Rick Camp

Rick Lamar Camp

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 198 lb.
• School West Georgia College
• High School Trion High School
• Debut September 15, 1976
• Final Game October 5, 1985
• Born June 10, 1953 in Trion, GA USA
• Died April 25, 2013 in Rydal, GA USA

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Biographical Information

On the night of July 4-5, 1985, at 3:30 AM, in the bottom of the 18th inning, with two outs, none on, and his team down one run, career .060 hitter Rick Camp came to the plate as the Atlanta Braves' last chance to come back against the New York Mets. The team was out of position players so he could not be pinch hit for. The previous two hitters had meekly grounded out to first and it appeared Camp would do no better, falling behind quickly 0-and-2. Then, in a moment out of The Twilight Zone, he swung at the next pitch and hit it over the left field fence for a game-tying home run. The Mets left fielder, Danny Heep, fell to his knees and threw his glove down in disgust. The Mets scored 5 runs in the top of the 19th, but the Braves came back with 2 of their own. Improbably, Camp came to the plate again with two outs and, since there were two on, he was once again the tying run. Instead of introducing him as "pitcher, Rick Camp," the PA announcer introduced him as "slugger, Rick Camp." Camp fell behind 1-2 and took a mighty swing at the next pitch. He missed, game over, slamming his bat on the plate in frustration in what was the biggest display of disappointment he ever showed in a major league at-bat. The scheduled 4th of July fireworks then went off, startling neighborhood residents.

Rick did have a ten-year career around his mighty hitting heroics. A 7th rounder in the 1974 amateur draft, he reached the big leagues in two years, making his debut late in the 1976 season, and was a regular in the bullpen starting in 1977. After going back to the minors for one year in 1979, he held down closing duties for the Braves in 1980 and 1981, saving 39 games in total with sub-2.00 ERAs but only striking out 80 men in 184 1/3 innings. The Bravos moved him into a swingman role for the next three seasons before he finished his career back in the pen in 1985.

After his playing career, Camp returned to his hometown of Trion, GA to operate a farm. He became registered as a state lobbyist, but in September 2005, he was sentenced to 3 years in a federal prison for conspiring to steal over $2 million from the Community Mental Health Center in Augusta, Georgia. Four others were sentenced to up to 10 years for providing friends with jobs and unearned contracts.

Camp was found dead of apparently natural causes at his home in Rydal, GA on the morning of April 25, 2013. He was a couple of months short of his sixtieth birthday.