By Paul Casey Gotham
****Remember, try this without research. Make like Wally, and release your inner James Joyce. Show us your stream of consciousness as you try to decipher the answer.
Mine was a case of what if. After struggling to find the strike zone early in my career, I righted my way, and it seemed I could do nothing but throw strikes. Then it was all over just as it seemed to get started. Tragedy derailed what could have been a hall-of fame career. I tossed over 275 innings one year, and opposing batters hit just .196 against me. Chew on that for a while if you want to question my HOF potential. The next year I held hitters to .209. I didn’t win the Cy. They gave it to a spit-baller even though I struck out 300. Weren’t you guys just talking about the value strike outs? Hmpf. The second year, I struck out over 300 again, and I led the league in ERA. They gave the Cy to a reliever. A year later, my career was basically over.
Who am I?
Being in Houston now, this sounds an awful lot like one of the best, most promising pitchers the Astros had, but he had a stroke probably right before the peak of his career. The resulting partial paralysis ended his career. His name was J.R. Richard, and he was a tall lanky right-hander with dominating stuff. I think he was about 6’9″ … not quite Randy Johnson … but with a blazing fastball …. pretty much in Nolan Ryan’s neighborhood. In fact, I think he and Ryan pitched together during JR’s short career. Not a bad 1-2 punch, eh?
Pretty sure the spitballer who won the Cy was Gaylord Perry … yes, this woulda been around the same time. The reliever who won the Cy? Was it the lefty Hernandez who pitched for the Tigers?? I’m graspin’ now.
I think you’re right about J.R. Richard, Wally, and probably Gaylord Perry too. But, Willie Hernandez, who did pitch for the Tigers, was an American Leaguer. So, the reliever who beat Richard out for the Cy Young had to be….geez, I don’t know.
Upon further reflection, reliever Willie Hernandez won the AL Cy Young … Tigers … duh! And that was in the ’80s. Since JR Richard’s heyday was in the mid-late ’70’s, the reliever who “stole” the Cy Young from him could’ve been Bruce Sutter of the Cubs who came on the scene with his phenomenal split-fingered fastball. Not many relievers have won the Cy … Mike Marshall of the Dodgers won earlier in the ’70s when LA had some great teams.
Chas —
Great minds thinking alike in spotting an error. And at exactly the same time! Thanks for the back-up 😉
Sutter, yes. I was thinking Mike Marshall, but I wasn’t sure if he won the Cy, even in that year that he pitched like 150 innings. I’m looking it up….
Gaylord Perry in 1978, Bruce Sutter in 1979.
Marshall won in 1974. Here were his stats:
106 games (all relief appearances)
208 innings pitched (holy christ!)
15-12, 2.42 ERA
21 Saves
Those were the days…
WOW! To have come in relief in all 106 games and accumulate that type of W-L record means that he must’ve been set up #1, set-up #2 and the closer! He probably entered games in the 6th or 7th inning and never left until it was done. You’re right … we’ll never see that again. Marshall must’ve had a rubber arm and was able to pitch 4 times a week. But I wonder if that season killed his future career??
JR Richard is the answer. Wally – you da man. You have a vast “wheel house.” 🙂
GREAT discussion. If I needed a model for what a WAI conversation should look like, Chas and Wally, you guys provided it. The whole going back and forth trying to figure out Perry and Sutter was enjoyable to read…and informative for the young bucks. Even if Willie Hernandez was a wrong answer, the mentioning provided a piece in a timeline.Gives a different perspective on the career of Mike Marshall.
Thanks Casey. It is fun to piece it all together that way, even if Wally always beats me to the real answer these days. ;(
More on Mike Marshall…he pitched 179 innings in 1973, 208 in 1974, then “dropped off” to 109 in 1975 and 99 in 1976, all in relief. Then in 1977, he pitched only 41 innings. My guess is that he was probably injured and that almost 600 relief innings in four years had taken its toll. Then, he resurrected his career with two good years in Minnesota in ’78 and ’79, including 142 innings in the latter, but his career was pretty much over (at age 37) after that.
He finished 83 games in 1974 and 84 in 1979, more than half his teams’ games. Those are the two highest single-season totals in baseball history.
The third highest total was a mark accomplished by an Oakland closer in the 21st century. His career was pretty much over after that, though, as he was a bust after being traded the following year to the White Sox for another closer who would later become a World Series hero for a long-suffering team. In the spirit of Who Am I?, can you name that guy. I’ll bet Wally can.
Chas —
Wow … this one has me pulling my hair out. I can name the World Series hero for the long-suffering Red Sox and former WhiteSox reliever: Keith Foulke. HOWEVER, for the life of me I cannot remember who the Sox received for him in the trade with Oakland … probably because he was a bust and we all tried to forget about him. So … you’ve stumped me on that half of the equation. I’m sure when you reveal the answer, I will smack my forehead in disgust.
Go ahead … let me have it.
No! Don’t let him have it…yet. I am thinking. This trade happened in 2005 or thereabouts? Did Jeff Brantley make his rounds through Chicago and Oakland?
No … not Brantley … not in Chicago anyway. The trade was earlier than ’05 cuz Foulke pitched for Boston in their WS year 2004, right? I you give me more time, I’m gonna get this myself.
Why is fairly recent history somehow less memorable to me than the ’70s and ’80s??? Must be all that SI reading I did.
Brantley didn’t pitch for either Oakland or Chicago, but he did pitch in San Francisco and St. Louis. 🙂
Yes, Foulke was the World Series hero, in 2004, so Wally is getting a little warmer.
We’re essentially talking about Booby Jinx’s predecessor … Is it Billy Koch?? He pretty much sucked for the Palehose …. is it actually possible he finished the 3rd most games in a season??? I know he had a pretty good year or two … one of those years was for Toronto before Oakland, wasn’t it.
Mike Marshall is 22nd all-time in games finished (Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera are 1-2, of course). Jeff Brantley is 64th. Our WAI subject does rank in the top 100, despite the fact he was out of baseball before the age of 30.
You got it, Wally! In 2002, Billy Koch finished 79 games, saved 44, and was 11-4 with a 3.27 ERA.
Whew! Faith is restored in my mid-term memory … at least temporarily. Wonder if that’s the brain section killed off first by too much beer? 😉
Talk about mid-term memory loss? Foulke? 2005? Geez? An x-ray of my cranium might uncover a bowl of Quaker oats.
Wally – HELMET STICKER for: Is it Billy Koch?? He pretty much sucked for the Palehose …
I am still laughing.
Chas – great rebound and putback with the WAI, and I do think our discussions should be taken into consideration for HOF voting. 🙂 If they did, Dawson would have been there three years ago.
Wally – Why is fairly recent history somehow less memorable to me than the ’70s and ’80s?
Because your life and life in general was a whole lot simpler then. It was easier to pigeon-hole information.
Yep … I was nothing but a “sports sponge” for about 15 years straight. Now I’m diversified … sports sponge and bill payer. Probably a sad commentary on my life. I’m actually excited about taking the fam to Pirates vs Astros Saturday. That’s pretty sick, isn’t it??
Sick? I’d be excited. Who is that young kid the Pirates just brought up? He’s supposed to be pretty good. Won’t be long and they will move him.
Too late, but I just got on this AM and knew that was JR Richard in a flash. His Strat-o-Matic cards were awesome. I have always touted him as one of the best pitchers ever, probably even here on the Pine, but his short career obviously limits the accolades/recognition. If I am not mistaken he had one season very Bob Gibson-like.
Pete —
JR Richard’s best full season was probably 1979 when he was 18-13 with a 2.71 ERA, 292 IP and 313 K’s. (almost Gibson-like). That’s the year he finished 3rd in Cy Young voting. He was off to a GREAT start in 1980 (10-4, 1.90 ERA … more Gibson-like) when tragedy struck. He pitched parts of 10 seasons for the Astros, his only team. I didn’t realize his career was actually that long. His fastball was at times clocked in the high ’90s … and being so tall, it probably seemed like 105.
Here’s where I was off just a bit. Nolan Ryan’s first full season with the Astros was 1980, so he only overlapped one season with JR. Ryan essentially spent all of the ’80s with Houston before moving on to Texas.
It’s that 1980 season I was thinking about. I also did not realize he got a 10 year career in. That 1980 Strat-o-Matic card was AWESOME!