Rickey Keeton

Rickey Keeton pitched for the Brewers in 1980-81.

Rickey Keeton was born March 18, 1957, in Cincinnati. He pitched for Western Hills High, where in 1975, his senior year, he went 10-0 and was named to the Cincinnati Post Metropolitan Cincinnati AAA All-Star second team. He was drafted by the Expos in June, but didn’t sign, choosing to go to college. He signed a letter of intent with Gulf Coast Junior College in Florida, but changed his mind and went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Rickey made a quick impression in his freshman year. Effingham Daily News, March 25, 1976:

SIU-C In Key Baseball Games

CARBONDALE, Ill.—Sporting a fancy .320 team batting average, Southern Illinois travels to Oklahoma this weekend for what could be an early-season preview of the Midwest Regional playoffs.

The Salukis compiled a 4-3-1 record on their spring trip to Miami, Fla., last week, but coach Itchy Jones had much praise for this team…

“We are definitely ready to play,” Jones said. “All our pitchers showed fine stuff for periods of time, but, for the most part, they weren’t ready to go more than five innings at a time.”

An exception to that five-inning stretch is freshman righthander Rickey Keeton from Cincinnati, Ohio. Keeton compiled a 2-0 record in Florida including a complete-game victory over Miami, 9-2, in the first competition of his college career.

“Rickey did an excellent job,” Jones said. “He looked in mid-season form and it wasn’t a fluke because he did a fine job every time we called on him whether as a starter or in relief. I can’t remember when we have had someone throw as well as Rickey did on the spring trip.”

Rickey had an 8-0 record until losing 3-0 to Bob Welch of Eastern Michigan in an elimination game in the NCAA Mideast Regional in May.

In 1977 SIU advanced to a regional again, this time the Midwest, which they won as Rickey was named to the all-tournament team. The Salukis advanced to the College World Series and were eliminated in the semifinals; Rickey finished with an 8-2 record. Then he went to Alaska, where he pitched for the Kenai Peninsula Oilers in the Alaska Baseball League, a summer collegiate league, where he went 5-2 with a 2.45 ERA and pitched in the all-star game. The Oilers then traveled to Wichita and won the National Baseball Congress amateur tournament.

In Rickey’s junior year, 1978, he pitched a no-hitter in the regular season and a three-hitter in the Midwest Regionals, and was named to the Missouri Valley Conference all-conference team for the second time. In June he was drafted in the third round by the Brewers, and this time he signed a contract.

The Brewers sent Rickey to the Holyoke Millers of the Class AA Eastern League, skipping over two levels. He debuted on June 18 and on the 28^th got his first victory. From the Jersey Journal, June 29:

Indians fall to cellar

By George Korologos

“I hope it’s the beginning of a good thing,” said a smiling Rick Keeton last night after posting his first professional pitching victory.

The 21-year-old righty scattered four hits over nine innings to pave the way for the Holyoke Millers’ 3-0 triumph over the Jersey Indians at Roosevelt Stadium. The win was the Millers’ second in six outings, while the loss dropped the 1-4 Tribe into the Eastern League cellar.

“I was changing the pitches I threw,” explained Keeton, the Milwaukee Brewers’ third pick in the draft two weeks ago. “I throw a lot of different stuff. The two strikeouts were on changeups and the fast ball was working well.”

Other than that game he struggled early on, and had a 1-4 record until July 19, as reported in the following day’s Springfield (MA) Daily News:

Keeton Finally ‘Above Ground’

By Don Conkey

HOLYOKE—If Rick Keeton is ever going to make it in professional baseball, he’ll have to learn how to pack a suitcase.

Oh, when the high Milwaukee Brewer draft choice arrived here a few weeks ago from the Southern Illinois campus, he had the customary toothbrush and change of socks. But he completely forget his ground balls.

“That is the type of pitcher I’ve always been,” Keeton pinpointed the mysterious affliction Reading’s bats were hit with Wednesday night—a disease that forced balls leaving them to hurl themselves into the ground. Through seven innings of his 5-3 victory for the Holyoke Millers, 16 of Reading’s 21 outs were either ground balls or strikeouts. Miller outfielders may sue for prevention of their right to earn a living.

“I was warming up in the bullpen Sunday,” Keeton, his first ever pro season now off to a 2-4 start, was exhaling confidence, “and I found out what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t pushing off correctly to the plate: putting my body ahead of my arm. I couldn’t wait to get out there again and try it.”

Rickey pitched in 15 games for Holyoke, all starts, and had a 4-8 record and 4.88 ERA in 96 innings. On December 22 he filled out a questionnaire, in which he stated that his nickname was Buster, he was 6-2 190, he was unmarried, and his hobbies were music, football and basketball.

In 1979 Rickey was invited to spring training with the Brewers. Milwaukee Journal, March 6:

Batting Practice a Swinging Part of Spring Training

By Mike Gonring

Sun City, Ariz.—You’ve never seen Rickey (Buster) Keeton, 22, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and neither had Sixto Lezcano, until he stepped into the batting cage here the other day.

“That guy out there is really wild,” said catcher Charlie Moore of Keeton, a nonroster pitcher who was getting ready to pitch batting practice. “He’s all over the place.”

That was the last thing Lezcano wanted to hear, and he took a quick step back, eyes wide, before Moore could tell him he was kidding…

(This was the first newspaper mention of him as “Buster” that I found.)

On March 16 the Journal ran a report on the Brewers’ five non-roster pitchers, saying this about Rickey: “Keeton is an excellent fielder and a gutty pitcher, with a good sinker and slider.”

Rickey spent the season with the Vancouver Canadians of the Pacific Coast League, where he was the opening night starter. Daily Sitka Sentinel, June 28:

Error Gives Game To Tucson In PCL

By The Associated Press

If Vancouver pitcher Buster Keeton had thrown a no-hitter instead of a one-hitter, he’d still have lost the game.

Keeton lost his bid for a no-hitter in a Pacific Coast League game against Tucson when Gary Gray hit a double in the second inning, but it was a passed ball and an error on a double steal in the third inning that resulted in a 1-0 victory for the Toros…

With one out in the third inning, Keith Chauncey struck out but made it to first with one out in the third on a passed ball by Vancouver catcher Ned Yost. Chauncey moved to second on an infield out, Mike Hart drew a walk and the two tried a double steal, with Chauncey scoring as Yost’s throw was bobbled by third baseman Juan Lopez.

Yost got redemption a few weeks later. Sporting News, August 11:

Buster Keeton’s act was anything but funny, at least for Portland July 16. The lanky righthander limited the Beavers to five hits to catapult Vancouver to a 3-1 victory. The 22-year-old Keeton was helped by the fact four Portland base-runners were thrown out, three by catcher Ned Yost. Keeton also spun a seven-hitter to defeat Albuquerque, 7-1, July 25.

Sporting News, September 1:

Vancouver is home, sweet home for Canadian pitcher Buster Keeton. Keeton rang up his sixth consecutive complete-game victory there August 11 when he stopped Hawaii, 8-0, Keeton, who has struggled on the road, had allowed just 21 earned runs in 102 innings of work at Bailey Stadium. During his six-game streak, Keeton had an 0.29 earned-run average, having allowed just two untainted tallies.

Rickey went 15-14 with a 3.77 ERA in 203 innings in 32 starts, 12 of them complete games. In 1980 he was again invited to major league spring training as a non-roster player. He was sent to Vancouver again, where he again started the opening game. Sporting News, May 17:

Vancouver’s Rickey (Buster) Keeton won his first two starts of the season. He toiled eight innings in his debut as the Canadians spoiled Phoenix’ opener, 7-4, then came back four nights later with a complete game 7-2 decision over the same club.

On May 25 Rickey was called up and on the 27^th he made his major league debut. Milwaukee Sentinel, May 28:

Keeton’ first victory keeps Brewers rolling

By George Sauerberg

They call him Buster Keeton, like the old-time comedian. But he didn’t leave the Seattle Mariners laughing Tuesday night.

Rickey Keeton made his major-league debut, holding the Mariners to three hits in seven innings as the Milwaukee Brewers got their fifth straight victory, a 4-1 decision at County Stadium.

“I used to clown around a lot,” said the 23-year-old right-hander who said he picked up the nickname from his best friend after his senior year in high school in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Used to, huh? So you’re more serious now? “A lot more,” Keeton asserted after getting his first victory.

“He’s a bear-down pitcher,” said Brewer acting manager Buck Rodgers whose club jumped three games over the .500 mark.

Bear down is what Keeton did after giving up a run on two hits in a shaky first inning.

Julio Cruz had led off by reaching second with a hit and an error when second baseman Paul Molitor stopped his grounder up the middle but threw wildly to first. Cruz was sacrificed to third and Bruce Bochte’s two-out single drove him in.

“In the first inning, when I saw Cruz on base, my knee was shaking,” Keeton admitted. “I didn’t want him to score. But I threw a bad pitch (to Bochte).”

General Manager Harry Dalton said Keeton, called up from the Brewers’ Triple-A Vancouver farm club Sunday, has “the intangibles. He’s extremely competitive. He’s got a strong stomach and a good makeup. He could have folded after that first inning.”

But Keeton wasn’t about to give up.

“At the end of the national anthem, when they got to ‘the home of the brave,' I looked at the scoreboard, and it said ‘brave.’

“I said just be brave tonight.

“All I had on my mind out there was trying to throw my game,” he continued. “I wanted to keep my composure, keep calm, keep the ball down and make them hit it on the ground.”

Keeton said that after the first inning, “the guys in the dugout said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You hold them there and we’ll score some runs,’ and they did.”

In the Brewer first, Robin Yount hit a run-scoring single and Sixto Lezcano smashed a two-run double. Keeton wasn’t used to that kind of productivity from the Vancouver Canadians.

But he added that it probably made him a better pitcher because “you’ve got to pitch then.”

Keeton had come to the Brewer spring training camp as a non-roster player after going 15-14 at Vancouver last season, his second following his collegiate career at Southern Illinois University.

“He was flat in spring training,” Dalton said. “He had pitched a lot of innings (203) last year, and his arm was dead.”

But Keeton told the Brewers his arm would be all right in a couple of weeks, and he was right. He had a 6-1 record with a 1.97 earned run average when the Brewers called him up.

He worked on two things this season, he said—changing speeds on his pitches and concentrating more between pitches.

The Mariners fouled off quite a few pitches, and Brewer catcher Buck Martinez had an explanation.

“He (Keeton) kept them off balance all night,” said Martinez. “He was pushing them back in the hitting zone. They couldn’t get their bat head out in front.

“He utilizes all four of his pitches. He throws a sinker basically, and he has a lot of movement on his ball.”

Rodgers added that Keeton “goes up and in enough to keep them honest.”

Keeton got a brief rundown on the Seattle hitters in the clubhouse before the game, but Rodgers didn’t want him to dwell on that.

“I told him, ‘I want you to pitch just the way you did in Vancouver. I don’t want you to change anything as far as your repertoire of stuff goes,’” Rodgers related.

“I wanted him to use the stuff that got him here,” the Brewer skipper added. “He’s not the type pitcher who pitches the corners a lot. He’s not a strikeout pitcher.

“Keeton’s beating them down at the bottom of the strike zone.”

Keeton said his mental game received a boost this spring from Brewer pitching coach Cal McLish.

“I used to get going too quick and lose concentration,” the rookie explained, “At Vancouver (this year), on each pitch I would take my time. I would concentrate on every pitch.”

Which is something hitters might have trouble doing because of his motion, which is a little herky-jerky.

“He’s got a unique pitching motion,” Martinez said. “He hides the ball a long time, and he throws all of his pitches off the same motion, which is a plus.”

Keeton’s parents came from Cincinnati Tuesday—it was the first time they had seen him pitch as a professional. His fiancée, Gina Roberts of Van Nuys, Calif., also was in the crowd of 11,904 spectators.

Rodgers took Keeton out because “he gave us a super seven innings and it looked to me like he was getting a little tired in the seventh. That’s as far as I wanted him to go.

“He pitched like a veteran tonight.”

Rickey got four more starts, winning one, 5-3 over Jack Morris and the Tigers, and losing two before losing his spot in the rotation to Reggie Cleveland and then being sent back to Vancouver in late June. He had a 4.76 ERA in 28 1/3 innings. Sporting News, July 26:

Pitcher Buster Keeton’s wedding plans had to be changed when the Brewers sent him back to Vancouver (Pacific Coast) in early July. Keeton and his fiancée, Gina Roberts, had planned to be married in Milwaukee during the All-Star break. “I’ll just have to make some other plans,” he said. Keeton, who had a 2-2 record with the Brewers, wasn’t upset when he was sent down. “I got a taste of it,” he said. “Now I know what I have to do to win up here. I know I can win up here. I’m not disappointed.”

A September 6 Sporting News article referred back to Rickey’s June victory over the Tigers:

Gibson Career Threatened by Freak Injury

By Lynn Henning

DETROIT—Before he tried to check his swing on a Buster Keeton changeup June 7, Kirk Gibson’s rookie season was unfolding nicely…

Now it appears that Gibson has played his last baseball until sometime in 1981, if he makes it back to the major leagues at all.

The 23-year-old rookie underwent surgery August 22 to repair torn triangular fibro cartilage in his left wrist…

(Spoiler—Kirk Gibson did make it back to the major leagues.)

Rickey’s Vancouver totals for the season included a 10-4 record and 3.31 ERA in 136 innings in 20 games. The Brewers players voted him a one-quarter share of their third-place playoff money, which gave him $154.90.

Rickey spent the off-season on the major league 40-man roster, so when he went to spring training 1981 he was no longer a non-roster player. The Milwaukee Sentinel reported on March 24:

The pitching has been remarkably good, particularly the showings of rookies Rickey (Buster) Keeton and Frank DiPino. They’ve offered enough competition to make veterans Jerry Augustine and Paul Mitchell sweat a little more for the jobs they had last year.

But Rickey was sent back to Vancouver just before the season started; he pitched well in two appearances, one starting and one in relief, then was called back up. This time the Brewers used him exclusively in relief. Between April 30 and June 10 he pitched in nine games, with a 5.32 ERA and no decisions. On June 12 the major league players went on strike; the strike was settled on July 31. That day the Sentinel reported that Rickey had been working out with Augustine, Pete Vuckovich, Cecil Cooper, and Jim Gantner.

The season resumed on August 10, and that day Rickey pitched a scoreless final four innings in a 13-inning victory in Cleveland. The next day’s Milwaukee Journal reported:

“That’s the way Rickey Keeton threw two years ago,” said Rodgers. “He has been throwing awful good, ever since the exhibition. He worked out for those eight weeks during the strike, and his arm got rejuiced, rejuvenated.”

That’s more than Rodgers can say for most of his other pitchers. And Keeton worked hard to make sure Rodgers would notice.

“I told my wife that I was going to work out, that when we got back, I wanted to be able to go nine,” Keeton said. “And I hope I can go in tough situations—that’s when I feel best.”

It is a feeling that Keeton has seldom experienced. In his nine previous appearances this year, one came at the end of Augustine’s 11-0 victory over California, and the other eight came when the Brewers were hopelessly behind. Keeton said that he hoped that had changed Monday.

“Him putting me in there with the game on the line, that has got to help my confidence,” Keeton said.

Rodgers admitted that Keeton got leftovers and scraps in the first half of the season. “I used him as a mop-up pitcher, basically because he wasn’t throwing like he did in the exhibition against Atlanta or in the intrasquad game,” Rogers said. “He’s throwing better now, better everything.”

Sporting News, August 15:

A Great Relief

MILWAUKEE—The good news came just in time for Buster Keeton.

The Milwaukee Brewers rookie righthander hadn’t had to go to work during the baseball strike, but it was just about time to start looking for a job.

“I was getting close,” Keeton said. “I was about ready to head for California, thinking about getting a job driving a beer truck.”

Keeton was saved by an early morning phone call July 31. A few hours later, he was one of 10 Brewers working out in County Stadium under coach Larry Haney.

Most of the players were back the next day, but General Manager Harry Dalton figured that since there were several Brewers in town, he would find out if any of them wanted to start working out right away. The answers were: “You bet!”

Rickey made seven more relief appearances in August, then didn’t pitch after that, though I didn’t find any references to an injury. He finished the season with a 5.09 ERA in 35 innings in 17 games. On October 4, the final day of the season, he was dropped from the major league roster, and on the 23^rd he was traded to the Astros for Pete Ladd.

During spring training 1982 Rickey was sent to the Tucson Toros of the Pacific Coast League, where he split time between starting and relieving. He got a mention in the June 10 Milwaukee Journal, which said: “Rickey Keeton, dumped by Milwaukee after last season, also is struggling, and is now 3-5 for Tucson (Astros AAA).” He wound up with a 7-13 record and 5.19 ERA in 161 innings in 40 games, 15 of them starts.

He started 1983 back with Tucson, where he had a 10.17 ERA in 13 relief appearances before being traded to the Kansas City Royals’ organization for a player to be named later, on June 11. Kansas City sent him to their AAA team, the Omaha Royals of the American Association. Omaha World-Herald, August 7:

Royal Keeton Puts Faith In Ability of His Infielders

By Steve Pivovar

Rickey Keeton’s faith in his teammates was well grounded.

So were many of the pitches he threw to the Louisville Redbirds Saturday night.

Keeton and the Omaha Royals bounced back Saturday night by handling all of the bounces in a 4-1 victory over the Redbirds at Rosenblatt Stadium. Guilty of seven errors in Friday’s 11-4 loss, the Royals played mistake-free baseball before a crowd of 2,780.

Keeton makes no secret that his success is tied to the ability of his infielders to make the plays behind him.

“I’m no Nolan Ryan,” Keeton said. “I’m a ground-ball pitcher, and I’m not going to strike out too many guys. My type of game is to let them hit the ball and let our guys make the plays.”

That’s the way it worked out against Louisville. Keeton struck out just two and got 14 of the 24 outs in eight innings on ground balls. He surrendered five singles before turning matters over to Mark Huismann, who picked up his eighth save in a month by setting the Redbirds down in order in the ninth.

Six of the seven errors Omaha committed Friday night were charged to Royal infielders. That did little to shake Keeton’s faith in his teammates.

“We have a good infield,” said Keeton, who two summers ago was pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers. “They knew last night was more or less a fluke. They’re better than that, and they know it.

“I figured after last night, everyone pretty much got it out of their system. I knew it wasn’t going to happen again tonight.”

…Keeton is 3-3 since being traded to the Royals from the Houston Astros’ organization on June 11. A reliever most of the past three seasons, Keeton has started nine of the 12 games he’s pitched for the Royals. He hasn’t completed one, though he came close against the Redbirds.

“I really wanted to go out and try for the complete game,” Keeton said. “I was hoping Joe [Sparks] would let me go out and pitch the ninth. But he told me he wanted to get Mark some work.”

Rickey did get a complete game in his next start, which was a seven-inning game due to its being part of a doubleheader. He gave up five hits, struck out a career-high nine, and won 6-1. But for some reason that was his last start; he pitched six more times in relief and finished the Omaha part of his season with a 6-3 record and 4.09 ERA in 88 innings.

On February 18, 1984, Rickey filled out another questionnaire. He was still 6-2 190, was now married with a 3-year-old son, had the off-season occupation of tool salesman, and mentioned his younger brother Garry, about to begin his second year in the White Sox organization. Garry was also mentioned in the March 28 Boulder Daily Camera, in a preview of the Denver Bears’ season:

One long-shot candidate is Garry “Buster” Keeton, a brother to Kansas City Royal farmhand Rickey Keeton, a pitcher who went 6-3 with a 4.09 earned run average. Garry Keeton was an emergency second baseman for the Bears last September in the Triple-A World Series held in Louisville...

Garry did not make the Bears, instead spending the season, his last as a professional, with the Appleton Foxes of the Class A Midwest League. Rickey was with Omaha all year, and had a 4.11 ERA in 65 2/3 innings in 25 games, five of them starts. From Tom Faherty’s “Baseball” column in the November 4 Milwaukee Journal:

Remember Rickey (Buster) Keeton, the pitcher who the Brewers traded to Houston for Pete Ladd? Keeton was re-signed by the Kansas City Royals’ organization after becoming a minor-league free agent.

Rickey went to spring training 1985 with Kansas City, but was sent to their minor league camp on March 19. He wound up back with Omaha, where he went 8-4 with a 4.96 ERA in 98 innings in 24 games, 11 of them starts. This ended his professional career.

Rickey became a minor league pitching coach. In 1991 he was with Augusta in the Class A South Atlantic League, in the Pirates’ system; the next year the Pirates moved him to Salem of the Carolina League, Class Advanced A. On May 16 of that year Rickey (now known as Rick) and Carolina manager John Wockenfuss signed autographs at a card show in Roanoke, Virginia, raising money for the Roanoke Valley SPCA.

In 1993 Rick moved to the Royals’ organization and the Eugene Emeralds of the Class Short-Season A Northwest League. In 1995 he was still with the Kansas City organization, but I’m not sure where; in 1996 he went to the Spokane Indians, now the Royals’ Northwest League affiliate. In 1997 they moved him to the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Carolina League. This was the last reference to him as a minor league coach that I found.

The March 31, 2004, edition of the Cincinnati Post included a classified ad for an auction which named the auctioneer as Rick Keeton, but I have no idea whether this was him. The website for Champions Baseball & Softball Academy in Cincinnati currently shows Rick as the Director of Pitching and says:

Buster’s twenty years of professional baseball experience and his strong interest in youth baseball has allowed him to develop the reputation as one of the top pitching instructors in the tri-state area. Buster’s approach focuses on working on a good pace, throwing strikes by hitting location, and changing speeds. Buster will develop your young pitcher into recognizing the “pitcher must command the game.”

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/K/Pkeetr101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/keetori01.shtml