You Random Mid 80's to Early 90's Baseball Player of the Day is: Otis Nixon!

Your Random Late 80's to Early 90's Baseball Player of the Day is Otis Nixon.

Otis Junior Nixon, Junior, contrary to popular legend, was not born in 1913. Nor was he born in 1878. No matter what your third grade teacher will try and tell you, Otis Junior Nixon, Junior was not alive during the Great Depression and he most certainly did not share cocktails with Teddy Roosevelt. Shockingly, Otis Junior Nixon, Junior was born in 1959. Unfortunately, Otis Junior Nixon, Junior, whose parents were fans of redundancy, suffered from the same disease that Benjamin Button suffered from.

Otis Nixon played in the Major Leagues for 16 seasons, and it wasn't because he was a super talented baseball player. Otis could do one thing exceptionally well... running. Otis could run like wind. The other things Otis did with medicority was slap singles and bunt. Otis could get on base a little bit. And when Otis could get on base, Otis could steal bases with the best of them. At the time of this post, Otis is 16th all-time on the stolen base list. Shockingly, with all his success stealing bases, Otis never once led the league in stolen bases, finishing second twice. (Damn you Marquis Grissom and Kenny Lofton!) In 1709 games over 16 seasons, Otis was only able to hit eleven home runs, which is still 9 more than Rafael Belliard hit in 1154 games, so he has that.

Though many of us remember the free wheeling Otis scampering for second with breakneck speed, there was a darker more troubled side of Otis. A troubled side that cost him all of the 1991 World Series. That trouble was the nose candy. In 1987 Otis was arrested by the authorities while playing for the Cleveland Indians.

My man Otis was able to rise from the pits of despair by finding the power of the divine. Following his playing career, Otis runs On-Track Ministries and is taking classes to obtain his Master's Degree in Divinity in 2009 with a Doctorate Degree to follow in 2011.

Otis also had a brother who briefly played in the Major League, Donnell Nixon, who's hair style would make a young Eriq LaSalle swoon.

In addition to baseball, Otis also played on the United States Men's Cricket Team... warrants mentioning. How Otis got involved in Cricket, well... the nose candy addiction may have played a role in it. Or maybe Otis simply loved playing a game beloved by Sri Lankans.

So here's to you Otis, our Mid 80's to Early 90's Random Baseball Player of the Day, keep running as far as your legs will take you, and we'll try to keep up.