Jimmie Coker

Jimmie Goodwin Coker

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 195 lb.
• School Furman University
• High School Holy Hill High School
• Debut September 11, 1958
• Final Game September 12, 1967
• Born March 28, 1936 in Holly Hill, SC USA
• Died October 29, 1991 in Throckmorton, TX USA

BR page

Biographical Information

A star at Furman, Jimmie Coker signed with the Philadelphia Phillies on February 19, 1955. A catcher by trade, he spent his first season with the Class D Mattoon Phillies, appearing in 124 games, hitting 13 home runs and batting .324. Jimmie spent the next three seasons in the high minors, building a reputation as a good defensive catcher with a strong throwing arm. He slugged 38 homers and hit .252 in this span. He got his first look at the major league game with a late-season call up by the Phillies in 1958, appearing in two games with six at bats.

Coker was up and down between the Phillies and Buffalo Bisons between the 1958 and 1962 seasons, mostly as a backup when in the majors. In 1960, despite a meager .214/.289/.329 line in 81 games, he was named catcher on the Topps All-Star Rookie Team. The year would prove his most substantial as a big leaguer. On November 21, 1962, he was purchased by the Baltimore Orioles; before the ink was dry on the agreement, the Orioles traded him, along with Jack Fisher and Billy Hoeft, to the San Francisco Giants for Stu Miller, Mike McCormick and John Orsino. Jimmie got very little playing time with the Giants in 1963 and wound up with the Cincinnati Reds in 1964, where he spent the last four years of his career as an irregular.

Coker retired at the end of the 1967 season. In parts of nine seasons in the majors, he played 233 games and hit .231. He spent 13 seasons in pro ball, 1956 through 1967, playing 940 games in the minors and batting .278 (864-for-3,108) with 100 home runs. After baseball, he was an agricultural rancher and on the board of directors of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in Throckmorton, TX, where he died of a massive heart attack on October 29, 1991 at 55.

Notable Achievements

• 1960 Topps All-Star Rookie Team

Sources

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

Related Sites

• Jimmie Coker at the SABR Bio Project