The skinny, hard-throwing Charlton was the Expos' first-round draft pick in June 1984 but was traded to the Reds two years later. After spending his entire minor-league career and his rookie season of 1988 as a starter, he was switched to relief duty in 1989. With a sharp-breaking slider and forkball, the southpaw hurler was almost unhittable vs. left-handed batters.
In 1990 he split time between the starting rotation (included among his 16 starts was a three-hit shutout of San Francisco on August 10th) and the bullpen, where he teamed up with fellow relievers Rob Dibble and Randy Myers to form the "Nasty Boys", a fearsome troika that Cincinnati rode all the way to a World Series sweep of the heavily favored Oakland A's. When he racked up 26 saves and made the NL All-Star team in 1992, he and Dibble became the first pair of teammates in major-league history to record at least 25 saves in the same season. That November, however, the Reds traded him to Seattle for slugging outfielder Kevin Mitchell.
Charlton notched 18 saves in 21 chances for the Mariners before tearing a ligament in his left elbow in early August and spending the rest of the year on the disabled list. The injury required "Tommy John" surgery, which forced him to miss the entire 1994 season. He resurfaced with Philadelphia in 1995, but performed so poorly that the Phillies released him in July. Snatched up by the Mariners, Charlton responded by pitching brilliantly the rest of the way (2-1, 14 saves and a 1.51 ERA in 30 games) claiming the closer's job for a Mariners' team which made up a 13-game August deficit to the division-leading Angels and earned the first post-season berth in franchise history by beating California in a one-game playoff.
Despite pitching in at least 70 games in both 1996 and 1997, Charlton struggled to repeat his 1995 success, blowing 18 saves chances over the two seasons and seeing his ERA balloon to 7.27 in '97. Hoping to resurrect his career, he spent the next three seasons moving from Baltimore to Atlanta to Tampa Bay and briefly back to the Reds in 2000. The Reds cut Charlton on April 28, 2000, after he gave up a whopping nine earned runs in two appearances.
Signing a free-agent contract with Seattle at the end of 2000, Charlton was reunited with his former Reds skipper, Lou Piniella. He seemed comfortable in Seattle blue, earning a 3.02 ERA in 47 2/3 innings.
Before becoming a major-league baseball player, Charlton earned three different degrees at Rice University: Political Science, Physical Education and Religion. A lifelong hunter and fisherman, he spent his off-seasons with his wife Nancy on the 4,000-acre cattle ranch he owns in south Texas.
(SFS/AGL)
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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
»October 8, 1990: Mariano Duncan belts a 3-run home run and Reds relievers Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton, and Randy Myers combine to strike out seven batters in three 2/3 innings as Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh 6–3 in game three of the NLCS.
»September 16, 1991: It's a day for suspensions. Atlanta OF Otis Nixon is suspended for 60 days (the remainder of the season) for violating baseball's drug policy. Nixon, who had been arrested on charges of cocaine possession in 1987, is currently leading the National League with 72 SBs. He will miss the NL playoffs due to the suspension. Cincinnati P Norm Charlton is suspended for seven days and fined an undisclosed amount for admitting he intentionally threw at Dodgers C Mike Piazza in a game played on September 9th.
»May 27, 1997:
Mariners' reliever Norm Charlton walks Chuck Knoblauch with the bases loaded, as Minnesota caps a six-run ninth-inning rally to win, 11–10. Seattle's collapse mars a game in which Ken Griffey Jr. and Joey Cora each set records. Griffey hits his 23rd homer, breaking his own major league mark for homers through May; Cora is 4-for-6 to extend his hitting streak to a team-record 22 games, and also ties the A.L. mark for switch-hitters.
»April 29, 1998:
Led by Wil Cordero and Albert Belle, the White Sox pound on the Orioles, 16–7, ruining Sidey Ponson's 1st ML start. Cordero, cut by Boston on the last day of spring training, has two home runs and five RBI, and Belle has two home runs and four RBI. Belle follows a Frank Thomas home run with his 1st dinger, and Robin Ventura follows Belle's 2nd with another. Thomas adds a big hurt, breaking reliever Norm Charlton's nose with a line single in the 7th.
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