Tom Waddell (baseball)

Scottish baseball player (1958–2019)

Thomas David Waddell (September 17, 1958 – September 14, 2019) was a Scottish Major League Baseball pitcher. One of only eight Scotland natives to ever be a major league ballplayer, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians from to , and again in
Waddell grew up in Closter, New Jersey and attended Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest.

The right hander was signed by the Atlanta Braves as an amateur free agent out of Manhattan College in Hank Aaron was present at Waddell's tryout and credited with signing the young pitcher. After three seasons in their farm system, he was drafted by the Indians in the rule 5 draft. He made his major league debut on April 15, 1984 against the Baltimore Orioles, facing only two batters and giving up a game tying sacrifice fly and a single. For the season, Waddell went 7–4 with a 3.06 earned run average, 59 strikeouts and six saves in 58 appearances for the Indians, setting a club record for relief appearances by a rookie. In 1985, Waddell was 4–5 with a 3.88 ERA and nine saves out of the tribe's bullpen when Cleveland manager Pat Corrales converted him into a starter. In his first major league start, Waddell pitched six plus innings to earn the win over Ron Guidry and the New York Yankees. For the season, he made nine starts, including a 7 hit complete game win over Dave Stieb and the Toronto Blue Jays on August 19. Waddell had shoulder surgery in September 1985 and made only three rehab appearances for Cleveland's triple A affiliate in He was unsuccessful in a brief 1987 comeback bid, going 0–1 with a 14.29 ERA in six games with the Indians. He signed a minor league contract with the Montreal Expos in , and went 3–2 with a 2.95 ERA splitting the season between their double and triple A affiliates. He split the season between the Expos' and Milwaukee Brewers' farm system before retiring. WLPCTERAGGSCGSVIPHERRHRBBKWPHBP1511.5774.301139115215.1179103106338311823

Waddell became a U. S. citizen in 1990. He held several corporate jobs in Texas and Arizona, including Intuit, the software company that developed Quickbooks and Turbo Tax. Waddell died of cancer in 2019.