Pat Rooney

Patrick Eugene Rooney

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 190 lb.
• School Benedictine College, Eastern Illinois University
• Debut September 9, 1981
• Final Game October 4, 1981
• Born November 28, 1957 in Chicago, IL USA

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Biographical Information

Outfielder Pat Rooney had some solid seasons in the minor leagues after being drafted in the 20th round of the 1978 amateur draft by the Montreal Expos out of Eastern Illinois University. In his first season, in 1978, with the Jamestown Expos of the New York-Penn League, he hit .262 in 71 games, with 9 doubles, 10 triples and 8 homers, scoring 54 runs and driving in 51. He followed that in 1979 by hitting ,251 with 16 homers and 69 RBIs for the Memphis Chicks after jumping straight to the AA Southern League. He then did one better in 1980, hitting .280 with 28 homers and 102 RBIs in 142 games for Memphis. He hit 15 of those homers in July to be named the circuit's Player of the Month.

Rooney received his only shot at the majors at the tail end of the 1981 season, when the Expos brought up a slew of minor league players to give them a boost in their quest for the second-half title in the 1981 split-season schedule. Rooney was coming off a disappointing season, when an injury had limited him to just 64 games between Memphis and the AAA Denver Bears, during which he had hit just .228 with 10 homers and 35 RBIs. Rooney got into 4 games with Montreal, going 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts, three of his at-bats coming in the final game of the season, on October 4th against the New York Mets, when manager Jim Fanning put all of his youngsters in the line-up after a couple of innings as the Expos had clinched the second half title the day before. Rooney joined players like Dave Hostetler, Tom Wieghaus, Anthony Johnson, Wallace Johnson, Dan Briggs and Tom Gorman, all of whom had spent most of the year in the minors, in the line-up that day. Rooney pinch-hit for starting pitcher Bill Gullickson in the 3rd and stayed in the game in left field in what was to be his final major league appearance.

In 1982, Rooney was back in AAA with the Wichita Aeros, where he hit .271 with 17 homers and 52 RBIs in 99 games. Those stats were not as good as it might appear, as Wichita was a very hitter-friendly environment, and everyone on the team hit well, with outfield-mate Roy Johnson winning the American Association batting title with a .367 average. In fact, among all the players on the team with 200 or more at-bats, only Jerry Manuel at .255 had a lower batting average. He had a very similar season with Wichita in 1983, hitting .275 with 15 homers and 71 RBIs in 113 games.

On December 20, 1983, he was sent to the New York Yankees in a trade that went below the radar at the time, but which landed the Expos the services of pitcher Tim Burke, who would end up as one of the greatest relief pitchers in team history. In his only season in the Yankees' organization in 1984, Rooney hit a disappointing .193 in 73 games with the Columbus Clippers, with 8 homers and 25 RBIs, and was released. He played briefly for the Syracuse Chiefs in the Toronto Blue Jays organization in 1985, hitting .250 in 6 games, then retired.