Tom Hausman

Thomas Matthew Hausman (March 31, 1953 – January 16, 2019) was a Major League Baseball pitcher.

He was the first free agent signing of the New York Mets.

Hausman was born in Mobridge, South Dakota, but moved to California as a child.

He was an All-state baseball and basketball player, and pitched two years of American Legion ball in La Verne, California.

The Milwaukee Brewers drafted the right hander right out of high school in the tenth round of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft.

Hausman spent his first professional baseball season in the class "A" New York–Penn League with the fourth-place Newark Co-Pilots.

He appeared in thirteen games and 74 innings and allowed 54 hits and 30 walks.

He struck out 54 and had an earned run average of 2.68.

His 1972 season was spent playing for Joe Nossek and the class "A" Midwest League champions in Danville.

An injury placing him on the disabled list from June 13 to August 6, limiting his appearances to only ten games, with 55 innings pitched.

He gave up 53 hits and 17 walks, struck out 32 and his ERA was a 2.13.

As a starter in 1973, Hausman pitched 162 innings in 25 games at class "AA" Texas League for the Shreveport Captains.

With a record of 12–9, he allowed 193 hits, 49 walks, struck out 56 and had a rather high 4.44 ERA, however, his performance earned him a promotion to AAA for the 1974 season.

In 26 games for the Pacific Coast League's last-place Sacramento Solons, he led the league in complete games with eleven.

In 180 innings, he struck out 104, but gave up 215 hits, fifty of which were home runs.

As a result, he had an inflated 6.00 ERA.

The fifth place Milwaukee Brewers needed pitching in 1975, and Hausman made the team.

He made his major league debut in relief in a 10-1 loss to the New York Yankees on April 26.

On May 27, Hausman entered a game against the Chicago White Sox in relief of Ed Sprague in the second inning with the Brewers already down 3-0.

As soon as Hausman entered the game, an error by Robin Yount at shortstop made the score 4-0.

From there, Hausman pitched 6.2 innings, and allowed three runs.

The Brewers, meanwhile, battered Wilbur Wood for eight runs to earn Hausman his firs major league victory.

Hausman's first major league start was cut short by a back injury.

He made his second start in the first game of a July 6 doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers.

He faced four batters without recording an out.

Undeterred, he pitched seven innings in the second game.

His record was 3-2 with a 3.92 ERA when he was moved into the starting rotation.

On July 27, Hausman pitched eight innings of scoreless ball against the Baltimore Orioles, and was in line for his first win as a starting pitcher when he handed the ball to relief pitcher Tom Murphy with a 6-0 lead.

The bullpen imploded for six runs, and Hausman ended up with a no decision.

Facing the O's again in his next start, Hausman pitched his first career complete game, and lost, 3-1.

Hausman would end up going 0-4 with a 4.66 ERA in August.

His recurring back injury forced the Brewers to shut him down for the last month of the season.

In 1976, Hausman appeared in only three games with the Brewers, all in relief.

In three innings of work, he gave up three hits, three walks and two earned runs.

The rest of the year was spent with the AAA Spokane Indians who finished last in the PCL West.

He played in 22 games (111 innings) and allowed 135 hits and 36 walks for an ERA of 5.68.

Hausman struck out forty and was on their suspended list from August 14 to September 7.

In 1977, Hausman remained the whole year at Spokane where he led the PCL in games started with 30.

He completed a career high 207 innings, had a 13–6 record for the second place team.

Hausman gave up 251 hits, 55 walks with a 4.22 ERA.