Chuck Finley

Finley was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and pitched for West Monroe High School. He was selected by the California Angels in the 15th round of the 1984 MLB draft, held in June, but he did not sign. After pitching for Northeast Louisiana during the spring, he signed with the Angels by late May. Finley began his professional baseball career in 1985 with the minor league Salem Angels, a Class A Short Season team in the Northwest League. In 18 appearances, all in relief, he recorded a 4.66 earned run average (ERA) and a 3–1 win–loss record while earning five saves. California Angels / Anaheim Angels Finley made his MLB debut with the Angels on May 29, 1986, during a 7–4 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Finley made a total of 25 appearances, all in relief, with the 1986 Angels, pitching to a 3.30 ERA and a 3–1 record while striking out 37 batters in innings. In his only postseason appearances with the Angels, Finley played in three games of the 1986 American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox, allowing one hit in two innings pitched. The 32 relief appearances he made were the last of his major league career, as he was subsequently used exclusively as a starter. and later that month he recorded his first complete game, a 6–1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on April 30. Finley was selected to the MLB All-Star Game in both 1989 and 1990. Finley again was 18–9 in 1991, albeit with a higher ERA of 3.80. He made two rehabilitation starts, with the Class A-Advanced Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League. After the 1999 season, Finley again became a free agent, and did not return to the Angels. He made two rehabilitation appearances with the Akron Aeros of the Double-A Eastern League, Outfielder Coco Crisp was sent to Cleveland in early August to complete the deal, Finley went 7–4 with a 3.80 ERA in 14 starts through the remainder of the season. as the Cardinals were eliminated in five games. In November 2002, Finley filed for free agency. He remained unsigned into the 2003 season, and did not play again professionally. Overall, during his 17 seasons in MLB, Finley compiled a record of 200–173 with a 3.85 ERA and 1.376 WHIP. Defensively, he had a .907 fielding percentage, while offensively he had three hits in 53 at bats for an .057 batting average. He was only ejected from two MLB games, one each in 1990 and 1991. Finely became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, but only received one vote and fell off the ballot. ==Personal life==

, Finley lives in Newport Beach, California. Marriage Finley was married to actress Tawny Kitaen from 1997 to 2002. They had two daughters. Finley and Kitaen were featured together in the 1999 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. On April 4, 2002, Finley filed for divorce three days after Kitaen was charged with committing domestic violence against him, twisting his ear and having beaten him repeatedly with a stiletto heel in the arm, leg and foot while he was driving a car in Orange County, California, two weeks earlier. In the divorce filings, he stated, "I am fearful that (Kitaen)... will harm herself or will harm others, including me or including my children." He received a temporary restraining order preventing her from seeing him and he received temporary custody of the children. During hearings on the domestic violence charge of spousal abuse, Kitaen initially pleaded not guilty but admitted that she was addicted to prescription medications which she had taken for two years for migraines, and voluntarily entered both substance abuse treatment and anger management classes for 52 weeks to get the charges dropped. Tawny Finley, in a declaration to the Orange County Superior Court, claimed Finley used steroids, among other drugs. She also claimed he bragged about being able to circumvent MLB's testing policy. When told of his wife's accusations, which also included heavy marijuana use and alcohol abuse, Finley replied: "I can't believe she left out the cross-dressing." So prevalent was his personal life troubles that in April 16, 2002, road game against the Chicago White Sox, the Comiskey Park musical director took a subtle dig at Finley's messy divorce, The musical director was later fired, and the White Sox apologized. Finley's third daughter Briena was born in 2007 from a relationship at the time. Library Scandal In 2016, staff at the East Lake County Library in Sorrento, Florida, created a fictitious patron named “Chuck Finley” to manipulate the library’s circulation records. The name, borrowed from retired Major League Baseball pitcher Chuck Finley, was used to check out over 2,600 books within a nine-month period. The scheme was designed to prevent the library’s automated weeding system from discarding titles that had not been borrowed for an extended time. Library officials claimed this practice helped retain popular books that would otherwise have been removed and later repurchased. Following an anonymous tip, an investigation by the Lake County Clerk of Courts’ inspector general’s office uncovered multiple fabricated accounts, leading to the suspension of staff involved and a system-wide audit of the county’s libraries. While the librarians did not personally benefit from the scheme, their actions as an attempt to “teach the system” how to better reflect reader interest rather than rely solely on circulation metrics. The former major league pitcher was not involved in the scandal. ==Honors==

Finley became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame as of 2008; he received one vote, and was dropped from future consideration for falling below the 5% threshold required to remain on the ballot. Finley was inducted to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. In November 2007, the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks baseball program (known as Northeast Louisiana when Finley played there) retired Finley's no. 31 jersey; he was previously inducted to the university's hall of fame in 1996. Finley was inducted to the Angels Hall of Fame on August 27, 2009. ==In popular culture==

In the show Burn Notice, the character Sam Axe, played by Bruce Campbell, frequently uses the alias Chuck Finley (or Charles Finley for more sophisticated circumstances), which is said to be chosen by Sam because he successfully bet on Chuck Finley many times. Reportedly, Campbell's father was once friends with a coworker also named Chuck Finley. ==See also==