Barry John Raziano (born February 5, 1947 in New Orleans, LA) is a former professional baseball player who pitched in parts of the 1973 and 1974 seasons for the Kansas City Royals and California Angels, respectively, of Major League Baseball. Raziano was originally drafted by the New York Mets in the 47th round of the 1965 draft and was traded to Kansas City for Jerry Cram on February 1, 1973. Barry Raziano played in 2 games with the Kansas City Royals in 1973, and 13 with the California Angels in 1974.

Barry was born in New Orleans, LA, went to high school in the same area at East Jefferson High School and attended Nicholls State University in the same state. Raziano opted not to play at Nicholls State and entered the pro ranks in 1966.

His first pro season was with the Greenville (SC) Mets in 1966, where he was a teammate of 19-year-old Nolan Ryan. Raziano was impressive as a starter in his first season, posting a 9-4 record and 3.08 ERA. Ryan was the ace of the staff with a 17-2 record with 272 strikeouts in 182 innings. It was evident even then that Ryan was bound for the big-leagues.

When he reported to Mets spring training camp as a member of the 40-man roster in 1969, Raziano developed a sore arm and was left in Florida to rehabilitate when the regular season started. His injury persisted and he wound up pitching only two innings in the minors that season. Had he not suffered the injury, Raziano would likely have joined these four on the big-league roster of the '69 Miracle Mets at some point in the season. Overall, he was in the Mets organization from 1966 to 1972, spending part of 1968 and all of 1970-1972 at the AAA level with the Tidewater Tides, as a reliever and sometimes starter.

In February of 1973 he was traded to Kansas City and spent most of the season with their AAA affiliate, the Omaha Royals, for whom he pitched solely in relief. He came up with the major league team in August and appeared in two games, pitching a total of five innings. He made his major league debut with the team a couple of weeks after a 20-year-old youngster named George Brett also made his big league debut.

In February of 1974 he was traded for Vada Pinson and appeared in 13 games with the Angels during June and early July of 1974. In his best stretch, from June 8th to June 14th, he pitched four times against three different teams, 6 2/3 innings total, and gave up no hits with only one walk. He earned his first and only MLB win on 6/14/74 vs the Red Sox, pitching two perfect innings for the victory, completing an extra-inning game started by Luis Tiant and Nolan Ryan.

For the rest of the season he pitched for the Salt Lake City Angels, putting up a nice 2.25 ERA in 19 games. Barry was back with Salt Lake City in 1975, getting 11 saves with a 2.37 ERA. Barry recalled his overuse by the Angels “I’d either warmed up or pitched in 22 of 26 games. I started having trouble with my arm. I had one off-day and the next time I couldn’t throw.”

He came back one last time, at age 30 in 1977, to pitch for his hometown team, the New Orleans Pelicans, who were in the St. Louis Cardinals organization that year. After baseball he ran a construction company in Louisiana.

(excerpted from Crescent City Sports, Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)