Eddie Bane

[Greglw3]

Eddie Bane made his major league debut for the Twins on July 4, 1973 after a spectacular career at Arizona State, recording a 40-4 record for the Sun Devils.with a 1.64 ERA and a perfect game from 1971-73.

In an article by Steve Smith on a SABR oriented site, he tells of how Calvin Griffith, the owner and GM of the Twins observed the massive attendance achieved by the Texas Rangers when they brought David Clyde directly from the draft to the major leagues after his high school career and drew over 35,000 fans for the game.

Calvin then announced that Eddie Bane, the Twins prized draft pick would also go straight to the major leagues with no minor league experience experience. Bane debuted at age 21.

Bane went 0-5 in 23 games in 1973  [Wikipedia]. He started 6 games and relieved in the other 17. He sported a 4.92 ERA in his rookie 1973 season, [Minor and MLB stats per Baseball Reference]

He pitched far fewer innings in 1975 for the Twins at 28.1 but turned in a 2.86 ERA. He spent most of the 1974 and 1975 seasons in Tacoma pitching creditably with a 25-19 record and an ERA a bit over 4.

In 1976 he threw for a 3.69 ERA for AAA Tacoma and then a not so good 5.11 ERA for the Twins.

His final year with the Twins was 1977 at AAA, ironically the Twins monster offensive season.

He spent the 1978 season in AAA for the White Sox, pitching to a pretty good 3.85 ERA in 14 starts and 26 relief appearances.

Bane did not play at all in 1979 and finished his career with minor league affiliates of the Cubs and Royals.

Eddie Bane who dominated college ball on two runner up teams in the CWS, never pitched below AAA in professional ball. He was elected to the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. [Wikipedia], Bane was the 11th pick in the 1973 draft, the same draft where David Clyde was picked #1.

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