Don Carrithers

Donald George Carrithers (September 15, 1949) is a former professional baseball pitcher. Carrithers pitched in all or part of eight seasons in Major League Baseball from 1970 until 1977.

Carrithers was drafted out of Lynwood HS (Lynwood, CA) in the 3rd round of the 1967 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco Giants. After working his way up through their farm system, he made his major league debut at the age of 20 in 1970, pitching 11 games with an ERA of 7.36. Carrithers started the 1971 season back in the minors, but was called up in June and was in the majors for good.

Over the next three seasons, Carrithers bounced back and forth between the starting rotation and the bullpen for the Giants, but various injuries limited him to no more than 25 appearances in each season. On May 14, 1972 he gave up Willie Mays's 647th career homerun. His performance was below average in each season as well, and just before the 1974 season, the Giants shipped him off to the Montreal Expos in return for catcher John Boccabella.

Carrithers met with more success in Montreal, but injuries still hampered him. After two seasons of performing well in limited action, in 1976 Carrithers stayed healthy enough to throw 140 innings, his career high. However, his performance suffered a setback, as he went only 6–12 with an ERA of 4.43. The Expos became the second team to be frustrated by Carrithers, and they sold him to the Minnesota Twins the following spring. After yet another injury-filled campaign in which Carrithers made it into only 7 games, his career was over at the age of 28.