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.
I wish I could share my story with as many young players as possible. Maybe they would learn to appreciate what they have. Yeah, by the time I was 25 I had won over 80 major league games. I had fanned more than 1,000 major league hitters. By that age I had already led the league in ERA one time and shutouts one year. I earned top ten Cy Young votes three straight years. I got as high as third. A spot in the Hall looked like a possibility at that point in my career. And to think only one of those years did we have a winning record. The year I won 19 games, our team only finished on top 76 times. I guess that’s what happens when you play in a division with a team that wins three consecutive World Series. We tried to steal a little of their thunder by getting the manager who led them to two of their titles. That didn’t work out too well. He couldn’t recreate his magic with us. My career took a detour after I had shoulder surgery. Gone was the 100 MPH fast ball. I learned how to rely on the breaking ball. The joke eventually became that I was the guy who threw 90 in the 70s and 70 in the 90s. I never won more than 15 games in a season again. Actually, five different years I only won single digit games, and I led the AL in losses one year. But I still managed to win 240 games and strike out over 2,700 batters in my career. Not enough for induction into the Hall. I have the distinction of being one of only two pitchers to surrender a home run to both Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. I was part of a trade for a guy who won the MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
Who am I?
I’m gonna take a quick flyer on this cuz I have to get in the car to go to work pronto. So this pitcher was in the same division as the Oakland A’s in the ’70s since the A’s won 3 consecutive WS titles … the ast team to do it. A guy from that era who threw smoke as a youngster and then became a “soft-tosser” ala Jamie Moyer was Frank Tanana who played the first part of his career for the Angels and then later for Detroit if memory serves correct. So that’s my answer … Frank Tanana. Later.
Frank Tanana?
Wow … a photo finish! Ya missed it by thatmuch, Smitty 🙂
As usual; a name I remember but a fact that would never have entered my mind.
Pete —
You should be thrilled … Disney is about to release a movie about your favorite “athlete” … Secretariat. I’m sure you’ll be at the theatre this weekend. 🙂