I was born on May 26, 1947 and attended Pasadena City College in California. I joined the Atlanta Braves in 1969 and became their regular 3rd baseman. In 1973, I pounded 41 home runs in the "Launching Pad" as Fulton County Stadium was often called. I scored 114 runs along with 104 RBI's. By 1974, I was still hitting a fair amount of homers but my batting average dropped to the .240's so I was traded to the S.F. Giants. My power numbers declined. Who wanted to play in cold and windy Candlestick Park anyway. In my 8 years with the Giants, I managed only once to hit over 20 homers so I decided to become a free agent and signed with the Detroit Tigers for big bucks, around 1 1/2 million dollars. My Atlanta style power returned, this was nice. I was moved to 1st base and did a lot of DH-ing and in 1985, at age 38, I led the league with 40 HR's, becoming the oldest player to win a home run title. At age 40, I slugged 34 HR's but was still hitting around .240. I was never known for my fielding and in 1988, I was released and no one picked up my option so I retired. My lifetime batting ave was only .248 but I hit 414 HR's and only Dave Kingman had hit more HR's than I and had not been elected to the Hall of Fame.
