The term “bust” can be defined in several ways. Is it a player that never made it out of the minor leagues? Is it someone who had a brief stint in the majors? What about an individual who stuck around for a little while but was nothing more than a below-average MLB player? For the purposes of this article, I combined a bit of all three.
There are no stars or Hall of Famers, just athletes that had some type of baseball career but wound up going to have an even better second career after leaving the game.
Which former players found a better path after their stint at the MLB?
Honorable Mention: Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell spent time with 10 different MLB teams, playing every position once. Despite never breaking Spring Training with any of the teams, Will Ferrell has gone on to have a successful movie career.
John Elway – Football
Just because an athlete is a Hall of Famer in one sport doesn’t mean that they would be one in another, but according to scouts who watched him, John Elway might’ve been that person. He was drafted by the Yankees in 1981 and played minor league ball for them in 1982. In 1983, the Baltimore Colts (yes, they were in Baltimore at one point) selected Elway as the first overall pick of the draft.
Not wanting to play for them, the quarterback threatened to play baseball instead of in the NFL. Baltimore wound up trading him to Denver, and the rest is history. John Elway has gone down as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
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Chuck Connors – Acting
Chuck Conners spent most of the time between 1940 and 1952, with a 4-year hiatus for military service, playing minor league baseball for several teams (he also spent three seasons in the NBA). Connors did spend some time in the major leagues, appearing in one game in 1949 and playing 66 games in 1951. That was it for his MLB career.
Realizing that pro sports were not his future, Connors moved on to acting. After becoming a successful character actor, he received his big break when he was cast for the lead in the TV show The Rifleman. The show was a hit and ran for 5 seasons and 168 episodes. Chuck Connors continued to act until the early 1990s.
Tommy Lasorda, Earl Weaver, et al – Managers
There are several former players who have gone on to have incredible careers as Major League Baseball managers, and like potato chips, since I couldn’t stop with just one, I figured why not have a bunch? What do Hall of Fame managers Tommy Lasorda, Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, Jim Leyland, Tony LaRussa, and future HoF managers Buck Showalter and Joe Maddon have in common?
All of them either flamed out after a short run or never got the chance to play in the MLB, but they all became great managers. They have won a total of 11 World Series championships between them, proving that the worst players can sometimes turn out to be great managers.
Bob Uecker – Announcer, Actor, Spokesman
If a person is going to make a career out of being a poor baseball player, then there’s a spot for him on our list. Bob Uecker made his MLB debut at the tender age of 28 and played parts of 6 seasons with three clubs. Simply put, Uecker was a below-average hitter, and his playing career ended in 1967.
Four years later, he began the first of his successful post-playing endeavors, becoming the play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers, a position he would hold for 54 years until his recent death. Appearing as a spokesman for Miller Lite and an actor (wasn’t he great in Major League as Harry Doyle?) Uecker continued to gain greater fame for his post-baseball career.
Ron Shelton – Writer & Director
From 1967 through 1971, Ron Shelton played minor league baseball for the Baltimore Orioles. Over his 5-year minor league career, he proved himself to be a light-hitting infielder and never made it out of Triple-A ball. Despite his failed career, Shelton’s time in the minors served him well. He wrote and directed the 1988 movie Bull Durham, widely considered to be one of the greatest baseball movies ever made.
The film, based in part on his experiences, won several awards and was nominated for an Academy Award. Shelton has also written and worked on several other sports-themed movies, such as White Men Can’t Jump, Blue Chips, Cobb, The Best of Times, and Tin Cup.
Moe Berg – Spy
Moe Berg may not meet the true definition of a bust, but his post-baseball career was too good to not include him on our list. Berg spent 15 years in MLB, playing a total of 663 games. He was a player of below-average ability, only once reaching 100 games played in a season and never playing more than 76 games in any other season.
After the United States entered World War II, Berg began to work for the US military in several different roles, eventually becoming a spy, first for the Office of Strategic Services and then for the CIA. So, while he may not be a bust, Moe Berg’s second career was much more important.
Randy Poffo – Wrestling
Randy Poffo was signed out of high school by St. Louis in 1970. Originally a catcher, Poffo mostly played the outfield in the minors for the Cards and Reds. After injuring his right throwing shoulder, he learned to throw left-handed but was unable to find much success, so he left baseball after the 1974 MLB season. The next year, he began wrestling professionally, and Randy Savage was born.
He made his WWF debut in 1985 and went on to become one of the greatest performers in wrestling history. Savage was a multiple-time champion and an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. If an injury hadn’t derailed his baseball career, we never would’ve witnessed Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
Danny Ainge – Basketball
Most people know Danny Ainge from his 14 years as an NBA player and his 18 years as Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics. However, before basketball, there was an MLB dream. The Blue Jays selected Ainge in the 1977 amateur draft, and by 1979, while still in college, he was in the majors.
He played parts of three seasons with limited success (.220 BA, 2 HR, 37 RBIS across 211 games) before deciding to enter the 1981 NBA Draft. Ainge was selected with the 31st pick of the second round and helped the Celtics win two championships as a player and another as an executive. When talking about Danny Ainge, baseball’s loss was basketball’s gain.
Scott Patterson – Acting
Baseball players typically live their lives in the public eye, so it’s not really a surprise that someone would leave the bright lights of an MLB stadium for the bright lights of Hollywood. Thus, we have our second ex-ball player to become an actor. For 7 years, Scott Patterson toiled in the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A but never pitching in the Major Leagues.
Despite not finding success in baseball, Patterson found his calling in front of the camera. After appearing in several smaller roles in various TV shows and movies, he was cast in what has become his most famous role, appearing on the show Gilmore Girls. Scott Patterson continues to stay busy as an actor.
Jesse Cole – Business Owner & Entrepreneur
These articles always have one entry, which is a bit of a stretch. Here it is! While he never made it out of playing college baseball or the MLB, Jesse Cole deserves his spot here. A starting pitcher for Wolford College, he was rated as a “hard thrower with excellent command” and “an outstanding competitor,” but an arm injury derailed his career.
Although his playing days were over, Cole turned lemons into “bananas,” purchasing the Savannah Bananas minor league team. Running a team wasn’t enough for the young owner. He went on to create Banana Ball, billed as the “fastest and most entertaining game of baseball.” Often compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, Jesse Cole’s Bananas have electrified crowds across the Southeast.
