For more great baseball stories like this one, 'like' us on Facebook - Facebook.com/Greatest21Days

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Eric Albright worked to play every day over four pro seasons

Eric Albright 1990 Lakeland Tigers card

Into his second season as a pro in 1990, Eric Albright found himself catching every other day at high-A Lakeland, The Los Angeles Times wrote.

The catcher felt it impacted his game, The Times wrote.

"At this level, (the Tigers) are not worried about how well I hit," Albright told The Times. "They want to see how well I can do defensively. Right now, my arm hasn’t been very strong because of the lack of playing time. It's hard to keep it going, not playing every day."

Albright did keep it going, in two more seasons beyond that. In his four total professional campaigns, he never made it higher than Lakeland.

Albright's career began in 1989, taken by the Tigers in the seventh round of the draft out of Texas A and M University. He played his high school ball at Rolling Hills High in California.

At Texas A and M, Albright helped the Aggies to a big May 1989 win a conference tournament rematch over Houston with three hits, one a home run, and four RBIs, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote

"We knew how they could play from the regular season when they beat us," Albright told The Star-Telegram. "We had to show them who was the boss."

Albright started with the Tigers at short-season Niagara Falls. He hit .282 over 66 games there. 

He then moved to high-A Lakeland for 1990. He got into 70 games that year with a .202 average. He returned to Lakeland for 1991 and 1992. He saw 64 games there in 1991, hitting .211, then .157 over 25 games in 1992 to end his career.

Albright has since returned to his native California and entered education and youth coaching, first in Texas, then in California. He also soon became an athletic director. In 2014, he moved on from 12 years as Righetti High athletic director to a similar post at Westminster High School in Westminster, Ca., The Santa Maria Times wrote.

"You always try to come in as an AD and try to leave it better than you found it or at least as good as you found it and I think we've done that," Albright told The Santa Maria Times of his time at Righetti.

Eric Albright 1990 Lakeland Tigers card


1990 Minor League Tally 
Players/Coaches Featured:3,719
Made the Majors:1,261-33.9%
Never Made Majors:2,458-66.1%-X
5+ Seasons in the Majors:522
10+ Seasons in the Minors:309

No comments:

Post a Comment