The acrobatic switch-hitter had played seven positions in five years with Texas when, in spring training of 1977, angry that the second base job was going to rookie Bump Wills, Randle punched out 49-year-old manager Frank Lucchesi. Randle said Lucchesi provoked him by calling him a “punk.” The manager needed plastic surgery, and the usually good-natured Randle was suspended, fined, and shipped to New York; he led the Mets in six offensive categories that year. Back in the AL as a free agent, Randle got down on all fours to try to blow a slow roller foul in the Kingdome in 1981.
