Akerfelds spent time with seven different major-league organizations and pitched briefly in Taiwan. His most successful season came in 1990, when he posted a 3.77 ERA in seventy-one appearances for the Phillies.

The only major-leaguer ever to graduate from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Akerfelds was a minor-league pitching instructor with the Padres when two students went on a shooting spree at his alma mater in April 1999. William "Dave" Sanders, the only faculty member killed in the attack, was one of Akerfelds' former coaches. (JGR)