Ronald Dale Kittle (born January 5, 1958) is an American former left fielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball (MLB).

The son of a steelworker, Kittle planned to work with his dad after high school, complete with being given his own ironworkers apprentice union card after graduating.

An ideal showing from the 18-year-old eventually led to scouts from the team signing him to a contract in 1976, and he would go to play with baseball in Clinton, Iowa.

For the rest of the year, he tried to play on what later diagnosed as a broken neck, complete with three crushed vertebrae and a cracked spinal cord.

For the next couple of years, he served as an ironworker while trying to build his body back up, trying to defy the expectations of his doctors that said he would never play baseball again (due to his injury, he could no longer hit from both sides of the plate).

Kittle was a popular player on the 1983 "winning ugly" Chicago White Sox when they won 99 games and made their first playoff appearance since the 1959 World Series.

[4] In need of a right-handed power hitter, the Orioles received a player with a $550,000 salary as opposed to the $1.15 million that Bradley was earning.

Baltimore general manager Roland Hemond was criticized by the Daily Press for bringing on too many ex-White Sox like Kittle, Greg Walker, Kevin Hickey, Tim Hulett and Dave Gallagher.

[6] He became a free agent again in the off-season when the Orioles, who had earlier signed Dwight Evans, elected not to exercise the option on his contract on December 15, 1990.