Bob Heise

Heise was a "military brat", who was born in San Antonio, Texas, but spent most of his youth in California. As a junior at Vacaville High School in Vacaville, California, he was part of the Bulldogs team that won the 1964 Golden Empire League championship. His American Legion Post 165 team, coached by his father, William, won the league championship in 1965. In February 1965, he signed as an amateur free agent with the New York Mets.

Heise was a Western Carolinas League All-Star with the Greenville Mets in 1966. The twenty year old earned a September call up in 1967, and immediately assumed starting second base duties. In his major league debut, he collected his first hit, a single off Atlanta Braves pitcher Jay Ritchie, and was promptly erased trying to steal second.[1] Facing the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 19, his fifth inning double scored two to tie the game. He then scored the winning run on Tommy Davis' single.[2]

Heise batted .323 his first September in the majors. Regardless, he spent 1968 back in the minors with the Jacksonville Suns. He split his time pretty evenly between second base and shortstop in Jacksonville. When he received his call up to the majors that September, he played mostly shortstop.

Heise was part of a trade package along with Ed Kranepool and Amos Otis when the Mets attempted to acquire the Braves' Joe Torre who went to the St. Louis Cardinals for Orlando Cepeda instead.[3] He spent 1969 playing shortstop for the triple A Tidewater Tides. He joined the Mets again that September, going 3-for-10 in four games, but was not part of the "Miracle Mets" post season roster. Heise was sent along with Jim Gosger from the Mets to the San Francisco Giants for Ray Sadecki and Dave Marshall on December 12, 1969.[4]

Heise enjoyed his first full season in the majors in 1970. He spent most of the season backing up Hal Lanier at short until an injury to fellow ex-Met Ron Hunt made him the starting second baseman for the month of September. Considering his limited playing time, Heise put up respectable numbers. His 22 RBIs was a career high, and came in just 154 at bats. On April 18, Heise went 3-for-5 with five RBIs in a 16-9 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.[5] On June 26, he hit his first career triple,[6] and on June 30, he hit his only career home run off the San Diego Padres' Danny Coombs.[7]

Heise appeared in thirteen games and was hitless in eleven at bats for the Giants when he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Floyd Wicker on June 1, 1971.[8] Shortly after his arrival in Milwaukee, Heise took over as the Brewers' starting shortstop. He had an eight game hitting streak during July (July 18-30), and in August, had three three hit games (August 4, 10 & 14).

In 1972, Heise began seeing more playing time at third base, a position he had only appeared at a handful of times up to that point. The move allowed Heise to appear in a career high 95 games, and log a career high 271 at bats. The highlight of his season was June 24, when his double off Sonny Siebert scored two runs in the Brewers' 5-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.[9]

The Brewers completely overhauled their infield for the 1973 season. During the off season, they acquired third baseman Don Money from the Philadelphia Phillies. Just as the season started, they acquired shortstop Tim Johnson from the Dodgers, and second base was taken over by rookie Pedro García. This substantially cut into Heise's playing time. He appeared in 49 games, only 23 of which were starts, and batted just .204 for the season. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Tom Murphy on December 8, 1973.[10]

Heise spent the bulk of his time with the Cards in triple A with the Tulsa Oilers. He came up briefly in July 1974 before he was dealt to the California Angels for a player to be named later. Heise saw pretty regular action, backing up second and third base. His trade to Boston for Tommy Harper at the Winter Meetings on December 2, 1974 was driven by the Red Sox using its outfielder surplus to address its lack of infielder depth.[11]

Heise played an important bench role for the 1975 American League Championship Series winning Red Sox. In the first two weeks of July, while Rico Petrocelli was sidelined by an eye injury, Heise batted .344 with seven runs and seven RBIs.[12] He played all eighteen innings of a July 6 doubleheader with the Cleveland Indians. In the first game, he drove in three of the five Bosox's runs to carry his team to a 5-3 victory.[13] In the second game, he went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs in his team's 11-10 loss.[14] For the season, he batted .214 with 21 RBIs. Though he was on the Red Sox post season roster, he did not appear in any post season games.

Though Heise was healthy throughout the 1976 season, he saw incredibly limited action. He appeared in only 32 games, and logged just 61 plate appearances. After the season, he was purchased by the Kansas City Royals. He saw similarly limited playing time in Kansas City in 1977. He was released at the end of the season, and retired.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or The Ultimate Mets Database
• Bob Heise at the SABR Bio Project, by Bill Nowlin, retrieved July 12, 2013