Where have you gone, Rimp Lanier?

A story in Strike Two, the second book by former umpire Ron Luciano and David Fisher, piqued my interest. In it, another former umpire, John McSherry, told of his promotion to the major leagues. He was to report to Pirate City in Bradenton, Florida, to make his big league debut, umpiring behind the plate in a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds.

It seems Pirate City was hard to find in the days before the GPS. McSherry eventually found it. The veteran umpire he was to work with wouldn’t find it until the bottom of the fourth inning. So, McSherry asked Pirates coach Don Leppert to provide a player to work the bases.

Leppert came back with the player. As McSherry told the authors, “[S]tanding in front of me is the oldest Pirate I have ever seen. . . His name was Lorenzo Lanier, and he turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. But a rotten umpire.”

From his view behind Pirates catcher Chris Cannizzaro, McSherry recounted his own difficulties calling Jim Bunning’s pitches as well as Lanier’s misadventures during his brief turn as an arbiter. I thought I knew my Pirates history pretty well, but I’d never heard of Lorenzo Lanier. I had to know everything about him, right away. Who was this “oldest Pirate” and why didn’t I know him?

Who is Lorenzo Lanier?

The player turned umpire played under the name Rimp Lanier. McSherry’s memory must have been playing tricks on him. The only year Bunning and Cannizzaro spent spring training together as Pirates was 1968. In 1968, Lanier was only 19 years old and had one year of professional baseball under his belt.

Lanier was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Pirates drafted him out of John Adams High School in Cleveland in the 37th round of the 1967 June Amateur Draft. Lanier was a left-handed-hitting outfielder. Very little is known about him. Photographs are rare, but the few that exist, including his 1972 Topps baseball card, show that he liked to play with a toothpick in his mouth before U L Washington made that fashionable. Or maybe he just liked to pose for pictures that way. He doesn’t even have a photo on his Baseball Reference page.

Lanier, who appeared in six major league games, may very well be the most obscure Pirate of my lifetime. Author John Dreker wrote Moment in the Sun: One-Game Players for the Pittsburgh Pirates. At least they got to be in a book. Lanier wasn’t even qualified for inclusion.

What Lanier did well was get on base. In seven minor league seasons, he posted a slash line of .289/.428/.360 while stealing 146 bags. In five of those seasons, he registered an OBP of .418 or higher. He stood at five-foot-eight and weighed 145 pounds and hit just seven home runs, however. It appears his lack of power and subpar defense may have held him back. In today’s analytics era, his OBP would make him a coveted player indeed.

“Size means nothing”

In 1968 at Single-A Clinton, Lanier hit .313/.463/.448. That was good enough for the third-best batting average in the Midwest League. He also led the league with 99 runs, 132 hits, 12 triples, 118 walks and 39 stolen bases. In 1970, his 113 walks at Triple-A Columbus led the International League.

He had a booster in Columbus Jets manager Joe Morgan (not the future Hall of Fame second baseman). In 1971, Morgan told The Blade (a Toledo, Ohio newspaper), “A lot of people don’t think much of Rimp because of his size, but I say he’ll play in the big leagues. Size means nothing to me if a guy can do the job. Rimp is only 21 years old and he’ll get stronger – strong enough to rip drives into those outfield alleys.”

However, in that same year, the guy Lanier had to convince, Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh, told Charley Feeney of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “It’s too bad Lanier isn’t a better outfielder. He has the batting eye to become a real fine offensive player.” In hindsight, that’s curious in light of the fact that the Pirates employed Bob Robertson, a lumbering first baseman, in left field for 23 games in 1972. Feeney reported Lanier would be tried at third base.

Lanier gets the call

There’s evidence that “one of the nicest people” McSherry ever met could be feisty, too. During spring training in 1969, Lanier engaged in fisticuffs with a bigger teammate, Carl Taylor, after Taylor loaded a pitching machine with baseballs, only to find Lanier waiting in the cage. The fight broke up with the two combatants wrestling on the ground. Lanier also considered not reporting to the minor leagues after being one of the last cuts in spring training in 1971. But he did report to Triple-A Charleston, where he hit .259/.374/.313. Finally, he got the call to the big club in September.

Lanier’s six games for the eventual World Series champion Pirates included five appearances as a pinch hitter and one as a pinch runner. He went 0-for-4 and reached base once when he was hit by a pitch from the Mets’ Gary Gentry. Murtaugh did him no favors. Two of Lanier’s at-bats came against future Hall-of-Famers Fergie Jenkins and Tom Seaver. He wore number 3, then changed to number 48. The Pirates players voted him a $250 World Series share. Taylor, who was also with the club in September after being reacquired, got $500. Dr. Joseph Feingold, the team physician, got $2,500.

Aftermath

Not long after that, it was over. In 1973, Lanier hit .178/.360/.221 at Double-A Shreveport. He was still drawing walks (46 in 59 games) but in those days, batting average was the thing. He was finished at age 24.

Today, he lives in Warrensville Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. A letter I wrote to him in 1998 went unanswered. There’s a fantasy baseball league, the Society of Rimp Lanier, named after him. It’s been going strong for about 20 years.

The post Where have you gone, Rimp Lanier? first appeared on Through The Fence Baseball.

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