The Major League career of former University of Pittsburgh backup quarterback/punter Chris Jelic was nothing if not historically unremarkable.
But how does an outfielder who hit .091 have a permanent spot in Major League Baseball’s record books? Retrosheet shows that Jelic finished his career with one hit in 11 at bats, striking out three times, walking none, and scoring two runs.
But Jelic’s lone hit, while forgettable to all but he, his family and his friends, was in fact remarkable on some level. While dozens of guys finished their career with one hit and (according to Baseball Almanac) 44 players have homered in their final at bat, Jelic is the only Major League Baseball player whose only career hit was a home run that came in his final at bat.
So who is this guy anyways?
Jelic was a two sport star originally from Bethlehem, PA, a star QB out of Mt. Lebanon High School who went to Pittsburgh to play football and baseball.
His dreams of becoming the next Dan Marino never materialized. In two seasons with the Panthers, he completed 22-of-53 passes for 601 yards with 3 TDs and 7 INTs. Not exactly numbers that were going to earn him a place on an NFL sideline anytime soon. His punting statistics are nowhere to be found online but from what I’ve been reading, he fared better on special teams than he did under center.
Of course, he had baseball to fall back on. As a catcher, he was good enough to be selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 2nd round of the 1985 MLB Draft. Two years later, he was a throw-in in the deal that sent David Cone to the New York Mets in exchange for Ed Hearn, Rick Anderson and Mauro Gozzo. Jelic posted solid but not spectacular numbers during his first five seasons in the minor leagues, splitting time between catcher, first base, third base and the outfield.
Late in the 1990 season with the Mets locked into a second place finish behind the NL East Champion Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, once upon a time the Buccos were, in fact, really good), Jelic got the call to the big leagues. Ironically enough, of the four games he’d play in the bigs, three came in the same stadium where he grew up watching the Pirates play, Three Rivers Stadium.
As for Jelic’s home run, it came in the 8th inning on the last game of the season on October 3, 1990. Jelic stepped in to the box against Doug Bair, who ironically enough was also playing in the last game of his Major League career as well, although he had a significantly longer run in the show than did Jelic.
With nobody on and the Mets up 4-3, Jelic would enter the history books, lining a shot over the outfield wall to give the Mets a 5-3 lead they would never relinquish. He’d be replaced in the field the next inning in left field by Keith Hughes, never to return to a Major League diamond again.
“The last game, my last at bat, in my hometown — you couldn’t write a better script than that,” Jelic told reporters after the game.
The Mets would release Jelic following the 1990 season. He hooked on with the San Diego Padres, spending time in AA Wichita and AAA Las Vegas before washing out of baseball in 1993 at the age of 29, never again to return to the big leagues.
So where is Chris Jelic now?
That is a fantastic question. In an era where seemingly everyone is easily found via social networking sites with the push of a button (lord knows you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about me here), Jelic seems to have slipped below the radar.
A quick search of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter turned up nothing, and Googling his name only produces tales of his athletic glory.
He’s 47 years old now according to his Retrosheet page, likely living out the rest of his life with a story to tell unlike any other, about hitting his only Major League home run in his hometown in the final at bat of his career.
