Jim Constable

Jimmy Lee Constable
(Sheriff)

• Bats Both, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.
• School East Tennessee State College
• Debut June 24, 1956
• Final Game April 27, 1963
• Born June 14, 1933 in Jonesborough, TN USA
• Died September 4, 2002 in Johnson City, TN USA

BR page

Biographical Information

"My father was manic depressive. It is inherited. It was through the heavy stress I was under in Cuba after the whole year I had, being with three different teams, then down there with Castro taking over and people disappearing, I had quite a breakdown." - Jim Constable, on his 1958 season

Before the 1951 season, Jim Constable signed with the New York Giants. The left-hander picked up the nickname "Sheriff" along the way, starting and ending his career in the Giants organization. He was a 19 game winner for the Nashville Volunteers in 1953 while leading the Southern Association in strikeouts with 183. "Sheriff" went 12-9 for the Minneapolis Millers in 1955 and got his first look at major league hitters in three outings with no decisions for the Giants in 1956. He spent the balance of the season back in Minneapolis, where he went 10-10 with a 3.66 ERA. He was with the Giants in 1957, making 16 appearances and going 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA. Jim also went 3-2 with a 4.80 ERA with Minneapolis that season.

Constable started 1958 with the San Francisco Giants, the team having moved to the West Coast, before being waived to the American League to the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Senators in the same year. In the book The Original San Francisco Giants, Jim described his mental breakdown while playing winter baseball in Cuba after the 1958 season, which kept him out of baseball for the next three years. Constable had gone 4-4 with a 2.82 ERA in 23 games for the Cienfuegos club.

Jim returned in 1962 to go 16-4 with the Toronto Maple Leafs before returning to the majors with the Milwaukee Braves late and shutting out the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0, in his first start of the season. "Sheriff" concluded his time in the majors with the San Francisco Giants in 1963, with an overall record of 3-4 in 56 games. He was with the Pacific Coast League Tacoma Giants in both 1963 and 1964, finishing eleven years of active play. During his minor league career, he appeared in 329 games, going 102-85 while pitching 1,566 innings to a 3.65 ERA.

After baseball, Constable was a control analyst for Magnavox for 15 years before becoming a schoolteacher in Jonesborough, Tennessee. He died September 4, 2002 at 69.

Sources

Baseball-Reference.com
Baseball Players of the 1950s
SABR MILB Database:page