Early life Harris was born in
Abingdon, Virginia, and was an athletic standout at now-defunct William King High School in Abingdon.
New York Giants He signed with Giants at age 18 in 1950 and spent 5 seasons in their
farm system before making his debut on June 3, 1955. With
Whitey Lockman shifting to
left field, Harris became the Giants' starting first baseman for the rest of the season. But he
batted only .232 in 79
games played, and lost the starting job to future eight-time
National League All-Star Bill White. Harris hit only .132 with the 1956 Giants and spent most of the season at
Triple-A. In , the Giants' last season in
New York City, White entered the military and opened up a spot for Harris as the team's backup first baseman. On September 21, Harris hit the last homer by a New York Giants player, off
Red Witt of the
Pittsburgh Pirates at
Forbes Field, part of a four-
hit, seven-
RBI day. He appeared as a
pinch hitter in Giants' penultimate game at the
Polo Grounds on September 28,
fouling out in the eighth
inning of a 1–0 defeat. For the season, Harris hit .240 with nine home runs in 90 games played. On January 28, 1958, he was traded by the relocated
San Francisco Giants to the Detroit Tigers with
third baseman Ozzie Virgil for third baseman
Jim Finigan and cash.
Detroit Tigers The trade set up Harris' best MLB season. He began in a backup role to right-handed swinging
Ray Boone. But in mid-June, with Harris hitting over .300, Detroit swapped Boone to the
Chicago White Sox and Harris became the Tigers' starting first baseman. Appearing in a career-high 134 games, starting 112 at first base, he established career bests in
runs (63), hits (123),
extra-base hits (46, including his 20 homers),
runs batted in (82), and batting average (.278). But he could not sustain that production in . Mired in a horrible early-season slump (as were the Tigers, who lost 15 of their first 17 games), Harris was hitting as low as .149 on May 22. He didn't exceed the .200 mark until the last day of July before finishing the year at .221 with only nine home runs. The following year,
Norm Cash became the Tigers' everyday first baseman. After only eight games with Detroit, Harris was traded to the
Los Angeles Dodgers on May 7 for
outfielder Sandy Amoros. He spent the rest of and all of 1961 at Triple-A before leaving pro baseball.
MLB career totals In 437 career MLB games and 1,331
at bats, Harris hit .240 lifetime with 189 runs batted in. His 320 hits included 38
doubles, 15
triples and 51 home runs. ==Retirement==