Mike Cuellar, RIP

[GA Russell]

Mike Cuellar died yesterday.

I'll never forget a doubleheader I saw in 1975. It was in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, and we had tickets in the upper deck, immediately behind home plate. It was against the Red Sox. Cuellar pitched one game, and Luis Tiant pitched the other. It was 18 innings of screwballs! I had never seen anything like it, and I guess I never will.

This is from the Baltimore Sun:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-04-02/sports/bal-former-orioles-pitcher-mike-cuellar-dies-0402_1_dave-mcnally-orioles-fortunes-american-league-pennants

He was a 32-year-old junk-ball pitcher thought to be past his prime when obtained in a trade from Houston Astros for outfielder Curt Blefary in 1968. Instead, Cuellar blossomed into a workhorse who helped anchor a storied rotation that carried the Orioles to three American League pennants, five playoff appearances and three World Series.

Four times, he won 20 or more games. Seven times, he pitched at least 248 innings. His first year in Baltimore, Cuellar went 23-11, pitched five shutouts and became the first Oriole hurler (and Latin American) to win the American League Cy Young Award, sharing it with Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers.

"When Mike came, he solidified the whole pitching staff," center fielder Paul Blair said. "We had complete confidence in him, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer when they walked out on the mound.

"We knew that if we scored two or three runs -- four at the most -- we'd win the game. That's a great feeling for a team."

In Cuellar's first three seasons in Baltimore, the club won 318 games, reaching the Series each year. In 1969, the Orioles lost to the New York Mets in five games, Cuellar recording the only victory.

"Mike was a monstrous part of the great teams we had from 1969 to 1971," said Earl Weaver, the Hall of Fame manager. "He was an artist on the mound and a player [whose acquisition] put us over the top.

"Several times, down the stretch, he pitched with two days' rest, when we needed it."

Cuellar's best year was 1970, when he went 24-8 and led the league in both victories and complete games (21).

[JSngry]

Damn, I remember seeing him with the Astros and wondering just why the hell the Astros would take Curt freakin' Blefary for him...then again, ther was a time when you could pretty much make up an all-star team of players the Astros traded away...

Those Orioles teams of the late 60s-early 70s might well be my favorite teams of all time, for real...Frank & Brooks, Blair, Boog, Palmer,, McNally, Cuellar, Bellanger, Unibrow Etchebarren, Moe Drabowski, geez, what a great team they were. And Earl Weaver to top it all off!

RIP, and much respect.

http://baseball1976.blogspot.com/2009/12/1976-topps-285-mike-cuellar.html

[Hot Ptah]

In his day he was one of the top pitchers in the American League.