Sunday, June 7, 2009

1976 Topps #103 - Biff Pocoroba




  • I used to make fun of his name until I found out that my father's nickname as a kid was Biff. Whoops.
  • Was this picture taken at a school?
  • I also used to think the feathers on the sleeves were fish.
  • Biff Pocoroba played for the Atlanta Braves from 1975-1984. He made one All-Star team (1978), but a rotator cuff injury slowed him down and he didn't do a whole lot after that.
  • Biff played in the Braves organization from 1971-1974. He earned a promotion in 1975 after batting .311 for Savannah as a 20-year-0ld. Biff threw out 11 straight would-be base stealers during spring training. Unfortunately, he would only throw out 12 runners (out of 72 attempts) during the 1975 season. Pocoroba batted .255 in 188 at bats during the season with one home run.
  • He had a similar year in 1976, batting .241 with no homers in 174 at bats. Biff's breakout season was in 1977 when be batted .290 with eight homers in 321 at bats.
  • He made his only all-star appearence in 1978--he caught the 9th inning for the NL. He batted .242 with six home runs in 289 at bats that year.
  • Pocoroba tore his rotator cuff in 1979 and was never the same player. He only had 38 at bats in 1979 and 83 at bats in 1980. The Braves tried him at 3B in 1981 and 1982. In 1981 Biff batted only .180 in 122 at bats. He rebounded to .275 in 120 at bats in 1982, but he was only a part-time player. Biff batted .267 in 120 at bats in 1983. He was released in April 1984 after making four pinch hitting appearances.
  • Biff is now in the restaurant supply business (Sausage World) in the Atlanta area.

2 comments:

  1. As you can imagine, Harry Kalas just loved saying this guy's name!

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  2. Quick note to say I profiled your blog today and highlighted this entry because "Biff" is an awesome sports name.

    http://number5typecollection.blogspot.com/2009/06/type-site-project-baseball-1976.html

    Nice job writing, keep it up!

    ReplyDelete