Remember That Guy: Bill Nahorodny

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Sometimes it’s fun to pick random baseball names. Some names seem to come up more often, probably because they’re just fun to say.

Bill Nahorodny is one of those guys.

Nahorodny is a former Major League catcher from Hamtramck, Michigan (Tom Paciorek went to high school there). He played in the 1972 Junior College World Series for St. Clair County (Michigan) Community College and was drafted by the Phillies in the 6th round of the 1972 MLB Draft.

He had some pop; from 1973-76 in the minors he hit 14, 19, 19 and 23 home runs, and he finally got a crack at the Majors (for three games) at the tail end of the 1976 season for the 101-61 NL East champion Phillies. He debuted on September 27 catching Jim Kaat in a 9-1 win over the Cardinals, where he contributed a double in three trips to the plate.

In 1977, “Naha” started the season at Oklahoma City and was picked up by the White Sox off waivers in September. He appeared in seven games and hit his first career MLB home run off Balor Moore in the second game of a September 18 doubleheader against the Angels. For 1978, the White Sox shipped Jim Essian to Oakland to make room for Nahorodny; a bit of a surprise given that Bill had appeared in all of ten MLB games to that point in his career. He responded with a career-high 107 games, a .236/.285/.349 slashline, 8 HR and 35 RBI. His second career home run came on April 21, 1978, seven months after his first, but off the same Balor Moore, only this time in Toronto. A career highlight came May 17 at Comiskey Park when Nahorodny walked and homered off Nolan Ryan, who had an uncharacteristic miserable afternoon on the South Side. Ryan’s line was 8 innings (a complete game loss), 10 hits, 9 runs (all earned), 7 walks, 6 strikeouts and 2 home runs. One of three times Ryan ever allowed 9 earned runs in a game.

The 1979 White Sox featured a carousel of catchers, including Marv Foley, Milt May, Mike Colbern, Wayne Nordhagen & Nahorodny and in December he was dealt to the Braves for pitcher Rick Wieters (who never ended up making the Majors).

Steve Carlton and the Phillies hosted the Braves on May 5, 1980. “Lefty” had tossed his sixth career one-hitter just nine days earlier, but he was still in search of that elusive first no-no. He almost got it that day, but Bill Nahorodny intervened with a two-out single in the 8th inning to break it up. Quite a memorable first hit in a Braves uniform. He served as Bruce Benedict’s backup that season and appeared in just 14 games (without starting any) in 1981.

Nahorodny signed with the Indians as a free agent for 1982, and got into 39 games hitting .223/.237/.426 with 4 home runs. In 1983 he was with the Tigers, and had a huge season at the dish for their Triple-A Evansville (Indiana) Triplets affiliate, with a stellar .335/.389/.555 and 21 home runs in 127 games which earned him two games with the Tigers at the end of the season. The next season those Tigers started 35-5 on the way to a World Series title – but not with Nahorodny. He moved on to the Mariners organization where he played his final dozen MLB games for Seattle. He played one last minor league season for the Phillies’ Triple-A Portland Beavers in 1985 where he even made four mound appearances.

After his MLB career, Nahorodny worked a variety of jobs, including UPS as a supervisor, Tires Plus and a guard at Pinellas Juvenile Detention Center. He also produced a collection of songs “At the Ballyard” – a two-CD set with one disc of music and one disc of baseball tips & stories. He wrote the songs and played the instruments, with his wife Gayle chipping in with vocals.

Trivia:

Nahorodny’s Topps rookie card is #702 in the 1978 set. It’s one of those cards with four headshots on it – ’78 Rookie Catchers. Also on the card are Rick Sweet of the Padres, Kevin Pasley of the Mariners & Don Werner of the Reds. Of those four, Nahorodny appeared in the most Major League games.

1978 Topps 1978 Rookie Catchers (Card #702)

Most career MLB games played

308            Bill Nahorodny (1976-84)

272            Rick Sweet (1978, 1982-83)

118            Don Werner (1975-78, 1980-82)

55              Kevin Pasley (1974, 1976-78)

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