Thursday, May 6, 2021

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1978 PAUL MITCHELL

On the blog today we have a re-done 1978 card for former pitcher Paul Mitchell, who found himself North with the new Seattle Mariners franchise after starting the year with the Oakland A's:

  

For those that need a refresher on what the original Topps airbrush looked like, here you go:

  

Mitchell appeared in five games for the A's before he was purchased by Seattle on August 4th of 1977.

He was 0-3 with a bloated 10.54 ERA for Oakland before ending the year with a 3-3 run for the Mariners, posting a much better ERA of 4.99 over nine starts.
He would be one of the Mariners' starters in 1978, appearing in 29 games and gong 8-14 with an ERA of 4.18 over 168 innings, completing four and tossing two shutouts.
He'd split the 1979 season between Seattle and the Milwaukee Brewers, where he was traded for Randy Stein on June 7th, going a combined 4-7 over 28 appearances with an ERA of 5.32, starting half of those games.
Coming back in 1980 with Milwaukee, it turned out to be the last Big League action he'd see, appearing in 17 games and going 5-5 with a 3.53 ERA over 89.1 innings, even throwing in a shutout.
But after a 1981 season that saw him pitch in the New York Yankees Minor Leagues system, he retired at the age of 31.
All told Mitchell went 32-39 over his six year career, with an ERA of 4.45 in 621.1 innings of work, throwing four shutouts while saving one, starting 96 of his 125 appearances.