Former pitcher Rick Camp died today:
Among his more memorable games was the marathon July 4, 1985 game against the Mets in which he hit a game-tying home run in the 18th inning of the rain-delayed game, which didn’t end until around 4 o’clock the next morning.
After being waived by the Braves in 1986, Camp returned to Trion to farm before becoming a lobbyist at the state Capitol in the early 1990s.
In September, 2005, the former pitcher was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his part in a scheme to defraud an Augusta mental health facility.
He certainly led a diverse life. My thought go out to his family and friends.
Camp was a pitch to contact guy, walking 3/2 per nine innings and striking out just 3.9 per nine innings. He did give up a good number of hits, but not too many home runs. That was useful pitching in the old ball park in Atlanta.
I watched a whole lot of rerun Braves games after coming home from gigs in the early days of WTBS “superstation”. My fave players were Phil Niekro and Rick Mahler, I also thought the ground ball inducing Camp was an under-rated hurler on that usually dismal squad. Thanks for all the late night memories Rick, now you can come in to relieve Mahler in the eternal baseball game….