Chuck Dobson

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Chuck Dobson

|image=Chuck Dobson Oakland Athletics.jpg

|position=Pitcher

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1944|01|10}}

|birth_place=Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

|death_date={{Death date and age|2021|11|30|1944|01|10}}

|death_place=Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=April 19

|debutyear=1966

|debutteam=Kansas City Athletics

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=May 26

|finalyear=1975

|finalteam=California Angels

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Win–loss record

|stat1value=74–69

|stat3label=Strikeouts

|stat3value=758

|stat2label=Earned run average

|stat2value=3.78

|teams=

Kansas City / Oakland Athletics ({{mlby|1966}}–{{mlby|1971}}, {{mlby|1973}})
California Angels ({{mlby|1974}}–{{mlby|1975}})

}}

Charles Thomas Dobson (January 10, 1944 – November 30, 2021) was an American professional baseball player who played nine seasons for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics and the California Angels of Major League Baseball.

Life and career

Dobson played college baseball for the University of Kansas.{{cite magazine |title=NCAA News |date=September–October 1964 |volume=1 |number=4 |page=4 |url=http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/NCAANewsArchive/1964/19640901.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324221551/http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/1964/19640901.pdf |archive-date=March 24, 2012 |via=Wayback Machine}} He represented the United States in baseball at the 1964 Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport, one of seven pitchers on the team.{{Cite web|url=http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv1n1/JOHv1n1e.pdf|title=Baseball at the Olympics|last=Pete|first=Cava|date=1991|access-date=May 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809200123/http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv1n1/JOHv1n1e.pdf|archive-date=August 9, 2017|url-status=dead}}

He made his Major League debut for the Kansas City Athletics on April 19, 1966. This marked the first time that a starting pitcher made "his big league debut in his team's home opener in the state in which he was born".{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=370407127|title=Freeland wins debut as Rockies top Dodgers 2-1|agency=Associated Press|work=ESPN|date=8 April 2017|access-date=8 April 2017}} This feat was repeated 51 years later by Kyle Freeland of the Colorado Rockies. In 1970, Dobson earned a career-high 16 wins and threw five shutouts, tying with Jim Palmer and Gaylord Perry for the major league lead. Despite a 15–5 record in 1971, Dobson experienced significant pain in his pitching elbow due to growing calcium deposits. Surgery that off-season kept him out of the majors throughout 1972. Although he returned to the majors for brief stints in 1973 and 1974, his career was effectively ended by the elbow injury.

Dobson died on November 30, 2021, at the age of 77.[https://fox4kc.com/sports/jayhawks/former-kansas-city-as-pitcher-chuck-dobson-dies-at-77/ Former Kansas City A's player Chuck Dobson dies]