Guidry, other Louisiana pitchers of yore on my mind
Baseball’s Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown got me to thinking about pitchers.
Not that any of this year’s three deserving inductees – Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent – were pitchers. It was interesting that two of the three – Beltran and Kent – are former Houston Astros. Beltran played in Houston in 2004 and 2017, earning a World Series ring in ’17, and Kent wore the Astros’ uniform in 2003 and ’04. In 2004, Kent memorably hit a game-winning 3-run homer in Game 5 of the NLCS Series at Minute Maid Park against the Cardinals. It broke a scoreless tie, and one of the two base runners was Beltran, who had singled and stolen a base.
Although the Astros lost the final two games in St. Louis, that homer made Kent look like Superman since it was one of the more memorable highlights in Houston baseball history.
On to the pitching. One of the marquee pitchers this season is Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers, who, as of the weekend, was sporting a 1.58 earned run average. Should he finish the season with that ERA, he’ll be among the game’s elite to finish a season with an earned run average that low. The modern-day/live ball (post 1920) record belongs to Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals at 1.12 in 304.2 innings. The only pitchers other than Gibson to post an ERA of 1.58 or lower were Dwight Gooden in 1985 at 1.53 over 276.2 innings for the New York Mets, and Greg Maddux in ’94 at 1.56 over 202 innings with the Atlanta Braves.
Misiorowski has logged 120 innings with 20 games pitched. I wonder if he’ll even reach 200 innings. On July 20, he was pulled after four innings and 65 pitches against the New York Mets – a workload management decision because of apparent minor fatigue following a 13-day layoff. This was a shame since it prevented him from chalking up a win with the minimum 5 innings work. In the time he had pitched, he scattered four hits, gave up an unearned run and struck out six. He had 65 pitches (45 being strikes). We are in an era when exceeding a predetermined pitch count is as vile as exceeding the alcohol limit while driving. A complete game is so rare as to be celebrated like a 300 game in bowling. Misiorowski has one complete game this season.
Thinking about the enviable ERA marks of yore, how about the 1.74 ERA registered by “Louisiana Lightning,” Ron Guidry in his magical season with the Yankees in 1978, when he was one of baseball’s bigger stories that summer, posting a 25-3 record with 248 strikeouts, 16 complete games and 9 shutouts in 273.2 innings. He was the unanimous choice as the American League Cy Young Award winner.
Comparing him with one of the all-time great pitchers, Sandy Koufax, might seem preposterous, but there are some similarities between the left-handers. They are closely matched in career records (Guidry’s 170-91 to Koufax’s 165-87), innings pitched (2,392.0 to 2,324.1) and games started (323 to 314). Guidry played 14 seasons (12 as a starter) and Koufax played 12 seasons, but only six as a full-time starter. But Koufax pitched four no-hitters (to Guidry’s none) and had 618 more career strikeouts in a shorter span of time. Guidry never came close to being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He appeared on the writers’ ballot for nine years (1994–2002), never exceeding 8.8 percent before dropping off after receiving 4.9 percent of the vote in 2002.
Nobody doubts the Hall-of-Fame worth of his fantastic year, 1978, and it’s worth noting that in that same year two other Louisiana pitchers were very good, too. Mansfield’s Vida Blue of the San Francisco Giants, who won the AL Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award in 1971 for the Oakland A’s, won 18 games that season with a 2.79 ERA with 9 complete games and 4 shutouts. J.R. Richard of Vienna (5 miles north of Ruston) had over 300 strikeouts in ’78 for the first of two consecutive seasons, pitching for the Astros. He also had 16 complete games that year and went the distance in 19 games in ’79. Neither of them is in Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
The only two Louisiana-born pitchers enshrined at Cooperstown are Ted Lyons of Lake Charles, who won 260 games over 21 seasons with the Chicago White Sox, and Bienville Parish’s Lee Smith, who compiled 478 career saves.
Guidry’s fabled season in 1978 was only his second as a starter. His Yankees manager, Bob Lemon, said at the time, “He’s still just a green pea.” He was skinny and bowlegged and weighed about 160. Acclaimed baseball writer Roger Angell attributed Guidry’s “superior” fastball to his “upper-body movement, led by his right shoulder, which at the last instant drives forward and downward toward the batter with a sudden, pistonlike swiftness, releasing the power in his left arm.”
Even though he was a “green pea” in 1978, Guidry matured so well that he was the Yankees’ captain for three years running a decade later, from 1986-88. He retired in 1989 and went to the Yankees’ annual Oldtimers Game that year. He fondly recalled that occasion in 1992, before teeing up for the golf tournament the day he was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
“Usually at those games, the biggest cheer is for Mickey Mantle, and the next biggest is for Joe DiMaggio,” he said. “That year, they didn’t introduce me until last and when they did, the ovation must’ve gone for three minutes or more.”
He relayed that DiMaggio came up to him later and said, “You ought to be proud of yourself. I’ve been to many of these games and received numerous ovations, but none of them have been quite like that one.”
Contact Bob at btompkins1225@gmail.com