwback style of play. He was Dominican League MVP in 2001-2002; no other American would win until Tyler White.

Byrnes came up with the Oakland Athletics in 2000, two years after being drafted in the eighth round out of UCLA in the 1998 amateur draft. He became the club's center fielder, with a knack for making spectacular plays. After three seasons with brief time, he acquitted himself nicely in 2003 by batting .263/.333/.459 with 12 home runs. That year, he enjoyed a 22-game hitting streak and hit for the cycle, going 5-for-5 with 4 extra base hits and 2 RBI in a 5-2, interleague victory against the San Francisco Giants on June 29th. He broke out in 2004 by batting .283/.347/.467 with 39 doubles, 20 home runs and 73 RBI. After a similarly good start to 2005 (.266/.336/.474 in 59 games), Eric was bundled with Omar Quintanilla to the Colorado Rockies for two pitchers. Within three weeks, after scuffling to a .189/.283/.226 line in 15 games, he was peddled again, this time to the Baltimore Orioles for Larry Bigbie and continued to struggle, hitting .192/.246/.299 in 52 games.

Non-tendered at season's end, Eric took a challenge free agent deal from the Arizona Diamondbacks to prove himself all over again. He passed this test with a .267/.313/.482 line and a career high 26 home runs, scoring 82 runs in 2006. The following year, 2007, he kept up the productivity, batting .286/.353/.460 with 21 home runs, 83 RBI and 102 runs scored, stealing 50 bases. During the season, Eric earned a three-year, $30-million extension. It was here that things went wrong. Eric began to be bothered by a series of injuries. He only played 52 games in 2008, hitting .209. In 2009, he played 84 games, but only hit .226. These low averages were especially problematic as Byrnes had never been one to draw many walks, and even in his best hitting years, had an on-base percentage barely at league average. Arizona released him after the 2009 season, eating up the remainder of the $30 million.

The Seattle Mariners took a chance on Eric in January 2010, as they only had to pay the minimum salary to sign him, with Arizona assuming the remainder of his contract. His stay in Seattle was a wild ride. He batted just 3-for-32 (.094). On April 30th, he was at the center of a controversial play in extra innings against the Texas Rangers. In a scoreless game, he was asked to lay down a squeeze bunt, but pulled away his bat at the last moment, leaving baserunner Ichiro Suzuki high and dry. Suzuki was tagged out easily by catcher Matt Treanor; Rangers manager Ron Washington argued Byrnes should be called out on strikes as well, since he lunged at the pitch before pulling back, but home plate umpire Jim Wolf was as surprised as everyone else to see Byrnes pull back and missed the call. Byrnes struck out anyway, and then left the clubhouse on his bicycle, refusing to speak to anyone about the game-turning play. It proved to be the final game of Eric's career. Perhaps the first, last and only man to ride off into the sunset on a bicycle, Eric was released on May 2nd and retired on May 5th.

Byrnes resurfaced in an unusual role in July 2015, when the independent Pacific Association put on an experiment to leave the calling of balls and strikes not to the home plate umpire but to technology. The system used three cameras to track the flight of the ball across home plate, attached to a computer monitored by Byrnes in the stands. He was connected to the public address system and relayed the decisions of the computer to inform the crowd. Byrnes had long been an advocate of an automated strike zone, which explains how he became involved in the experiment, which went rather smoothly. It was little different then the systems used by various television networks for a number of years, with the difference being that the system's decisions were now final and not simply indicative of whether the home plate umpire made a correct call or not. Around that time, Eric became a contributor to the MLB Network.

On April 22-23, 2019, Eric set a world record by playing 420 holes of golf in 24 hours at the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links in California. Byrnes had taken up endurance sports after his retirement from baseball and pulled off the stunt to raise support for the "Let Them Play Foundation", which is dedicated to helping children play sports outdoors. The previous record was 402 rounds; he played at a constant jog, barely taking time to set up his shots and playing in a style more akin to polo than golf.

In 2013, he was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.

Notable Achievements

• 20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (2004, 2006 & 2007)
• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (2007)
• 50 Stolen Bases Seasons: 1 (2007)

Further Reading

• Associated Press: "'St-riike!' Ex-OF Eric Byrnes calls computer balls, strikes", USA Today, July 30, 2015. [1]