Jeoff Long, a Kentucky product who reached the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals after converting from pitcher to position player, died Friday in Elsmere, Kentucky. He was 84.

Long appeared in 56 big-league games across the 1963 and 1964 seasons, most of them with St. Louis before a midseason move to the Chicago White Sox. He finished with 16 hits, one home run and nine RBI in 83 at-bats, batting .193.

The Cardinals signed Long as a pitcher out of Lloyd Memorial High School in Erlanger in 1959. He grew up a Reds fan in the Cincinnati area and had offers from both clubs. He chose St. Louis.

His arm never recovered after a 13-inning high school championship start that same year. In a 2025 interview, Long said, “I did have a good arm. Basically that was what the Cardinals signed me on out of high school in 1959. The end of my senior year, in 1959, I pitched a 13-inning game in the district championship game. From that point on my arm was never the same. My first year was pretty much a failure.”

After struggling on the mound, he offered to return his signing bonus. His manager gave him a chance to hit instead.

Long made his major-league debut in July 1963 as a pinch-hitter for Hall of Famer Bob Gibson. He later singled off Sandy Koufax in his only career at-bat against the Dodgers left-hander.

He played 33 games for the Cardinals over two seasons, collecting 11 hits and batting .229. In 1964 he appeared in 28 games for St. Louis, going 10-for-43 with a double, his only homer and four RBI.

That home run came in a May series against Milwaukee and helped St. Louis win. The Cardinals sold his contract to the White Sox on July 7, 1964, to open a roster spot for Mike Shannon during the club’s run to the National League pennant and World Series title.

Long received a half-share of the Cardinals’ World Series money. He played 23 games for Chicago that year, hitting .143 with five RBI.

A knee injury that dated to high school football and flared again with the White Sox limited him. He missed three full seasons trying to recover and made a brief minor-league return in 1969 before retiring as a player after seven seasons in the minors.

In the minors he showed power, including 30 home runs for Tulsa in the Texas League in 1962. Overall he hit .265 with 58 homers in 500 minor-league games.

After baseball he worked in management at Cincinnati Drum Company, the family business started by his parents, until retirement.

Long was also a notable amateur golfer. He won the 1975 National Open Long Driving contest at Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook, Illinois, beating several PGA Tour players. He finished second the next year and competed in the event through 1984.

He is survived by his wife, Kathy, and their daughter, Lindsay, a world-renowned diver.

Long’s Cardinals chapter was brief, but it included a debut for Gibson, a hit off Koufax, and a small piece of the 1964 championship season that still resonates in St. Louis.