Oscar Gamble

Oscar Charles Gamble (December 20, 1949 – January 31, 2018) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball for 17 seasons, from 1969 to 1985, for seven different teams: the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees on two separate occasions, as well as the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, San Diego Padres, and Texas Rangers. His quote about the Yankees' disorganization and circus-like atmosphere, "They don't think it be like it is, but it do", has also been called one of baseball's "immortal lines" by sportswriter Dan Epstein. 2Biography Gamble was born in Ramer, Alabama to Sam Gamble, a sharecropper and Mamie Scott, a homemaker. He was discovered playing baseball in a semi-professional league by legendary Negro league baseball player Buck O'Neil, who was working as a scout for the Chicago Cubs at the time. O'Neil convinced the Cubs to draft Gamble, which they did in the sixteenth round.Gamble played with the Caldwell Cubs of the Pioneer League in 1968 and the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League in 1969, from where he received his call-up to the Chicago Cubs late in the 1969 season.Nicknamed the Big O by Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto, Gamble was a great baseball player given the amount of time he was allowed to play in the game. Despite the limited playing time, he still hit 200 career home runs in just over 4,500 major league at bats. Oscar's career peaked in 1977 with the White Sox, when he hit 31 home runs and tallied 83 RBI. That year, Gamble hit a home run per 13.2 at-bats, the best ratio in the league. After an ill-fated, injury-plagued year in San Diego, he returned to the American League in 1979 to hit a career-best .358 batting average, slamming 19 home runs with the Yankees and Rangers. (He did not have enough plate appearances to qualify for the American League batting title.)Unlike some players who failed to cope with the New York media, Oscar thrived on it, and was always a favorite with sportswriter