Our top ten of major league Scots in US sport

October 11, 2019 | Uncategorized

The North American sports of baseball, basketball, ice hockey and American football have been graced over the years by some outstanding Scottish players.

Here, we highlight 10 of them.

1. Bobby Thomson

While Jim McCormick (see number 2) was the most talented Scot to play baseball, the most famous was Bobby Thomson, aka the Staten Island Scot. An outfi elder who was an imposing slugger at the plate, Thomson belted 264 career home runs and maintained a batting average of .270. But the numbers are overshadowed by one transcendent moment in 1951, when he clinched the National League pennant with a three-run walk-off homer dubbed ‘The Shot Heard Round the World’. It is arguably still the most famous home run in baseball history.

2. Jim McCormick

Born in Glasgow in 1856, Jim McCormick would become the first Scottish native to play Major League Baseball, and he remains the most gifted to date. He was one of the most formidable pitchers of the late-19th century, and one of baseball’s all-time greatest workhorses, winning an incredible 265 games during his ten-year career. If he played today, when top pitchers typically earn well over $1m for every win, McCormick would be a millionaire hundreds of times over.

3. Lawrence Tynes

Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Lawrence Tynes

Although a few Scots have played American football professionally, the only one to make an impact in the NFL is Greenock-born kicker Lawrence Tynes. In this league of swaggering gladiators, kickers often get brushed aside – until they’re needed in the final moments of a close game. Tynes has proven himself as a psychological warrior, kicking game-clinching fi eld goals and helping the New York Giants win two Super Bowl titles. Before his glory days with the Giants, Tynes kicked for the Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europe league

4. Bobby Connors

An Edinburgh native, left-winger Bobby Connors scored 13 goals in 41 games for the 1928-29 Detroit Cougars (the National Hockey League precursor to today’s Detroit Red Wings). However, his pro ice hockey career was cut short some two years later, when he died of a broken neck during a diving accident in Ontario.

5. Jimmy Foster

After Glasgow native Jimmy Foster emigrated to the Canadian city of Winnipeg and fell in love with ice hockey, he made an indelible mark on the sport thanks to his brilliant displays in the 1936 Winter Olympics. Over the course of seven games, he surrendered just three goals, leading Britain to its only gold medal in the sport.

6. Chuck Gardiner

Edinburgh’s Chuck Gardiner was forced to play goaltender because he couldn’t skate well enough for any other position, but he made the role his own and was the sole bright spot in a Chicago Blackhawks team nicknamed the ‘goalless wonders’. When the team’s attack improved, Gardiner led Chicago to its first ever Stanley Cup triumph, in 1934. He died of a brain haemorrhage a few weeks later at the age of just 29.

7. Steve Smith

Steve Smith (left)

Glasgow native Steve Smith won three Stanley Cup titles while playing for the Edmonton Oilers. His one memorable blunder in an otherwise stellar career – accidentally scoring against his own team – unfortunately happened in the playoffs against the club’s arch-rivals, who went on to win the series. Smith reinvented himself as a coach, having a spell as assistant at the Carolina Hurricanes, and is current assistant coach of the Buffalo Sabres.

8. Tom Waddell

The mid-1980s saw the arrival of Dundee’s Tom Waddell, a pitcher who compiled a career record of 15 wins and 11 losses. Though Waddell is Major League Baseball’s only Scotsman in the last three decades, the sport is actually making some decent headway, as shown by the 2007 establishment of Baseball Scotland. The most successful 2014 team were the Edinburgh Diamond Devils, who play at Bobby Thomson Field.

9. Gavin Hastings

The man regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest ever rugby player, scorer of over 700 points during a 61-cap international career, briefly switched to American football in 1996 when his rugby days were over. The move was a successful one: Hastings’ kicking prowess helped the Scottish Claymores to win the WLAF World Bowl that year at his spiritual home, 08 Murrayfield Stadium.

10. Robert Archibald

Not many Scots have made it to the highest levels of pro basketball. Paisley-born Robert Archibald did make the grade, however. The 6ft 11in power-forward and centre played for a variety of National Basketball Association teams during the fi rst half of the 2000s. He went on to win more success in Europe, particularly in Ukraine, and represented Team GB at the 2012 Olympics.