Wednesday, June 16, 2021

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970s: "SKEETER" CLYDE WRIGHT

Up on the blog today, a fun card to add to my long-running "Nicknames of the 1970's" thread, a 1971 edition for former California Angels pitcher Clyde "Skeeter" Wright:



Wright had himself his best Major League season in 1970, winning 22 games while pitching to a 2.83 earned run average and making his only All-Star team, while finishing sixth at the end of the year in the Cy Young race.
On July 3rd of that year he would also reach the pinnacle of his career with a brilliant 4-0 no-hitter over the Oakland A's at Anaheim Stadium.
He would go on to post two more sub-3.00 ERA's in both 1971 and 1972 while winning 16 and 18 games respectively, but would follow that up with a 19-loss season in 1973 with an ERA a full run higher at 3.68.
His 1974 season wasn't any better, as he would be now pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, and he would go on to post a record of 9-20, with an ERA of 4.42 over 38 appearances, 32 of them starts.
He would have one more season, this one with the Texas Rangers in 1975, finishing up with a record of 4-6 over 25 games, 14 of those starts, with an ERA at 4.44 over 93.1 innings.
He would then take his talents to Japan, where he pitched with the Yomiuri Giants for three years, winning 22 games, before retiring for good.
For his MLB career, he won exactly 100 games against 111 losses, with an ERA of 3.50 over 329 appearances, 235 of them starts, with nine shutouts and 667 strikeouts in 1728.2 innings.