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With the first pick in the 1975 First-Year Player Draft, the California Angels chose catcher Danny Goodwin out of Southern University.
After picking number one overall in 1974, the San Diego Padres picked left-handed pitcher Mike Lentz second overall in 1975 out of Juanita High School in Kirkland, Washington.
This is the second time up to and including 1975 that the Padres picked second overall in the draft.
This is the first time in franchise history that the Angels were tapped to pick number one overall in the amateur draft.
Goodwin played just 252 Major League games, recording a .236 batting average and slugging only 13 home runs in 636 at-bats.
He appeared in the Majors for the Angels, the Minnesota Twins and the Oakland Athletics.
If you recognize Goodwin’s name, it is because he was previously drafted number one overall by the Chicago White Sox in the 1971 draft.
Lentz never played a single Major League game during his career. In fact, the 2-5 picks in the first round of the 1975 draft never made it to the show. This seems to have been a pattern in the early years of the draft, as many teams failed at their selections.
Lentz only lasted four seasons in the minors, pitching to an overall record of 22-25 with an ERA of 5.05 in 71 games, of them in the Padres organization.
The first strong selection in the 1975 draft came via the Cleveland Indians when the Tribe took catcher Rick Cerone with the seventh overall pick out of Seton Hall University.
Cerone played in more than 1,300 games during his big league career, collecting 998 hits and 59 home runs. The downside to this pick for the Indians is the fact that he played in just 14 games for Cleveland.
The upside was that he was part of a package sent to the Toronto Blue Jays for slugger Rico Carty in 1976.
Cerone played for eight different franchises during his 18 seasons, including both Canadian teams.
There were 24 picks in the first round of the 1975 draft. Out of those 24 picks, 12 of the players never appeared in a single Major League game.
Only three of the picks appeared in 500 or more career games at the Major League level and 16 of the 24 picks came from the high school ranks.
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Other notable first round picks from the 1975 draft include:
- Clint Hurdle: drafted 9th overall by the Kansas City Royals.
- Dale Berra: drafted 20th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hurdle is the former Colorado Rockies and current Pittsburgh Pirates manager. Berra is the son of hall of famer Yogi Berra.
The next installment of our draft history series will discuss the 1976 draft. The Houston Astros selected first overall and took Floyd Bannister. Pat Underwood went second overall to the Detroit Tigers.
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Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
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