"[1] Born on February 12, 1949, in Long Beach, California, Randle was captain of both the baseball and football teams at Centennial High School in Compton.

He was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 10th round (190th overall) 1967 Major League Baseball draft, but chose instead to attend Arizona State University.

[2][3] Along with playing college football and second base for the 1969 NCAA championship Arizona State Sun Devils baseball team,[2] Randle graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1973.

[4] Randle was the first round pick (10th overall) of the Washington Senators in the secondary phase of the June 1970 Major League Baseball draft.

[6] He split time between the minors and with the newly renamed and relocated Texas Rangers his first three seasons, spending most of 1973 in Triple-A with the Spokane Indians.

[9] During spring training in 1977, first round draft choice Bump Wills earned the starting second base job over Randle.

[10][11] Lucchesi was hospitalized for a week, needing plastic surgery to repair his fractured cheekbone which Randle had broken in three places.

[19] After his release from the Mets, Randle signed with the San Francisco Giants on May 12, 1979, and was assigned to their Triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate in Phoenix.

[20] He was traded along with Bill Madlock and Dave Roberts from the Giants to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Al Holland, Ed Whitson and Fred Breining on June 28,[21] but again was assigned to their Triple-A affiliate.

After 24 games with the Portland Beavers, he saw his first major league experience of the season when his contract was purchased by the New York Yankees on August 3.

Randle got on his hands and knees and blew the ball over the foul line; the umpires disallowed his action, and ruled it fair.

[28] The unusual events throughout Randle's career led Rolling Stone to call him a "viable candidate" for "baseball's version of 'The Most Interesting Man in the World'".

[4][29] Later that year in 2015, the documentary "Lenny Randle: The Most Interesting Man in Baseball" premiered on MLB Network.