Career
The 6 ft 2 in (188 m), 195 pounds (88 kg) right-hander was signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before the 1952 season. He played for the Kansas City Athletics (1962), |Los Angeles Angels (1962–1964), Milwaukee Braves (1965), Boston Red Sox (1966–1967), Chicago White Sox (1969), and Houston Astros (1970). Osinski made his major league debut in relief on April 11, 1962 against the Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
He pitched the top of the 9th inning and gave up three earned runs in the 8–0 Athletics loss.
He struck out one batter, second baseman Bernie Allen. He pitched in three more games that month, continued to be ineffective, and was sent down to the minor leagues.
Then, on July 21, the A"s traded him to the Los Angeles Angels. This turned out to be a big break for Osinski.
He pitched very well out of the Angel bullpen for the rest of the season, along with Bob Botz, Dean Chance, Art Fowler, Tom Morgan, and Jack Spring.
Osinski earned his first big league save three days after the trade with two scoreless innings in game 2 of a home doubleheader against Baltimore. In 33 games for the Angels in his rookie year Osinski was 6–4 with 4 saves and an European Research Area of 2.82. When his Kansas City statistics are added, his final European Research Area was 3.97.
During his career he started 21 games but usually appeared in relief.
The best of his starts was a three-hit, 1–0 shutout over the Chicago White Sox on June 4, 1963 at Chavez Ravine. From 1963 to 1969 his European Research Area ranged from 2.54 to 3.61.
In 1967 he was part of the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" team He had a 3–1 record with two saves for Boston and appeared in two World Series games against the Saint Louis Cardinals.
Released by Boston during spring training in 1968, the Chicago native saw service that year with Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League, and pitched his way back to the majors in 1969 with the hometown White Sox, compiling a 5–5 record.
He was sold to the Houston Astros during the off-season,where he ended his major league career with three appearances in 1970. After the season, he was placed on the roster of the Houston American Automobile Association club at Oklahoma City and was claimed by the San Diego Padres, but retired. Osinski"s retirement plans were mentioned in the book I"m Glad You Didn"t Take lieutenant Personally when he was briefly a teammate of Jim Bouton in Triple-A Oklahoma City.
His major league career totals include a 29–28 record in 324 games pitched, 21 games started, 5 complete games, 2 shutouts, 122 games finished, 18 saves, and an European Research Area of 3.34.
He had 400 strikeouts in 589.2 innings pitched for a 6.11 K/9IP, slightly higher than the major league average during his era. He made no errors in his last five seasons (193 games).
