Don Alvin Buford was born on February 2, 1937 in Linden Texas, later moving to the Los Angeles area. He attended USC & played for the USC Trojans as an outfielder, signing with the Chicago White Sox in 1959.
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In 1967 he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles as part of the deal that sent Hall of Fame shortstop, Luis Aparacio to Chicago. In Baltimore, Buford switched from playing infield to becoming a full time outfielder with the O's. Baltimore had Brooks Robinson at third base, Mark Belanger at short & Davey Johnson at second base.
Buford was part of three straight Orioles World Series teams (1969-1971). They lost to the New York Mets in 1979, beat the Cincinnati Reds in 1970 & then lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971 in seven games.
In 1969 he batted a career high .291 with 11 HRs 19 stolen bases & a .397 on base %. That season he scored 99 runs for the first of three straight seasons as well as leading the league in caught stealing for the third time.
It was Buford who led off the 1969 World Series with a HR off Tom Seaver & as he rounded the bases told Bud Harrelson “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. Harrelson later said “First game, first pitch, you ain’t seen nothing yet either”.
Buford played for Baltimore from 1968-1972, in his ten year career Don Buford batted .264 with 1203 hits 93 HRs 157 doubles 44 triples 200 stolen bases a .362 on base % & 418 RBIs. Don moved on to play in Japan where he earned the nickname "the greatest leadoff man in the world "as well as winning two best Nine Awards.
Retirement: After his playing career Don Buford was a coach with his old Oriole's team mate Frank Robinson, who managed with the Orioles, San Francisco Giants & Washington Nationals.
Damon Buford also attended USC playing for the Trojans, as a team mate with future MLB players Bret Boone & Jeff Cirillo. Buford was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the tenth round of the 1990 draft.
He got to the majors in 1993 as a backup outfielder on the Baltimore Orioles batting just .228 in 54 games. He played behind Brady Anderson, Mike Devereaux & Mark McLemore in the new Camden Yards ballpark, where his dad was also the teams coach. He said it was just like being in little league all over again. He spent most of 1994 at AAA batting .270 then hitting .309 to start off the 1995 season.
In Baltimore he struggled again batting just .063 in 24 games before getting traded to the New York Mets along with Alex Ochoa in June 1995 for Bobby Bonilla.
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Buford hit three HRs with 9 RBIs in that stretch, including a two HR day at Shea Stadium against the Houston Astros on September 13th. Buford played in 44 games for the ’95 Mets batting .235 with 4 HRs 5 doubles 12 RBIs & seven stolen bases.
That January he was traded to the Texas Rangers for Terrel Lowrey who never played a game for the Mets. Buford spent two years in Texas, he batted batting . 283 in 1996 but when he got the full time role in 1997 he fell off to a .224 average. He was traded to the Boston Red Sox playing there for two seasons as a reserve outfielder, getting to two post seasons there.

In his nine year career, he batted .242 with 448 hits, 86 doubles 9 triples 54 HRs 56 stolen bases a .311 on base% & 218 RBIs. Buford was a fine defensive outfielder posting a career .990% in center (24th all time) making 28 assists with 1255 put outs in 624 outfield games.
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