Jim Beattie

James Louis Beattie (born July 4, 1954) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners from 1978 to 1986.

He also served as the Montreal Expos' general manager from to, and was the Baltimore Orioles' general manager with Mike Flanagan from to.

Beattie earned All New England honors playing basketball at Dartmouth College in 1974, and was MVP of the Kodak Classic in 1975.

In 1974, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League and was named a league all-star.

The New York Yankees selected Beattie in the fourth round, with the 91st overall selection, of the 1975 Major League Baseball draft.

He was soon tabbed one of the top pitching prospects in the Yankees' farm system, along with Ken Clay and Gil Patterson.

Each vocalized frustration with the organization when they acquired pitchers Goose Gossage, Andy Messersmith and Rawly Eastwick after the 1977 season believing that it hindered their chances of making the major league roster.

A rash of injuries opened the door for Beattie, and he made the club out of spring training in 1978.

He pitched innings and gave up just one run in his major league debut to beat Hall of Famer Jim Palmer and the Baltimore Orioles.

After a second win against the Chicago White Sox on May 15, Beattie lost his next seven decisions in a row.

He was, however, on the mound for two of the Yankees' most important games that September.

With the Yankees having been as far back as fourteen games to the Boston Red Sox on July 19, they surged to just four games back by the time they headed to Fenway Park for a four-game set from September 7–10.

Beattie started the second game of the series, holding Boston to just three hits and no runs over his first eight innings of work.

After the Red Sox scored two unearned runs in the ninth, he handed the ball over to Ron Davis for the final out.

The Yankees swept the series to move into a tie with Boston.

They moved on to Detroit for a three-game set next, and Beattie won the second game of that series to give the Yankees sole possession of first place.

He finished his rookie season with a 6–9 record and a 3.73 earned run average (ERA) in 25 games (22 starts).

Following a one-game playoff with the Red Sox, the Yankees headed into the postseason.

Beattie won Game 1 of the 1978 American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, and earned a complete game victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series.

Despite his late season and postseason heroics, Beattie failed to make the club the following spring.

He was, however, called up by the beginning of May.

On June 20, a line drive off the bat of the Toronto Blue Jays' John Mayberry shelved Beattie for two months.

Despite posting a 5.01 ERA, Beattie's record stood at 3–3 on May 21, 1980 following a victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

He only won two more games for the rest of the season, and finished at 5–15 with a 4.85 ERA in 33 games (29 starts).

Beattie started the 1981 season in the bullpen, but after getting rocked in three outings, he was reassigned to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Spokane Indians.

He returned to the majors after the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, and pitch an eight inning gem against the California Angels on August 11 for his first victory of the season.

Beattie went 3–2 with one save with a 2.02 ERA while holding batters to a .212 batting average in the second half, as opposed to the eight earned runs he gave up in innings of work prior to his demotion to Spokane.

His one and only career save came during a wild 20-inning game on September 3, 1981.

The Mariners defeated the Red Sox at Fenway Park 8–7 in a 20-inning game.

Beattie recorded the final out of the game to nail down the victory.

His success carried over into the 1982 season.

Despite an 8–12 record, his 3.34 ERA was seventh-best in the American League, 140 strikeouts was eighth-best, and the .233 batting average he held batters to was sixth-best.

On September 27,, Beattie hurled the first one-hitter in Seattle Mariners history against the Kansas City Royals.

Outside of a U.L. Washington single in the third inning, Beattie was perfect.

Perhaps the second-best pitching performance of his career came in a losing effort.

As of 2010, Beattie served as a professional scout in the Toronto Blue Jays organization through the 2018 season.

On September 12,, Boston Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski singled off Beattie for his 3,000th career hit.

After the season, he, Rick Anderson, Juan Beníquez and Jerry Narron were traded to the Seattle Mariners for Ruppert Jones and Jim Lewis.

Beattie retired from his decades-long career in MLB at the end of the 2018 season.

Beattie starred in baseball and basketball at South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine.