Bruce Bochte
Bruce Anton Bochte (born November 12, 1950) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder who played in Major League Baseball from 1974–1982 and 1984–1986. He played his entire career in the American League for the California Angels, Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics. Bochte played collegiate ball for the Santa Clara Broncos baseball team until he was drafted in the second round (34th overall) of the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft.
He was called up to the Angels after hitting .355 in 92 games for the Salt Lake City Angels of the Pacific Coast League, and made his major league debut on July 19, 1974. He spent the next four seasons with the Angels, hitting .272 during that span. On May 11, 1977, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians along with Sid Monge and cash for Dave LaRoche and Dave Schuler. After finishing 1977 with Cleveland, he became a free agent and signed with the Seattle Mariners, who he played with for the next five seasons.
Bochte was selected for the American League All-Star team in 1979 when he hit .316 with 100 RBIs and set career highs in virtually every major offensive category. He sat out the entire 1983 season for reasons he never made clear, but returned to play with the Oakland Athletics from 1984–1986.
In a 12-year, 1538 game major league career, Bochte compiled a .282 batting average (1478-for-5233) with 643 runs, 250 doubles, 21 triples, 100 home runs, 658 RBI, 653 walks, 662 strikeouts, .360 on-base percentage and .396 slugging percentage. Defensively, he recorded a career .991 fielding percentage playing at first base and all three outfield positions. For his college career, he was inducted into the Santa Clara University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.
As of 2001, Bochte was an avowed agnostic, and was studying cosmology and working on environmental conservation. He stated that he has no contact with anyone from his playing days except for Dusty Baker. Bochte married twice, and has two daughters from his first marriage.
References
- 1975 Baseball Register published by The Sporting News
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or:ESPN, or:Baseball Reference, or:Fangraphs, or:Baseball Reference (Minors), or:Retrosheet
- College Basketball Stats