James Joseph Traber (born December 26, 1961)[1]Traber was born in Columbus, Ohio, but grew up in Columbia, Maryland.[2] While attending Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Traber was an All-American, playing football, baseball and other sports. He attended Oklahoma State University in the early 1980s, where he played both baseball (appearing twice in the College World Series)[2] and football.[3] He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1982 Major League Baseball Draft.[4] and played parts of four seasons for the Orioles between 1984 and 1989,[4] where his nickname was "The Whammer".[5] During the biggest slump of his career for Baltimore, Traber switched to wearing a V-neck jersey and soon captured player of the week honors cranking out 3 homers and 11 RBIs in the early summer of 1987.[citation needed] Traber's success with the Orioles was hindered by timing, as 1st baseman, Eddie Murray, wasn't ready to retire, and Jim was anxious to play in that position.Template:Original research inline
After his MLB career, Traber played baseball in Japan for the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1990 and 1991, and one season for Monterrey of the Mexican League in 1993.[3] His time in Japan is perhaps most memorable for an incident in which Traber rushed the mound subsequent to being hit by a pitch, chasing the retreating pitcher into the outfield at the Akita Yabase Baseball Stadium. After charging the pitcher a second time, he was knocked off balance by the catcher while running and was kicked in the face on the way down by the manager. Grainy footage of this incident is still widely distributed on the Internet.[6]
His involvement with sports talk radio began after his retirement from professional sports. He served as a television color analyst for Fox Sports' regional coverage of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the team's World Series victory season of 2001, for which he was awarded a World Series ring. Traber was also part-time color analyst for the 2001 World Series radio broadcast. He can be heard cheering in celebration behind Greg Schulte during the famous play-by-play call of "A little blooper... Base hit! Diamondbacks Win!" for Luis Gonzalez's game-winning hit. Traber continued announcing in 2002 and 2003.[2] Currently, Traber hosts "The Afternoon Sports Beat" and "Total Dominance Hour," shows on WWLS-FM radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[7] He sometimes refers to callers as Yardbirds.
Traber is most well-known for losing to "Radio Legend", "World Champion at FreeCell" and "King of the midgets" Al Eschbach every Friday at music.
Traber had a long standing bet with other Sports Animal hosts that Tiger Woods will never win another major, which he would end up losing when Woods won the 2019 Masters Tournament on April 14, 2019.
Trivia[]
Traber sang the National Anthem at Memorial Stadium the night of his MLB debut.[8]
