Randy Moffitt, a longtime MLB reliever and the younger brother of tennis legend Billie Jean King, died in his hometown of Long Beach, California on Thursday according to the Associated Press. He was 76 years old.
The cause of death was reportedly an extended illness.
After a college career at Cal State Long Beach, Moffitt was drafted 18th overall by the San Francisco Giants in the regular phase of the 1970 MLB Draft. He waited only two years to make his MLB debut and ended up playing 10 seasons for the Giants, accruing 83 saves and a 3.68 ERA.
Moffitt was steady enough across 459 games for the Giants that he received a spot on their Wall of Fame in 2008. His career took a hard turn downward in 1979 after he reportedly contracted a rare and sometimes deadly intestinal parasite, resulting in frequent nausea and the loss of roughly 25 pounds.
The parasite hounded Moffitt through the end of his Giants career in 1981, a span of time in which he posted a 7.00 ERA across three seasons. However, he recovered enough to finish his career with two solid seasons in 1982 with the Houston Astros and 1983 with the Toronto Blue Jays.
In an Instagram post from earlier this year, King, a foundational figure in both tennis and women’s sports in general, described herself and Moffitt as “competitive kids, right from the start.”
That sibling rivalry later became another layer of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, as King purchased a minority stake of the Dodgers in 2018.
Per the AP, Moffitt is survived by two daughters — Miranda Harrah and her husband, Rusty, and Alysha Gosse and her husband, James — and four grandchildren.
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