The O.G. O.G.

 

Now that the Yankees have acquired Oscar Gonzalez, it's time to look back at the O.G. O.G., Oscar Gamble—perhaps the most consistently inconsistent ballplayer in major-league history.

Signed originally by the Cubs, traded to Philly for Johnny Allison, and then on to the Indians, Oscar—and has there ever been a better ballplayer name?—was dealt to the Yanks for the aged pitching stalwart, Pat Dobson, after the 1975 season.

He was also, of course, the wearer of the most outrageous 'fro of the 1970s—something that violated the infamous Steinbrenner hair policy, to say the least. The Yanks paid Gamble $5,000 to make up for an ad he'd been hired to do for Afro Sheen, and hired a barber to cut his hair.

Oscar joked that, after the haircut, he went down two helmet sizes. He also claimed that it saved him an hour-and-a-half a day in hair care.

Whatever the case, the haircut came too late for the baseball card companies, which ran an old picture of Gamble with his Yankees cap pasted in. George must've had a conniption.

Oscar was very much Billy Martin's type of ballplayer, a lefty who rarely hit against lefties, allowing Billy to alternate him in the corner outfield slots with the likes of Lou Piniella, Roy White, and Carlos May...and make himself look all the more like a genius. And while many sportswriters assumed that Gamble was a "militant" because of the 'fro, in fact he was renowned as an easy-going guy who kept the clubhouse loose.

"He was a great guy to have on your club," Martin claimed.

Gamble hit 17 home runs and batted .232 in that halcyon year of 1976—numbers that would've had people clamoring for his immediate enshrinement in Cooperstown today. Instead, the Yanks signed Reggie Jackson, and traded Gamble on the eve of the 1977 season to the White Sox, along with minor-league pitchers Lamarr Hoyt and Bob Polinsky.

In Chicago, Gamble had his best season to date, hitting 31 homers and batting .297. In the giddy, early days of free agency, when everyone was a Brian Cashman, the Padres signed him for the then mega-numbers of $2.85 million over six years. 

Not a good move. Oscar hit .275 in San Diego, but with just seven home runs, his power vanished in the Padres' big park. At the end of the season, he was traded to Texas.

"I signed Oscar Gamble on the advice of my attorney," Padres owner Ray Kroc told the press. "I no longer have Oscar Gamble and I no longer have my attorney."

But in Arlington in 1979, Gamble got off to a blistering start, hitting. 335. The Yanks re-acquired him, for a package headed by Mickey Rivers and including...Bob Polinsky, making Oscar the only man ever to be traded both with and for Bob Polinsky.

Back in New York, which he loved, Gamble hit .389 in 36 games through the rest of 1979, finishing the season at .358, with 19 homers. Oscar loved New York, refusing a later trade back to Texas (for Al Oliver, which cost us), and continuing his career in his usual, roller-coaster fashion, platooning in the outfield and at DH, and hitting .278, .238, .272, .261, .184. 

He remained a cheery presence, known mostly for quotes like the one about how things were in the Yankees' clubhouse:

"They don't think it be like it is, but it do."

Near the end, the Yanks shipped him back to Chicago, where he hit poorly and retired at 35.  Later in life, he started shaving his head, before dying of a rare cancer in 2019, aged just 68.

RIP, O.G., O.G.  May the new O.G. give us half the entertainment value!