Billy Sample
| Billy Sample | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Outfielder | |||
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Born: April 2, 1955 Roanoke, Virginia |
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| MLB debut | |||
| September 2, 1978, for the Texas Rangers | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| October 5, 1986, for the Atlanta Braves | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .272 | ||
| Home runs | 46 | ||
| Runs batted in | 230 | ||
| Teams | |||
William Amos Sample (born April 2, 1955), is a former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves in part of nine seasons spanning 1978–1986.
A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Sample grew up in Salem, Virginia and graduated from Salem's Andrew Lewis High School in 1973. While at school, Sample was a three-sport standout in football, basketball, and baseball. As a junior wide receiver on the football team, Sample scored the winning touchdown in a 1971 state AAA quarterfinal game. A victory later, Andrew Lewis advanced to the state championship, where Sample's team lost to T. C. Williams High School - a game dramatized with historical liberties in the motion picture Remember The Titans. After that, Sample attended Madison College (now James Madison University) for three years, before being drafted by the Rangers in 1976.
Sample singled on his first major league pitch in 1978, made the Topps All Rookie Team in 1979, had his longest hitting streak (19 games) in 1981, was fifth in the American League in steals (44 of 52) in 1983, sixth in power-speed numbers and was the 10th toughest to strike out in the league, with only teammate Buddy Bell having hit more home runs of the preceding nine. Sample finished with a career .272 average.
Primarily a broadcaster/writer after his playing days, Sample has broadcast for the Braves, Seattle Mariners, and California Angels, as well as contributing to NPR, CBS Radio, ESPN, and MLB.com. As a writer, Sample has been published in Sports Illustrated and The New York Times, and was one of the columnists at the inception of USA Today's Baseball Weekly (now Sports Weekly). Sample was also the baseball consultant for Showtime's production Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way, which chronicled the Yankees' 1996 season.
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