Top 60 All-Time Greatest Jays: #22 Ernie Whitt
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Ernie Whitt was born June 13, 1952, in Detroit, Michigan, not far from Tiger Stadium. The
Red Sox picked him in the 15th round of the 1972 amateur draft, one pick before Jason Thompson, a terrific first baseman for the
Tigers and
Dodgers. Ernie was blocked from making the Red Sox by future Hall of Fame catcher
Carlton Fisk and was left unprotected in the 1976 expansion draft, and we grabbed him up.
Whitt got 41 at-bats in our first season and got into a couple of games in 1978. In 1979 he spent the whole season in the minors, then in 1980, he was finally given a role in the majors at the age of 28. Ernie was the left-handed half of a catching platoon with