Doug Flynn

Robert Douglas Flynn Jr. (born April 18, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player.

After one more tryout camp and yet another audition at Riverfront Stadium, the Reds signed him as an amateur free agent in 1971.

Flynn batted .245 with six home runs and 113 runs batted in over three seasons in the Reds' farm system.

Still, his glove impressed Reds manager Sparky Anderson.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1975 to 1985 as an infielder for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos and the Detroit Tigers.

Despite having played shortstop predominantly in the minors, Flynn went into Spring training 1975 battling Darrell Chaney, Dan Driessen and John Vukovich for the open third base job.

He made the team, but as a utility infielder, and made his major league debut on April 9 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at short.

Starting the following night, Flynn scored his first major league run after reaching on a force play on the fourth inning.

Three innings later, he chased Dodgers starter Rick Rhoden out of the game with his first career hit, a single to center.

Flynn batted just .172 with no home runs or RBIs in April.

With Reds third basemen batting a combined .162, Anderson shifted perennial All-Star and former National League MVP Pete Rose to third, with George Foster taking over in left.

The shift worked, as the team won 108 games that season to storm to a first-place finish in the National League West by twenty games over the Dodgers.

The reduced role also seemed to do Flynn's bat some good.

Over the rest of the season, Flynn batted .296 with twenty RBI.

He hit his first major league home run on May 21 against the New York Mets, a game in which Tom Seaver was the losing pitcher.

Flynn saw semi-regular action early in the 1976 season due to a back injury to Joe Morgan.

During a nine-game stretch in June, Flynn batted .382.

He ended up appearing in 93 games for the "Big Red Machine", as they became affectionately called, and batted .283 with one home run and twenty RBIs.

The Reds won the and World Series.

Flynn's only postseason appearance came as a defensive replacement in the 1976 National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Flynn's role with the Reds decreased drastically in 1977.

Through June 12, he appeared in 36 games, mostly as a late inning defensive replacement for Rose at third.

Meanwhile, Tom Seaver was in a contract dispute with New York Mets chairman M. Donald Grant.

On Wednesday, June 15, 1977, Grant traded Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for Steve Henderson, Dan Norman, Pat Zachry and Flynn.

Flynn's playing time increased substantially upon his arrival in New York City, even though he batted just .191 with no home runs and fourteen RBIs.

Most of his playing time came at short, but he spent time at second base as well.

Following the season, the Mets reacquired formed number one overall draft pick Tim Foli to play short.

Just as pitchers and catchers were reporting to Spring training, the Mets sold the contract of second baseman Félix Millán to the Taiyo Whales of Nippon Professional Baseball with the intention of using Flynn at second.

He began the season at second, but shifted to short when Foli injured his knee at the end of April, and returned there periodically throughout the remainder of the season.

All told, he logged 430 innings at short, committing just seven errors for a .968 fielding percentage.

At second, he logged the league's second best fielding percentage (behind the Montreal Expos' Dave Cash) at .986.

With the bat, Flynn produced a modest .237 batting average with no home runs and 36 RBIs in the eighth spot of manager Joe Torre's batting order, however, he tied Lenny Randle and Joel Youngblood for the team lead with eight triples.

Flynn's first home run as a Met was a three-run shot off future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry on May 1, 1979.

It was also his only career four RBI game.

Flynn was a member of two world championship winning teams with the Cincinnati Reds and won a Gold Glove Award in 1980 as a member of the New York Mets.

Flynn was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky.

He attended Bryan Station High School, where he starred in baseball, basketball and football, playing quarterback on a 12–1 team.

He went to the University of Kentucky on a combination baseball-basketball scholarship.

While attending Kentucky, Flynn and some friends went to a Cincinnati Reds tryout camp in Somerset, Kentucky.

Flynn made the cut.