Donald Alvin Buford (born February 2, 1937) is an American former professional baseball player scout, coach and manager.

Buford was a football and baseball star at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, graduating in 1955.

He attended three semesters at Los Angeles City College, where he won all-conference honors at quarterback in 1955 and at halfback in 1956.

He played outfield and had a .323 batting average in 1958, on a Trojans team that won the College World Series, Dedeaux's first.

In a stellar 1958 performance against Notre Dame, he rushed for 34 yards, threw a touchdown pass, returned kicks and punts, and had two interceptions.

[7] In 1960, Buford began his professional career with the San Diego Padres of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

After two weeks he was sent to the Triple-I League for the rest of the year, suffering a knee injury that never fully healed and required three future surgeries.

In 1966, manager Eddie Stanky moved Ward to the outfield, and Buford went to third, but he led the league with 26 errors.

[2] In 1966, he stole a career-high 51 bases (one fewer than the American League leader, Bert Campaneris)[15] scored 85 runs, and led the AL in sacrifice hits with 17,[16] though his average fell to .244,[2] while establishing himself as one of the league's top leadoff hitters.

[18] The White Sox were eliminated from pennant contention (perhaps due, in large part, to faulty offense; they led the majors with a 2.45 earned run average, but batted only .225[17]) the final week of the season after losing a doubleheader to the lowly Kansas City Athletics on September 27.

[19][20] Buford was traded along with Bruce Howard and Roger Nelson to the Baltimore Orioles for Luis Aparicio, Russ Snyder and John Matias on November 29, 1967.

[5] (Dustin Pedroia, Alcides Escobar, and Jorge Soler, are the only other players to lead off a World Series with a home run, for the Boston Red Sox in 2007, the Kansas City Royals in 2015, and the Houston Astros in 2021 respectively.

[9] The Orioles gained redemption in the World Series, which they won over the Cincinnati Reds in five games.

[29] In each of the Orioles’ three pennant-winning seasons Buford scored 99 runs,[9] leading the American League in that category in 1971.

His contract rights were sold to the Taiheiyo Club Lions in Japan, who doubled his salary.

[2][5] Buford returned to Japan, where he had been known as "The Greatest Leadoff Man in the World" during the Orioles’ tour, to play professionally.

[citation needed] Former American baseball major leaguers Roger Repoz (1973), Matty Alou (1974-1975) and Frank Howard (1974) were Lions teammates.

He is now an internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine and shoulder surgery.

[citation needed] In October of 2012, Don Buford, Sr. accepted a new position managing Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California.