Ex-Big Leaguer Jim Panther Savors His Past
By Lew Freedman
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.–It was a quiet afternoon in the Baseball Hall of Fame research library when a straight-backed man with short hair going white showed up at the front desk with family and friends and asked to see the file kept on Jim Panther.
The Hall of Fame library has a file on every single player who has ever competed in a Major League game –the total is nearing 17,000–and once in a while someone appears who would like to take a peek at his own file. This indeed was Jim Panther, former big-league hurler. Panther does not own the fattest folder in the building. Not by a long shot. Think Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth. But his file had a handful of clippings that reminded him of the olden days.
Now 68, Panther is long removed from throwing a baseball. He spent three years in the majors. In 1971 he played for the Oakland A’s. In 1972 he played for the Texas Rangers. And in 1973 he played for the Atlanta Braves. His lifetime record is 7-13 with an earned run average of 5.26. But he did make it to The Show and he did have some highlights worth highlighting–like gaining a decision over Nolan Ryan.
Panther appeared in four games for the A’s, who were in their glory during that time period, perennial World Series contenders. He was traded to the Texas Rangers and was a member of the first Rangers team after the club moved from Washington, D.C. The manager was Ted Williams and Panther not only liked the great slugger, and got on well with Williams, he also was amazed to see Williams perform an occasionally impressive batting feat in retirement.
Panther watched Williams smoke a ball over the fence when the pitcher didn’t even think the old man had even practiced swinging. Panther finished 5-9 with a 4.13 ERA during his lone season with Texas. But he speaks highly of that organization and said whenever there are reunions of the first Rangers club he is included.
Although Panther’s Major League career was not a long one, he spent many more years in the sport, first as an assistant high school baseball coach, and then between 1983 and 2002 as a head high school coach in Libertyville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Panther’s record was 528-169.
These type of cameos happen with some regularity at the Hall library, but not always with happy results. The researchers sometimes find themselves in a difficult position. A son or grandson who has spent a lifetime believing in grandpa’s achievements shows up and asks to see the file, only to learn there is no file to be found. What this means is that their relation has been fibbing about his big-league background. Maybe he was a minor leaguer and exaggerated. Maybe he just made up an entire segment of his life history.
At least four times during my journalism career I was either told to my face or second-hand through someone who knew someone about a former player’s Major League background. Yet when I checked it out the names were not in the Baseball Encyclopedia. If your name isn’t in the Baseball Encyclopedia or your name isn’t on a file in the Hall of Fame you didn’t play in the majors.
As it so happened, I recalled Jim Panther’s name. I would have bet that I had him in baseball cards, but his wife said that he never appeared on a card because of weird timing in spring training. Once he left camp to be with her when she was giving birth and missed the Topps card company photographer. Another time he was traded.
Maybe there is no Jim Panther card, but there is a Jim Panther file at the Hall of Fame. And there is doubt the baseball gabfest that ensued when he showed up was a much more pleasant visit than seeing a long face on an expectant 10-year-old upon learning there was nothing to read about gramps after all.