Tuesday, January 2, 2018

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: 1978 "BIG DADDY" RICK REUSCHEL

If we’re gonna talk nicknames of players in the 1970’s, we’re going to have to make one up for “Big Daddy” Rick Reuschel, who was the Chicago Cubs anchor after Fergie Jenkins headed to Texas in 1974:


I used the 1978 template since Reuschel was coming off of a 20-win 1977 campaign, finishing third in the Cy Young arms race.
He posted a 20-10 record with a very nice 2.79 earned run average over 39 appearances, 37 of which were starts, including four shutouts.
His career would seemingly sputter in the early-80’s after a brief time with the New York Yankees in 1981. So much so that he’d be out of baseball all of 1982 before coming back with his original team, the Cubs.
Suddenly, the man was an effective starter again, as he reeled off another ten years with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants, even posting win totals of 19 and 17 as a 39/40 year old in 1988 and 1989.
By the time he was finally done after the 1991 season, he finished with a record of 214 and 191, with a nice 3.37 ERA over 557 appearances, with 26 shutouts, three All-Star game nods and two Gold Gloves, BOTH won after the age of 35!